BUS123: Bar Eight Project Reflection and Improvement Analysis

This report reflects on a semester-long project focused on innovating Bar Eight, a billiard bar, to increase turnover and optimize its organizational structure. The student discusses the project's redesign and improvement process, highlighting the application of business theories, market analysis, and competitive advantages. The project team, consisting of three members, aimed to address declining customer numbers and profits by implementing innovative activities and publicity strategies. The reflection details the importance of data analysis, market research, and understanding the company's business model. The student analyzes the initial mistakes, lessons learned from the first assessment, and the improvements made in the second assessment, including extensive market surveys and customer feedback. Key recommendations include utilizing spare space for venue renting, innovating market campaigns, and optimizing the organizational structure. The report emphasizes the significance of innovation, cooperation, and a deep understanding of the business strategy for sustainable development and competitive advantage. The student highlights the importance of thorough market research, business analysis, and the use of tools like the canvas to understand the business environment.

Reflection
This article reflects our design of the business model and the improvement of a marketing
project. I will discuss the process of redesigning and improving our project and finally delivering
it to the target company. With focusing on what I learned and what will I do differently next
time. I will also analyze the theory what we have applied to action and concluded the useful
recommendations to the targeted clients.
Our semester project is to innovate bar eight to create a higher turnover and optimize the
organization structure. Through innovative activities and publicity, we expect to increase the
number of pool players for increasing turnover and earning high net profits. Bar eight is a large
billiard bar located in Bundoora with 10 staff members with the centralized organization
structure and was established in 2012 (Cudo, 2018 p.1). Bar eight has operated for six years. We
chose this company to practice our innovation theory because this company belongs to my sister
and she is happy to work with us. Our project team consists of three people, Ziyi li did the
project's initial idea, Ye Shen conducts market research, I am the team leader and analyze the
target company, we are very smooth and completed the project and delivery it to the business.
Nowadays, our projected has completed the most urgent problem to attract more pool
lovers to boost the total revenue at the same time this bar exist some questions, in the past 5
years, their customer group has been contracted year by year and the profits enjoyed the down
trend as well (Curran, 2018 p.7). By analyzing the market in which the company is operating, it
is clear that the company has been threatened by competition forces such as new entrants in the
market with ziffano’s restaurant and bar being located in Uni Hill town Centre and Eagle bar

located at union building. The competition stiffness in the market shows that the new entrants
have ventured into the market with a differential strategy and offer a variety of quality food as
compared to bar eight. This has been one reason to why bar eight is failing to sustain this
competition and end up facing challenges in maintaining its customers.
The business analysis of markets and comparison with sample bars, we have established
the target customers group of nearby customers including students and residents. The
competitive advantage of bar eight is a well-experienced pool staff to organize the game for
customers. In addition, when compared to other restaurants in the region, bar eight boasts of
affordable high-quality food and great customer service. To meet its strategic goals, the
organization has to embrace a culture of finding, attracting and retaining the highest performing
employees so as to ensure that the company meets its marketing target through innovation and
sustainability. Since bar eight operates in an industry which is notorious for low job satisfaction
and high employee turnover, the management should strive to ensure that employee turnover is
reduced in the short-term.
We should put the material and theory into practice and insist on the cooperation with the
help of innovation to optimize the bar eight business model .During the project of bar eight, we
have realized the importance of data analysis. I was in charge of the organizing of the whole
team and made the others accomplish their roles.
In this process of project design and practice, in addition, to get a better understanding of
the theory, I also learned a lot. We have learned a lot of theories at school, but there are still
many different ways to use them in reality. We just started using canvas to analyze the company.
This is indeed an effective way to clearly show the pros and cons of the company daily routine.
They are good tools for analyzing a business. The proposed process is organized and logical,

which is useful for understanding the architecture of the business model. Entrepreneurs and
executives who design business models may find this a useful guide (Medium, 2018). But at the
same time, it is not enough. As we can see, a good business model directly decided the revenue
resource and the modes of making cash flow so that we have concentrated on optimizing the
business model. Consequently, we have drawn some useful conclusions. First, the revenue
structure of bar eight only consists of the drinks and snacks and the customer numbers fluctuate
during different seasons. As a consequence, the spare space for bar eight could be utilized for
venue renting or events for boosting the revenue. Secondly, the market campaign should be
innovated to different ways like holding events or attracting more active customers. Furthermore,
customers are attracted by different aspects including location, quality and price of the products
by weighing up the overall value in regards to weight and presence of each attribute. Therefore,
bar eight should maintain a favorable overall attitude so as to enhance customer loyalty. Thirdly,
the centralized organizational structure should change to the decentralized one to make every
staff in charge of one department in order to get one more effective daily routine.
After this practice, the next time I go to do such an innovative project, it will be very
different. We started with my mistakes at the beginning, and we did not go through a very
rigorous analysis of the company and the company's existing problems. These suggestions came
from my observations of working at bar eight but did not consider whether bar eight really
needed these innovations. So we didn't get too high a score when we were in the first assessment.
Because there is not a lot of research and investigation in our proposal, and there is not
enough analysis of the actual business situation and the situation in the Melbourne market, we
directly gave the conclusion of increasing the advantage of bar eight, which is not very useful. I
learned that we should not easily conclude before conducting sufficient market research and

business analysis. The canvas is a good tool, but in fact, it is very difficult to complete. I recall
that the canvas we wrote before still does not analyzed business model in depth.
The next time I do the same innovation project, I must fully analyze the business model
and the context canvas to understand the competitive market in which the business is located and
its own competitive advantage. Furthermore, the analysis will assist me in understanding the
organization’s environment and thinking positively and strategically about the business.
Our innovation is effective only if we give full play to the competitive advantage of the
business or create a competitive advantage for it. After a complete analysis of the first evaluation
results, we carefully analyzed and summarized. In preparing for the second assessment, we did a
lot market survey, customer survey, and analysis of the merchant's financial situation. We also
have the prototype of the first project that acted as a guidance.
We are also very grateful to bar eight manager for his cooperation. He helped us to test
the market in advance, put the link of the event on the Facebook page, and pay attention to
customer feedback. This is also because we are fully communicating with the manager and have
been sharing our progress with him enthusiastically. He is also happy to help us. We have also
picked up the communication skills with contacting with the head of organization. Also, to
minimize the cost of complying the new business strategy, we have come up with a range of
ideas to test the assumption and complete the iteration.
In a word, innovation can provide the engine for one organization to keep sustainable
developing and breakthrough (Schaltegger and Wagner, 2011 p. 22). Apart from the innovation,
the suitable cooperation for the company can push forwards the movements of the company.
However, in premise of the two points, gaining a better understanding of the business strategy
and model is important.

References
Medium. (2018). “Business Model Generation” Summary and Review – West Stringfellow –
Medium. [online] Available at: https://medium.com/west-stringfellow/business-model-
generation-summary-and-review-ca27497a69ed [Accessed 19 Oct. 2018].
Curran, L. (2017). Best Bars with Pool Tables in Melbourne (2016). [online] Where To
Melbourne. Available at: https://www.whereto.media/cityguide/melbourne/find-pool-table-
melbourne-2/ [Accessed 19 Oct. 2018].
cudo (2018). Bar Eight. [online] Cudo.com.au. Available at: https://cudo.com.au/two-hours-of-
pool-or-billiards-with-drinks-for-20-ndash-perfect-for-up-to-four-people-valued-at-56 [Accessed
19 Oct. 2018].
Schaltegger, S. and Wagner, M., 2011. Sustainable entrepreneurship and sustainability
innovation: categories and interactions. Business strategy and the environment, 20(4), pp.222-
237.