Small Business Enterprise Assignment - Spitalfields & Camden

Program	Diploma in Business
Unit Number and Title	Small Business Enterprise - Spitalfields & Camden
QFC Level	Level 5

Introduction

According to European commission, small business enterprise (SBE) is the organisation in which the numbers of the employees are less than 50 and the maximum turnover of company is less than £10 millions.  Approx 99% businesses of UK come under the category of SBE and give employment to 14,424,000 peoples of UK. The study shows that in 2013, economy of UK has received approx £1577 billion from small businesses that means that there is a big hand of SBE to strengthen the economy of the country. Basically, most of SBE of UK belongs to three industries these are: production, service and distribution. As mentioned in the paper that I am a business consultant in a small business consultancy firm that provides the business development solution to the small business in order to make growth in market. Here, I am taking the example of “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” which is a SBE of UK that does not have business experts and all the important decisions are taken by the CEO of the company. In this paper my task is to provide the report to the CEO of “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” on the business development planning of business.

Task 1

1.1 In the scenario of Small business enterprise, produce a profile of a selected small business identifying its strengths and weaknesses.

Profile is “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” is mentioned below:

Company name and address:

“Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden”

6-8 Hanbury Street

London E16QR

Phone: +44- 20 7247 089

Website: poppiesfishandchips.co.uk

Contact person: Pop Newland

CEO or owner: Pop Newland

Company background:

Founding Year: 1945

Regional presence: Spitalfields, East London.

Current activities: “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” offers the products which are made from fishes especially the fish and chips. There are two branches of “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden”, Poppies fish and chips of Spitalfields an Camden, both are in UK and also offers the takeaway menus (Blackburn, Hart & Wainwright, 2013).

Nature of Business: Food restaurant

Major product and services: As mentioned that the main product of “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” made from fish, that is prepared by deep frying of fishes in the crispy batter and then served with the golden chips. The restaurant has been awarded for the best product and service in region.

Company Profile:

Sales turnover: £4.2 millions

Geographical markets: Spitalfields and Camden.

Major customer: Professional, collage students.

Business interest in: Main interest of “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” is in gaining the competitive advantage and the increment in market share and growth.

Strength and Weaknesses: The strength and the weakness of “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” are mentioned below:

Strength Sales turnover £4.2 millions. Offers quality product not quantity. Know the taste of local customer. Customer loyalty. Good environment.

Weakness Only a product line. Lack of online presence. High employee turnover. Employees are not experienced.

1.2 Carry out an analysis of business using appropriate comparative measures of the performance.

Only the accounting measures are not enough for the measurement of the performance of the company even non financial measures such as customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, and innovation process, human resources analysis also should takes place while measuring the performance of the organisation to its competitors. The main competitor of “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” is Kerry foods that also offer the fish and chips (Card & Krueger, 2010). The product line of the Kerry foods is stronger than the “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” because it also offers the other products such as sausages, batters etc. the comparison of the performance of  “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” and Kerry foods is as follows in the term of sales profile, customer satisfaction and human resources is as follows:

The comparison in the Sale Profile of “Poppies of Spite fields and Camden” and Kerry Food:

Year	“Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” £	The Kerry Food £
2014	4,453,623	3,890,875
2013	3,891,234	1,098,567

Above study shows that the sales profile of the “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” is stronger than in the comparison to the Kerry foods.

Comparison in the Non-Financial (Human Resources) of the “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” and Kerry food:

Year ending 2014	“Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden”	Kerry food
Absenteeism	45%	34%
% of new trainee converted as employment	57	87
job satisfaction	53 % satisfied	72 % satisfied
Quality Surveys	14 %	25 %

The above figures show that the employees of the Kerry foods are more satisfied than “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” that indicate the employee turnover for “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” would be high in comparison to the Kerry foods.

