Assignment Business
Communication – Report
Table of Contents
Executive Summary...................................................................................................... 2
Introduction................................................................................................................... 3
Decisions to be Made (LO 1.1,
1.2)............................................................................. 3
Sources for Information (LO
1.3)................................................................................. 4
Recommendations..................................................................................................... 5
Stakeholders (LO 1.4).................................................................................................. 5
Involving Stakeholders in Decision Making 2.1, 2.2 , 2.2...................................... 5
Recommendations 2.4............................................................................................... 6
References.................................................................................................................... 6
Executive Summary
The report was aimed at
identifying various decisions that needs to be made prior to commencing a
business and the findings of the report indicated that critical decisions such
as business model, revenue model, target markets, funding decisions and
functional strategies to be made. In starting up a business it is essential to
source required information for the venture and report identified two main
sources of information namely the primary data sources and secondary data
sources. The final section of the report is focused on managing the stakeholder
relationships and in this section; various stakeholders were identified
including their claims and the power levels. Recommendations were also made to
improvement relationships with stakeholders in managing business.
Introduction
There are various skills that
are required in terms of starting up own business and among other skills; three
major skills required include decision-making, stakeholder relationship
management and sourcing information. This report is aimed at addressing these
three aspects of business in starting up a business venture through providing
relevant examples.
Decisions to be Made (LO 1.1, 1.2)
Starting up a business would
require different decisions to be made with regards to various aspects of the
business and the analysis below identifies few key decisions that needs to be
made in terms of starting up a business.
Business Model – The business
model indicates the basic concept in which the business would operate in order
make revenue and profits. (Johnson, Scholes and Whittinton, 2008) For example,
I starting up a business, it is essential to understand the way in which the
products be available to the customer whether it is completely only, completely
offline or a hybrid model. This decision would impact the rest od the decisions
that needs to be made as the business model shapes the overall business
process.
Revenue Model – As a part of
the business model, the business needs to identify the revenue model that would
generate revenue for the company. For example, there are various revenue models
for completely online businesses and some of them are advertising, subscription
fees, commissions and combination of these three model. Therefore, the business
needs to decide on which revenue model to be used through an evaluation of
applicability and feasibility of those revenue models.
Target Market – Once the
revenue model is established, the target market for the product/service needs
to be decided and this is one of the most crucial business decisions as failure
in this decision could lead to complete failure of the business. In this decision,
the target market should be decided based on their needs, wants, substantial
enough to generate profits, actionability and sustainability.
Funding Decisions – In order
to start up a business, there is an initial capital that is required. There are
various sources that can be used to fund the initial investment and this would
determine the capital structure of the company. Each capital sources are
associated with a cost and based on that a decision needs to made as to which
capital sources to be used.
Functional Strategies – Once
the target market, business model and investment decisions are made, the
company needs to make decisions on the functional strategies of the company
including human resource management, operations management, marketing and
financial management based on the objectives of the company. These decisions
would determine the way in which the company operates on a day-to-day basis
under each functional area.
Sources for Information (LO 1.3)
Making business decisions
requires lots of information, which needs to be sourced from the business
environment, and there are two main types of methods that can be used to
generate these information namely primary data source and secondary data
sources.
Primary Data Sources –
Primary data sources include the data that are gathered for making a certain
business decision and it include first hand data gathered for the same
decision-making. There are various sources to obtain primary data and some of
these sources include questionnaire-based research (appropriate for large
audience such as customers), interviews with stakeholders, focus group studies
and observations of the decision maker. (Saunder et al, 2011) Since these data
are gathered for this particular decision-making, it gives the opportunity to
deal with first hand data and therefore, the relevance would be high. (Saunder
et al, 2011) Since these information are gathered internally, the accuracy and
relevance would be high. However, primary data collection involves high cost
and time, which could be an issue in terms of a start up business.
Secondary Data – Secondary
data sources include the information that are gathered for a previous study,
which can be used for the current decision making. (Saunder et al, 2011) Sources
of secondary data include industry publications, news websites, market research
reports and so on. The accuracy of these data could be low as they are gathered
by a third parties and also relevance could also be low as they are collected
for a different purpose. (Saunder et al, 2011) However, it saves time and
resources for the company, which is also essential in terms of a startup
business.
Recommendations
In selecting the information
sources, the company should first establish objectives and based on these
objectives the data sources should be established. In order to manage resource
and time constraints, a budget on resource allocation and gantt chart on time
allocation should be prepared to manage it effectively.
Stakeholders (LO 1.4)
The stakeholders who have an
interest in the strategy of the business organization also impact making
decisions in the business. (Johnson, Scholes and Whittinton, 2008) There are
various stakeholders in business decision making and these stakeholders include
customers, suppliers, employees, potential employees, investors, competitors,
players from supporting industries, banks, government, the general public and
media organizations. (Johnson, Scholes and Whittinton, 2008)
Involving Stakeholders in Decision Making 2.1, 2.2 , 2.2
There are few key
stakeholders the company should get involved in making the business decisions
and these key stakeholders include customers, employees, government and
investors. A plan to involve identified stakeholders in the decision making
process can be developed as follows:
Customers are an important
element who needs to be contacted in making decision-making. Customer’s input
for decision-making can be obtained through a customer feedback form or a
customer suggestion form in the shop floor or alternatively the decision makers
can get into to informal chats with customers while they visit the shop. Such
interactions with customers would bring inputs to the decision making in terms
of the customer expectations in terms of pricing, quality, types of products and
so on. Employees are also another
important set of stakeholders who should be engaged in the business
decision-making process. Employees can be engaged in decision-making process
through calling for formal meetings, through email communications and or engaging
them through a survey that would gather their feedback. The input from the
employees can be used in decision making in terms of satisfying employees needs
such as remuneration expectations and socializing expectations. Further,
employees can give input to decision making such as training needs in the
company, changes in technology and the required competencies to carry out
tasks.
Recommendations 2.4
In order to make this
stakeholder engagement process highly effective, this should be considered as a
regular activity in the business process rather than making it a one off
activity. Further, the company should
reach out to larger audience of customers rather than being limited to same set
of sample (in terms of customers) to obtain wide range of feedback covering the
whole population.
References
Johnson, G. Scholes K and
Whittinton, R (2008). Exploring Corporate Strategy. 7th ed. New Delhi: Pearson
Education Limited .
Saunder et al (2011 ).
Research Methods For Business Students. 5th ed. New Delhi: Pearson Education
Limited .
