Managing Human Capital And Entrepreneurship - Xeric Essay.

Purpose

Discuss About The Managing Human Capital And Entrepreneurship.

Human resource management, often abbreviated as HRM, generally refers to the procedure of recruiting and selecting the applicants, providing them training and orientation programs, for their development and self assessment. The job responsibilities of a human resource manager include employee development, selection, performance management procedures as well as recruitment of the applicants (Barrow, Barrow and Brown 2012). The report consists of a company named Xeric, which is freshly going to start its business at Maldives. The company is going to import Pop up Sprinkler and Control Systems from Perrot Regerbau Calw, Germany and sell those to Maldives. A business plan is being prepare in accordance with that.

The report throws light on the topics of human resource management and entrepreneurship, taking a fresh business into consideration. An entrepreneur is going to start a new business of Pop up Sprinkler and Control Systems and import them from Germany. A new business idea is being proposed by covering the areas of the business model that is, product and service, priority customers, superior value propositions, channels of distributions, resources requirements and competitive strategies. In addition to this, the report throws light on the windows of opportunities for the proposed business by incorporating relevant sources as well as evidences related to the business environment of the country.

The report will help in demonstrating the business environment of the country and how it can be established over there. Moreover, it will emphasize upon the business approaches and practices taken by the entrepreneur, in order to succeed. In addition to this, the report will highlight the importance of the human resource requirements as well as the human resource strategies required for the proposed new business start up. The proposed strategies will cover the key areas like recruitment, selection, training and performance management as well as employee motivation. Furthermore, the report will analyze the challenges that might emerge at each and every stage in the life cycle of the venture. Last but not the least, the report will provide with several recommendations which the entrepreneur needs to focus on, in order to mitigate the identified challenges.

An entrepreneur is planning to start a new business of Pop up Sprinkler and Control Systems by setting up a company, named Xeric. The products will be imported from Germany and exported to Maldives. A detailed analysis has been done, which gives an idea of the business plan, regarding products, target consumers, competitive advantage of the company, superior value propositions, channels, resource requirements and others (Allen, Ericksen and Collins 2013).

Scope

The report consists of a new company named Xeric, which imports Pop up Sprinkler and Control Systems from Perrot Regnerbau Calw from Germany to Maldives. Regnerbau Calw is engaged into manufacturing irrigation products and services for agricultural systems, environmental protection, sports turfs and coupling programs for construction industries. Xeric Company is planning to start its business and export its products to Maldives. Moreover, the company will offer pop up sprinklers, mobile irrigation products and control systems for the irrigation purposes of soccer fields, sports fields, tennis court, race track and hockey pitch. In addition to this, the company will also provide pop up sprinklers for agricultural and irrigation purposes.

The primary target consumers include the municipalities, soccer fields, agriculture, irrigation, landscape designers, real estate agents, companies for properties and others. The company will focus on its target customers changing preferences and needs and cater them accordingly. The product is on high demand, mainly among the farmers and companies. Moreover, the company will use high marketing techniques in order to creatively present its products to its sellers. In addition to this, pop up sprinklers are of high demand, mainly for irrigation purposes (Blank 2013). Therefore, it will not be a challenging job for the company to promote its products on the international platform.

The unique selling proposition of the company is that the irrigation system analysis, which will evaluate the overall efficiency of the system and also give an idea of the management practices which will save money as well as increase crop yields. Along with the products, the company is also planning to organize free campaigns for demonstrating the usage of the product to its target consumers. Moreover, free samples will be given to the farmers for promotional purposes. A campaign will be conducted as well, in order to raise awareness among the target consumers. Furthermore, the Xeric Company will use high quality products for manufacturing the pop up sprinklers and sell it at much affordable prices. This strategy of the company will surely grab the attention of the target audiences as the consumers like quality products at cheap rates (Martin, McNally and Kay 2013).