Comparison in the Customer view on the products of “Poppies of Spite fields and Camden” and Kerry food

Year ending 2014	“Poppies of Spite fields and Camden”	Kerry food
Value for money	8	8
Chances of increasing the quality	4	8
How does it compare with other companies	6	7
About the innovative products	4	7

Scale: 1= Lowest; 10= Highest

The above figure shows that the customers are more satisfied with the “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” in comparison to the Kerry foods. That is the main reason for the high sales profle of “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden”.

Task 2

2.1 Recommend with justification, appropriate actions to overcome the identified weakness in the business.

The actions to overcome the weaknesses of “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” are mentioned below:

• Actions to overcome the weakness “only a Product line”: As known, “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” offers the dishes that are made of fishes only. In this case, the customers who like to have fishes in their meal will come to the restaurant. As mentioned that most of the customer of “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” are collage students and professionals, so these customers walk to the restaurants in groups and the customer may choose the other restaurant if  they want to taste the different things for a change (Buckland, 2012). So “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” need to offers other things such as toast, cakes or pastries and patties on their store.
• Actions to overcome weakness “Lack of online presence”: The online presence of “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” could be increased by SEO technique, which is a much known term in technology. This is mainly used by the organisation to increase the page number of the web portal of company on search engines. In this technique, the keyword and link of the web portal of “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” is put on the other related websites and when user searches for the keyword and open the websites then the link of the Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden’s websites automatically get a hit and the page ranking on the search engine like Google is decreased. The numbers of the online order may increase if the website got the high page rank.
• Actions to overcome weakness “High employee turnover”: The employee turnover means that the number of the employees who left the organisation for a reason in a particular time. As mentioned earlier that the employees of “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” are not very satisfied with the organisation. This may be due to low wages, salary or leaves. “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” needs to conduct the analysis on the employees and find out the reason for the employee turnover.
• Actions to overcome “inexperienced employees”: As known that “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” is SBE and it has to pay extra to hire the experienced employees. In this case, “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” can hire 2 or 3 employees who are experienced and then keep fresher on their supervision; this would surly increase the output for the organisation (Caswell, Bredahl & Hooker, 2012).

2.2 Analyze the way in which existing performance could be maintained and strengthened.

The best way to strengthen the performance of “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” is to strengthen the existing strength of “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden”. Following are the ways to which the organisation can maintain the performance:

• Increase the sales turnover: the sales turnover directly related to how much products “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” has been sold throughout a year. The sales volume increased by providing the discounts on the products offered by the “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” and also to increase the product line offered by the organisation.
• Maintain the quality of the products: the quality of the products offered by “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” has great impact on maintaining the performance of the organisations (Gates & Germain, 2010). The quality of the product could be maintained by focusing on its main product that is on fish and chips, “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” may also provide the flavour to fish and chips.
• Know the taste of local customer: as mentioned that “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” already aware of the taste of the local customer but the taste of the customer keeps changing so to maintain the performance of the organisation, “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” need to conduct the analysis on the changing taste of customer and made changes in the product offering.
• Works on “customer loyalty”: the customer loyalty is measured by the numbers of the repeated customer of the “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” (Herbane, 2010). The numbers of the repeated customer could get only by offering the quality product to the customer at reasonable price. So, “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” need to charge smartly from customer so that it can get the expected profit without losing customer.
• Good environment: the environment also helps a lot in strengthen the performance of the organisation. The environment of the company should be perfect for the employees so the employees can enjoy their jobs and customer can enjoy their services. Study shows that satisfied services are generated by satisfied employee.

2.3 Recommend with justification, new area in which the business could be expanded.

The new area, in which the business of “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” could be expanded, could examine by Ansoff matrix. The Ansoff matrix for new area of “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” is as follows:

                                            Figure: Ansoff matrix

The Ansoff matrix shows four areas to expand the business for “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden”, the best area for expansion may be market extraction or development or product development. According to me, “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” should increase the market to get the expected revenue. As known that both restaurants of “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” are located in London so “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” need to come outside from London and give the chance the customer of other cities to taste the fish and chips of “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden”.

