Sample BE253 Creating and Managing the New and Entrepreneurial Organisation

BE253 Creating and Managing the New and Entrepreneurial Organisation Assignment Sample

Assessment Brief

Assessment for this module is based on coursework which will take the form of an individual essay on the following topic:

The Development of an Individual Creative Action Plan

Students are expected to write an essay on the student’s propensity to enterprise, self- assessment of entrepreneurial capability; identification and validation of opportunity and the creative conception of new venture idea (word count – max., 2,000 words).

Assessment task

For your “Individual Creative Action Plan” (ICAP) you are expected to discuss your new venture idea focusing particularly on:

• Your own self-assessment for starting and managing the new venture.
• The source of the business/social venture/project idea/innovation.
• How did you identify the opportunities that led you to the consider idea for the new venture?
• How you intend to go about developing the idea, resourcing it, identifying its market and its business viability and developing an outline business model?

What follows is a guide for the ICAP including the key points that should be covered:

• Your own Self- Assessment: How have you carried out your self-assessment? What tools (tests from the Internet) did you use? What do the results show? Do they reflect what you know about yourself and your entrepreneurial characteristics, strengths and weaknesses? Try and be as objective as you can and do not rely simply on SWOT analysis. (20%)

• The Business Idea and Unique Value Proposition: Explain the main idea/innovation you intend to bring to market, along with the uniqueness of the idea i.e., the unique value proposition. How does it address an economic and/or a social problem? How will your idea solve that problem? Think about the new value your business/social venture brings to your customers and the wider community. . (Note: This is an important part of your assignment. You should focus on explaining the uniqueness of your idea and the value it adds to your potential customers). (20%)

• Source(s) of ideas/innovation: Explain the main source(s) of ideas/innovation for your new venture. For example, you can focus on explaining sources of idea based on Drucker’s seven sources of innovation. (5%)

• Identification of resources: Explain the main resources (finance, people, networks) you will need to start your new venture. You should focus on explaining the resources you’ll be using, taking into consideration their advantages and disadvantages. Who will be your suppliers and distributors? Try and think of a sum of start-up capital you may need to start or grow and explain why. (10%)

• The Market for your Venture: Here, you should provide a summary of the market you wish to enter and why, your knowledge and understanding of the market and how it works, how will you enter and what share of the market you might obtain, why it is a good market to enter and what are the alternatives. You should also explain who your customers are going to be and how will you attract them to your venture

• The Business Model: Consider what could be the business model that might generate overall value of the business to you and your customers; how will this value be generated (income streams; brand value; value of goods and products; sustainability, etc.). Think of the business model for a similar and existing venture to help you determine what could be learnt from such a venture (5%).

• You, your team and Your Network: focus on the mix of competencies and capabilities of your team you will need and why, how you complement each other, how that will be relevant to your venture; what are your current and prospective networks, who will you connect with and why? (10%)

• Limitations and Barriers: Consider what might prevent you from starting up, or what might affect the development of your start-up? How might you overcome those barriers? (5%)

• Conclusion and Implications – Conclude with suggestions of what can be learned from your Individual Action Plan. (5%)

The percentages in brackets denote the importance of each of the above points that need to be covered in your ICAP.

Solution

The Business Idea

In order to establish a self-owned venture, it is very significant to understand the needs of the market and the choices of the people in the area where the business is determined to be set up. The choice and interest of the individual also matter in that step and needs to be taken into consideration. Therefore, the idea that has been thought of is of setting up a bakery business as a loyal customer base is self-generated in this process. The business is planned to be set up in the main city as analysis has been done that people are looking for ways in which they can maintain their diet and are looking for alternatives from the current bakery procedures.

Self-assessment

Figure 1: Entrepreneur test
(Source: Psychometrictest, 2013)

An online self-assessment test has been conducted to check the entrepreneurial skills which helped in understanding about me and my entrepreneurial knowledge. These mark the entrepreneurial characteristics and have, helped in understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the business idea. A brief overview of the strengths and weaknesses along with the opportunities and the threats are provided below for management assignment help.

