Unit 33 Small Business Enterprise Assignment - Shine Communication

Program	Diploma in Business
Unit Number and Title	Unit 33 Small Business Enterprise - Shine Communication
QFC Level	Level 4

Introduction

The term “small business” varies in different countries as it depends upon the business operations of a particular nation. No. of employees, total assets, annual turnover and profits are the components which defines a business as small business in UK. As per EU, small enterprises are the firms having less than 50 employees. In UK, 47% of the private sector comprises of small enterprises which provides 33.1% contribution in the economy. Small businesses provide opportunities for new entrepreneurs. It requires lower amount of capital investments and involves less risk as compared to medium and large business entities. Small business can be converted into medium enterprise when it grows at a faster speed. Unit 33 small business enterprise shine communication assignment will highlight the key requirements, importance, strengths, weaknesses, business profile, business plan, strategies and its impact on the economy. Here a small enterprise named Shine Communications will be discussed.

Shine Communication is based in London, UK. It is a part of Endemol Shine Group. Shine is a PR and communication company which creates advertisements, videos, events etc. It works for the most iconic and popular clients like Vodafone, Volkswagen, LACOSTE, Clarks, E-bay, British Airways and many more.

Tasks

1.1 Produce a profile of a selected small business identifying its strengths and weaknesses.

Shine Communications was established in 1997 as the PR and marketing communication agency. The company follows four principles and values i.e. Fresh, Smart, Connected and committed. The company organizes various kinds of campaigns and social media events. It was awarded the Best UK consultancy to work with in the year 2013. The company gives the credit to its strong work force that is committed towards the organization. Shine Communications hires the best possible candidates and invest in their growth and development. Like every organization Shine Communication also has some strengths and weaknesses which must be analyses at a regular interval to maintain the status and growth of the company by overcoming the weaknesses and improving the strengths. Hereby, the strengths and weakness of Shine Communications are disclosed:

Strengths

Weaknesses

It has a good reputation and is considered as a leader in the PR field in UK. It has a strong client portfolio including the British Airways, Clarks, e-bay, IHG, Vodafone and so on. The company is known for diversification. It offers diversified campaigns to its customers. It offers many services through its various branches like Shine Live, Shine studio etc. It has a strong workforce of 50 employees. Shine communication pays more than £1,650 on the training of each employee. Hence, it has trained experienced and loyal employees which is its biggest strength.

Shine Communication has strengths in terms of its loyal employees but it is also their biggest weakness as the company has only 50 employees who have to work in tight schedule and it serves as a disadvantage. In order to broaden their client base and market share, it has to increase the no. of employees (The Holmes Report, 2012). It faces tough competition from the local agencies or international companies which are strong in their employee’s base.

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

Shine communications faces stiff competition from the existing and new organizations. The PR industry does not require huge capital investments which make it attractive and new firms are coming in the field of PR thereby increasing the competition for the Shine Communications. Due to availability of many organizations, the consumers or the clients have various options and bargaining power which can have negative effect on the company’s growth. But the PR industry is based on the experience and goodwill due to which the intense competition doesn’t affect the shine communications as it has young, energetic, and skilled workforce and also the experienced people. The employees are creative and passionate towards their work which is why they always create new and creative campaigns for its clients.

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

Shine Communication has only 50 employees who have a very tight schedule and each person works on two or three projects at one time which can be very stressful and tiring. It can also lead to duplication or less qualitative work. The company is into PR and marketing communication which requires new ideas and innovations in each campaign or project. New ideas and creative thoughts can only originate in peaceful and happy atmosphere and it is not possible with only 50 employees. Hence; in order to maintain the peaceful atmosphere and keep the employees happy and content, Shine Communications must hire new employees who can reduce the work load, provide new ideas and helps it in expanding their client portfolios.

Another problem or weakness which the shine communication is facing is the stiff competition from the local and the national organizations. In order to retain the existing clients and expand the no. of clients, the Shine Communications must attract new customers and clients through their own marketing and advertising. The emphasis must be on the awards, position and performances which the organization has achieved with only 50 employees.

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

Shine Communication has good reputation, status and clients in the market. In order to strengthen and maintain their current performances and status, it can adopt many ways like:

• The company must always follow their values.
• It must generate new and creative ideas to maintain their performance.
• It should always identify the changing trend and must upgrade itself accordingly.
• Shine communication has strong relationship with all the employees. Team work is a very essential strength which is required for the success of the organization. Rachel Bell, the CEO of Shine communication has been a great leader and maintains good relation with each employee. Thus, the organization must emphasised on the team work and maintain healthy relationships with each other to maintain the existing performance.
• Shine Communication has a great reputation among the general public as it donates heavy amount for the charity. It has donated a sum of more than £47000 annually. It should maintain its ritual of donating for the charities (Holmes report, 2013).
• It also spends a large amount on its employees for their annual sports day, monthly outings; gallery visits and so on (Jones, 2011).It is done to motivate and appreciate the efforts and hard work of the employees.

