Project management of a company Essay

With the current rapid development of various business. Market competition becomes more and more fierce. Hence, a specific business plan is crucial to help a business successfully achieve goals and become competitive. The aim of this report is to prepare a business plan for a business. Some parts will be analysed in detail below which include a description of the business, sales and marketing strategy and risk management plan. A famous interior designer, Mark, owns Master Furniture (MF) which is located countryside in Melbourne. The major function of MF is providing customized furniture. There are three options provided to customers by MF: buying the existing furniture without any changes, changing the design of existing furniture displayed in showrooms, and providing design plans by customers themselves. In the next five years, MF plans to develop its own ERP system and expand his business to open linkage shops around Victoria. The main marketing principle is that the entire efforts of a company should be directed towards customers needs. MF is positioned as a high quality retailer that offers a unique selling proposition. MF sets its business apart from others due to its unique feature of providing customized goods to its customers. Advertising and Promotion also necessary through a variety of channels in order to attract customers. These approaches include the Internet, newspaper, radio, television and tradeshows. Besides sales and marketing strategy, risk management plan is also a significant factor that cannot be neglected. Specific and deliberate risk management plan should be established in order to minimize the negative influences on the business development and better achieve business goal and objective. The risk management plan contains the following parts, identifying and recording the potential risks, classifying the identified risks and assessing impacts of risks and developing the risk mitigation strategy for each risk. Those identified risks are categorized into six groups, including customer risks, supplier risks, staff risks, competitor risks, product risks and financial risks. 2.Description of the product/service Master Furniture (MF) is a business planned to provide furniture design and sale services for both individual and companies who have special or unique furniture requirements. Goals of enterprise are to provide high-quality customized service that is reliable and convenient. Mark, the owner of Master Furniture, also is a famous interior designer and won many relevant international prizes. Mark praised free spirit as his operation concept, which also directly affects his design. Purposes of establishing this entity are expressing and disseminating his artistic concepts, as well as exchanging ideas with professors and hobbyists. Customers are on top and middle class of society, who have special requirements and enthusiasm for furniture designing are targeted customers. The primary market focuses on special groups, such as the blind, the elder and people who are passionately fond of designing personal furniture. The physical shop locates in the city of Melbourne. Therefore, the target market areas are the suburbs around Melbourne. The shop includes three showrooms, which divided into bedroom, living room and kitchen. Mark designs all furniture displayed in the shop. There also have one meeting room and one stock room, which store the art works and goods customers ordered. Initially, the major function of MF is providing customized furniture. There are three options provided to customers by MF: buying the existing furniture without any changes, changing the design of existing furniture displayed in showrooms, and providing design plans by customers themselves. For the first situation that customers buy furniture directly from the shop and without any change, MF provides discount in delivery service if customers do not want to pick up by themselves. For the second situation that customers want to change the size, color or materials of furniture based on the design of Mark, MF charges extra service fee. The extra service fees are based on the change of furniture. For example, MF charge extra 20% of the furniture price for changing color and extra 30% of price for changing size. In this case, MF provides the design drawing directly to customers in the shop or sent to customers by email. After customer confirm the design, especially in size and color then it will be sent to factory. For the last situation that designs are provided by customers, Mark may provide professional suggestions based on design, such as budget, drawbacks, and safety risks. After the negotiation between Mark and customers, the design drawing will send to the factory. MF owns a truck, which is able to provide delivery service to customers. For loyal customers who had transaction records in MF database, can enjoy discount delivery service as well as customers buy furniture directly from shop and do not have any change. On the other hand, customers also can pick up by themselves. All advertisements include leaflets, which displayed the new designed furniture and price, a phone number that potential and current customers can call to query the service. For the customers who want to change the design or designed by themselves, MF calls customers once their goods arrived in the shop. The background factory of MF is outsourced to Rojos furniture factory, which is located in the countryside of Melbourne. Once Mark confirms the design drawings and send to factory by email or fax, factory sends an invoice which