Introduction
Entrepreneurship remains a powerful practice that makes it possible for young individuals to start small businesses that eventually break even and become successful. The proposed business idea is that of five-star vacation homes integrating the elements of sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR). Presently, more people are required to find appropriate destinations for vacations. Most of the available homes tend to be either expensive or incapable of providing personalized experiences to the intended clients. The business idea, therefore, is a small company that will be focusing on the best locations to set up five-star vacation homes. Such facilities would be targeting individuals in need of the best places to relax and pursue their work-life balance. The provision of sustainable sources of energy and competitive prices will make the project successful. The company will consider an online platform to reach out to more clients in every part of the country. Minimum operational costs would be required while setting the stage for protecting the natural environment.
Value Proposition
Today, climate change is one of the biggest challenges many environmentalists, regional leaders, and government advisors are grappling with. The causal factors include overutilization of natural resources, straining supply chains, and destroying forests to get additional land for agriculture. Over the years, Planet Earth’s temperatures have been increasing rapidly, thereby triggering the global warming phenomenon. Without proper mechanisms and strategies for sustainability in place, the global community could take much longer to reverse these challenges. The proposed business firm is founded on this understanding. It seeks to provide additional solutions to the problem of climatic change while engaging local citizens to be part of this process.
Based on this background, the proposed entrepreneurship seeks to provide comfortable homes constructed using sustainable methods. The specific problem supporting this form of investment is the fact that most of the current investors and companies in the hospitality sector do not take the issue of environmental protection seriously. Some locate their facilities in areas that increase damage to the natural environment, including cutting down trees and clearing land to create roads. The manner in which they source food materials and water is also less sustainable. This malpractice stretches the demand for materials to meet the needs of more customers. It is also understandable that most of the required resources for running many businesses in the sector are becoming scarce, such as water. The proposed company seeks to promote notions of sustainability while helping deliver the best experience to the targeted visitors.
In terms of benefits, the targeted customers will be able to get high-quality services from the proposed five-star vacation homes will be easily accessible via the Internet and physically. The business idea would be designed in such a way that the available offerings and services are affordable to the greatest majority of visitors. Such an approach would allow more citizens to rely on such facilities and be in a position to pursue their goals. Additionally, the company will offer additional instructions for ensuring that the concept of sustainability remains a top priority. These benefits will increase the level of demand and eventually help the company to make the required profits. The leaders will consider emerging trends, apps, and customer demands and consider them to support the firm’s overall performance.
The nature of this business venture presents a number of strong reasons to explain why more customers would be willing to buy the intended products. For instance, more people who are taking the issue of sustainability will be keen to seek services from these vacation homes. Additional centers will be opened for supporting the customers and ensuring that timely hospitality services are available. The hired professionals would be able to solve all problems that might arise while providing the best support to the targeted occupants. These attributes would encourage more people who are in the lower social classes to afford and be willing to enjoy such services. The company’s leaders will focus on the best marketing approaches to ensure that more people are informed about vacation homes and eventually be ready to consider such services.
Wow Factors
The launch and subsequent marketing of the proposed business could be a complex task. However, the adoption of effective customer experience steps can encourage more customers to continue being part of the business model. Positive results are possible even when there are complaints and constraints. The first step to consider would be the idea of transparency. From the very beginning, customers need to understand that they are getting an opportunity to access, afford, and use the services of our five-star vacation homes. The entrepreneurs would be focusing on the best practices and hiring experts to guarantee quality services. Marketers will rely on this step to be genuine and offer personalized support to every possible customer and his or her family members. The use of customers’ names visiting the premises would be encouraged to maximize the level of engagement.
The second step is the idea of accountability. Employees at this new venture would be expected to respond to customers’ issues in a professional manner. They will remain engaged and consider the best approaches to fix their complaints or grievances arising from the use of the available services. Proper channels would exist for expediting issues and ensuring that timely results are eventually recorded. The ultimate aim is to ensure that all the company’s clients are capable of feeling like part of the business while enjoying the ambiance of the five-star facilities. This strategy is evidence-based and capable of getting permanent customers. The leaders will be involved to provide timely insights for ensuring that desirable outcomes are eventually recorded.
