Executive Summary
The proposed venture offers benefits from the existing opportunities in the automotive industry. Since the demand for electric vehicles is constantly growing, various organizations can obtain benefits from it. The new business focuses on the fact that electric car batteries are frequently used, while the industry does not currently have an appropriate management and recycling approach. Since the existing methods are difficult and expensive, a new strategy is needed. That is why the proposed venture presents a concept stage summarizing the necessity and feasibility of researching a new and better battery management and recycling model. The new business will deal with patents because it can develop new technology or licenses since some existing technologies or equipment can be suitable.
The proposed venture will target electric vehicle manufacturers and individuals who are concerned with environmental problems. The two stakeholder groups will benefit from the service because the new business promises to deprive the customers of any challenges regarding their battery management. Since the venture offers full-cycle services, it will collect, transport, manage, and recycle the batteries, which will be convenient for customers. This peculiarity will be the leading competitive advantage of the business. Finally, the management team will consist of five professionals, and it will take four months to launch the concept.
The Business Concept
Electric vehicles (EVs) represent a popular trend in the modern automobile industry. A growing number of people want to buy these vehicles because of their concerns about CO2 emissions and environmental pollution. This tendency makes various car manufacturers draw more attention to EVs and meet the growing demand.
Even though electric cars do not emit harmful gasses and are considered less dangerous for the environment compared to combustion engine vehicles, everything is not unanimous. Most EVs currently use lithium-ion batteries because of many advantages, including “a high power-to-weight ratio, high energy efficiency, good high-temperature performance, and low self-discharge” (US Department of Energy, n.d., para. 3). However, a significant problem refers to the fact that EV batteries pose a significant threat to the environment once they reach their maximum capacity (Spector, 2022). Since recycling is expensive, not all businesses are sufficiently responsible to engage in this activity. That is why it is reasonable to organize a venture that will make the management and recycling of batteries easier.
The proposed concept is to create a service business to meet the existing opportunity. The new venture will collect, sort, disassemble, and process used batteries. Since current recycling methods are labor-intensive and expensive, the task is to offer an innovative solution free from these disadvantages. This information demonstrates that the venture is currently at the concept stage, which denotes that appropriate research and scientific activities are needed to find the expected solution.
In general, the proposed venture can provide services for various customers. On the one hand, environmentally conscious consumers will find the venture valuable and attractive. On the other hand, car manufacturers and governmental bodies can cooperate productively with the venture. The rationale behind these statements is that the business’s value proposition refers to providing versatile customers with a service to manage and recycle EV batteries. Potential growth opportunities of the venture are promising because EVs are becoming more popular every year. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics (2023) expects EVs to account for 40% of total car sales by 2030. That is why the proposed venture will have sufficient opportunities for growth.
The new concept can be associated with a few specific proprietary rights. First, the business will deal with patents when it develops an innovative process to recycle batteries cheaply. Second, the venture can rely on licenses if it finds an appropriate technology or methodology to manage batteries more reasonably. In any case, the proposed business should be aware of these potential rights.
Industry/Market Analysis
The proposed concept focuses on the EV industry, and the information above has demonstrated that it is promising and offers many opportunities. Many specific factors result in consumer demand keeping increasing. These issues refer to environmental concerns, government policies, and the developed infrastructure for EVs (US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2023). That is why there is no doubt that the growing trend is prevalent and strong in the field.
The target market analysis is a significant step in a feasibility plan. A reasonable decision is to identify a specific niche to enter. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (2023), the USA electric car vehicle is attractive because over 2,000,000 are on the road. Moreover, the same government agency stipulates that this figure is expected to keep increasing in the near future (US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2023). That is why the proposed venture will enter the EV niche in the United States.
One should additionally draw sufficient attention to selecting an effective market penetration strategy. The market specifics demonstrate that the strategic partnerships approach is suitable. This method is effective because it helps the new business reach a large customer base quickly and easily (Paul, 2019). Bustinza et al. (2019) additionally state that this approach is beneficial because it promotes the innovation necessary to solve the battery recycling problem.
Finally, Varadarajan (2020) indicates that the selected market penetration strategy effectively facilitates business growth. Thus, the proposed venture can cooperate with famous EV manufacturers, and the latter can be effective intermediaries between the company and environmentally conscious individuals. Partnering with large companies can allow the business to easily enter the market, which will promote its growth and development.
In particular, the new business will have two specific types of customers. The first group will include large manufacturers of electric cars. These organizations will request the venture’s services to satisfy the growing trend of reducing the harmful impact of batteries. This opportunity will provide the manufacturers with a significant benefit because the venture will solve one of their problems. Environmentally conscious individuals represent the second group of customers, and these individuals can contact the venture when their EV battery should be recycled. Cooperation with the venture will allow these individuals to satisfy their environmental concerns.
