Real-Life Case Study-Individual Report (CW1)

Introduction: Real-Life Case Study-Individual Report (CW1)

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CafePod is a coffee start-up business that was operated in the UK, London. The company is overpoweringly working towards the accomplishment of goals of making great-tasting, high-quality coffee that is easy to prepare at home. The SME has coffee blends that are accessible as ground coffee, compatible pods, and whole bean. Cafépod uses more than a few types of coffee beans, up-to-date technology, feasible systems, and definite ingredient that customers enjoy. The SME was operated in London and currently operates over 190 locations. Now the company is growing rapidly with its innovative products and services that attract large numbers of customers to the brand. According to the general idea, the company’s income just reached 10 million (Álvarez et. al. 2019). The SME has 2,050 total staff that provides the best services to its client with quality products.

In this report, the company provides a detailed analysis of its main concern on CafePod SME background, its business concept, and the SME start-up process. The report will highlight the entrepreneur's role in business and grow its operations. The report will include Greiner's stage model of growth, SWOT analysis, and suggest leadership styles suitable for the company. The report will further discuss on type of organizational culture that the company will use in the stage of development and growth (Semenya and Dhliwayo, 2020). It will provide a proposal for the future strategy of the case company.

Figure 1: Cafepod coffee

Findings

The SME business idea and background

The company has taken up steps to expand a self-regulating coffee brand that is operated in London. The company has aimed to develop unique and innovative products and services for coffee drinkers. The firm intended at increasing high-quality products to carry on with efficiency and effective operations in agreement with the need of the customers. The company’s major objective is to develop a unique product through quality ingredients and expertise (Dlamini and Schutte, 2020). The superiority of the product contribution is based on the wants of the firm in continuing the efficiency in the operations with the changing preferences, habits, substitutes, and tastes of the consumers.

The SME start-up processes

The first step of a start-up project is to identify a business idea and authenticate the idea. The next step the entrepreneur should do is to get a unique and logo that seems attractive to the customers. The third step is to develop a Business plan that includes all the pros and cons related to the plan. The owner should look for business finance and sources to get the finance. The firm should choose the right bank for the start-up and a suitable organizational structure. The company should get licenses and permits from official authorities (Alsos, et. al. 2019). The company must set up a digital presence of business before starting the business operations. The owner should hire talented personnel with skills and proper knowledge which will help the company to grow rapidly. The company should offer innovative products and services to its customers to increase its profits and revenue faster.

Background of the entrepreneur of Cafépod and the role of capitalist motivation and mindset growth of the SME

Copepod is a start-up coffee company in London, with high-quality products that are thrilling and effortless to prepare at home. The firm aims to start bringing happiness to customers’ everyday lives. The owner of the company Peter Grainger has been awarded the small business capitalist of finalist British entrepreneur awards 2018 (Ogunlana, 2018). Peter came up with the idea of a start-up coffee business while on an extended holiday in Cape Town. Coffee is a way of life and not only provide energy, but as well as a moment of calm and satisfaction. The company's objective is to offer the best quality coffee to its customers with a beautiful ambiance like home. The case company is making a simpler process of homemade coffee with high quality and serving customers to comprise that café sentiment in their kitchen (Doran, et. al. 2018). The owner has created a unique method of preparing coffee, that has helped the company to grow rapidly and has increased its profits to a greater extent.

The present development and expansion strategy using Greiner’s stage model of growth

The Greiner model can help SMEs to recognize their course of development, and to map in advance more efficiently. While reaching a growth calamity, the company will be in a better situation to overcome problems and continue to grow rapidly (Bachtiar and Al Amin, 2019). There are 5 stages in Greiner’s model of SME growth i.e. coordination, direction, creativity, delegation, and, collaboration followed by management problem and crisis. 

Creativity: the entrepreneurs who own the firm are busy providing products and opportunity markets. There are not many employees, so casual communication is suitable, and rewards for long hours are most likely through profit share options.

Direction: Growth goes on with an environment of official communications, and financial plans, and focuses on separate actions such as production and marketing. Inducement and incentive systems restore supply as a financial reward.

Delegation:  the middle-level managers do not tie up to respond quickly to opportunities for new products, and the company continues to grow. For the time being, the top administration focuses its hard work on the monitor and dealing with the immense issues in business.

Coordination: development continues with the formerly inaccessible business unit efficient into product and service practice. Finance is owed centrally and administered according to the return on investment and not just on profits.

Collaboration Stage: workers group and re-group athletically in groups to bring projects in a matrix organization that is held up by complicated team-based financial rewards and information systems (Sukova, 2020).

Figure 2: various stages of the Greiner curve

Greiner’s model of organizational growth is a helpful way of belief about the crisis that a company experiences to grow.

