Starting a Business in Maldives: Challenges and Opportunities

This assignment provides an analysis of the business environment in Maldives, highlighting its stable conditions and factors that need to be considered by entrepreneurs. It also discusses the importance of conducting market research, having good communication skills, and managing human resources effectively to overcome potential challenges. The report draws from various sources, including academic articles and books, to provide a comprehensive understanding of starting a business in Maldives.

Running head: MANAGING HUMAN CAPITAL AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Managing Human Capital and Entrepreneurship
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1MANAGING HUMAN CAPITAL AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Executive Summary
Starting up a new job is not that easy at it seems. It requires huge amount of dedication, hard
work and commitment. In addition to this, the Chief Executive Officer of the company needs
to hire efficient human resource managers, organizational leaders and others. The report
throws light on the topics of human resource management and entrepreneurship, taking a
fresh business into consideration. An entrepreneur is going to start a new business of Pop up
Sprinkler and Control Systems and import them from Germany. A new business idea is being
proposed by covering the areas of the business model that is, product and service, priority
customers, superior value propositions, channels of distributions, resources requirements and
competitive strategies.
In addition to this, the report throws light on the windows of opportunities for the proposed
business by incorporating relevant sources as well as evidences related to the business
environment of the country. It highlights the job duties of a human resource manager and
how he/she should serve the company. The report also discusses about the major challenges
which the entrepreneur may face, on starting up the business. However, there are
uncertainties in every job. Thus, it is immensely important for the entrepreneur to jot down
the probable solutions beforehand, in order to avoid issues later. However, conducting a
market research on the business sector of other countries will prove to be beneficial for the
entrepreneur.

2MANAGING HUMAN CAPITAL AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................4
Background............................................................................................................................4
Purpose...................................................................................................................................4
Scope......................................................................................................................................4
Discussion..................................................................................................................................5
Product or service...................................................................................................................5
Priority Customers.................................................................................................................6
Superior Value Propositions..................................................................................................6
Channels.................................................................................................................................6
Resource Requirements..........................................................................................................7
Competitive Strategy..............................................................................................................8
Business environment of Maldives........................................................................................8
Political Factors..................................................................................................................8
Economical Factors............................................................................................................8
Social Factors.....................................................................................................................9
Technological Factors........................................................................................................9
Environmental Factors.....................................................................................................10
Legal Factors....................................................................................................................10
Porter’s Five Forces.............................................................................................................10
Human Resource Requirements and Strategies...................................................................11

3MANAGING HUMAN CAPITAL AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Challenges and probable solutions.......................................................................................13
Conclusion................................................................................................................................15
References................................................................................................................................17

4MANAGING HUMAN CAPITAL AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Introduction
Background
Human resource management, often abbreviated as HRM, generally refers to the
procedure of recruiting and selecting the applicants, providing them training and orientation
programs, for their development and self assessment. The job responsibilities of a human
resource manager include employee development, selection, performance management
procedures as well as recruitment of the applicants (Barrow, Barrow and Brown 2012). The
report consists of a company named Xeric, which is freshly going to start its business at
Maldives. The company is going to import Pop up Sprinkler and Control Systems from Perrot
Regerbau Calw, Germany and sell those to Maldives. A business plan is being prepare in
accordance with that.
Purpose
The report throws light on the topics of human resource management and
entrepreneurship, taking a fresh business into consideration. An entrepreneur is going to start
a new business of Pop up Sprinkler and Control Systems and import them from Germany. A
new business idea is being proposed by covering the areas of the business model that is,
product and service, priority customers, superior value propositions, channels of distributions,
resources requirements and competitive strategies. In addition to this, the report throws light
on the windows of opportunities for the proposed business by incorporating relevant sources
as well as evidences related to the business environment of the country.
Scope
The report will help in demonstrating the business environment of the country and
how it can be established over there. Moreover, it will emphasize upon the business

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approaches and practices taken by the entrepreneur, in order to succeed. In addition to this,
the report will highlight the importance of the human resource requirements as well as the
human resource strategies required for the proposed new business start up. The proposed
strategies will cover the key areas like recruitment, selection, training and performance
management as well as employee motivation. Furthermore, the report will analyze the
challenges that might emerge at each and every stage in the life cycle of the venture. Last but
not the least, the report will provide with several recommendations which the entrepreneur
needs to focus on, in order to mitigate the identified challenges.
Discussion
An entrepreneur is planning to start a new business of Pop up Sprinkler and Control
Systems by setting up a company, named Xeric. The products will be imported from
Germany and exported to Maldives. A detailed analysis has been done, which gives an idea
of the business plan, regarding products, target consumers, competitive advantage of the
company, superior value propositions, channels, resource requirements and others (Allen,
Ericksen and Collins 2013).
Product or service
The report consists of a new company named Xeric, which imports Pop up Sprinkler
and Control Systems from Perrot Regnerbau Calw from Germany to Maldives. Regnerbau
Calw is engaged into manufacturing irrigation products and services for agricultural systems,
environmental protection, sports turfs and coupling programs for construction industries.
Xeric Company is planning to start its business and export its products to Maldives.
Moreover, the company will offer pop up sprinklers, mobile irrigation products and control
systems for the irrigation purposes of soccer fields, sports fields, tennis court, race track and

