Identification of the Business Opportunity - Term Paper Example

? Planning for opportunity Identification of the business opportunity: In today’s world of science and technology, it has been observed that the need for human resource in organizations/businesses is an understatement. The advancements in technology since the last decade have introduced gadgets like internet, CRM software systems, cell phones, and other devices. In return, the consumers have become choosier with the developing variations in the products. With their demanding nature increasing day by day, they are now requiring more and more sophisticated products as well. Under such circumstances, those providing the products feel the need of continuously developing themselves and their companies in order to meet the increasing demands. The thing is that the professionals today need to be more effective and productive than ever before in order to achieve success, and thus, innovative techniques in order to deal with such an issue must also be identified (JSBM, Tang &Murphy, 2011). It has also been observed that B2B market thus holds a lot of opportunities for companies that provide training and seminar sessions as a service. This is said so, because a few years ago professionals who followed the self-taught rule were taken as an asset to the company, regardless. Now, however, jobs have become much more difficult and an untrained employee is nothing but a burden, especially when all companies are attracting trained employees from their competition. In turn, if the employee is not trained enough, the customers switch easily that impacts the sales easily, thus affecting the overall business (Barringer & Ireland, 2008). Thus, the employees in the organizations must be educated and fully trained. Not only that but they must be able to learn and relearn according to the changing conditions, as today’s world needs more than just a skill that can be easily acquired. The companies nowadays, need productive and educated professionals. This means that, recognizing this opportunity in the market for a company that focuses on corporate training is the best solution. The organization will thus be able to provide the organizations strategies, processes, and tools that are needed to succeed in the 21st Century (Barringer & Ireland, 2008). The business description UK TRAINCO is a company that provides training as well as seminar programs. The UK TRAINCO will be focusing on corporations and companies that are medium and large sized, and will be focused on gradually increasing needs for education in professionals from all areas of the various industries. UK TRAINCO thus aims to provide trainings that are result oriented in order to hand out expertise in the required area at the right time for the right person. The services thus provided by the UK TRAINCO to the medium and large sized firms will cater to training programs as well as seminars like time, stress, reading management, project management and many more. The programs thus taught will use various techniques in formats of seminars or training sessions. The seminar format with which the sessions would be carried out would be a set of presentations with the audience observing. As for the training programs, it would use the seminar format with various activities and having the audience participating in the session. The Market Plan UK TRAINCO is aiming to establish the business in the corporate market of the UK. As stated earlier, the target market consists of those companies that continuously need trainings as well as seminars, and are medium and large sized. The market will thus be reached through referrals, word of mouth (WOM), and public seminars. Market Segmentation The large sized companies are those segments which contain more than 100 employees. These companies have specific departments that handle the training and seminar needs through a specialized department and have the respective budget available. They usually need training and seminars for usually a specific department (Laney, Carr & Koopman, 2010). As for the medium sized companies, the assessment has stated that these companies have less than 100 employees. These companies handle the training and seminar needs through a specific HR manager where the changes are applied to the entire organization at one point in time (Laney, Carr & Koopman, 2010). The Target Market Analysis The selected target market proves to be a highly profitable market. This is so, because these companies have already separated budget for the training need. The market for UK TRAINCO realizes that investment regarding the intellectual pool for a company is not only a need, but also a tool for success, thus making them an ideal customer. The business will also not be effected by the economic conditions. This is so, because of the mindset these companies hold. That is, training done by a third party is more cost effective. The UK TRAINCO has identified several competitors in the area. To begin with, there are companies that act as just producers of the company. These companies do not conduct the session but back it up and use another party to conduct the session. Secondly, there are companies operating in the market that only conduct seminar sessions while another type caters to only training sessions. Lastly, there are a few companies like UK TRAINCO that are the presenter as well as the promoter. Thus, the competition that UK TRAINCO faces is country wide spread. The Secondary and/or Primary Research Techniques The technique used in evaluating market is qualitative in nature and was done through various ways. A lot of information was gained through informal interviews with the companies that provide the same services like UK TRAINCO in the corporate world. This was done by first identifying the service providers and then having an informal meeting with them. It was also made sure that the range of capabilities that services like UK TRAINCO needs must be identified. Other than that, a questionnaire to identify the consumer demand for the training and seminar needs was identified (Nyame & Patel, 2009; Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research, 2010). This was done by scanning the target market of UK TRAINCO as an initial screening process. In this process it was observed that the determination of the service needed a more subjective view. In order to confirm the fact that UK TRAINCO can provide this service, it was made sure that a minimum standard of performance is found. Acceptable quality levels were found out that proved useful in developing the quality level for the services. The entire approach, according to Kim and Kaplan (2006), where interpretation of case study and semi structured interviews was also used to assess and analyze the market; the approach was qualitative because the assessment scale was not numeric. The Marketing Plan UK TRAINCO will use various