Analysis of Business Planning - Example

of the affiliation Scenario Based Planning Executive summary The social café is an organization based in the United Kingdom, which seeks to provide the best services in hosting of social events such as parties with a vision of alleviating unemployment for the young people. Located in London, the cafe offers the community the best services and channel profits towards maintenance of the environment and tackling social problems. Based on the current trends in the industry, the café seeks to embody itself with the latest innovation in the industry, which seeks to boost its influence and customer loyalty. The café is organized in processes that ensure that a culture of continuous improvement is embraced by the organization, and be of more help to the society it serves. Introduction of the concept This report introduces a lucrative concept that seeks to improve the image of the organization, as well as create a roadmap on which social organizations can pursue their goals of a better society. The per-minute concept is a lucrative idea that would expand the services of the café, while offering more employment opportunities to the youth. This is a situation where the customers enjoying social parties are free to utilize any services within the café, as long as they pay a fixed per minute charge fixed by the organization. This idea seeks to provide a better social setting, where the customers are recognized as temporary tenants for the café and only pay for the space they occupy. The profits realized are then channeled towards social activities and environmental conservation. Exemplification of organizations that allow continuous change This lucrative idea seeks to: Promote equity among all the stakeholders of the business, including the employees, customers, the management as well as the government in creating a culture of continuous improvement to help the society (Borgenicht & Joyner, 2009, p. 51). Create better platforms to offer the youth employment opportunities and become employees of the café. These employees are encouraged to interact with the customers and pursue practices that lead to environmental preservation as well as efficient resource utilization. Expand the social services of the cafe in social media for wider coverage. On these avenues, customers are able to interact with each other, to interact with the management as well as the employees, which encourage communication that leads to better ideas and change of those that have been outdated. In the few areas that such an idea has been implemented, there were notably higher number of people willing to participate in various activities that are organized within the café (Lindgren, & Bandhold, 2009, p. 67). This shows that the per minute offer pave way for better interaction and customer freedom to choose the services they want. Introduces a new platform on which the organizational culture can be based and continuously changed for the benefit of the business and the community. The idea provides a more social gathering for the stakeholders within the business to interact, exchange ideas as well as find new ways to improve the services offered (Moutinho & Southern, 2010, p. 29). Introduces a platform where all the stakeholders join hands to realize better performance and influence to the people, as well as a new field of research into the continued viability of the idea to reach its goals of a better social environment through cooperation. Through the concept, the café will be able to raise enough profits to finance its various social responsibilities and expand its services to create employment for the youth. Management styles that foster cultures of continuous change in the cafe i) The transaction leadership style: It is deemed the best in encouraging the implementation as well as a continuous review of the idea (Lindgren & Bandhold, 2009, p. 110). This is the situation where the leaders are in constant engagement with the employees, seeking to define the best courses of action as well as rewarding outstanding effort. This will help open channels of communication through which continuous change can be realized and better ways of giving back to the community realized. ii) The participative leadership: This would make the idea more enjoyable to grasp, as well as influence the creativity of the team in decisions that need to be made. This type of leadership engages the team members to make critical decisions and this fosters a trend where decisions are made without much resistance from the teams that are supposed to abide by them (Moutinho & Southern, 2010, p. 69). This is crucial for the future of the café and ensures that the decisions are in touch with the society’s needs. iii) The Laissez-Faire style: This style contributes greatly to the trend towards creating a culture of continuous change (Dickersbach, 2005, p. 42). In this type, the leaders leave teams to work on their own initiatives to make sure that the systems run in such a way that the goals of the organization are met. Through innovation and creativity therefore, teams are motivated to come up with better ideas that create value even in the future. In this type, the employees will be free to identify the best courses of action that improve the society. Analysis of the learning organization Making the idea work in perfectly in the new environment is a daunting task requiring a good learning organization. This is where the team embraces new idea and learning as the route to implement and adopt the idea in a dynamic setting (Laszewski & Williamson, 2008, p. 115). Adoption of the per-minute concept and its profitability is realized when the systems integrate and work together in a holistic framework. In this respect, the continuing trends of change will prompt the café to adopt the learning organization that will devise better strategies of serving the community and creating more employment opportunities for the youth. Creation of a learning organization in the Social Café will create a culture that fosters personal development and routes through which employees can learn from each other. This facilitates the distribution of new concepts, as well as creating systems thinking away from the traditional individualized perspective (Moutinho & Southern, 2010, p. 52). This leads to mental models as well as shared visions that are routes towards learning and development of new concepts. Approaches to introduce and embed change within an organization There are many approaches that organizations may pursue as routes to change: The top down approach introduces an avenue where the change can be assimilated from the senior management to the employees and this is instrumental as it sets an example for the others to follow (Chermack, 2009, p. 67). On the other hand, education and communication entail a series of meetings and communications, through which the visions of an idea are communicated, accepted and embraced in the organization. Extensive engagement, education and support makes the course of change realistic and increases the chance that it becomes part of the organization. The manipulation as well as the coercive approach is used to