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hockey pitch. In addition to this, the company will also provide pop up sprinklers for
agricultural and irrigation purposes.
Priority Customers
The primary target consumers include the municipalities, soccer fields, agriculture,
irrigation, landscape designers, real estate agents, companies for properties and others. The
company will focus on its target customers changing preferences and needs and cater them
accordingly. The product is on high demand, mainly among the farmers and companies.
Moreover, the company will use high marketing techniques in order to creatively present its
products to its sellers. In addition to this, pop up sprinklers are of high demand, mainly for
irrigation purposes (Blank 2013). Therefore, it will not be a challenging job for the company
to promote its products on the international platform.
Superior Value Propositions
The unique selling proposition of the company is that the irrigation system analysis,
which will evaluate the overall efficiency of the system and also give an idea of the
management practices which will save money as well as increase crop yields. Along with the
products, the company is also planning to organize free campaigns for demonstrating the
usage of the product to its target consumers. Moreover, free samples will be given to the
farmers for promotional purposes. A campaign will be conducted as well, in order to raise
awareness among the target consumers. Furthermore, the Xeric Company will use high
quality products for manufacturing the pop up sprinklers and sell it at much affordable prices.
This strategy of the company will surely grab the attention of the target audiences as the
consumers like quality products at cheap rates (Martin, McNally and Kay 2013).

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Channels
Marketing Channels: Proper distribution will be done through various media channels,
including print, electronic and social media. The company will promote its products through
social media and its official website.
Ordering Channels: In addition to this, the products will be directly ordered from Germany,
packed and distributed to Maldives.
Distribution Channels: Free distributions of the samples will also help in grabbing the
attention of the target audiences, which in turn will prove to be beneficial for the Xeric
Company itself (Buller and McEvoy 2012).
Payment Channels: The payment methods are credit cards, debit cards, EFTPOS payments,
online payments, cash, cheque, money order payments, gift cards, vouchers, bitcoin and
lastly, digital currencies.
Communication Channels: The human resource officials of the company should carry out
few innovative techniques of marketing, which will contribute a lot to the company’s
profitability.
Resource Requirements
The human resource managers of the company should hire employees who have
sound knowledge regarding irrigation designs. This falls under the category of human and
physical resources. Moreover, the employees must be able to develop the operational
procedures. The organizational resources like, sprinkler irrigation systems, rotator heads,
impact rotors, nozzles and others are required for the business. A proper budget planning
must be done by investing on the research and development unit, that is, financial resources.
In addition to this, the technological resources are also required for the company like IT

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personnel, software license, trade license, patent accumulated skills and experts (Cerrato and
Piva 2012).
Competitive Strategy
The company will focus on various competitive strategies in order to promote its
products on the international platform. Focusing on the differentiation strategy will benefit
the company to a large extent. Moreover, the company aims to provide its high quality
products at much affordable prices. This will differentiate the company from its competitors
and contribute to the company’s competitive strategy. Furthermore, promotional offers will
be given to its target consumers, which will grab their attention as well (Barrow, Barrow and
Brown 2012). In this manner, the promotional strategies must be conducted in order to gain
the competitive strategy of the business environment.
Business environment of Maldives
The window of opportunities for the proposed start up business has been incorporated
by conducting a PESTEL analysis of the business environment of Maldives.
Political Factors
The country of Maldives is a presidential republic, that is, the president is the head of
the state as well as government. Maldives is largely situated on water and highly depends on
the products that are imported to their country. The political scenario of the country highly
encourages the business behavior and motivates it to increase the business ahead. Moreover,
the political scene of the country encourages other countries to export their products to their
market, in order to maintain a positive relation with them. The political aspects believe in
supporting the business terms in Maldives, but they have to follow the basic regulations of
the export and import policies (Ehnert, Harry and Zink 2013).