includes due time of production, price, and quantity back to MF. In this period, MF will confirm the price with customers and then response factory. Factory will start to work after receiving the confirmation from MF. After factory completes the invoice and sends goods back to MF, MF will inform customers to decide whether they want to pick up by himself or herself or delivery furniture to home. MF has two full-time receptionists and one part-time driver. When customers step into the MF, the front desk receptionists, who understand Mark’s design concept completely and have excellent communication skills, will communicate with them and introduce products in the showroom to clients. If clients want to design furniture by themselves no matter completely self-design or partly design, they could make appointments with Mark to discuss. When customers decide to purchase, they need to pay whole amounts for existing products or deposit for new design products. Then receptionists will create account for clients in the MF customer information database, which can help customers get discounts for delivery service in next purchase. On the other hand, receptionists also need to confirm delivery information with customers, such as delivery address, time and payment method. Once clients confirm the delivery, it is the responsibility of receptionists to inform delivery information to the driver. The major responsibilities of driver are delivering and unloading products as well as receipts to customers. After customers signing for confirmation, the last mission of driver is bringing back confirmation of customers to MF. MF offers after-sale services to customers, such as maintenance, consultancy. In the next five years, MF will develop its own Enterprise Resources Planning (ERP) system, which includes a website for advertisement Customer Relationship Management System. Moreover, Mark is planning to expand his business, which focusing on open Linkage shops around Victoria. In order to attract more clients, membership will be applied in MF system. Based on the expanding business, more staff is required for different purpose. There are several kinds of positions will available in MF: designers, receptionists, salesman, full time delivery drivers, and back officers. Moreover, as a famous designer, Mark will provide videos in shops to show his award-winning art works, and by this way to disseminate his design concept and let more people know about furniture art. 3.Sales and marketing strategy 3.1 SWOT Based on the goals of MF: build company image, gain competitive market share and refine logistic, productions and operational systems, SWOT analysis applied to in this subsection to analyze strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. The evaluation of the strategic process has to be done in order to conduct the SWOT analysis. Strength †¢In these recent years there is an increase in demand of furniture products that is modern and unique. These classifications make the house of the MF customers to be different from others. And the minimal design is used to express a maximum effect of the art used in the furniture; the arts used in minimal design mostly will be in the form of visual art and music. †¢The MF has the highly educated workers in the organization. The human resources used in both the outlet shop and the factory are skilled, capable of producing the design requested by the customer. †¢Diversity and ideas is the most important strength of the organization. This innovative idea makes us differ from our competitors. Integrating different ideas into a furniture product, that forms the critical success factors. †¢The furniture market has a big democratic market, where there is always a way to establish our organization and product information through the media. This also forms the strength of our organization. Weakness †¢The major part of the weakness lies in the stock control, which is inefficient. There are many cases where the stocks may be outdated. In some cases there may be insufficient stocks. And at sometimes the stocks would not be available on the time needed, sometime available more than what is needed. †¢Trust, forms the core of the business process. The materials that are supplied by the external organizations at sometimes create a lack of trust in them. As the furniture company is mainly dependent on external organization for the raw materials, lose their trust when the raw material is not good and when it is not supplied the time needed. †¢Master Furniture is known especially for its uniqueness in the product. When there is some situation where the organization has to share the knowledge with the other employees and external organization, the knowledge shared can be misused. These cases the organization has to take the risks. †¢The demand for the traditional structure of the furniture’s is decreasing rapidly. On the other hand new innovation and change in this industry has slow absorption. †¢Till a product is completed the quality of the product cannot be judged. Once the quality of the product fails a new product has to be created and the raw materials used cannot also be reused. As known for producing single furniture a large quantity of raw material has to be invested. Opportunities †¢Big potential is developing in the market sector for designing. As the main part of this business is designing as per requested by the customer, the minimal designs are creating new opportunities for these kind of design patterns in the market. †¢The labor cost can be reduced by outsourcing it to the other countries such as China. †¢There is