Task 3

3.1 Produce an assessment of existing business objectives and plans.

The main objective of “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” is to expand the business to the other market rather than Spitalfields and Camden. And to fulfil this objective, the plan for “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” is to develop at least 5 stores at the end of 2018. The assessment of the objective and plans of “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” with the help of SMART objective is as follows:

• Specific objective: The proposed objective of “Poppies of Spite fields and Camden” is specific in the term of opening of new stores out of London.
• Measurable objective: The objectives of increment in the numbers of stores are measurable in the terms of money. The expansion of 5 stores may lead high expanding of money and being a SBE, the organisation should open the stores one by one and it would be beneficial if the organisation opens 2 or 3 stores first (Jeston & Nelis, 2014).
• Achievable objective: the objective of “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” is achievable in the term of opening of new stores at the end of 2018.
• Result oriented objective: the objective of the expansion in the numbers of stores do not seems achievable as the company wants to maximise the profit but it can’t be achieved till the organisation does not do branding and promotion of the stores and products on new place.
• Time bound objective: the objective of “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” is time bound as it will take long time and the organisation decides huge timescale for the expansion in the numbers of stores.

3.2 Revise the business plans to incorporate appropriate changes.

After the assessment of the business plan through SMART objective, one thing come to the existence that the proposed plan of “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” is not achievable in the term of the result oriented and raise the question how the customer get to know about “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” and it products. Suppose if “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” is able to open stores at given time period then it would be follow-upped by the customers who regularly visits London city and have went to the restaurants at least once. In this case, the branding and promotion of the products could be done by customer with mouth to mouth publicity which is a very time consuming and “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” could not rely on this to generate the revenue (Olson & Staley, 2012). So there is a need to small change in the proposed plan of “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” which is as follows:

According to me, “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” need to do the branding and promotion to the stores first and make aware of the customers of the area with the products of the “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” offering. The branding and promotion of the store may be a little bit costly so “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” should open 2-3 stores first and by doing so, “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” may spend rest amount on the branding and promotion of the stores. the branding and promotion could be done in following ways:

• The shape of the store should be like fish so that the customer would find it interesting and will attracted toward the stores at least once.
• The promotion of the “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” could be done in news papers and the store may use the sales promotion such as offering discounts on products (Schaper et al. 2010).
• “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” may organise events on the stores to raise the awareness of the stores and the products offered by the company and may provide them vouchers and discounts on stores as price.

3.3 Prepare an action plan to implement these changes.

“Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” have three plans, these are to increment in the numbers of stores, branding of the stores and their promotions. Better way to implement the action plan is with the help of the following table:

Actions	Priority	Benefits	Material resources	Time-scale	Responsibility	Success factor	Monitoring strategy
Innovation in the shape of the stores of “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden”.	Important	The organisation would be able to fetch the attention of the customer and the innovation in stores construction would increase the revenue for the organisation by attracting more customers.	Money, construction company, instruments, work force etc.,	1 year.	Construct the desired shape (fish) of the stores.	Innovation in stores, taste of the fish and chips, repeated customers.	Questionnaire and survey.
Promotion of the product and store of “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden”	Important and should be in process with the construction of stores.	Would help in increasing the awareness of thee products.	Money, advertising agency.	2 months	Advertising agencies	Innovation in advertising, internet marketing, SEO etc.	Customer surveys and feedback.
Branding of the store of “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden”	Not so important especially till the completion of the construction of stores	Increase the brand recognition and perception	Money, events at stores.	6 month	Branding team, discounts on foods and  the employees of the organisation	Logo etc.	Questionnaire and survey.

Task 4

4.1 Report on the impact of the proposed changes on the business and its personnel.

The impact of the proposed changes on the business of “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” and its personnel is as follows:

• Organisation capabilities: The organisational capabilities are the ability of “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” to survive into the market. Defiantly, the organisational capability would be increased after the implementation of the proposed plan while at the earlier stage it would also get affected by the changes especially in the case of money.
• Technological resources: the “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” is going to open new store and with this it is also planning to promote and branding of the stores and the products offered by the organisation (Rae, 2010). The branding and the promotion are the area where “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” need to change in the technology in order to be innovative and get attracted by the customer.
• Human resources: with the opening of the new stores the: “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” needs to open the doors for the experienced employees by replacing existing one. The experienced employees are the big assets of the company. The proposed changes in plan need the hard work of the employees who are working to the organisation in order to gain the competitive services and products.

