QUESTION
New Venture: Game Plan
Instructions
Assignment 1: New Venture; Game Plan
Now that you have your “big idea”, it is time to create your Game Plan – as Jack calls it – for making the idea happen.
Think about the stakeholders whose support you will need. For an Intrapreneur, they are the senior managers who make major decisions at your company.
For an Entrepreneur, they are your key stakeholders, such as prospective investors or partners to support and fund your start-up business.
As you research and develop your Game Plan, consider how you can persuade these key stakeholders to support you.
Requirements
Assignment 1: New Venture Game Plan (Cont.)
Throughout this course you will develop a plan to design and implement a new product or service. You have two options, depending whether you identify as an Intrapreneur or an Entrepreneur. Your first step is to select or develop an innovative “big idea” for ONE of the options below:
Option A- Intrapreneur
OR
Option B – Entrepreneur
OR
Option C – Non- profit Entrepreneur
Identify one business idea that you could launch as a start-up business. You may research business ideas at the source below, which provides over 900 small business ideas:
Research Source: https://www.entrepreneur.com/businessideas
Assignment 1: New Venture; Game Plan
Your Game Plan paper should be 3 to 4 pages long (no more than 10 total pages).
It will describe your “big idea”, explain your vision, analyze the opportunity, assess threats, and show the rationale for implementing the idea now.
Organize your Game Plan paper as follows;
* Cover Page
* Short Introduction
* Company Basics
* Describe your New Product or Service Idea
* Explain the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, threats
* Conclusion
* References Section
Grading Rubric
Assignment 1: New Venture; Game Plan
Ref: See pages 3-4 / 4-5 of this assignment:
- Describe in detail the company basics, include its size, mission, location and culture. Weight: 25%
- Describe in detail your new Product or Service Idea. Include what makes it unique, how it satisfies customer needs or desires, and an explanation of its value proposition. Weight 25%
- Describe in detail the Opportunity. Include why this is the right time to launch your venture, what is innovative about your product or service, and how your idea will benefit your company or your partners and investors. Weight: 20%
- Describe in detail the Threats. Include your main competitors, major challenges that you foresee, and ways to mitigate those challenges. Weight: 20%
- Clarity, logic, and writing mechanics. Weight: 10%
Questions
Please review the instructions carefully and follow the given outline. Much of what you will be writing about was already addressed through the recent DQs. However, do make sure that when you write this paper, it is not simply at the level of DQ.
You should do a more extensive amount of outside research and provide facts and background description that an investor or internal budget manager would want to know.
Do not write with hyperbole or flowery language, but instead sell with facts and compelling opportunities based on evidence!. Do illustrate your papers with charts, tables, graphs and pictures where possible to make it more compelling. (not including pictures).
Thank You
Remember this assignment is your original work- do not use previous work from your JWMI courses- (self-plagiarism)
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| Subject | Business | Pages | 6 | Style | APA |
|---|
Answer
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New Venture: Game Plan
Introduction
The success of a business hinges highly on its ability to effectively and efficiently utilize its resources. Human capital is one of the vital resources that an organization can leverage to gain competitive advantage (Lenihan et al., 2018). However, to attain maximum performance from the employees, they need to receive periodic training to increase their performance capability. Business consultants provide need driven training to employees to enable their clients to concentrate on their core business mandate. Business consultants have several hours of experience and are therefore able to offer targeted needs-based training that offers their clients value for money. The envisioned business consultation division within VanTec Hitachi will offer the company's existing clients consultation services such as need-informed training for their employees to increase the performance of the employees and return that of the organization.
Company Basics
Headquartered in Torrance California, VanTec Hitachi is a third-party logistics company that has 16 locations across the United States. The company belongs to the Hitachi Transport System (HTS) group of companies, a subsidiary of the Hitachi conglomerate. For the past 60 years, the company has leveraged the global network provided by its parent company to ensure it has a well-developed distribution network to handle the logistics needs of its clients from Japan, East and South-East Asia, the Americas and Europe. The company offers its clients the following services; supply chain management solutions, customs brokerage, machine installation, air freight and cargo insurance.
The proposed initiative is a business consultation division of VanTec Hitachi. The division will offer the clients drawn from the ones currently being services by the company and the others in the market a wide variety of business consultancy services in the market. The services will revolve around employees' training to increase their efficiency and effectiveness, thus increasing their performance. The division will train its clients' new employees on factors such as organizational culture before they start working and periodically conduct a needs assessment to ensure the employees receive regular training on their areas of weakness to increase their performance. The business will be a new division within the current company's organizational structure.