SWOT analysis of Cafepod

a) Importance of SWOT analysis for Co-founder of SME

A SWOT analysis gives a thorough, impartial overview of a company throughout. It also helps in considering every factor that can probably affect the project. An analysis should be a joint effort between more than a few levels of service within a company. These areas are vital success factors and give the company its competitive advantage (Phadermrod, et. al. 2019). This will help the company in identifying its strengths and can help to ensure that the company can gain a competitive advantage.

b) Explain how existing strength can be turned into an opportunity and how to avoid an existing weakness to become a future threat

For accepting the difficulties and opportunities it is significant for the case company to make a correct examination of the outside environment to get in-depth information It can be disputed that due to enormous stipulates in the market create vast opportunity for Cafepod .to make the most of its potential consumers (Liguori and Pittz, 2020). The biggest weakness of Cafepod is that the staffing company does not participate in the decision-making practice (Kunaka and Moos, 2019). The company should encourage and motivate them by including them in the decision-making process to avoid the future threat of employees leaving the job.

Managing and running small and medium enterprises:

a) An appropriate leadership style that small business owners could use to take the business through its next stage of growth and development.

Leadership is a desired superiority for any worker and the ability of an individual or a group of persons to persuade and direct members of the company. Information and knowledge of diverse leadership theories help the company to become a more efficient leader in the place of work (Saputra and Mahaputra, 2022). These theories are useful if a job role requires steady collaboration and management with others. 

The trait theory of leadership is an addition to the big man theory which is based on the thought that dominant leaders possess specific behavioral characteristics and traits. These characteristics help them to turn out to be significant leaders in an extensive multiplicity of contexts. in addition to this, it promotes a people's natural ability (Salihu, 2019). It helps them to develop into more effective leaders than others. Successful influential have well-being and traits that vary considerably from the group who are not leaders. The main behavioral traits of an effective leader include emotional constancy, taking responsibility, capability, considerate challenges, action-oriented thoughts, motivation skills, communication skills, bravery and flexibility, and positive decision-making. Leadership theories help the company to improve its skills that are necessary for becoming an effectual and powerful leader (Wyatt and Silvester, 2018). The company to lead staff or team to achieve goals and targets, leaders should adopt the best leadership styles for the success of an organization.

b) Types of organizational culture that small business owners could use to take the company through its next stage of growth and development.

Organizational culture manipulates the achievement of the corporation from new hire staffing to skillful talent maintenance to employee engagement. The company’s culture directly influences the sort of applicants that attract employees to the company. Organizational ethnicity refers to the attitudes, shared values, and practices that distinguish the company. Creating an engaging organizational culture takes a lot of time and effort (Fernandes, 2018). A company’s culture must precisely replicate the values and support of the overall mission.

Clan culture is a trademark of many start-ups, small businesses, and family-run organizations. It cares for those who work within the business and give emphasis to communication, interpersonal relations, and collaboration. The clan organization culture aspires to create one big happy family (FAKHRI, et. al. 2021).

Conclusions

The report has concluded with the background and business idea of Cafepod and how SMEs can start-up businesses. The report has highlighted the background of the entrepreneur of Cafepod and its role in the growth of SMEs. The report has further discussed Greiner's stage model of growth and SWOT analysis of the case company. It has covered the trait leadership theory used by the company for the betterment and growth of an enterprise. The report has also covered the clan organization culture that the small business uses in business operations for the growth and development of the company. The last point is covered in the proposal for the future development strategy for Cafepod.

Recommendations

Proposal for the future development strategy for SME

The diverse growth strategies are facilitated by the firms for an ongoing aggressive competition edge. In this circumstance, the diverse changes that will help the company are reliant on the estimation of the completion and market position. The case company Cafepod has planned a variety of products contributing to markets with the needs and demands of the customers. 

The company should use the market penetration strategy for increasing strong consumer awareness of the proposal in the existing markets. This will support the case company in achieving a trustworthy customer base in the markets and thus improve the goodwill of a start-up business.

The case company should take pace to expand its social media platform and put together the business operation to attract a large audience and awareness of the quality of the products. The company should use superior quality technologies that are used for roasting the beans. Different media channels strategy is framed by the company to build the target customers aware of the proposal that is prepared by the firm. In this circumstance, Cafepod must take several steps to build up digital media and social media promotional strategy to construct a board variety of customers aware of the offers made by the company (Beynon, et. al. 2020).

The product development plan of the SME assists in ongoing the efficiency of the propositions in agreement with the need and demands of the customers. The Cafepod must take a step to expand the variety of coffee products to meet up the anticipation of the customers after creating a booming market penetration. At the early stage, the product that is planned by the business was developed in agreement with the wants and needs of the customers. Though, the case company lacks a varied choice of products, which constrained the size of the target customers. The different expansions in the line of goods concerning consistency and taste would help the case company in continuing the efficiency in the business operations with the needs of achieving loyal consumers.

The development in the overseas market will help the SME in ongoing the provisions of the business. The concerned business faced issues connected to the limited expansion and development of the business enterprise in the different regions (Pertuz and Pérez, 2021). The market development and market penetration strategy will make it easy for the business after the detailed estimate of the market to which the apprehensive commerce is scheduled to expand.

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