Marketing Channels: Proper distribution will be done through various media channels, including print, electronic and social media. The company will promote its products through social media and its official website.

Ordering Channels: In addition to this, the products will be directly ordered from Germany, packed and distributed to Maldives.

Discussion

Distribution Channels: Free distributions of the samples will also help in grabbing the attention of the target audiences, which in turn will prove to be beneficial for the Xeric Company itself (Buller and McEvoy 2012).

Payment Channels: The payment methods are credit cards, debit cards, EFTPOS payments, online payments, cash, cheque, money order payments, gift cards, vouchers, bitcoin and lastly, digital currencies.

Communication Channels: The human resource officials of the company should carry out few innovative techniques of marketing, which will contribute a lot to the company’s profitability.

The human resource managers of the company should hire employees who have sound knowledge regarding irrigation designs. This falls under the category of human and physical resources. Moreover, the employees must be able to develop the operational procedures. The organizational resources like, sprinkler irrigation systems, rotator heads, impact rotors, nozzles and others are required for the business. A proper budget planning must be done by investing on the research and development unit, that is, financial resources. In addition to this, the technological resources are also required for the company like IT personnel, software license, trade license, patent accumulated skills and experts (Cerrato and Piva 2012).

The company will focus on various competitive strategies in order to promote its products on the international platform. Focusing on the differentiation strategy will benefit the company to a large extent. Moreover, the company aims to provide its high quality products at much affordable prices. This will differentiate the company from its competitors and contribute to the company’s competitive strategy. Furthermore, promotional offers will be given to its target consumers, which will grab their attention as well (Barrow, Barrow and Brown 2012). In this manner, the promotional strategies must be conducted in order to gain the competitive strategy of the business environment.

The window of opportunities for the proposed start up business has been incorporated by conducting a PESTEL analysis of the business environment of Maldives.

The country of Maldives is a presidential republic, that is, the president is the head of the state as well as government. Maldives is largely situated on water and highly depends on the products that are imported to their country. The political scenario of the country highly encourages the business behavior and motivates it to increase the business ahead. Moreover, the political scene of the country encourages other countries to export their products to their market, in order to maintain a positive relation with them. The political aspects believe in supporting the business terms in Maldives, but they have to follow the basic regulations of the export and import policies (Ehnert, Harry and Zink 2013).

Product or service

The economy of Maldives largely depends on the tourism sector which generates around 28 percent of their Gross Domestic Product. In addition to this, fishing remains the major occupation of the individuals and government gives special importance towards the development of the fishery sector. However, manufacturing and agriculture play a lesser important role in the country’s economy due to the limited availability of the cultivated lands (Blank 2013). Therefore, this will prove to be a major challenge for the entrepreneur to establish his/her new business there.

People of Maldives prefer services as the major sector of employment and they are inclined towards the organizations, seeking job. Maldivians are also socially connected, using internet as the major source of communication. Therefore, the Xeric Company can continue its promotional activities over the social networking sites and promote their website, in order to grab the attention of majority of the target consumers (Finch 2016). Moreover, the company will successfully carry out its import and export business as a huge chunk of the population is still dependent on the service sector as a major source of employment. In this manner, the company can also provide jobs to millions of unemployed individuals (Ehnert, Harry and Zink 2013).

The government officials of Maldives invest a lot in the research and development sectors, which generates the Gross Development Product. Therefore, Xeric Company needs to emphasize on this factor and establish its point in order to prove its importance (Flamholtz 2012). Moreover, high level technology must be used for manufacturing these products for catering to a large number of people, with improved services. In this manner, the country will be able to develop its agricultural sector and provide employment to a large number of people (Kwong, Thompson and Cheung 2012).

The government of Maldives is very strict regarding the conservation of valuable heritage of the country and also deploys strict measures regarding this. The government officials of the country ensure that any type of wastes or poisonous gas shall not be disposed within Maldives territory (Levy, Weitz and Grewal 2012). Therefore, this can be an advantage for the Xeric Company, as the company will promote agriculture and irrigation through the products, which will not have any negative impact over the country’s environment.