a large scope in the research and development as the customers are looking forward for the uniqueness in the product they buy. So, research and development capability is high. †¢Hybrid solutions can be achieved by blending and balancing. This can be done using the effective production methods. †¢There is only a very little competition in the designing of the modern furniture’s. Threats †¢The major threat to be considered is that the cost of the raw materials, which is always showing upward trend in the rise of the prices. This causes the regular price fluctuation of the products produced. †¢The new ideas or methods that are used in the manufacturing of the product sometimes lead to uncertainties. The innovation in the product cannot be always successful. †¢The MF Company also has to hope with the fast changes and new inventions in the industry. When a new production method is introduced then there will be a change in the stock control. This will lead to a large fluctuation in stock control. 3.2 Marketing Strategy Customers are considered as core in any business. The companies manufacture goods according to the needs of its customers. They would like to increase their market share by beating their competitors through sales. One should have a proper business plan to achieve this. The company should know the likes and dislikes of its customers. Based on these factors it can build a business strategy that allows you to satisfy your customers. The two main marketing principles are: †¢The entire efforts of a company should be directed towards customers needs. †¢Profitable sales volume is more important than maximum sales volume. Positioning: Master furniture is positioned as high quality, moderate price retailer that offers unique customizes goods. As Master furniture provides special services to their customers their goods are positioned at high quality which lean towards higher prices. Their market positioning goals are accomplished through the following: †¢Appointing outstanding sales persons in Master furniture retail store who understand the customer needs. †¢Explaining their manufacturing capabilities and uniqueness through demonstrations. †¢To highlight their ability to customize and quality they should provide invitational sales. Unique Selling Proposition: A unique selling proposition is what your business stands for. It sets your business apart from others. Instead of attempting to be known for everything, businesses with a unique selling proposition stand for something specific, and it becomes what you’re known for. Master furniture sets its business apart from others due to its unique feature of providing customized goods to its customers. Price vs. Quality & Design: Master furniture maintains high quality & provides appealing customized design according to the customer needs at affordable prices. Advertising and Promotion: Master furniture will use different sources to communicate with their targeted market. Newspaper, local cable, billboards, pamphlets are different sources to attract customers. They use the electronic media to attract customers and explain their concept of customization. Their customers being the middle and high class in the society Master furniture uses radio and television to advertise. Posturing and vehicle writing methods can also be implemented to advertise. Master furniture uses media to advertise. These include: †¢Internet †¢Newspaper †¢Radio †¢Television †¢Tradeshows Internet: Advertising through the Internet is the best way to advertise these days. Social networking websites like Facebook are used for advertising. This would be the most effective advertising plot for Master furniture. Newspaper: Most people in Australia read newspaper. So for that reason Master furniture can use the most popular newspaper to advertise. Radio: Radio is also considered as a popular media item. Many people use it for audio entertainment. So Master furniture can also use radio as to advertise. Television: Television is the most popular media item. Every person in the country uses television for entertainment. Therefore Master furniture can use television to advertise. Tradeshows: The trades how is an excellent mechanism to stay connected with the market and network potential customers. Aside from sales promotion the trade shows offer you the ability to see your competition. Master furniture will attend the trade shows held every year and try to attain potential customers. 4.Risk management plan 4.1Purpose and Objectives Risk management plan is to identify and record the potential risks which may threaten the company and also assess identified risks and establishing risk mitigation strategies to mitigate negative impacts on achieving goals and objectives of the business. The purpose of the risk management plan is to describe all aspects of risk management, including: 1)Identifying and recording the potential risks; 2)Classifying the identified risks and assessing impacts of risks; 3)Developing the risk mitigation strategy for each risk; 4)Allocating responsibility; 4.2 Target Audience The target audience of the risk management plan includes: all employees of MF company and its customers and the supplier. 