Strengths

• Separate food processing equipment for different kinds of food.

• Marketer with experienced staff

• Customer-oriented

• Great location

• Experienced staff in Gluten Diets Weaknesses

• No prior experience of running bakery

• No industrial experience in production

Opportunities

• Unlike other food items mostly, baked food items are not seasonal

• Movement progress towards a healthier lifestyle Threats

• Entry of new competitors which might result in a slow initial growth

Unique value proposition

We have separate food processing equipment for different kinds of food items and the baked items which is the strength. The staff members who will be working are hired professionals in this business and tend to have at least 6 months of experience in the bakery business. Location wise, the business is thought to be set up in the city area which also comes as one of the perks. Coming to the weaknesses it can be noticed that the experience in the production field might be less for most of the members and the threat of new entries can be expected until a particular set of the customer base is set up and a base is not generated. The unique business idea is to produce gluten-free products for the customers and take a step forward in moving towards a healthier lifestyle. This has been done as people are becoming more health-conscious and are trying to be as choosy in food consumption as possible. Offering Gluten-free bakery products can help them to maintain their healthy diet and also enjoy the delicious servings without having to worry. Gluten-free products are rich in fiber and it maintains the freshness of the items which are produced (Mahmood et al., 2020). The age group of people of 30 years and above is to be targeted for this business as they are emerging in the society as the adults who are conscious about their food intake and are looking for alternatives to serve their choices. This is planned to be achieved by wearing gloves for the preparation and serving of food. Proper sanitization of the place after the tables is left by the customers and also offering online food delivery system for the people who are trying to avoid crowded places.

Another benefit of including gluten-free bakery products is that it promotes healthy weight gain (Kurniawan et al., 2019). People who are also trying to gain weight but not just fat can consider trying our products as they are healthy and at the same time can serve their choice as well. This unique idea is therefore planned to add value to the business and further help in adding to the potential customers.

Sources of Innovation

In order to understand and reflect on the sources of information, Drucker’s seven sources of innovation has been used-

• Unexpected occurrences

It is often stated that unexpected failure and an unsuspected occurrence of an incident can be the source of innovation opportunities. Therefore, many while looking for ways to establish a new venture have considered this process.

• Incongruities

Incongruity can also sometimes lead to the innovation sources as a rhythm of the needs are identified in this process. This has been helpful in thinking of the bakery venture idea as in the market, steady growth has been observed after the analysis with the given unique idea.

• Process needs

The needs of the place can also give rise to new sources of innovation, as it marks the establishment of such a business that can be consumer-oriented and can help in up-liftmenof the place (Buta, 2019).

• Industry and market changes

The changes in the market sometimes can also act as the source of a new idea or venture.

• Demographic changes

While deciding on a new business set-up, demography plays a significant role and it has been one of the least risky entrepreneurial choices that have been known to be most rewarding.

• Changes in perception

Changes in the perception of an employee and the manager or the customer and the employer can also lead to a source of innovation (Yang et al., 2019).

• New knowledge

Innovation based on new ideas and knowledge has been historically proven to be of higher value (Ahsan et al., 2018).

Identification of Resources

Finance: The financial resources include personal investment and outside equity financing where a team will be involved. The initial budget is estimated to be $30,000.
People: the human resources include the high-level experienced staff that is hired for the bakery business.

Networks: premises and equipment including the industry experts can help understand the networks and establish better funding to reach out to the customers and set up a proper base. Suppliers will by own employees and distributors belong to the employees of my delivery department.

The market ventures

In order to establish a bakery business, the licensing and franchising market is decided to be targeted. For deciding the best choice for the customers, it is necessary to understand their needs at the moment.

Demographic segmentation: After a proper market analysis, it has been observed that the people above the age group of 30 are concerned about their health and are always in search of alternatives in the bakery products.

Psychographic segmentation: Taking this into consideration, the healthy way of serving the customers is decided by providing them gluten-free bakery products keeping the values of the customers on mind.