Maldives mainly depend on the imported products and have various laws as well as regulations in relation with that. In the existing market of the country, there are various rules and regulations regarding trades, transportation and custom costs (Martin, McNally and Kay 2013). Therefore, the Xeric Company needs to take into consideration, these factors in order to proceed with their export business.

Priority Customers

Porter’s Five Forces is being used to analyze the competition of the business. The bargaining power of the suppliers commonly refers to the power of negotiating the prices and other factors the suppliers have. In this case, the bargaining power of the suppliers is higher as the business is not being established yet. The bargaining power of the buyers is similar to that of the suppliers. However, in this case the buyers’ bargaining power is low as the company is going to offer a lot of promotional offers in its initial stage. The threat of new entrants commonly refers to various barriers of entry into the business industry. They are quite strong to prevent the new company from entering into the market. The threat of substitute products is medium as in Maldives majority of the economy sector is dependent on tourism. Lastly, the competitive rivalry refers to the overall competition, the company has to face. However, the threat is medium and may affect the business to some extent (Brinckmann and Kim 2015).

Figure: Porter’s Five Forces

The human resource manager of the Xeric Company needs to adopt several strategies required for the proposed business start up. This includes the areas such as recruitment, selection, training, performance management and employee motivation. The first and foremost job of the human resource manager is to decide on which position the applicants should drop their applications. In addition to this, with approval from the senior authorities, the human resource manager of Xeric Company should design the job requirements, position and employee remuneration as well as benefits. Moreover, he/she must present a list of policies and guidelines required for the selection procedure. The applicants should have good communication and networking skills in order to communicate with the employees overseas. Furthermore, they must have sound knowledge regarding supply chain management and logistics, which is required for the overall success of the business (Levy, Weitz and Grewal 2012).

Apart than these factors, the human resource manager of Xeric Company needs to conduct a training and development program for the newly employed candidates in order to give them an overview of the company and make them understand the vision as well as mission of Xeric. For the training programs, certified trainers and professional experts must be hired for the betterment of the newly hired employees. Moreover, induction and orientation programs must be conducted in order to gain an understanding of the competencies and in-competencies of the employees. In addition to this, they must be encouraged and motivated to raise their opinions and ideas regarding the betterment of the company. This will make them feel valued as well as special (Flamholtz 2012).

Superior Value Propositions

For managing the performances of the employees, the human resource manager of Xeric Company should monitor their work progress. Performance evaluation and review should be done on a regular basis. In addition to this, the newly hired employees should receive fifteen to twenty minutes of training every day of the first month. A register must be maintained, which will give an overview of the employees’ performance level. Moreover, biometrics must be done in order to check the total time the employees are giving to the company. In addition to this, special importance must be given regarding punctuality and the working hours the employees are required to serve (Barrow, Barrow and Brown 2012). Performance evaluation must be done by the senior managers, in order to check their performance level, which in turn will prove to be beneficial for the Xeric Company itself.

Last but not the least, the human resource management of Xeric Company should also focus on employee motivation and encouragement. It is important for the company’s human resource manager to emphasize upon the employee benefits and incentives. Designing a proper incentive structure, apart than the salary scale, will help in motivating and encouraging the employees to work better every day. Moreover, good reward and recognition programs will motivate the employees to give their best to the Xeric Company. Indirect benefits like paid leaves, sick leaves, emergency leaves, medical benefits, mobile phones, pick and drop services, health insurance, overtime pay, annual leaves and others, should also be introduced for motivating the employees. Direct benefits like promotion, incentives, reward and recognition programs and others will surely help in increasing the productivity of the employees (Allen, Ericksen and Collins 2013). Therefore, these are the specific factors which the human resource manager of Xeric Company needs to focus on.