direct teams to accept the course of change and to embrace it regardless of their opinions. These strategies form the basis on which teams can explore the course of change and embed it in their systems. Analysis of market conditions that impact on setting up an innovative business venture The SWOT analysis Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats New concept Unique nature lack of previous experience development to other towns Competition from other firms for example the Tuttle Club and Café sunlight Quality of service Cheap, convenient and quality service Alienating environment challenges in implementation explore new markets through better products Changes in market demand may hinder expansion. Gaps in the market for potential products and creative ideas There exist numerous niches that the café can explore and utilize. In the other towns, the demand for the per-minute is services are growing, opening a service gap that the company can explore (Azevedo & Pomeranz, 2008, p. 45). Further, the Cat Café would also be creative, seeking to exploit the needs of many customers who would love to go with their pets to the café. This will create a new segment within the café, and will offer the service lacking in most England cafes. Target markets for an innovative business venture i. The demographics of England prove that the young people would be more attracted to the idea as they frequent most cafes in London and be the target market. ii. The other towns where such an idea has not been implemented form target markets, and the youth remain unemployed in most of these places. iii. Members of the community who love to hold social events in cafes as a way of giving back to their community The mission of the business The per-minute café concept seeks to develop an all-encompassing business environment, where value can be added to services given in order to improve the café’s contribution to the society’s well being. Analysis of external factors The PEST analysis 1) The political perspective: The new concept fits in the laws regarding consumer protection and social entrepreneurship on the best interests of the community (Borgenicht & Joyner, 2009, p. 51). The idea promotes positive influence on employment and improves the standards of living of the people. 2) The Economic perspective: The economic conditions in England are favorable for the growth of the new concept. The government incentives have reduced interest rates on loans, and the taxes for such a business are tolerable, which will facilitate its expansion to other towns in the country. 3) The Social perspective: The concept seeks to capture diverse groups of peoples who have unemployment problems. It seeks to take the advantage of the demographics as an advantage to its growth, by tuning its services to reach the vast proportion of the marginalized youth without employment. 4) The Technological perspective The changes in technology will affect the extent to which the idea will thrive as a great proportion of the youth are engaged in technology in the form of the social media (Lindgren, & Bandhold, 2001, p. 88). Further, the dedication to research and development to determine the feasibility and usefulness of the idea will yield better ways of reducing costs, increasing revenues and to serve the community. Business structures and systems that will deliver the business mission The mission of the business will be developed when the organizational structure is formulated in a way that allows effective communication between all the stakeholders in the business. Further, the systems within the café should create an enabling environment that the employees’ input can be realized and customers’ opinions implemented to improve the idea (Moutinho & Southern, 2010, p. 73). Further, the organization’s management will be important in the creation of the system to ensure that the concept is embraced and thrives. Analysis of business planning forecasts based on targets Forecasts of the business will be taken in the perspective of either macro or micro based on the targets set. The macro will take a holistic perspective of the whole market, in the way that the business will perform, while micro will be concerned with the business unit’s performance. Using the two analyses, the business will be able to forecast its performance in line with the targets as illustrated below. The London café Particulars First year Second year Third year Transaction numbers per day 75 100 125 Transaction numbers per year 23314 310,000 38750 Sales 96,000 124,000 145,000 Cost of sales 75,000 101,000 119,000 Gross profit 21,000 23,000 26,000 Costs incurred including salaries, rent and maintenance 19,000 20,000 16,000 Net profits 2,000 3,000 10,000 Business responses if targets are not met If the targets are not met, the business will embark on research to identify any mishaps with the idea. This will be an overall research targeting all stakeholders, including the customers, who will give feedback on the idea. These responses will serve as the basis of continuous improvement and implementation of better concepts in the café (Azevedo & Pomeranz, 2008, p. 101). The team will further evaluate the different perspectives of similar ideas that will be crucial to improve on the existing concept. Conclusion The per-minute café will offer both the customers and the café a chance to explore better experiences through innovation. To the extent that the idea is lucrative, it is bound to give good results and its implementation will foster an environment of continuous change. From the fact that the analysis of the business plan is conclusive, the idea may be implemented and will lead to success in its target market. References Azevedo, A., & Pomeranz, R. 2008. Customer obsession: How to acquire, retain, and grow customers in the new age of relationship marketing. New York: McGraw-Hill. Borgenicht, D., & Joyner, M. 2009. The Worst-Case Scenario Business Survival Guide: How to Survive the Recession, Handle Layoffs,Raise Emergency Cash, Thwart an Employee Coup,and Avoid Other Potential Disasters. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Chermack, T. J. 2009. Scenario planning in organizations: How to create, use, and assess scenarios. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler. Davis, P. K., & Bankes, S. C. 2007. Enhancing strategic planning with massive scenario generation: Theory and experiments. Santa Monica, CA: RAND National Security Research Division. Dickersbach, J. T. 2005. Characteristic based planning: Scenarios, processes, and functions. Berlin: Springer. Laszewski, T., & Williamson, J. 2008. Oracle modernization solutions: A practical guide to planning and implementing SOA integration and re-architecting to an Oracle platform. Birmingham, UK: Packt Pub. Lindgren, M., & Bandhold, H. 2009. Scenario planning. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Lindgren, M., & Bandhold, H. 2001. Scenario planning: The link between future and strategy. Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan. Moutinho, L., & Southern, G. 2010. Strategic marketing management: A business process approach. Hampshire, U.K: Cengage Learning EMEA. Read More