The third step capable of working effectively in this entrepreneurial venture is the ability to remain empathetic. As a business person, it would be necessary for all workers to focus on the needs of the targeted customers. Marketers should learn to listen attentively and apologize whenever a mistake occurs. They will acknowledge and offer the best support depending on the client’s unique needs. These approaches will leave more customers comfortable and willing to visit the vacation homes again. They would be ready to refer others and eventually make it possible for them to become repeat customers. Such an achievement would set the stage for making the business firm more competitive and successful.
The fourth attribute or step is that of trustworthiness. Leaders need to guide their followers to engage in actions that encourage more customers to be involved. Such customers should be able to trust and follow whatever they say. Marketers need to pursue this concept as a critical element of the wider organizational culture. This achievement will make it possible for more customers to ask for opinions or guidance whenever necessary. They would also be on the lookout for the best strategies to improve the overall experiences of such customers.
Finally, the final step would revolve around the process of providing new solutions. The professionals would receive additional training that will empower them to identify clients’ problems immediately. They will then apply the concept of innovation to meet such demands. They will also offer additional suggestions and guidelines regarding the benefits of the available services. These efforts will create the best environment for improved customer services, thereby ensuring that most of the clients would be ready to come back for the same services or support. More customers would be expecting to receive personalized vacation services from five-star homes.
Game Plan
The development and implementation of a game plan can make it easier for entrepreneurs to launch their business ideas successfully. The first step to support the suggested venture is brainstorming. During this phase, two months would be utilized to engage different businesspeople and researchers in the hospitality industry. The approach would gather additional insights from some of the local service providers in the sector. The exercise would shed some light regarding the most preferable food combinations and offerings in the local market. The involved professionals would also examine the feasibility of the idea and the capability of delivering the much-needed profits.
The second step would take around one month. During this phase, the partners involved would examine the legal requirements and policy issues capable of affecting the proposed business. The experts will also consider some of the existing vacation homes and how they pursue their goals. The emerging insights would be considered to develop the best plan for starting the idea. The individuals will also examine some of the best approaches for maximizing cooperation among the involved players. This step is critical since it will allow the entrepreneurs to be aware of the rules that could either disorient or support the overall business performance.
The third step would be to formulate the most appropriate business plan based on the acquired information. The participants will consider the required time and financial resources. They would also analyze the needs of most of the customers in the market and how to address them. This plan is expected to be completed within two months. The involved individuals will also analyze the emerging issues and include them in the formulated plan. The document would go further to outline the best approaches for marketing, communicating within the firm, and business models. It will set the stage for launching the venture successfully.
The fourth phase would be to collect adequate funds to support the start-up. The procedures involved would be guided by the figures and estimates outlined in the business plan. The owners of the business would consider sources that are sustainable and capable of supporting the venture’s future. This step will take approximately three months. This period is adequate to ensure that the acquired financial resources are enough to meet the outlined needs and eventually make the venture successful. The company will also hire and recruit the right candidates to occupy various positions.
Between the eighth and tenth month, the involved partners will identify the right location for the business and launch it before the end of eleven months. The participants will rely on the collected funds and the hired individuals to pursue the business idea. For the start-up, it will be possible to identify the best location and rent the best facilities to support the business idea. The last month of the year would be utilized to conduct a detailed analysis of the business and consider whether it resonates with the demands of the targeted customers. The emerging insights will dictate the manner in which the owners will continue to improve the available services continuously in the coming months. The consideration of these key steps will make it easier for the investors to identify other locations for expanding their business and opening additional five-star vacation homes.
In the studied articles, learners can acquire evidence-based ideas for pursuing their entrepreneurial goals. In the work, “What Evolution Can Teach Us About Innovation”, Afeyan and Pisano (2021) indicate that businesspeople do not necessarily have to identify an existing problem in an effort to become innovative and successful. However, Camuffo et al. (2020) go further to argue that the best approaches for maximizing success include framing, analyzing, and validating the identified problem. Based on these arguments, it would be agreeable that the authors of the different articles do not contradict each other. The reader would realize that the emerging ideas appear practical and capable of guiding entrepreneurs to pursue their business aims diligently.
