Introduction
Halo is an upcoming firm that sells phone case to its customers. It is a branch of Young Enterprise Company. The decision to specialise in the phone cases was reached after careful market research. The market research revealed that mobile phone users were in dire need of phone cases to help in protecting this gadget. Some individuals spend a lot of money on buying expensive phones. However, such phones do not last long because of constant handling.
The latest models of Smartphone with large screen were at greater risk of damage, especially when they fall. The only way of addressing this problem was to come up with various designs of cases that can help to reduce wear and tear of the phones even in cases when they fall (Cook 2005, p. 140).
Halo was started out of the desire to fill a market gap that had existed for a very long time. The demand for products in this special niche was growing as the leading phone manufacturers started introducing various models to meet the dynamic needs of the customers. In order to meet the objectives in the market, the stakeholders have clearly identified officers responsible for various activities. At the top management level, there is the managing director.
His main function is to ensure that strategic goals are clearly defined and that the interests of the shareholders are met. The administrator is the principal assistant of the managing director, responsible for the internal operations activities. Each of the departmental heads is responsible for various planning and managing activities in their departments. They include finance director, operations leader, and marketing director. The top leadership of this new firm have developed a working plan that makes it possible for departmental heads to have closely coordinated management structure.
Reflective Analysis of How Halo Company was Developed
Halo Company was founded after a series of meetings of various stakeholders who were interested in addressing a market gap that had been identified. We were motivated by the constant complains of people around us about the need to have effective phone cases. After a series of meetings, we decided to launch our own research in order to understand the specific needs of the market. The following are the objectives that the team wanted to achieve through that market research.
- To determine the specific needs of the customers in the market.
- To find out if these needs are met by the existing players in the industry.
- To determine the expected clients who will be interested in buying these products.
- To identify various approaches to payments that the clients will be willing to use
- To identify changes that may affect the product either in its design, material used, or its cost.
To operate successfully, the management had to get detailed information about the market (Jain 2011, p. 67). The above objectives will enable the firm to have basic knowledge about the local market. After conducting market research, the team moved to the next step of identifying the individuals who were to be responsible for various management duties at the firm. The following offices identified.
- The managing director.
- The administrator.
- The marketing director.
- The operations officer.
- The finance director.
These offices were necessary in order to facilitate specific operations of the new firm. The name Halo Company was arrived at through a series of brainstorming sessions and wide consultations.
Product
It took time for the team members to come up with a specific product for the new firms. Some team members wanted this new firm to start by offering two or three different types of products. After a series of consultative forums, the team accepted that the firm should specifically concentrate on the production of phone cases. There was an agreement that the firm may expand in its product offerings at a later date when it will be necessary.
Market Research
According to Anderson (2004, p. 48), when conducting a market study, it is important to identify the most appropriate type of research that will help in collecting the relevant information from the field. Because of the nature of information needed by this new firm, a mix of primary and secondary research will be necessary (Walker 2012, p. 113). The researchers will use secondary market research to understand the history of the firm. Secondary research will take the form of a literature review.
Reviewing of the exiting literature will help the researchers to understand the past events that affected the industry, the trends that have defined operations of the players, the level of competition, and some of the environmental challenges that the existing players face. According to Grigoroudis and Siskos (2010, p. 67), in some industry, the relationship between rival firms is very frosty and characterised by mistrust. In other industries, rival firms have very close relationship geared towards a mutual benefit for all the players. Having knowledge about the nature of the industry prepares a firm for the expected eventuality (Knight 2006, p. 25).
A firm should know whether it is getting into a friendly market or a highly hostile market. Such information can only be retrieved from secondary sources that have documented the industry. Books, journal articles and newspapers will be important to understand the history of the industry (Novikova 2009, p. 49). Newspapers will be important at this stage, especially those that reported on issues relating to the industry.
According to Hernon and Whitman (2000, p. 45), the internet has also become an important source of secondary information. The researcher will use reliable websites that have documented issues related to this industry. Secondary sources of information will act as the background of the research upon which the primary research is based (Hinkel 2011, p. 118).
The primary sources of data were very important when capturing the current events in this industry. In order to do this, the researchers went identified a firm that is already existing in this industry. The chosen firm was Phone Casing Inc. in London. The customers, employees and managers of this small enterprise were in a good position to respond to various questions about the industry because it has been in existence for the last five years.