Today, there are various battery recycling technologies that deserve attention. They include smelting, direct recovery, and intermediate processes, each suitable for particular batteries (US Department of Energy, n.d.). Furthermore, these methods imply versatile benefits, but a leading disadvantage is higher costs (US Department of Energy, n.d.). That is why the industry frequently faces multiple startups designed to offer innovative solutions to the existing problem. Suitable examples refer to ABTC, Li-Cycle, and Redwood Materials, and the latter is famous for its efforts to make battery transportation cheaper (Spector, 2022).
Even though the selected industry has few rivals, the new business should do its best to succeed in the market. Thus, the venture’s leading competitive advantage will be presenting full-cycle management. In particular, the company will offer solutions to collect, transport, and recycle batteries, indicating that customers will be deprived of any challenges.
Management Team
There is no doubt that the success of any venture significantly depends on its team. Professional, experienced, and skillful individuals should engage in running a business to maximize the chances of achieving positive outcomes. As for the current company, a few specific members are included in the team to implement the project. Thus, a project manager is the leading figure because they oversee the development process, monitor the project, and make any corrections if necessary.
Business strategists are important because they are responsible for various business processes. In particular, this professional is expected to cope with market positioning, choosing the right business strategy, and formulating the company’s goals, vision, and objectives. A financial analyst cannot be overlooked because this individual is responsible for economic affairs, keeps records, and ensures that all efforts can stay within the budget. Finally, environmental and technical experts should be included because they can explain what technological solutions are feasible and what effect some decisions will have on the environment and the business’s image among the public. Thus, all these professionals should be included in the team to achieve successful results.
One should clarify that the team is young, which justifies why the individual members need rich professional experience. However, proper education and academic excellence denote that these individuals can run the venture and achieve the determined goals. The team has mastered the required skills and knowledge to solve real-life issues and lead a project to its end. A comprehensive and systematic approach is used to assign tasks within a team.
In particular, the Project Manager is responsible for this task, and they make decisions based on the task and members’ specialization. Thus, it is unsurprising that economic tasks are assigned to the financial analyst while the business strategist is asked to select the suitable positioning strategy. Since the venture is at the concept stage, the project does not have any advisors or members of the board of directors. It is one of the future tasks to find these individuals.
Finally, one should be honest enough to highlight the management team’s gap in terms of its skills and abilities. It has already been mentioned above that the team members do not have sufficient professional experience. That is why two specific aspects are ensured to minimize the negative impact of this feature.
On the one hand, the members were only included in the team if they had excellent academic performance, which denoted that they had rich theoretical knowledge. On the other hand, a professional was included in the team if they expressed their ability to learn new information and find extraordinary and innovative solutions to the existing issues. These two factors overcome the existing gap in the management team because the lack of skills and abilities can be easily compensated.
Timeline
Figure 1 below depicts the leading steps that should be performed to launch the proposed concept. Each of the circles represents a group of activities that should be performed. Thus, the Initial Planning and Research stage includes actions to define the business concept, conduct market research, and define competitive advantages. The Legal and Regulatory Compliance step implies that the Project Manager consulted legal professionals to establish proprietary rights and avoid legal problems in the future.
Operational Planning refers to developing safety and environmental responsibility protocols. All the team members are found and recruited during the following stage. As for the Developing or Finding the Management and Recycling Solutions step, the team should identify the specific services that it will offer. The Creating the Marketing Plan activity relates to establishing a market plan, brand image, and market strategies.
Conclusion
The Establishing Partnerships stage is needed to find partners and make them establish business relations. The Simulations and Training step is significant because it allows for determining how the project will act under real-life conditions. The Timeline demonstrates that four months is necessary to launch the concept.
Bibliography
Bustinza, O. F., Gomes, E., Vendrell‐Herrero, F., & Baines, T. (2019). Product-service innovation and performance: The role of collaborative partnerships and R&D intensity. R&D Management, 49(1), 33-45. Web.
Paul, J. (2019). Marketing in emerging markets: A review, theoretical synthesis, and extension. International Journal of Emerging Markets, 15(3), 446-468. Web.
Spector, J. (2022). EV battery recycling is costly. These 5 startups could change that. Canary Media. Web.
US Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2023). Charging into the future: The transition to electric vehicles. Web.
US Department of Energy. (n.d.). Batteries for electric vehicles. Web.
Varadarajan, R. (2020). Customer information resources advantage, marketing strategy, and business performance: A market resources based view. Industrial Marketing Management, 89, 89-97. Web.