Recommendations: Being a small organization, shine communication works hard and passionately to deliver the qualitative services to its existing clients and uses different platforms to attract new clients. It should also continue the social services like charity to fulfil its Corporate Social Responsibilities.  It must always focus on motivating the new and existing employees and encourage the team work to maintain a healthy working environment.

All these methods and recommendations must be adopted, implemented and upgraded in order to maintain and strengthen their current performances and status. 

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

Every business whether small or big, always has a scope of expansion. Expansion leads to new opportunities, success, growth, people and experiences. Shine Communication can also expand their business beyond the PR field in many other areas. It has a great scope in expanding the business in the field of marketing research . An area or industry which binds and inter connect consumers, markets, and public through the information is known as marketing research. In this field, the market information is used to analyse and identify the opportunities, solutions, marketing actions, activities and understanding the marketing process.

While creating campaigns and advertisements for their cleints, shine communications intensively studies the market, customers, their tastes and preferences and every other aspects of the market. It undertakes the role of researching. It also uses the ERIC system to measure the result or effect of the campaign through the consumer’s perception, reaction and behavioural change. Shine communications indirectly, performs the market research activities. It can use the same process and systems to identify and evaluate the impacts of product or services of a particular/specific organization. Therefore, it can expand its business in the marketing research field (Kiewitt, 1979).

3.1 Produce an assessment of existing business objectives and plans.

Shine communication has aimed to develop such business environment where every employee gets the opportunity to grow and shine. It seriously follows its mission statement which says:  “when we let our light Shine, we unconsciously give others the permission to do the same”.

                                   

Objectives of Shines Communication: It has finalized six goals which are represented through its visions:

According to these goals, the teams prepare their own goals to accomplish the final objectives. These goals are annually reviewed to maintain the existing position and achieve the top position in the market. It regularly customizes its distribution channel and services to satisfy the customers and bring them closer to the company (The Holmes Report, 2012).

Business Plans: Employees’ performances against their SMART objectives are reviewed twice in a year. This review is essential to identify the current performance, skills and competencies of each employee and to prepare them for the next responsibilities and challenges. Shine Communication also prepares plans and strategies to motivate the employees. Motivational plans highlights the strengths and goals of each employee and helps in finalising the objectives for the growth of employees in the next financial year

3.2 Revise business plans to incorporate appropriate changes.

Business plans are prepared and evaluated to find out the current position and future prospects of the business. Business plans can be reviewed and changed according to the market conditions or business’s requirements. In order to expand the business in the field of marketing research, shine communication has to undertake various changes in the business plans including the policies, financial structure, employees base, methodologies and many more to accommodate the changes. To implement such changes, the company has to develop a business strategy to carry out the market research. It has to identify the methods and sources of gathering information. The collected information will be evaluated, based on its results, the methodology will be developed. Further, shine communication has to hire new employees as 50 employees are not enough to carry out more tasks, responsibilities and activities associated with new extended field. Promotional plan are also required to promote the new services of the organization. Shine communication is already a PR and marketing Communication Company hence; it can easily develop a promotional plan for the promotion of new marketing research filed among the existing and new clients and customers (Griffin, 2010).

3.3 Prepare an action plan to implement the changes.

An action plan is required to implement the changes in the organization. It helps in understanding the requirements of the business and when the changes must be implemented (Cawsey, 2011). Action plan can be known as the process which prioritizes the action to be made to achieve the goals. Action plan has a proper process which starts from defining the goals & objectives, identifying the methods to achieve them, defining the duties, responsibilities of each employee, and preparing an emergency plan (to deal with contingencies).

In order to venture into the marketing research field, Shine Communication must prepare an action plan. Firstly, the methods to collect the market information must be identified. The company can create small groups to collect the information about the companies. In the action plan, the company must determine the standard time frame for each activity. The role and responsibilities of employees must be identified. It is important for the Shine Communication to recruit and select the best employees as per the responsibilities identified in the action plan. Meanwhile the existing staff must fulfil all their responsibilities and carry out the promotional activities to attract the new clients and maintain the existing client portfolios.

An action plan is prepared in the same format (as shown in the image above) which defines the activities to be performed, employees responsible to perform those activities, methods which will be used to achieve the targets and the time frame in which the activities has to be completed.

