Business Consultancy Project for Platform Company Analysis

This project is a comprehensive business consultancy report focused on Platform Company. It begins with an introduction to business projects and their objectives. A detailed situational analysis is conducted, including an industry trend analysis using Porter's five forces model. Problem identification includes issues like inappropriate pricing and low customer interest. Primary data collection through questionnaires is used to gather customer perspectives. The report explores various approaches to solve identified problems, such as analytical, positive, and cost-benefit analysis (CBA) theory. It also includes risk and stakeholder analyses, leading to a specific project and a detailed plan of action. The project concludes with recommendations for improving Platform Company's performance and profitability, supported by references and an appendix with primary data analysis.

THE BUSINESS
CONSULTANCY
PROJECT
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS..........................................................................................................3
Industry trend analysis.................................................................................................................3
Problem identification.................................................................................................................5
Primary data collection................................................................................................................5
POSSIBILITIES..............................................................................................................................7
Approaches..................................................................................................................................7
Risk assessment...........................................................................................................................9
Stakeholder analysis..................................................................................................................10
SPECIFIC PROJECT AND DETAILED PLAN OF ACTION....................................................11
Detailed plan of action...............................................................................................................14
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................15
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................16
APPENDIX....................................................................................................................................18
Primary data analysis.................................................................................................................18
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INTRODUCTION
Business is basically considered as an organization or entity that is engaged in commercial,
professional activities with the motive to incurred relevant amount of revenue. In fact, business
projects are intended to attain a defined organization objective along with an effective strategy.
The purpose of using an effective business plan is to provide valuable option to the owners to
make better decision that can assist in attain the desire goals of an organization (Gemino, Reich
and Sauer, 2015). However, business management is a vital aspects of practice which is followed
by an organization during initiating, planning, controlling till the closure of the projects. The
primary objective of achieve all specific project goals along with the available constraint.
Therefore, this project intended to provide specific information regarding Platform Company.
Apart from this, a situational analysis is done to determine the issues that are faced by the
concern company during their regular course of business. The use of porter five force models is
an effective technique which has been used to determine the current industry trend prevails in the
market. Moreover, identification of various possible approaches that can useful for the growth of
the business is also been provided in this report. Further, a detailed plan of action is also
provided to understand the actual measure that should be implemented to increase the
performance of the organization.
SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS
Industry trend analysis
In every business organization, it has been seen that a firm involve in the production of a
specific goods and services that are going to introduce into the market. In fact, business would
have to carry out a SWOT, PESTLE and Porter five forces analysis to position their resources as
well as enhance their market share with the motive to attain sustainable profit. However, it will
be further use to determine the capabilities, client and business environment (Comeig, Del Brio,
and Fernandez-Blanco, 2014). Similarly, industry trends are conducts to examine the estimation
as well as analyse various aspects such as consumer behaviour, technological advancement and
new products development that impact the market position of Platform Company. It has been
analysed that Platform Darby is providing various combination of services such as wine bar,
coffee shop and bistro with the appropriate design with a wide windows that are especially
helpful to draw the attention of different customers. It can be quite challenging for the other
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industry also because they are also serving similar kind of products or services into the market.
Therefore, it is important to analyse the trends by using an effective tools. The Porter five force
models could be most valuable option to determine the trends effectively.
 Industry rivalry: It has been seen that there is very tough competition in the food and
service industry in the market. However, the Platform Company need to analyse their
close competitors because it will lead to reduce the profit potential for the industry. It has
been analysed that various industries have their individual profit potential that make them
different from other industry.
 Threat of substitutes: This happens to be other important aspects for the company to
determine the availability of substitute products that could limit Platform Company’s
ability to raise prices. Therefore, some of the potential factors like, customer propensity
to substitute, switching cost, product differentiation and availability of substitute products
is needed to be taken into account (Ward and Daniel, 2012).
 Bargaining power of buyers: It can be determine by the market outputs such as the
ability of buyer to put the business under immense pressure that would results negative
impact on the customer sensitivity to cost. Platform Company need to take essential
measure to overcome by buyer powers through organizing a loyalty program.