4.3 Risk strategy In order to minimize the negative influences on the business development, the risk management procedure is developed by considering both internal and external factors. The necessary steps are risk Identification, risk assessment and risk Mitigation. All identified risks are categorized into six groups, including Customer Risks, Supplier Risks, Staff Risks, Competitor Risks, Product Risks and Financial Risks. Identified risks are measured in terms of likelihood of occurrence and impacts. By combing the likelihood and impacts, the risk rating is identified to provide the priority of the risks, which would present a better perspective for risk management. The detail information is shown in Table 1below. Table 1 †¢L=Likelihood: 1=Unlikely; 2=Possible; 3= Very Likely †¢C=Impact: 1=Minor; 2=Moderate; 3= Major †¢R=Risk Rating: L=Low; M=Medium; E=Extreme #Risk NameRisk DescriptionConsequence RRisk MitigationResponsibility ACustomer Risks A.1The company highly relies on a small number of major customers Once the larger customers turn to other companies’ product, then the company’s profit will be affected in the short time.The company’s profit and cash flow will be affected in a period of time until finding the new customers to yield revenue.22M†¢Improving the customer satisfaction and keeping long-term relationship with valuable customer groups by regularly contacting them and continually providing the superior products and services. †¢Locking the existing customers and make them become larger customers. †¢Expanding the target customer groups and seeking new and profitable customers.†¢General Manager †¢Department Managers †¢Salesmen BSupplier Risks B.1Highly depends on one supplierOnce the existing supplier is not able to provide the products and services or produce the products to the company, then the company’s normal operations will be affected.The company’s normal operations will be affected because of the shortage of supply.33E†¢Seeking alternative suppliers who are able to provide the similar products and services to the company. †¢Locking the existing supplier by the long-term contracts and maintaining the relationship with the supplier regularly.†¢General Manager †¢Department Managers B.2Product delivery delay riskThe suppliers cannot produce the product and deliver products on time.The company will not deliver products for its customers on time and loss reputation and credibility.11L†¢Seeking alternative suppliers who are able to provide the similar products and services to the company. †¢Monitoring supply contract regularly and urging products delivery.†¢Department Managers †¢Salesman †¢Customer Service Manager CStaff Risks C.1The staff turnover riskSome employees are critical to the business success, such as they deal with the key supplier and larger customers. The company will be affected by staff turnover.Resulting in disruption of the business operation and hard to find the appropriate new staff. The company has to spend both time and money to train the new staff.22M†¢Implementing a strict personnel selection mechanism to find the right employees for the company. †¢Allocating more employees to key position and training employees for backup. †¢HR Manager †¢Department Managers C.2Employee face occupational health and safety(OH&S) risksBecause of the nature of the work, the employees, such as vehicle drivers and porters, would injure in the particular event.The company will be under the risk of fines or paying for injury or death of an employee.11L†¢Establishing appropriate OH&S policies. †¢Regularly maintain vehicles and advocating safe driving.†¢Employees DCompetitor Risks D.1Competitor riskCompetitors will pose a current or potential threat to the business, such as competitors may open the new business nearby or launch similar products with lower price in the market.The sales and revenue of the company will be affected.12L†¢Improving the relationships with large clients. †¢Investing money in developing new products and services. †¢Protecting intellectual property assets confidential and proprietary information, such as designs and copyright. †¢Continually monitoring competitors.†¢General Manager †¢Designer EProduct Risks E.1Large-scale product recall riskDue to product defect, the company has to recall all sold products.The company will huge losses in expense of reworking and the sales and reputation of the company will be affected in long term.13M†¢Monitoring the quality of the products and avoid the situation which would damage the company’s reputation. †¢Training employees.†¢General Manager †¢Salesman †¢Customer Service Manager E.2Copyright riskThe company’s copyright is violated.The sales and revenue of the company will be affected.13M†¢Establishing a copyright policy. †¢Protecting intellectual property assets confidential and proprietary information. †¢Signing a confidential agreement when contracting work out to third parties. †¢Getting copyright consultancy services.†¢General Manager †¢Designers †¢Department Managers FFinancial Risks F.1Liquidity riskThe company doesn’t have enough money to pay its debts.The company’s operation will be affected.22M†¢Managing and monitoring cash flow. †¢Carefully making financial decisions.†¢General Manager †¢Finance employees F.2Credit riskDue to the products and services sold on credit, the customers may be unable to pay the money back.Resulting in financial loss.12L†¢Checking customers’ credit status and signing terms an conditions of trade with customers.†¢Finance employees †¢Salesman 5.Conclusion From what mentioned above wo can get the conclusion that a business plan which includes several parts, a statement of the business, marketing strategy and risk management plan. Establishing a detailed business plan plays a significant role in operating the business and achieving their goals successfully. When setting a plan, the organization should particularly pay attention to risk management plan which can help the business reduce loss the risks result and operate in a smooth way.