Read About Managing Financial Resources Decisions

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

                                                   

Changes in any business activities impact the overall functioning of the organization. The impact of changes could be positive or negative. Changes affect the culture, environment and development aspects of the business. Changes, if positive can help the organization in gaining competitive advantage & success whereas the negative changes could damage the entire business and its reputation (Paton & McCalman, 2008).  Few changes have been anticipated in respect to shine Communication:

• Work load/pressure: It is obvious that along with the expansion, the work load will increase. The 50 employees of Shine Communication are already equipped with various tasks hence; they won’t be able to handle more pressure. In order to share the workload new employees will be hired.
• Finance: the changes have two sided effect on the finance. If the changes are proved to be successful, then the financial position of the company will be stronger but if the expansion plans fails, then the existing financial structure will be adversely affected. Finance is the ultimate requirement to carry out each and every activity of the business. Hence, the changes will impact the finance of Shine Communications.
• Morale: with the joining of new employees, the existing employees may get insecure as their responsibilities and authority will be shared with the new joiners. But the team spirit and team relations in Shine Communication have always been very strong and encouraging hence; it will not affect the morale of the existing employees or personnel.
• Organizational structure: Along with the expansion, the job profiles, duties, tasks, functions etc. will be changed. It will lead to change in the organizational structure and culture . The space will be made for the new team who will be handling the marketing research department. Changes are inevitable part of the business. They have either positive or negative impact on the businesses, its operations, activities and employees. It depends upon the organization that how it deals with the changes and uses them in its favour to achieve the objectives.

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

At Shine communication, the proposed changes could impact the business and the personnel. By venturing into new field, it will experience new dimensions of success (Williams, 2010).  The business can earn more profits as its plan is to satisfy the needs of the local and the national customers. In the starting phase, the performances could be affected, but once the policies and systems will be established, they can earn and give tough competition just like they are doing it in their PR field.

Further, with the time the employees will be more confident and improve in the new field. Changes are unavoidable hence it is essential for the employees to be flexible and willing to adjust within the new field. The existing employees must be properly trained in the new field of marketing research. 

During the changes, the team spirit must be maintained as any problem can be solved with great team efforts and support. They must be encouraged to share the feedback and suggestions. Changes also have an impact on the policies, management and employees of the organization. The changes also bring wide range of improvements when they are accepted and dealt with patience and positive attitude.  Shine Communication must take all the necessary actions to motivate the employees to achieve the main objectives.

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

       

Monitoring is the process of supervising any activity to check whether it’s being carried out in the determined manner or not is known as monitoring.  Monitoring helps in identifying the mistakes or flaws in process or plan. It is an effective way to identify and fix the issue while the work is in progress or processing stage (Kusek & Rist, 2004).

Shine Communication has to monitor the implemented changes and to make sure that they are in line with the action plans. The action plan has to be updated after the completion of each task or activity so as to measure the progress rate of proposed changes. While implementing the change, an organization should monitor and control all the measures to deal with deviations or differences, if arises. In case of any deviation, the action plan must be updated and communicated to all the team members in order to make them aware about the changes in the action plan. All the information regarding the identification of deviations and how they were corrected etc. must be recorded. These records could be helpful in the future as these records could serves as a guiding, measuring and comparing tools or parameters (Eckerson, 2010).

Conclusion

Unit 33 small business enterprise shine communication assignment has emphasised on the change. Changes are an evitable part of life. Changes are bound to happen in every business at regular intervals. As the business progresses, changes in the internal and external factors like employees, management policies, technology, methodology, trends etc. will occur. Every organization whether big or small will experience change along with the growth and success so as shine communication. It has a good reputation and experience in the area of PR and communication, but it has to change and grow by focusing on the market research. It has a great employee relationship with its employees that can be cemented or developed further in order to meet and execute the changes in the future plans, strategies and policies of the business. Every organization must strengthen their strong elements to face the challenges and changes of the future.

References

Cawsey, T.F., Ingols. (2011). Organizational Change: An action oriented tool-kit. SAGE.
Eckerson, W.W. (2010). Performance dashboards: Measuring, Monitoring, and managing your business. John Wiley & Sons.
Griffin, D. (2010). Business with a purpose. Parker: Outskirts Press.
Jones, S. (2011). Best small firms to work for. MNS Money.
Kiewitt, E. (1979). Evaluating Information Retrieval Systems, the PROBE Program. Greenwood Press.
Kusek, J., Rist, R. (2004). Ten Steps to a Results-based Monitoring and Evaluation System: A Handbook for Development Practitioners. World Bank Publications.
Paton, R. & McCalman, J. (2008). Change management: A guide to effective implementation. SAGE.
Shine Communications. (2013.). about us. [Online]. Available from: http://www.shinecom.com/about-us

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