 Bargaining power of suppliers: In this particular situation, the suppliers tend to charge
premium price as well as limit the platform profitability. However, the suppliers of raw
material, labor and services to the platform could be sources of power over the firms in
case they are substituted. In some cases, suppliers might refuse to work with the company
as well as charge excessively high cost for their valuable resources (Lundin and Hartman,
2012).
 Barriers to entry: It has been examine the platform company is making sufficient
amount of profit the sales of their valuable services and at the same time they are getting
high return also that will attract new entities. But, new entrants would reduce the
profitability level of the company. Therefore, it normally acts as a deterred against the
new competitors.
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Problem identification
 Inappropriate pricing range: It has been seen that Platform Company is not satisfied
with the price range that are set for their respective products and services. This has
created negative impact on the sales of various products.
 Lack of customer interest: The customer is not able get the product or services
according to their demand because the Platform Company is serving very limited
varieties of foods and beverage.
 Low productivity: Due of inaccurate demand estimating, insufficient information
regarding customer needs as well as lack of knowledge tend to impact the productivity of
Platform Company (Simmons, Palmer and Truong, 2013).
 Low morale of management and workforces: It happens to be root cause examine here
are the strategy and cost cutting has lower the confidence of various employees as well as
the management.
 Less number of customer in Bar section: It major concern is related to the Bar division
as there is very less number of customers are visiting to the centre. However, it has been
seen that the total revenue generated through sale of coffee is become used to meet the
Bar expenses.
Primary data collection
In order to determine the viewpoint of customers and other key stakeholders, the researcher
tends to make use of primary sources. It is more effective ways of data collection although little
time consuming as compare to the secondary (Ferraro, 2012). The most common techniques are
self-administered questionnaires from the customer or stakeholder views in order to support the
product identified by the situational analysis. The below survey has been conducted on the total
50 respondents that are belong to various income, age, gender and profession.
QUESTIONNAIRE
Survey to support the problem identified with customer or stakeholder views
Name:
Age:
Gender:
Occupation:
Q1: How often do you dine at platform centre?
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(a) Daily
(b) Weekly
(c) Once in a week
(d) Monthly
Q2: What did you like about Platform company menu?
(a): Breakfast
(b): Lunch
(c): Dinner
(d): Other
Q3: What did you dislike about the Platform company?
(a): High price of drinks
(b): Employee behaviour
(c): Ambience
(d): Quality of food served
Q4: Did staffs or employers of platform centres meet your needs?
(a): Yes
(b): No
Q5: Please rate the attitude of workers and other staffs ?
(a): 5
(b): 4
(c): 3
(d): 2
(e): 1
Q6: Is the employees are motivated while performing their role?
(a): Yes
(b): No
(c): Can’t say
Q7: Do agree that the decision-making ability of the management is effective?
(a): Yes
(b): No
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Q8: What is the primary reason for the downfall of their business?
(a): Less number of customer
(b): High price for alcohol drink
(c): Quality of food
(d): Old marketing strategy
Q9: How likely is it that you would come back?
(a): Very likely
(b): Likely
(c): Unlikely
(d): Very unlikely
Q10: Feel free to provide any suggestion and feedback for the future changes or
improvement?
Ans………………..
Thank You
POSSIBILITIES
Approaches
The ability of Platform Company to solve various problems would impact success in the
future life, as a team and generally entire business. Therefore, it is a crucial aspect to determine
the strength and weakness as examine the problems (Siebenthal and Hopkins, 2016). It can create
positive awareness to deal with the situation that required specific skills of an individual along
with the management capabilities. However, an effective problem-solving is a crucial
opportunity that can move forward, rather than resolving a setback. Here are some key
approaches that can be used to resolve the identified problems.