A questionnaire was used to collect data. A sample of the questionnaire is attached at the appendix of this report (Glatthorn 2005, p. 86). The questionnaire had four parts. The first part sought to capture the background information of respondents. The second part dealt with the demography and gender of the respondents and how it affected their capacity to sell various products in the market.
It also helped to ascertain the prevalence of views in various categories in order to ensure that if any differences came about, then they would be captured in their demographic space (Arenius & Minniti 2005, p. 245). The third part dealt with the academic credentials and work experience of the respondents. The motivation for this section came from the understanding that different views of the employees on various environmental issues differed, based on age and academic credentials. The fourth part delved into the specific issues relating to market forces in this industry, the important past events, the current prevailing market forces, and how the firm is dealing with these forces to remain sustainable.
The questionnaire also employed a mix of open and closed-ended questions to capture different aspects of the issues studied. Open-ended questions were used because they give respondents more time to figure out their opinions, which would make them volunteer more information related to feelings, outlooks and comprehension of the subject (Aaker 2009, p. 57). This would allow a researcher to understand the position of respondents as regards to feelings. Open-ended questions minimise some errors that could have been created in the course of research (Kumar 2004, p. 78). Respondents rarely forget answers if given an opportunity to respond freely.
Furthermore, respondents cannot ignore some questions because they must go through all of them. Open-ended questions generate data that can be used in qualitative data analysis. In other words, they allow secondary data analysis. On the other hand, closed-ended questions are analysed easily. That is why they were used in this study. Each response can be coded for statistical interpretation (Bell, 2005, p. 17).
Closed-ended questions are compatible with computer analysis package. The technique is more specific meaning that its answers are consistent in all conditions (Leedy 2010, p. 31). This aspect is impossible with open-ended questions because each respondent is allowed to use his or her own words. Finally, closed-ended questions take less time to administer, unlike open-ended questions, which are detailed hence time-consuming. Data collected were analysed using statistical tools.
The sample used in the research
According to Cramer (2003, p. 43), when conducting research, it is important to define the same that will be used. As a firm that is getting into a new market, it will be appropriate to use a large sample size in order to get the diversified views of the people in the market. However, several constraints such as time and resources to be used limited the number of respondents (Badenhorst 2007, p. 56).
The researchers used a sample of 100 respondents. This number was manageable, given the existing constraints. The researcher selected fifty male and fifty female respondents. In each stratum, the researcher went further to have both young and old respondents in equal number (Hakim 2000, p. 87). This means that the number of young respondents was fifty, and the number of old respondents was also fifty. Those below 35 years were considered young, while those above this age were considered old. This was necessary to help capture the divergent views of customers and individuals working in this industry (Temporal 2010, p. 75).
In order to ensure that each stratum had the expected proportion of participants, the researchers used stratified sampling. In each of the sub-strata, simple random sampling was used to select individual participants.
Business Plan
Our business plan had to be based on the research findings that were conducted. The team members decided to consult the parent firm, Young Enterprise, in order to develop a comprehensive business plan. However, we developed a proposed plan that would be modified by the parent firm to align the new firm’s activities with that of the parent firm. In the plan, the main product was identified as a phone casing, and the target market would be the locals at Plymouth.
Funds would be generated through the sale of shares to the group members. The issues of capital generation and marketing strategies are discussed in the sections below. The managing director was assigned the task of reaching out to the parent firm with our proposals in order to get approval or modification to our plan.
Marketing Strategy
The analysis proved very important in helping this team to identify the target market and the potential of various customer segments (Lehmann & Winer 2008, p. 53). It was clear from the analysis of the data that the market for phone cases can be classified into three major segments. The first segment has the rich who are very keen on quality. They are ready to pay high prices as long as they are assured of high-quality products. They specifically prefer leather cases. They also go for known brands (Keegan & Green 2013, p. 38). The second category is those who want quality products but at considerable prices.
They avoid products that are highly priced. The third segment had customers who are very sensitive on issues about the price. Although they also admire high quality products, they are ready to compromise on the quality as long as they are assured of low product prices (Nash 2000, p. 45). Halo will have three different lines of products to target these three groups. The data also confirmed that there is a potentially that has not been fully tapped in this industry. Halo Company can exploit this opportunity as long as it can deliver quality products that meet expectations of the customers.