techniques inculcated in the marketing Ps to market the company. To start with, the entire company would be communicated to the target audience with the help of the Ps of marketing. The company would first use the free seminars to introduce the company to the target market. In this way, UK TRAINCO would be introduced into the minds of the individuals with the help of a free seminar by collecting a diverse crowd of individuals. Thus, the diverse crowd collected will be able to come to know about UK TRAINCO since they wouldn’t have before. Secondly, print media will act as an effective way in marketing the company as printed material will be able to effectively communicate the mission and vision of the company and what it aims to do. Thirdly, marketing through internet will also act as a powerful tool in the company’s marketing plan. The fourth way in which efficient marketing of the firm would be achieved is the word of mouth (WOM). In this way, the presence of networking and the word of mouth would be able to gather an adequate target market for the company and thus create a sizeable business from the contacts thus developed. UK TRAINCO would thus use these strategies to increase its market share by 15 percent every year. Sales Strategy It has been identified that the consumers of the service that UK TRAINCO offers, have buying patterns that are affected directly by WOM, reputation in the market, and the need for skills. The competitive advantage will be gained through providing sample of UK TRAINCO’s quality material through posting excerpts of presentation on the website. Therefore, after seeing the presentation, the customer would have to contact UK TRAINCO for availability and determine when the event must take place. Competitive advantage The UK TRAINCO believes that the edge it holds over other companies is its cost effective technique of handling business and the ability to present expertise in the market. The company will function on the belief that the talent pool UK TRAINCO has generated through efficient marketing department and head hunters will be enough to provide the company a competitive advantage, as in the fast changing pace of worlds needs nothing more than a sound knowledgeable trainer to turn mere employees into a knowledgeable worker. The talent pool generated will make sure that the trainings provided to the audience will finish with a lasting impact and with an entirely new perspective. Other than that, the training session will hand the employees tremendous information so that they actually look forward to attending another session. The training sessions will thus speak for themselves. The Management and HR plan Objectives The UK TRAINCO has identified the following objectives for the operation: To provide service that move beyond customer expectations To tap at least 6 top companies in the market To increase target market by 15 percent each year Mission The mission of UK TRAINCO is to provide the organizations training seminars that exceed their expectations Milestones UK TRAINCO is not just a project; it is an organization that aims to aid all professionals in the UK corporate world. Thus, the milestones identified for the company are following: 1. Attract investors so that the business can start its operations which will prove as an indispensable tool for the company 2. Develop the office 3. Initiate the public seminar 4. Finish the seventh seminar/training session/program 5. Exceed profit by more than 60,000$ The Management The UK TRAINCO is not a one man show. The organization will consist of an HR department, a Marketing department, a Quality Assurance Department, a Logistics department, and a Talent department. The Marketing Department: The marketing department will consist of employees that will be responsible to attract customers for our services. The department will also act as a PR department and will be responsible in public communication. Quality Assurance Department: The QA department is the section of UK TRAINCO that will ensure that the material being taught and the audiences receiving the training have the goals aligned. Other than that, the department will make sure that the material has consistent quality. Logistics department: The logistic department will be responsible for arranging the needs that arise for training. The needs could be for the material or the venue for the session. The Talent Department: The talent department is the talent pool and hence the backbone of the organization. This department holds the talent pool of the organization such as the speakers and trainers to conduct the session. The HR Department: This department will be handling all operations within the organizations. It will also conduct activities such as selection and recruitment, performance appraisals, time and attendance, benefits and compensation, personnel conditions and benefits and many more. The Financial plan Personnel Plan Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Talent pool $100,000 $136,000 $250,000 Other $6000 $10,000 $20,000 Total People $16,000 $36,000 $66,000 Total Payroll $122,000 $182,000 $336,000 Start up Requirements Expense Cost Legal expense 1000 $ Stationery expense 300 $ Print media expenditure 300 $ Web development expense 700 $ Rent for office 1200$ R and D 900$ equipment 500$ Total 9800$ Total Assets: UK TRAINCO contains total assets of about $19,400 Capital: Since UK TRAINCO is a planned investment, the investment that will be made by the owner and the CEO will be $22,000 which is thus the initial capital of the business. As for the investment, the projected investment requirement is 30,000 $ The loss expected at the start of the business is $2,600. Thus, the total capital ends up as $19,400 + 30,000 = 49,400 $ References Kim, R. M. and Kaplan, S. M. (2006), Interpreting Socio-Technical Co-evolution: Applying Complex Adaptive Systems to IS Engagement, Information Technology & People, 19(1): 35-54 Nyame, F and Patel, N. (2009), Research Methods and Methodologies for Studying Organizational Learning, European and Mediterranean Conference on Information Systems 2009 (EMCIS2009) Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research, (2010), "Editors, Sponsors and Acknowledgements," Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research: Vol. 30: Iss. 0, Article 1. Available at: http://digitalknowledge.babson.edu/fer/vol30/iss0/1 JSBM, Tang. J, Murphy. J.P (2011), Prior Knowledge and New Product and Service Introductions by Entrepreneurial Firms: The Mediating Role of Technological Innovation. Barringer, B. R. & Ireland, R.D. (2008) Entrepreneurship: Successfully Launching New Ventures, 2nd Ed., Prentice Hall: New Jersey, USA Laney, K. , Carr, R. and Koopman. B.R, November (2010), Small and Medium Sized Enterprises: Characteristics and Performance, United States International Trade Commission, Investigation No. 332-510, USITC Publication 4189. Read More