Analytical approach: Being a valuable analyst, it is important to carry a positive ability to
get into the detail of actual problems that are occur within Platform Company. It will work to
determine the tough situation as well as primarily related to the facts or information that is
already been available from the situational analysis. By the help of this particular approach an
organization can break a problem down into the element that are necessary to solve it as well as
each element categories as a small unit and easy to take valuable decision (Cleden, 2012).
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Justification
By the help of analytical approach, the platform company can easily be able to resolve
their bar shop issues. Because, it has been seen that the business from BAR shop is not
effectively profitable for the Platform Company, so they need to cut down the price a bit and
offer some kind of discount on purchase of one drink. This will helps the company to draw the
attention of various customers towards the bar division as well as further problems can easily be
resolve.
Positive approach: According to this particular method the platform company can intend
to assist their customers demand with a positive mindset. In fact, having a positive approach will
help the organization to cope-up with the problems with easily on a regular basis. It would also
bring optimism into the business function as well as avoid negativity within the employees those
are working effectively to serve the customers (Brady and Davies, 2014). With the use of this
approach, Platform Company can bring a constructive change into their business lifestyle and
make future development plan to become successful.
Justification:
It has been analysed that the customers are not taking much of interest in their services
because the company is not able to deliver sufficient amount of services as per their demand.
Also, employees are getting de-motivated because of their early shifts that have impact the
business growth. At the same time, the competition in the market of serving valuable products is
also high that has change the thinking ability of the customers as well as the various stakeholders
of the company. Therefore, this approach assist them to think from the starting regarding the
actual need of their client and provide them all sorts of benefits they are looking from the
company.
CBA theory: The cost-benefit analysis is based on the principal of analytical design that
can be used to evaluate the public expenses decisions. In fact, this theory is helpful to estimate,
whether the benefits of a policy outweigh their cost, relative to their other alternatives. It allows
ranking their policies in terms of cost-benefit ratio. Basically, a reliable cost analysis tends to
examine choice through which company can increase their productivity in the market (Smith,
Merna and Jobling, 2014). The both analytical and positive approach can be taken into account
to determine the problems and generate best possible solution to manage their cost and incurred
reliable amount of profit for the Platform Company. This particular theory uses to measure the
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benefits of a decision taken from the cost incurred from the sale of coffee by taking valuable
action. However, the customer impact of pursuing a new business policy and delivery delays of
products are also be analysed effectively.
Benefits of this theory:
 It will help to gain competitive benefits or market share increment as results of a positive
decision.
 By the use of intangible advantage such as employee safety, customer satisfaction due to
quality products offering can also increase the confidence among the company.
 Revenue along with the high sales results from the production or a specific product will
also lead to high profitability.
Risk assessment
It happens to be the identification of a key problem that could negatively affect
organization ability to business functions. These assessment will assist in examine these inherent
risk as well as provide measure and control to deal with the implication (Thamhain, 2014). In
fact, it will also help to save excess flow of income from the business and overcome the change
of injury in the workplace. For instance, it is essential for Platform Company to have a freedom
to operate within a challenging situation as well as attain maximum advantage from the resource.
Probability & impact Risk
Score
Probability of occurrence of risk Negligible Minor Serious Critical
Frequent L M H H
Probable L M M H
Remote L L M M
Improbable L L L L
Fig: Risk assessment matrix
Likelihood table:
These are basically related to the type of risk that is identified within the Platform
Company along with the consequence that is also associated with the risk.
Likelihood
Risks Consequences Time Cost WHS impacts
Low productivity Impact the goodwill of the company High High High
Lack of customer
satisfaction Interest level or low satisfaction High High Medium
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High cost of the
products Less number of sales High Medium Low
Risk of downfall Shutdown and loss to the business
operations Medium Low Low
Fig: Consequence table
Stakeholder analysis
It happens to be an effective process by which a company can identify these people before
the project has been started. The management need to group them according their level of
participation, interest and impacts. However, it is simply used to identify the various key
stakeholders that have a vested interest into the problems associate with the project (Kendrick,
2015). Moreover, the stakeholders of Platform Company are customers, employees, investors,
suppliers and government. Therefore, the project manager needs to assess a system along with
the potential changes to their concern parties so that they can get relevant services and
satisfaction from the company operations.