The business consultant division has a mission to "provide clients with tailor-made consultancy services to help them achieve their business goals in the market. The division's customer-centric mission ensures all actions are done with the client in mind to ensure those who contract the division are guaranteed quality services that improve their market performance. The new initiative aligns with the company's mission through its focus on bettering the services of clients who outsource their services to it to concentrate on their core business mandate. For the division to achieve its mission, it will have to fill the following positions.
Service Idea
As a third party Logistics Company, businesses outsource some of their services, such as inventory management VanTec Hitachi for a duration of time. During such periods, the clients' inventory is perfectly managed due to VanTec Hitachi's experience in the market. However, at the end of the contract and the management is taken over by the client companies' employees, their operations face several challenges due to poor performance from employees. The service idea is unique as it is the only foresighted consultancy program offered by a third party logistics company to ensure its clients are able to operate optimally even after the termination of their contractual business agreements for services such as inventory management.
The service satisfies the need to solve the current increased dependency on third-party logistics companies by business in the market. According to Sinani et al. (2020), third-party logistics companies' efficiency and experience have increased dependence on their services, making business outsource more services, including those that should be handled internally. The service therefore seeks to reduce the level of dependence, thus making VanTec Hitachi as a third party logistics focus more on distribution due to its network and its clients to get the chance to have their employees perfectly trained in various facets of supply chain management such as inventory management to reduce a decrease in performance after the company has returned such services to be handled by the client at the end of the contract. As Eaton (2020) asserts, businesses are formulated to maximize profits for their shareholders. The value proposition stems from the reduction in cost for the client through a reduction in the level of outsourcing dependency because of the high cost associated with outsourcing. Simultaneously, VanTec Hitachi will benefit through increased revenues made from regular training requested by the clients.
SWOT Analysis
VanTec Hitachi's business consultancy division has the following strength's first; it is a first of its kind and innovative service to be offered by a third party logistics company. Secondly, the business division will enjoy competitive advantage in the market by leveraging VanTec Hitachi strong brand name in the market. As Bilgin (2018) asserts, strong brands have developed a reputation for quality services, making it easy for their service to acquire customers in the market. Thirdly, the vision will also easily acquire qualified employees from the parent company reducing its startup cost. Furthermore, the division has ready clients as it will source its clients from VanTec Hitachi long list of loyal customers, thus reducing its customer acquisition costs.
Despite having several strengths, the business has the following weaknesses; first, its connection to VanTec Hitachi will make it difficult for it to create an independent identity in the market, thus making it vulnerable should VanTec Hitachi suffer reputational damage in the market. Secondly, it will increase VanTec Hitachi operational costs as the employees will have to receive increased pay due to additional job responsibilities. Secondly, the business will be seen as a duplication of service since its service portfolio contains most services already offered by VanTec Hitachi
The business can leverage the following opportunities to overcome its weaknesses; first, the expanding demand for freight and logistics services which will, in turn, increase the demand for employee training to reduce overreliance on third-party logistics companies. Secondly, take advantage of the existence of few consultant companies offering similar services in the market. According to Paquet-Clouston et al. (2018), companies with little competition can easily leverage factors such as quality of service to dominate the market niche making it difficult for new entrants to take their market share.
VanTec Hitachi proposed business consultancy division will face the following threats in the market. First, the risk of imitation. The business model is easy to duplicate, making it easy for the company to lose the advantage of being among the few companies offering such services. Secondly, the company also faces a risk of serving a shrinking market in the long run as fewer clients seek the services it offers in the market after most of them have received the services offered.
Conclusion
In conclusion, VanTec Hitachi business consultancy division will deliver consultancy services such as training to employees of its already existing clients. The new division will leverage strengths such as the company's established brand image, its employees and ready clientele from VanTec Hitachi client list. However, it will also have to rely on its internal strength and market opportunities to overcome threats such as an increased number of businesses offering similar services in the market.
References
Bilgin, Y. (2018). The effect of social media marketing activities on brand awareness, brand image and brand loyalty. Business & Management Studies: An International Journal, 6(1), 128-148.
Eaton, C. (2020). Agile predators: private equity and the spread of shareholder value strategies to US for-profit colleges. Socio-Economic Review.
Lenihan, H., McGuirk, H., & Murphy, K. R. (2019). Driving innovation: Public policy and human capital. Research policy, 48(9), 103791.
Paquet-Clouston, M., Décary-Hétu, D., & Morselli, C. (2018). Assessing market competition and vendors’ size and scope on AlphaBay. International Journal of Drug Policy, 54, 87-98.
Sinani, F., Erceg, Z., & Vasiljević, M. (2020). An evaluation of a third-party logistics provider: The application of the rough Dombi-Hamy mean operator. Decision Making: Applications in Management and Engineering, 3(1), 92-107.