As an innovator, the chances of finding a breakthrough do not have to be chaotic or unmanageable. By focusing on the process, more people can rely on the evolutionary process to identify ideas that can survive and help transform people’s experiences. By questioning hypotheses, the involved individuals can propose new ideas and engage in continuous speculation. This approach would discourage innovators from focusing primarily on the recorded problem (Spina, Camuffo, and Gambardella, 2020). In the second article, “A Scientific Approach to Entrepreneurial Decision Making: Evidence from a Randomized Control Trial”, the authors support the power of the scientific approach because it maximizes accuracy. The investors will be able to consider the best choices and ideas that increase the odds of delivering positive and profitable results.
Based on these two arguments, it is clear that the process of innovation does not have to be founded on a given or identifiable problem. Instead, an evolutionary model appears to take center stage when businesspeople want to address an existing challenge. The consideration of a scientific inquiry appears to resonate with the ideas Afeyan and Pisano outline in their article. The most important thing is for entrepreneurs to adopt a workable approach to pursuing ideas acquired through the evolutionary approach (Sprouts, 2017). By adopting the scientific model, entrepreneurs will be on the right path toward avoiding pursuing projects or innovations that could eventually deliver losses.
The theories and concepts studied for this assignment and throughout the course are applicable in different organizational settings. Personally, I will consider such models to propose and design an effective action plan that can deliver positive changes in my firm. First, it will be appropriate to consider a new change whereby all followers will start to focus on evidence-based approaches for identifying revolutionary ideas (Sprouts, 2017). The approach will guide me to identify possible barriers to the transformation and address them in a timely manner. This effort will ensure that the stage is set for implementing the needed action plan.
Second, different workers at the company will receive additional instructions for implementing and pursuing the emergent theory (ET). This strategy will allow workers to apply systematic methods for collecting and analyzing the available information. They will also focus on their specific interests while promoting the notion of discovery. Upon identifying any given idea, the participants will receive additional instructions for applying scientific methods (Bracio and Szarucki, 2020). While the process of arriving at promising ideas would be in accordance with emergent discovery, the insights Camuffo et al. (2020) present will make a difference. Specifically, most of the employees will be able to frame, analyze, identify, and then match the idea with the existing or identified problem. This strategy will increase the chances of boosting overall performance.
Conclusion
With these practices in place, a culture of innovation founded on the two ideas will become the norm at the company. The leaders involved will guide the workers and allow them to focus on the best outcomes. The individuals will embrace the notion of continuous improvement to meet the changing demands of more visitors in different five-star vacation homes. The emerging culture will help transform or improve the existing business model. Most of the employees will be in a position to receive timely guidelines and resources to pursue their innovative ideas. These opportunities will encourage them to prospect “for ideas in novel spaces and develop speculative conjectures” (Afeyan and Pisano, 2021, p. 64). The strategy will guide the company the build the much-needed capacity and go beyond the established comfort zone. The role of the leader would be to guide such a process and set the stage for breakthroughs and subsequent innovations.
Reference List
Afeyan, N. and Pisano, G.P. (2021) What evolution can teach us about innovation: lessons from the life sciences. Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation.
Bracio, K. and Szarucki, M. (2020) ‘Mixed methods utilisation in innovation management research: a systematic literature review and meta-summary’, Journal of Risk and Financial Management, 13(11), pp. 252-278. doi: 10.3390/jrfm13110252
Camuffo, A. et al. (2020) ‘A scientific approach to entrepreneurial decision making: evidence from a randomized control trial’, Management Science, 66(2), pp. 564-586. doi: 10.1287/mnsc.2018.3249
Spina, C., Camuffo, A. and Gambardella, A. (2020) Founders, apply the scientific method to your startup. Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation.
Sprouts (2017) The scientific method: steps, examples, tips, and exercise. Web.