Fig: Stakeholder analysis
From the above diagram, it has been clearly stated that the key stakeholders need to be
identified and prioritize them according to their level of influence and interest. The maximum
focus is delivering on the key stakeholders such as customer and employees who can make the
project success. However, by using this matrix, Platform Company can easily be able to
determine their stakeholder to manage closely as well as those stakeholders to put less effort in
their performance. It will also provide option to manage the time and cost on stakeholders that
have more power and interest in the overall project success.
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SPECIFIC PROJECT AND DETAILED PLAN OF ACTION
As per the above discussed various analysis regarding the industry trend and primary data
collection from different customer or stakeholder, it has been examine the Platform company is
suffering from certain business problems. In fact, the factors that are affecting the environment
of the business are needed to be improving by using a relevant approaches and theories. It has
been notice that employees are also face lack of motivation during the service offering. However,
some of the identified problems are determine by conducting a situation analysis that are more
commonly impact their success and market share. The management has decided to evaluate the
entire scenario effectively so that they can deploy their operations with full potential. The best
part of this company is they used to serve lovely coffee along with a fresh delicious pastry in the
breakfast, whereas in dinner menu option is also available within their centre for those client that
need some relaxation. Instead of having a successful coffee business, they have problem with
their bar shop which consists of various wines, sprits, cocktails and bears. But they are not be
attain reliable amount of profit from this particular shop as maximum number of customer are
not pay interest towards bar shop because of high prices of a drink.
There are some other problems that are faced by the platform company within the business.
In fact, they are taking high risk in order to operate their business that could results in downfall
soon. Apart from this, they are surrounded by some of the competitors that are also serving
similar kind of food, drink and other snacks. Therefore, keeping all these problems and current
situation of the business the management has decided to develop a new plan to improve the
condition of their operations in the market. This project is entirely based on the current trends
and specific demand of the clients.
Project aim: “To recognise the problems and innovation that are required in the development
of Platform business operations”.
Objective:
 To determine the implication of current situations on the organization performances.
 To access the specific demand of customers and provide them quality services.
 To analyse the positive impact of using latest technology within Platform business.
 To assess the various theory and approaches those are useful to improve the condition of
the business.
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Risk assessment: It has been seen that the company is having lot of problems which is
affecting the overall performance of the organization. However, it is important to analyse those
problems early so that chances of risk can be avoided prior its occurrence. Some of the key threat
that is seen is related to the competition available in the market. Therefore, risk management can
be most reliable option by which the organization can identify, assess and control threats to an
Platform company capital and revenue. Thus, it is crucial to follow certain steps that are helpful
to assess the risk such as:
 Identify risk: Being a project manager, it is important to examine the vital risk such as
excess workload, psychological aspects of customer, loss of income and goodwill. These
are primarily associated with the company because of which they are not able to manage
their business effectively.
 Decide who might be affected: Due to the implication of these risk the entire
organization, employees and customers could get affected. The change of negative
environment would prevail that will lead to affect the overall performance of the
company.
 Assess the risk: It is important for the manager to have an accurate action plan that could
be used to deal with these problems. The most complex risks are needed to ranked
according to their specific impact and low risk are tackle by change certain policies. The
employers must be able to decide for each remaining risk, whether the risk is high,
medium or low.
 Make a record: This step is more crucial for the managers as well as the entire business
firms. The employers along with the staffs are needed to keep record in writing the
primary solution of the risk. It will consist of detail of internal as well as external risk and
take action accordingly.
 Review: The risk assessment need to be kept under the evaluation of higher authority of
an organization. It will ensure that proper safe working environment needed to be applied
so that the employee would perform their role effectively. Furthermore, the customer
viewpoints are also required to be analysed so that their actual demands can be fulfilled.
Stakeholder analysis: For every business organization stakeholder are considered as
primary parts of the business. It has been seen that each member involve in a project wants to
become successful. However, a project can only be profitable if it start with in a positive manner.
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