Behavioral segmentation: People who have a standard income and tends to acquire a strong purchasing power, people belonging to the economically empowered section of the society are targeted audience.

There are several benefits of entering this business market. Being one of the largest sectors in the world while improving the consistency and aroma as required. The seasonal availability is also high and one of the best choices of bakery business is that it is not seasonal and can be delivered all time of the year (Chun, 2018). Long-term preservation can also be observed in this particular field. Meetings and gatherings can be held in the main city where the target audience can be requested to join so that they can be acknowledged regarding the health benefits. In this way, the market for the venture is planned to be established.

The business models

The business model that has been thought of for this particular business venture is B2C business. This is a business-to-customer oriented e-commerce platform where the sales are involved between the business clients and the consumers on a direct basis (Buschow and Laugemann, 2020). The value that will be generated for the various platforms are mentioned below-

Figure 2: Business value segments

• Customer segments

The customers can be attracted towards purchasing from this store through clear advertisement relating to the health and dietary benefits that will be gained.

• Value propositions

Value propositions can be maintained through proper verification of the choices of the people and maintaining the production processes through complete safety towards the environmental concerns (Lin and Wang, 2019).

• Channels

The channels of the members can be generated through the funding process through the profit generated in the direct B2C sales considering the stakeholders, suppliers and distributors.

• Customer relationships

This can be enhanced with the help of advertisements where the customers can be made aware of the details of the products and services, which are planned to be offered in the business

• Revenue streams

The financial reports can be directly considered to be approached for the revenue streams. Key resources

• Key resources

The key resources can be the kitchen equipments, food materials and the financial resources along with the human resources.

• Key activities

Hiring of the staff members, advertisement, set up are the main key activities.

• Key partnerships

The key partnerships are will be with the distributors and suppliers of the business.

• Cost structure

The experienced people as they can provide better suggestions for the generation of other resources and what budget can be estimated with the help of this.

Amy’s Bread and Bakery, in New York City, is one of the renowned bakeries in America which follows the B2C business model for improving the business and reaching out to the customers in the best possible manner (Kropp et al., 2016).

Initially, it has been planned that 5-6 members will be hired for maintaining the financial resources and keeping a record of the monthly details. Apart from this, three cooks will be hired with serving staff members. All the staff that is hired will have a minimum of 6 months of experience in this bakery field so that no new risks will occur and it will be easy to gain the attention of the customers when they will be greeted with already experienced staff. The members will connect to the target audience in the direct advertising processes such as meetings and gatherings or connect with them on the digital platform such as social media websites or company websites. This can be of a great benefit to win against the other competitors in the market as initially, people do not have enough revenue but since our budget is quite affordable for us, we are planning to keep all the experienced staff members.

Risks and limitations

The financial risks can be high as the members who are supposed to be hired will be experienced and hence might ask for higher pay from the starting itself. Secondly, it is the first time that we are thinking of starting a business completely on our own with a new venture idea and hence the confidence level is set low. Another barrier might be observed in the time management processes as the management authorities will be limited initially and I have to look after the details of the business, the resource requirements and the availability of required funds for the procedures to be carried out in the most desirable manner.

Conclusion

It is not always necessary to succeed in the first go, we can always gain more confidence and experience through failures and hence taking this into consideration, the business can proceed. Relating to the needs of the customers is significant, and is the first step, hence we have planned out the market analysis and based on that prepared a SWOT analysis. After considering the self-assessment test, it has been observed that the entrepreneurial skills are well and can be considered for the business establishment. Also, the 9 segments of the business entry in the licensing and franchise market entry are referred. As this has been a great help, to understand where we stand and also make it clear to all the employees as to what is expected from them in the business. The risks, which are likely to occur, can be mitigated by keeping the business according to the plan and initially not taking huge targets. The training of the employees will not be required as they will be professional and experienced in this field already and this can be of great help to the people. The customer base can be further generated with the help of direct advertising techniques and using online media to connect to them regularly. Their online actions and feedback can also be noted for proceeding further with the business.

References