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Economical Factors
The economy of Maldives largely depends on the tourism sector which generates
around 28 percent of their Gross Domestic Product. In addition to this, fishing remains the
major occupation of the individuals and government gives special importance towards the
development of the fishery sector. However, manufacturing and agriculture play a lesser
important role in the country’s economy due to the limited availability of the cultivated lands
(Blank 2013). Therefore, this will prove to be a major challenge for the entrepreneur to
establish his/her new business there.
Social Factors
People of Maldives prefer services as the major sector of employment and they are
inclined towards the organizations, seeking job. Maldivians are also socially connected, using
internet as the major source of communication. Therefore, the Xeric Company can continue
its promotional activities over the social networking sites and promote their website, in order
to grab the attention of majority of the target consumers (Finch 2016). Moreover, the
company will successfully carry out its import and export business as a huge chunk of the
population is still dependent on the service sector as a major source of employment. In this
manner, the company can also provide jobs to millions of unemployed individuals (Ehnert,
Harry and Zink 2013).
Technological Factors
The government officials of Maldives invest a lot in the research and development
sectors, which generates the Gross Development Product. Therefore, Xeric Company needs
to emphasize on this factor and establish its point in order to prove its importance (Flamholtz
2012). Moreover, high level technology must be used for manufacturing these products for
catering to a large number of people, with improved services. In this manner, the country will

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be able to develop its agricultural sector and provide employment to a large number of people
(Kwong, Thompson and Cheung 2012).
Environmental Factors
The government of Maldives is very strict regarding the conservation of valuable
heritage of the country and also deploys strict measures regarding this. The government
officials of the country ensure that any type of wastes or poisonous gas shall not be disposed
within Maldives territory (Levy, Weitz and Grewal 2012). Therefore, this can be an
advantage for the Xeric Company, as the company will promote agriculture and irrigation
through the products, which will not have any negative impact over the country’s
environment.
Legal Factors
Maldives mainly depend on the imported products and have various laws as well as
regulations in relation with that. In the existing market of the country, there are various rules
and regulations regarding trades, transportation and custom costs (Martin, McNally and Kay
2013). Therefore, the Xeric Company needs to take into consideration, these factors in order
to proceed with their export business.
Porter’s Five Forces
Porter’s Five Forces is being used to analyze the competition of the business. The
bargaining power of the suppliers commonly refers to the power of negotiating the prices
and other factors the suppliers have. In this case, the bargaining power of the suppliers is
higher as the business is not being established yet. The bargaining power of the buyers is
similar to that of the suppliers. However, in this case the buyers’ bargaining power is low as
the company is going to offer a lot of promotional offers in its initial stage. The threat of
new entrants commonly refers to various barriers of entry into the business industry. They

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are quite strong to prevent the new company from entering into the market. The threat of
substitute products is medium as in Maldives majority of the economy sector is dependent
on tourism. Lastly, the competitive rivalry refers to the overall competition, the company
has to face. However, the threat is medium and may affect the business to some extent
(Brinckmann and Kim 2015).
Figure: Porter’s Five Forces
Human Resource Requirements and Strategies
The human resource manager of the Xeric Company needs to adopt several strategies
required for the proposed business start up. This includes the areas such as recruitment,
selection, training, performance management and employee motivation. The first and
foremost job of the human resource manager is to decide on which position the applicants
should drop their applications. In addition to this, with approval from the senior authorities,
the human resource manager of Xeric Company should design the job requirements, position
and employee remuneration as well as benefits. Moreover, he/she must present a list of
policies and guidelines required for the selection procedure. The applicants should have good

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communication and networking skills in order to communicate with the employees overseas.
Furthermore, they must have sound knowledge regarding supply chain management and
logistics, which is required for the overall success of the business (Levy, Weitz and Grewal
2012).
Apart than these factors, the human resource manager of Xeric Company needs to
conduct a training and development program for the newly employed candidates in order to
give them an overview of the company and make them understand the vision as well as
mission of Xeric. For the training programs, certified trainers and professional experts must
be hired for the betterment of the newly hired employees. Moreover, induction and
orientation programs must be conducted in order to gain an understanding of the
competencies and in-competencies of the employees. In addition to this, they must be
encouraged and motivated to raise their opinions and ideas regarding the betterment of the
company. This will make them feel valued as well as special (Flamholtz 2012).
For managing the performances of the employees, the human resource manager of
Xeric Company should monitor their work progress. Performance evaluation and review
should be done on a regular basis. In addition to this, the newly hired employees should
receive fifteen to twenty minutes of training every day of the first month. A register must be
maintained, which will give an overview of the employees’ performance level. Moreover,
biometrics must be done in order to check the total time the employees are giving to the
company. In addition to this, special importance must be given regarding punctuality and the
working hours the employees are required to serve (Barrow, Barrow and Brown 2012).
Performance evaluation must be done by the senior managers, in order to check their
performance level, which in turn will prove to be beneficial for the Xeric Company itself.

