Insurance, Risk Management, and Legal Consideration in Research and Development of Business - Example

RT ОF А GRОUР WОRK Student’s name Course & code Professor’s name University City Date Innovation Research & development (R&D)/innovation activities The business is willing to allocate about $ AUD 200,000 for training of our employees and research programs which will ensure that the business attains its vision within the targeted time frame (Prajogo 2016.). Besides, organizing symposiums in agricultural based subjects for institutions is likely to boost innovations in our business. Intellectual Property Having chosen a unique brand name, we have taken into consideration the means of protecting our business. Bulbasaur, is a unique trademark in the Australian market that is registered to our business. Insurance Workers’ Compensation Having a business operate in many cities of our country, we require enough human resources. As a result, we have implemented several means of compensation for our workers in order to remain in play (Ebert & Griffin 2015). One of the compensatory schemes is medical plan for injured workers where we pay half of the medical bill for our workers who get injured while at work. Another means is by providing the families of our workers with counselling personnel in a situation where a worker dies while still with our business. Public Liability As a business depending on public for its growth, we have liaised with several emergency units within the country to ensure that any pubic member injured during the business transaction with our business, for example a fire outbreak at the stores, there should be immediate evacuation service (Sadgrove 2016). Moreover, such casualties, we offer to take responsibility for half of the treatment bills for the injuries sustained during such instances. Professional indemnity In order to safeguard our business against fraudsters and unfair claims from customers and public in general, we implemented disclaimers for our online customers where the clients have to accept our terms of service before placing an order with us. Besides, the products are passed though the certified medical personnel standardization where they are tested to ensure they are fit for consumption for our customers making it quite possible for the customers to be insured against any fears of poisoning from our products (Sadgrove 2016). Product Liability The products offered by Bulbsaur are provided under secure environment where the customers are provided with enough information on the manner of preparation and what the possible danger the products may pose like allergic reactions with some people. Therefore, the customers purchasing from our store are fully aware of what they are purchasing and it ensures that the product sold out is fully understood by the customers. Business Assets The business is under the Insurance Australia Group which provides cover for our business in case of fire outbreak and injury for workers and also general insurance for the compensation in case of burglary (McCallum & Knapp 2016). Business Revenue Presently, the insurance for our business has been placed with Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) which is in charge of ensuring that the business stays within the industry providing professional services which are essential for the business not going out of funds for its survival. Risk Management Risk Likelihood Impact Strategy Burglary Highly likely high Employing security personnel and also liaising with the federal security agencies for safety of the stores. Food poisoning likely High Including certified medical practitioners in charge of public health safety to check the product before selling to the customers. Fire outbreak Unlikely High The stores are kept free of flammable products and regular maintenance of electric cables to minimize electric surges. Loss of tenure Highly unlikely High The land tenancy is paid in full for five years ahead of time to ensure the business generates enough income that will provide funds for the next five years ahead of time Legal Consideration Our business operates under the Australian Consumer Law (ACL) that was put in place by the reforms in Australian law in 2011. This ensures that the pricing of our products is regulated for the sake of consumers in such a way that we do not price our prices to extort the customers but just enough for the sake of making minimum profit as required by the law (Mariotti & Glackin 2014). Operations Production process The products Bulbaur deals in do not require manufacturing process. As a matter of fact, it only involves two four stages for the processing of the products. These are: Acquiring from farmers Cleaning Checking for consumer safety Packaging After these processes, the products are ready for customers. The products are then placed in our respective stores at major supermarkets like Woolworths where customers access them easily. Besides, there are a number of employees that are charged with a responsibility of delivering the products whose orders are placed online (Bozarth & Handfield 2016). Suppliers Our business currently depends on outsourcing of our veggies from farmers within the country. In order to be supplied with the best materials, we have developed a healthy customer-buyer relationship in which we pay for the supplies promptly to reduce the hustles and in return, they offer their best