The phrase "a challenging operating environment" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used to describe a difficult or complex situation in which a business or organization is functioning, often in the context of economic or market conditions.
Example: "The company has been navigating a challenging operating environment due to increased competition and changing consumer preferences."
Alternatives: "a difficult business climate" or "a tough operational landscape".
"In what remains a challenging operating environment, our results reflect the value of our continued commitment to building a diversified platform and our focus on managing risk and maintaining a strong capital and liquidity position," Lehman's chief executive, Richard S. Fuld, said in a statement.
"HSBC made significant progress in 2012 despite a challenging operating environment characterised by low economic growth and a changing regulatory landscape," said Mr Gulliver.
Standard and Poor's Equity Research maintained a "buy" rating on Applied Materials, saying the company met fiscal fourth-quarter expectations despite a challenging operating environment.
VW acknowledges that it faces a challenging operating environment with the growth of electric vehicles, higher vehicle emission standards and questions whether we have reached "peak car" - the point at which car usage decreases globally.
Despite a challenging operating environment, UNICEF and partners reached 7.5 million people in 2015, including 1.5 million people in hard-to-reach and besieged locations.
It blamed a delay in orders and a challenging operating environment.
Last week, Gulliver admitted there was a "very challenging operating environment" for the bank, even as he was forced to embark on an embarrassing U-turn to reverse a staff pay freeze announced only two weeks earlier.
Unilever cited a sales slowdown across its European and North American food businesses due to a "more challenging" operating environment.
Vital to enabling the UN to rapidly initiate its life-saving response in a highly challenging operating environment was the availability of internal UN emergency funds, including the $9.2 million from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund CERFF).
Despite this, and due to an increasingly challenging operating environment, UNICEF and its partners were able to reach some 3.9 million children under 5 years with polio vaccination and immunize 549,000 children under 1 year against 10 vaccine-preventable diseases.
The US Arctic Ocean presents almost a perfect storm of risks – a requirement for a long-term capital-intensive investment for uncertain return, a remote and uniquely challenging operating environment, ongoing court challenges, a lack of extraction and spill response infrastructure, and the spotlight of the world's environmental organisations, the US political community and international media.
