Part 1: Business Opportunity Analysis
Internally, there are strengths and weaknesses which lead to the success or failure of business opportunity exploitation. A good business opportunity states the product and service strengths, sufficient market research to support company’s profitability and sustainability projections, the key timeline for starting and completing the business, and the pressures present in the market (Wishart, 2011, p. 14). Excellent business opportunity goes hand in hand with the business strategy and operational plan to ensure success.
This assignment analysis business opportunities for Motor Care, Food 2 U, Cafe Shop, and Saigon on Scooter companies in response to the strengths and weaknesses that underly each company's business plan. Motor Care product enables the disabled and those people who lack motor skills to walk from one place to another. Food 2 U delivers food services to consumers at different locations (Rochelle, 2015, p. 24). The Cafe Shop targets high-end market where customers value social responsibility and sustainability. Saigon on Scooter operates in the hospitality industry and targets tourists from all world zones. The four companies have unique business plans with different business opportunities in the market whereby each plan has strengths and weaknesses as analyzed below:
Strengths and Weaknesses of each Business Plan
Motor Care
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Strengths
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Weaknesses
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i. Product differentiation such as crutches and wheelchair
ii. Rapid growth of market due to emergence of motor care industry
iii. Rapid growth in technological standards in the industry.
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i. Requires huge amounts of capital outlay to enter the market
ii. Significant capital needed to invest in research and development
iii. Limited target market, only the elderly rich people of Sydney
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Food 2 U
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Strengths
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Weaknesses
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i. Strategic location enables easy customer access
ii. Increased rates of client demands
iii. Food 2 U is environmentally conscious
iv. Use of technology for customers to place orders
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i. High technological and marketing costs
ii. Environmental pollution from ovens and stoves
iii. Sometimes discounted prices lower profits
iv. Expenditures incurred to hire experienced chefs
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Cafe Shop
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Strengths
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Weaknesses
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i. Increased assurance for cafe business sustainability
ii. Stable growth in the economy favors cafe shop investment
iii. High consumer power
iv. Opportunity to venture into new businesses to benefit from current low-interest rates in Australia
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i. Global financial crisis
ii. Unpredictable liquidity rates in the financial markets
iii. Different living standards by various people
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Saigon on Scooter
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Strengths
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Weaknesses
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i. High demand for entertainment by tourists
ii. Attraction of foreign investors
iii. Long coastline, numerous ecosystem, and beautiful mountains in Vietnam
iv. Powerful internet facilities provided in SOSC
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i. Tourism sector is new in Vietnam and thus unprofessional performance
ii. Poor skills makes customers lose trust on Saigon and Scooter
iii. Poor environmental management
iv. Poor advertising and marketing programs by SOSC
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Actional Improvement Suggestions
Motor Care
Diversify the target market to both the young age demography and old aged so as to broaden the market (Rochelle, 2015, p. 10). Currently, Motor Care deals with wealthy elderly demographics of Sydney.
Motor Care needs to partner with financiers and creditors by building a healthy relationship so as to acquire financial support to cater for research and start-up capital (Tribe, 2008, p. 245).
Offer as many motor care products as possible to the disabled to assist them to move around just like regular people. This strategy will enable the company to gain competitive advantage.
Food 2 U
Food 2 U should limit carbon emissions by strictly avoiding the use of ovens and stoves in food preparation and ensuring proper fuel emissions.
The management should invest in social media by initiating networking platforms with the members of the public. This would lower technological, marketing and advertising costs.
Cafe Shop
The company should operate on economic growth rates and world economy patterns so as to enable growth in people's average standards of living (Wishart, 2011, p. 14). Also, the management needs to understand financial exchange rates in the economy when setting prices for the products.
Cafe Shop needs to start new businesses across Australia to benefit from the present opportunity of low-interest rates offered by the government.
Saigon on Scooter
The management need reviews consumer demands to hire qualified and skilled employees who can provide stress free meals and contribute to increased number of scooter travel services for tourists in the market (Zhu and Han, 2014, p. 9).
Saigon on Scooter should act professionally and ethically in environmental management, international communication, and in their marketing language.
Part 2: Overal Analysis
Motor care enjoys various strengths which provide the company with a competitive edge over the competitors. These strengths include: little amounts of capital are needed to establish more businesses, uses technology in communication, the growth of the market, and gets financial advice before exploiting new opportunities. However, Motor Care faces various weaknesses some of which include lack of innovation, unpredictable market demands, and insufficient capital.
The fact that Motor Care employs technology in customer communication, get financial advice from skilled accountants, and the only little amount of money is needed to enter the market, there is still need for improvement. The management should initiate social media platforms, hire more advisors, and only exploit those favorable business opportunities in the market. By this doing, innovation will be encouraged and make it easy to understand demand patterns in the market.
Order of Recommendations
The above recommendations must be given priority by the management in the following order:
Launch social media platforms such as Facebook
Hire more investment advisors to aid innovation
Cost versus Benefit Analysis
The launching of Facebook platform will benefit Motor Care by lowering advertising and marketing costs (Perrewe, P., 2011, p. 247). Further, the company will be able to reach a broader market in one message and collect sufficient responses from customers all over at a lower cost.
Currently, Motor Care has three financial advisors, hiring more accountants leads to innovation and quality of investment decisions. On the other side, this is expensive for the company. However, the benefits supersede the costs.
Partnership Opportunity
From the overall analysis, Motor Care requires significant amount capital to enter new markets. One of the market entry strategies is a partnership with another company whose capital outlay is strong (Cadwallader, 2010, p. 220). Motor Care needs to partner with a relevant start-up incubator so as to lower the costs of starting new branches in other identified market opportunities.
References:
Cadwallader, S., 2010. "Frontline employee motivation to participate in service innovation implementation." Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 38 (2): 219-239.
Perrewe, P., 2011. The role of personality in human resource management. Human Resource Management Review, 21(4), 257.
Rochelle, T., 2015. “Travel & Tourism: Economic impact Vietnam 2015”. The Authority on World Travel and Tourism 17 (3): 1-24
Tribe, J., 2008. "Tourism: A critical business." Journal of Travel Research 46 (3): 245-255.
Wishart, G., 2011. In-store marketing works. Display & Design Ideas: DDI, 23(8), 14.
Zhu and Han., 2014. Maintaining organization–public relationships on tourism Websites through relationship management strategies. Public Relations Review, Public Relations Review.