products on time so that we can provide our customers with the timely deliveries without delays and therefore gaining competitive advantage (Bozarth & Handfield 2016). Plants and Equipment Equipment Purchase date Purchase price Running cost Phones 25/02/2016 $AUD 100 $AUD 30 a month Fridges 25/02/2016 $AUD 2000 $AUD 500 a month Hand baskets 15/02/2016 $AUD 300 $AUD 50 a year Security cameras 20/02/2016 $AUD 1500 $AUD 500 a month Personal computers 20/02/2016 $AUD 2000 $AUD 1000 a year Inventory Inventory item Unit price Quantity in stock Total cost Zucchini $1.40 200 kilograms $ 280.00 Sweet corn $1.50 300 kilograms $ 450.00 Tomato $1.00 800 kilograms $ 800.00 Pumpkin $1.40 900 kilograms $ 1260.00 Technology The business at Bulbaur requires Microsoft Office for preparation of spreadsheet that will be applied in analysis of accounting in the business assets and transactions. This is likely to cost the business $ 300 for installation and regular maintenance of upgrades yearly. Trading Hours The Australian economy, especially in Sydney, where the residents enjoy a 24 hour economy, the business maximizes its sales during the night since many of our customers are available at the time. Since the supplies are most at such times, the profit margins are greater since the customers in the same region can be served with one delivery personnel without incurring extra costs (Bozarth & Handfield 2016). However, this is subject to change over the seasons since most of the winter times, nights are extremely cold and may hinder delivery services for the customers and therefore generating losses for our business. Communication Channels The business has several hot numbers through which the customers contact us. Moreover, the social media platforms serves as best channels for our communication with our customers which besides allowing customers to place orders, allows us to advertise the business. Payment Types Accepted The cash system is presently used as the main payment means. However, online customers tend to pay via PayPal for the safety of their funds. Credit Policies Since the business is not very much developed, we do not offer credit services at the moment due to far of defaulters that may influence the business negatively. Warranty and Refunds Dealing in fresh products, the warranty period is greatly limited to allowing the return of the products immediately. This is done so by allowing the customers to check the products before paying for the products in case of door to door delivery to minimize hustles where a customer returns the products to the store after several hours. Besides, the customers are allowed enough time at the store so that they can get the right products before leaving the store since we do not provide for warranty incase the customer leaves the store with the product. Quality Control Having much competition in the sector, Bulbaur is striving to get to the top of the competition by implementing various measures to improve the quality of the products. One way of achieving this is by conducting surveys over the social media to gather feedback regarding our products (Bozarth & Handfield 2016). The feedback is then included in the areas that require improvement. Membership and Affiliations The business is currently not affiliated with any organization but is likely to form collaboration with Hamza since Hamza is willing to invest $AUD 200,000 in the business. Sustainability Plan Environmental/Resource Impacts The business is environmental friendly since the growing of our products is basically organic. To do this, we require much water for better management of our products be it in the growing or cleaning before sale (Carroll & Buchholtz 2014). Community Impact The community is involved in minimizing the impact in such a way that they regulate the amount of water wastage by harnessing the unclean water from cleaning of our products and reusing in the irrigating of their large scale farms. Risks/Constraints The business runs a risk of running out of water in the near future since much water is wasted in both growing and cleaning of our veggies. Strategies Reusing of the water used in cleaning of the veggies for irrigating those still in the farm serve to mitigate the impact. At the same time, Bulbaur has designed water harnessing strategy in order to make use of rain water by creating underground water storage systems. Action plan Sustainability milestone Target Target date Utilize rain water 30% reduction Within a month Reduce water consumption 20% reduction Year Reuse water 40% reduction Year References Bozarth, CB & Handfield, RB 2016, ‘Introduction to operations and supply chain management,’ Pearson Higher Ed. Carroll, AB & Buchholtz, AK 2014, ‘Business and society: Ethics, sustainability, and stakeholder management’, Nelson Education. Ebert, RJ & Griffin, RW 2015, ‘Business essentials’, Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson. Mariotti, S & Glackin, C 2014, ‘Entrepreneurship and small business management’, Pearson Higher Ed. McCallum, BT & Knapp, MC 2016, ‘Coping with Catastrophes Business Interruption Insurance Claims’, CPA Journal. Prajogo, DI 2016, ‘The strategic fit between innovation strategies and business environment in delivering business performance’, International Journal of Production Economics, 171, pp.241-249. Sadgrove, K., 2016. The complete guide to business risk management. Routledge. Read More