4.2 Plan how the changes will be managed in the business.

The changes in “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” could be managed with the help of the Kotter’s eight step model which is mentioned below:

• Establish a sense of urgency: examining the market environment of “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” so that the opportunities and threats could be identified.
• Build the guiding team: identify and collect the worthy suggestion of the true employee of “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” for the process of decision making (Teece, 2010).
• Create a vision for the change: this step is related to the creation or formation of the vision for the changes into the “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden”. This would helps in motivating the employee of the organisation.

                                              Figure: Kotter’s 8 step model

• Communicate the vision: Communicate the vision of the change to the employees of “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” so that they can understand why it is necessary for getting the revenue or maximise the profit.
• Empower actions: this step is related to remove the obstacle into the path of successful implementation of the changes and perform actions.
• Create short term win: It is better for “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” to create short term wins for the changes because it helps a lot in motivating the employee.
• Build on the change: make the changes on the process if “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” fails to achieve short term win or change strategy.
• Anchor the changes in corporate culture: the announcement for what we have achieved is very beneficial to put a pressure on the competitors and sometimes it also motivates the employees.

4.3 Monitor improvements in the performance of the business over a given time scale.

Timescale is the factor that helps in monitoring the performance of the “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden”. So that is the reason why every change and actions that is going to be takes place in “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” has its time limit. The performance of the “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” over the time scale could be monitored with the help of the Gantt chart. Gantt chart is a tool that is used by business analysis in measuring and monitoring the performance of even a smallest activity of the organisation (Walker, Damanpour & Devece, 2010). Kotters 8 step model has described all the changes in “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” that are the expansion in the number of stores, promotion and branding. The Gantt chart with the respect of Kotters model is as follows:

activity/ timescale	July ’15- Sep ‘15	Oct ’15- Dec’15	Jan ’16- Aug ‘16	Sept ’16- Aug ‘17	Sept ’17- mar ‘18	Apr ‘18- Dec ‘18
Urgency	Examine the environment
Coalition		Describe the policies to employee
Vision		Set the vision
Communicate vision		Communicate to employee
Empowerment			Remove obstacle	Empower action
Consolidation					Build on the change
Institutionalise						Make it stick

Conclusion

“Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” is a small business organisation. The weakness and strength of “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” are analysed with the actions that can overcome the weakness and the action that can strengthen the performance of the organisation. Besides this, the changes in the action plans are analysed with the help of the SMART objective and the feasible action plan are proposed that could help “Poppies of Spitalfields and Camden” to move toward the medium sized firm.

References

Blackburn, R. A., Hart, M., & Wainwright, T. (2013). Small business performance: business, strategy and owner-manager characteristics. Journal of small business and enterprise development, 20(1), 8-27.
Buckland, R., (2012), ‘Multi-million pound land deal fulfils Pieminister’s appetite for further growth’ , Bristol Business News (Online),
Card, D., & Krueger, A. B. (2010). Minimum wages and employment: A case study of the fast food industry in UK (No. w4509). National Bureau of Economic Research.
Caswell, J. A., Bredahl, M. E., & Hooker, N. H. (2012). How quality management metasystems are affecting the food industry. Review of Agricultural Economics, 20(2), 547-557.
Gates, S., & Germain, C. (2010). Integrating sustainability measures into strategic performance measurement systems: An empirical study.Management Accounting Quarterly, 11(3), 1-7.
Herbane, B. (2010). Small business research: Time for a crisis-based view.International Small Business Journal, 28(1), 43-64.
Jeston, J., & Nelis, J. (2014). Business process management. Routledge.

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