Capital
In this new business start-up, it was important to come up with a clear structure on how to get capital to support our operations. We could not rely on the parent firm to provide the resources to start operations. It was agreed that the members will buy shares from the new company. The team faced serious challenges in coming up with the value for each share. Until now, it is not clear how the value of each share should be calculated. However, members agreed to pay £ 181.9 per share to help in raising the capital for the start-up. The team is still working on how to improve this area.
Company Meetings
Company meetings have offered an avenue through which the stakeholders can discuss pertinent issues affecting various departments. In these meetings, members have been able to address issues concerning the Memorandum and Article of Association, sources of funds for the firm, products to be offered, and the target market. The First Review Meeting was held on February 2, 2015. In this meeting, roles and responsibilities of various departmental heads were discussed. At such forums, the managing director is always expected to a give a status report on the progress made towards forming strategic partnership with some of the external players such as the suppliers. Members also get opportunity to share issues affecting their work.
Keeping Relevant Books
The accounts department has the responsibility of keeping all the relevant accounting books in this firm. However, it was agreed that the departmental heads will be responsible for keeping books of account used in their departments for the purpose of verification. This would enhance accountability at the firm and facilitate easy verification of records. The managing director’s office would compile a detailed report of annual performance to help the top management in determining the progress of the firm in the market.
Good Business Practices
The market research that was conducted revealed that customers are very sensitive of the products offered to them in the market. It is the responsibility of this firm to maintain ethical practices in order to avoid negative experiences with the customer. Good business practices starts with the management taking care of the interests of its employees and leading by example in demonstrating that unethical practices should be avoided at all times. The management has always avoided temptations to engage in vices such as bribery because of the need to protect the image of the firm.
Payment of Value Added Tax and Corporate
In order to operate legally, the team realised that they had to be responsible in payment of tax as promptly as required by the law. The firm has already acquired ETR machines to help in ticketing process as one way of being a responsible tax payer. Although the team expects a corporate tax relief within the first two years of operations, the management has put in place structures that will facilitate payment of such taxes in subsequent years.
Evaluation of Effectiveness of Business
It may not be easy to determine the effectiveness of the business within the first few months of operations. However, the firm has been able to achieve some of its objectives within the short period of operations. The business plan has been helpful, but it will be necessary to have some adjustments to reflect the changing market structure. The market research proved very useful in informing the strategy the firm and the communication strategies. The management has been using consultative approach to deal with various problems.
Analysis of Mistakes
The management team appreciates that a few mistakes were made at the initial stages of development. The team did not have a clear timeline of the business plan. The timeline was changed a couple of times due to external pressures. Managing the group dynamics was also another issue that the management will need to address.
Conclusions
Halo is a new subsidiary of Young Enterprise Company that specialises in the production of phone cases. This firm will have its first offices in Plymouth. However, it has plans to expand its operations to various other regions in the country once it is commissioned. Most of the products will be purchased from the top suppliers in a business-to-business trade. Once acquired, they will be sold in the outlets at Plymouth and online platform. However, the management has plans to set up its production plants in order to have a greater control in its supply chain. Although much is yet to be done by the top management unit, the programme has been laid out explaining the role of different stakeholders at the firm. If the firm is able to put into practice some of the findings of this report, then it will be assured of success.
Appendix
The Data Analysisfor Questionnaire
Research Background: Young-Enterprise Company.
Research Method: Questionnaire.
Start time: 07/02/2015 End time: 14/02/2015.
Total collected: 75.
Date and analysis
- Question 1. What is your gender? [Multiple choice]
- Question 2: What is your age? [Multiple choice]
- Question 3. Do you use the phone Cases to protect your telephone? [Multiple choice]
- Question 4. What is your phone brand? (please indicate the specific product model) [Multiple choice]
- Question 5. What kinds of phone cases do you like ? [Multiple choice]
- Question 6. What color of the phone cases do you like? [Multiple choice]
- Question 7. What kind of material would you like for your phone cases? [Multiple choice]
- Question 8. What sort of price do you like to pay for one case? [Multiple choice]
- Question 9. How many cases do you normally buy? [Multiple choice]
- Question 10. How often do you change your phone case? [Multiple choice]
- Question 11. Where do you buy your phone case? [Multiple choice]
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