Kasita Company: Innovative Compact Living Spaces, Essay.

Exemplary and succinct description of the operating context, marketplace, and products and services the selected business provides.

Provide a succinct description of the business, the industry in which it operates, the market or markets it serves, and the products and services it provides.

Describe the business model canvas of the selected business using the nine building blocks in Osterwalder & Pigneur.

Explain the key relationships that exist across the nine building blocks detailed above.

Identify and discuss the critical success factors the business has to get right to achieve sustainable success.

Evaluate what will contribute to downside risk.

Discuss the changes you would make to the business model if this was your business

Ability to critically evaluate evidence, and demonstrate the ability to identify strengths and weaknesses logically

Ability to clearly and professional deliver information both from the scholarly and non-scholarly sources and maintain a clear line of argument

Exemplary description of the business model of the selected business using the nine building blocks in Osterwalder & Pigneur.

Exemplary explanation of the key relationships that exist across the nine building blocks.

Exemplary identification and detailed discussion of the critical success factors for the business.

Overview of Kasita Company and its Solution

One of the main problems faced by today’s urban population is the problem of accommodation. Because of population explosion and unavailability of space there has been crisis of living space in the world. The Urban areas of the United States of America are among most populated in the whole world and there is a constant need of more spaces required for living, work purpose, recreation and similar other causes. Therefore there is a constant need for innovation in terms of creating new spaces. Keeping that in mind Kasita Company has innovated living spaces that are very small and compact with all the amenities that can be provided in a full-fledged apartment (Kasita.com, 2018). Also the company provides space for creative purposes like studios and exhibition halls. The business idea is very unique and creative and solves a very crucial problem of the present time.

The various studies conducted about the housing condition in the United States has presented a grim picture where the scarcity of housing has been seen to be very prominent in the present times. One of the think tanks in this field known as the Urban Institute has again reaffirmed this fact by their newest research in which they have stated that. The “demand supply gap” was of 4, 60,000 according to the Urban Institute for the year 2015 (Kusisto, 2018). The way this research was done was by calculating the number of new homes constructed and the number of homes becoming obsolete or number of new people are looking for homes. Therefore the people who are looking for new homes may constitute those who have problems in their existing living space as these may have become obsolete, or children of a family may have grown up and become self-dependant. There could be new entrepreneurs with new start-ups who needs work spaces or office spaces in the bustling urban areas. However these people are short of huge capital which is needed to buy accommodation and new work places.  This is one of the very pertinent market problems that is being faced recently and needed urgent attention. What is also important to know is that the market people was not only to be solved but also the solution had to be innovative and aesthetic as it included building spaces for living or working to the new age population. Also the area of space within the urban areas of America had no chances of increasing, so the place was limited but the demand of new housing at a cheap rate was increasing, the market problem demanded a very unique solution which addressed both of these problems (Jones & Richardson, 2014). This was the market problem which was considered before the unique accommodation solution was provided by the Kasita Company.

The Housing Problem in the Urban Areas of the United States

The idea that is being developed is very unique in terms of existing market scenario. The company came up with the unique solution of providing smaller compact living spaces and work places that can be constructed according to the customer demand. The space that is utilised in this regard is very small and within that compact small area a whole functional living space can be constructed. Apart from that the functional area can be utilised in a multiple number of ways, which increases the efficiency of the space. The benefits therefore includes benefits towards the consumers who will be getting their requirements met within the stipulated budget or less than that.  It will be solving the problem of lack of living spaces in the urban areas of the United States and also it will provide cheap work places in the cities. Entrepreneurs can get their own offices, or creative minds will be able to get their own studios and exhibition areas. The compact and functional living spaces do not need a huge area to be set up, therefore the scarcity of space is also addressed in this way. The benefits are not only social but also economical. What can be added as innovation in the existing idea is making the functional living or workplaces to be more customisable as per the demand of the customers. The floor planning and the overall structure of the functional living space is fixed and not yet customisable. However the functional areas can be utilised in various purposes and various ways.

The functional compact living spaces are already being produced by the Kasita Company in the United States of America. The company is already providing the functional living spaces to the customers across the country. These homes are being supplied to the customers according to their desired objective of utilisation. The homes are small spaces which have multiple functions such as bedding, dining, kitchen, drawing, in a compact space. The bathroom is also fitted in the area in a way that it doesn’t penetrates in the living space but it also often  uses the faeces and excretory products to be converted to manure so that gardening is possible using the produced manure. The idea is very feasible by the technology that is being used by the company to create compact functional living spaces. The new idea that is suggested, is customising the living spaces and work places being produced by the company. This is also feasible as will include only additional technological knowhow to customise the existing models of the living spaces in new and innovative ways. This will be made possible by developing the technical knowledge of the existing engineers and workers and by adding new experts to the workforce who will be giving additional information in the layout of the compact living spaces. These spaces can be also moved and transported easily from one place to another. Therefore it is helpful in the field of mobility as well. The mobility makes it easier to shift from one place to another.

Benefits of Kasita's Solution

The business model used in this case is the Osterwalder and Pigneur business model. This model is used to understand the various aspects of the business and who are the stakeholders in this case (Osterwalder & Pigneur, 2010). The key partners in this business are the customers who are aiming at buying or owning living spaces and work spaces anywhere they wish to. The key activities of the company are to provide the compact living spaces and to engage in maintenance activities of the existing and already sold units of compact functional living spaces. Therefore the key activities are focused on a particular kind of product. The key resources of the company includes the Engineers, the equipment and the innovative business model. The value of the company lies in the fact that the company provides unique solution to the home seekers and helps in the process of making the business activities easy for the entrepreneurs. The customers will be kept in contact by emails, calls and messaging. The segmentation of the customers include young consumers looking for living spaces or work spaces.  The channels of promotion includes Social media, Website and Television. The cost structure include the payment and wages to the employees, marketing and advertisement campaigns and cost of the equipment and servers. The revenue of the company comes from sales and maintenance.

The critical success factor includes mainly the uniqueness of the business idea which solves the critical problem of scarcity of housing and accommodation. The number of people are increasing, the space is decreasing and the demand of housing is also increasing. Therefore this business idea was very important in order to solve the market problem. This business idea at one hand solves the social problem of housing scarcity and on the other hand it also solve the economic problem of the people who cannot afford costly housing.

Conclusion

It can be concluded that Kasita Company has been very successfully providing the customers with the compact functional living spaces. The new business innovation that is suggested- customisable spaces, will be helpful in bringing the much needed change in the way people perceive accommodation. They can comfortably stay in a compact and affordable living space that is customised according to their demand. Therefore this innovation is very necessary in order to cater to the growing demand of housing and accommodation in the United States of America.

Reference:

Jones, C., & W. Richardson, H. (2014). Housing markets and policy in the UK and the USA: A review of the differential impact of the global housing crisis. International Journal of Housing Markets and Analysis, 7(1), 129-144.

Kasita.com (2018). How It All Started. Retrieved from https://kasita.com/

Kusisto, L. (2018). The Next Housing Crisis: A Historic Shortage of New Homes. [online] WSJ. Retrieved from https://www.wsj.com/articles/american-housing-shortage-slams-the-door-on-buyers-1521395460 [Accessed 2 Aug. 2018].

Osterwalder, A., & Pigneur, Y. (2010). Business model generation: a handbook for visionaries, game changers, and challengers. John Wiley & Sons.