An entrepreneur may face various challenges while starting up a new business in another country. Business at another country means a considerable amount of bureaucratic efforts along with huge amount of paperwork, one has to go through. Some entrepreneurs not only wish to start a new business in some foreign country, but also they wish to move there. However, starting up a new business is not that easy as it seems. It invites many uncertainties and the entrepreneurs have to face lot of challenges in their respective businesses. Starting a new venture abroad not only invites local bureaucratic hurdles, but also the success depends on the preparation, market research as well as research on the economic climate. In addition to this, the relationships between the start up and the business are also very crucial, as different countries have different set of rules and regulations (Bamberger, Meshoulam and Biron 2014).

Channels

Mainly, the economic conditions of various countries attract the entrepreneurs to start their venture overseas. However, the success of the business highly depends upon the entrepreneurs’ capability of understanding the political and economical issues of the countries. The success of the business largely depends on how the market research is being conducted by the entrepreneurs. Moreover, the economic conditions of various countries fluctuate, which eventually disturbs the profitability of the business to a large extent. In addition to this, the company will have to higher local employees and thus, understanding the competencies and in-competencies of the newly hired employees, will become a bit difficult for the organizational managers, at the initial stage (Blank 2013). Therefore, in order to face these major challenges the entrepreneurs need to gain an idea regarding the probable solutions, beforehand.

However, with difficult challenges, comes probable solutions too, which the entrepreneurs need to focus on. In order to mitigate the challenges of starting a new company and that too, at a new country, the entrepreneurs should carry out a market research beforehand and prepare themselves, for the economic climate change. Moreover, the individuals should have sound knowledge regarding the business environment, stock developments and others (Brinckmann and Kim 2015). It should always be kept in mind that a convenient overview of all the factors, facts as well as circumstances will help the prospective entrepreneurs in a huge manner. The business laws, practices, taxation and banking highly vary from country to country. Therefore, before getting started, the entrepreneurs should study the requirements and laws for the country he/she is interested in running the business (Buller and McEvoy 2012).

In addition to this, studying of the cultural differences is also necessary as understanding the differences is likely to affect the viability of the business. Moreover, seeking legal advice and local guidance is highly recommended in this aspect. Furthermore, gaining a clear understanding regarding the country’s political and economical environment is also necessary, while starting a new business (Cerrato and Piva 2012). Conducting a thorough research will prove to be beneficial on the long run. Therefore, these are the probable solutions, which the entrepreneurs can undertake in order to mitigate the challenges faced at the point of starting the business abroad (Allen, Ericksen and Collins 2013).

Conclusion

To conclude, starting up a new job is not that easy at it seems. It requires huge amount of dedication, hard work and commitment. The report has discussed about various points related to human resource management and entrepreneurship. An entrepreneur is going to start a new business of Pop up Sprinklers and Control Systems and export them to the country of Maldives. However, the unique selling proposition of the company, named Xeric, is that it is going to sell high quality products at much affordable rates. This will help in grabbing the attention of the maximum number of target consumers.

Resource Requirements

The report highlighted the business environment of the country, which has given an understanding of the political, economical, social, technological, environmental and legal factors of Maldives. However, from the above analysis it can be said that the country of Maldives have a stable business environment. Therefore, the entrepreneur will not face any major challenge, in starting up his business there. In addition to this, he/she needs to take care of the human resource manager of the Xeric Company abroad. The organizational manager should have good communication and networking skills, so that he/she can hire the best employee for the betterment of the company.

Last but not the least; the report also discussed about the major challenges which the entrepreneur may face, on starting up the business. However, there are uncertainties in every job. Thus, it is immensely important for the entrepreneur to jot down the probable solutions beforehand, in order to avoid issues later. Starting a new venture is never easy; however, managing and handling the challenges in a correct manner will enable the entrepreneur to take correct decisions effectively and efficiently. Conducting a market research will prove to be highly beneficial for any business. Therefore, these factors are to be kept in mind, while starting a new venture.

References

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