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Last but not the least, the human resource management of Xeric Company should also
focus on employee motivation and encouragement. It is important for the company’s human
resource manager to emphasize upon the employee benefits and incentives. Designing a
proper incentive structure, apart than the salary scale, will help in motivating and
encouraging the employees to work better every day. Moreover, good reward and recognition
programs will motivate the employees to give their best to the Xeric Company. Indirect
benefits like paid leaves, sick leaves, emergency leaves, medical benefits, mobile phones,
pick and drop services, health insurance, overtime pay, annual leaves and others, should also
be introduced for motivating the employees. Direct benefits like promotion, incentives,
reward and recognition programs and others will surely help in increasing the productivity of
the employees (Allen, Ericksen and Collins 2013). Therefore, these are the specific factors
which the human resource manager of Xeric Company needs to focus on.
Challenges and probable solutions
An entrepreneur may face various challenges while starting up a new business in
another country. Business at another country means a considerable amount of bureaucratic
efforts along with huge amount of paperwork, one has to go through. Some entrepreneurs not
only wish to start a new business in some foreign country, but also they wish to move there.
However, starting up a new business is not that easy as it seems. It invites many uncertainties
and the entrepreneurs have to face lot of challenges in their respective businesses. Starting a
new venture abroad not only invites local bureaucratic hurdles, but also the success depends
on the preparation, market research as well as research on the economic climate. In addition
to this, the relationships between the start up and the business are also very crucial, as
different countries have different set of rules and regulations (Bamberger, Meshoulam and
Biron 2014).

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Mainly, the economic conditions of various countries attract the entrepreneurs to start
their venture overseas. However, the success of the business highly depends upon the
entrepreneurs’ capability of understanding the political and economical issues of the
countries. The success of the business largely depends on how the market research is being
conducted by the entrepreneurs. Moreover, the economic conditions of various countries
fluctuate, which eventually disturbs the profitability of the business to a large extent. In
addition to this, the company will have to higher local employees and thus, understanding the
competencies and in-competencies of the newly hired employees, will become a bit difficult
for the organizational managers, at the initial stage (Blank 2013). Therefore, in order to face
these major challenges the entrepreneurs need to gain an idea regarding the probable
solutions, beforehand.
However, with difficult challenges, comes probable solutions too, which the
entrepreneurs need to focus on. In order to mitigate the challenges of starting a new company
and that too, at a new country, the entrepreneurs should carry out a market research
beforehand and prepare themselves, for the economic climate change. Moreover, the
individuals should have sound knowledge regarding the business environment, stock
developments and others (Brinckmann and Kim 2015). It should always be kept in mind that
a convenient overview of all the factors, facts as well as circumstances will help the
prospective entrepreneurs in a huge manner. The business laws, practices, taxation and
banking highly vary from country to country. Therefore, before getting started, the
entrepreneurs should study the requirements and laws for the country he/she is interested in
running the business (Buller and McEvoy 2012).
In addition to this, studying of the cultural differences is also necessary as
understanding the differences is likely to affect the viability of the business. Moreover,
seeking legal advice and local guidance is highly recommended in this aspect. Furthermore,

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gaining a clear understanding regarding the country’s political and economical environment
is also necessary, while starting a new business (Cerrato and Piva 2012). Conducting a
thorough research will prove to be beneficial on the long run. Therefore, these are the
probable solutions, which the entrepreneurs can undertake in order to mitigate the challenges
faced at the point of starting the business abroad (Allen, Ericksen and Collins 2013).
Conclusion
To conclude, starting up a new job is not that easy at it seems. It requires huge amount
of dedication, hard work and commitment. The report has discussed about various points
related to human resource management and entrepreneurship. An entrepreneur is going to
start a new business of Pop up Sprinklers and Control Systems and export them to the country
of Maldives. However, the unique selling proposition of the company, named Xeric, is that it
is going to sell high quality products at much affordable rates. This will help in grabbing the
attention of the maximum number of target consumers.
The report highlighted the business environment of the country, which has given an
understanding of the political, economical, social, technological, environmental and legal
factors of Maldives. However, from the above analysis it can be said that the country of
Maldives have a stable business environment. Therefore, the entrepreneur will not face any
major challenge, in starting up his business there. In addition to this, he/she needs to take care
of the human resource manager of the Xeric Company abroad. The organizational manager
should have good communication and networking skills, so that he/she can hire the best
employee for the betterment of the company.
Last but not the least; the report also discussed about the major challenges which the
entrepreneur may face, on starting up the business. However, there are uncertainties in every
job. Thus, it is immensely important for the entrepreneur to jot down the probable solutions

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beforehand, in order to avoid issues later. Starting a new venture is never easy; however,
managing and handling the challenges in a correct manner will enable the entrepreneur to
take correct decisions effectively and efficiently. Conducting a market research will prove to
be highly beneficial for any business. Therefore, these factors are to be kept in mind, while
starting a new venture.

17MANAGING HUMAN CAPITAL AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP
References
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exchange relationships, and performance in small businesses. Human Resource
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Bamberger, P.A., Meshoulam, I. and Biron, M., 2014. Human resource strategy:
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Brinckmann, J. and Kim, S.M., 2015. Why we plan: the impact of nascent entrepreneurs'
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