Introduction to Business Report: Partnership and Marketing Strategies

This report analyzes a business case study involving Phil and Gray Innovation. Task A focuses on planning staffing needs, advising on enterprise ownership (partnership, sole trader, and company), and evaluating the merits and demerits of starting a high-end mobile phone business. Task B delves into the explanation and role of marketing, advises on marketing research techniques, explains the 4 P's of marketing, applies the marketing mix to a product launch, and discusses the characteristics of an effective team. The report provides insights into business planning, marketing strategies, and the challenges of launching a new venture, including the importance of staffing, ownership structure, and market analysis.

Introduction to Business

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................3
TASK A................................................................................................................................................3
A) Planning of staffing needs for Phil.........................................................................................3
B) Advising Phil as to which form of enterprise ownership to select? Also Giving advantages and
disadvantages of each..................................................................................................................4
C) Advising Phil on the merits and demerit of starting a mobile phone business. ....................6
TASK B................................................................................................................................................7
A) Explanation and role of “marketing”.....................................................................................7
B) Advise for marketing research techniques.............................................................................7
C) i) Explanation of the “4 P’s” of marketing............................................................................8
ii) Apply marketing mix to the launch........................................................................................9
D) Characteristics of an effective team.....................................................................................10
CONCLUSION..................................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES...................................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Business is a commercial activity done by one or more then one person in order to generate
profit out of the activity. It is a economic system in which goods and services are exchanged
between the producer/manufacturer and the consumer. Business can be of various types like a sole
trader, company, Trust or partnership (Trkman, 2010). There are different classification of business
like agriculture business, service business, real estate business, transport business, financial
institutes and etc. The report studies how Phil and Gray Innovation perform their business activity.
The research is based on the business prospects of the case study provided.
TASK A
A) Planning of staffing needs for Phil
Staffing plan is a map that helps to outline the needs and requirements of staff in an
organisation. As Phil is starting a new business it is important for him to create a staffing plan,
which is presented below:
STEP 1- Forecasting demand
As a partnership business it is important to appoint 10-12 employees within a 15 day time
frame. The firm will consist of engineers, marketers, accountant and human resource manager
(Developing Staffing Plans, 2012). Employee turnover may be a risk for the firm, thus Phil have to
closely monitor on the skills and qualification possessed by the employee before recruiting him/her.
STEP 2- Forecasting Supply
It is expected that Phil will be able to appoint at least 8 employees in the 15 day time period.
As UK's technology industry is expanding there are various rigid competitors who may lure skilled
employees from a start up (Gesteland, 2012). Also Phil can recruit trainees from high school and
colleges which will and can benefit from their knowledge in a lesser pay grade.
STEP 3- Gap Analysis
After subtracting supply from the proposed demand, there is a negative gap of less employee
recruited in the firm (Weiers, 2010). Phil will have to pay attention on strategizing the staffing
needs of the organisation. Strategy will have to be developed in order to retain and recruit

employees for the organization.
STEP 4- Identifying the right strategy
Phil would have to expand the recruitment pool by enhancing marketing of the vacancy in
the organization (Nickels, McHugh and McHugh, 2011). College trainees and apprentice's can be
contacted in case there is a lack of skilled employee. Also, modification have to be done by
increasing the qualification required by the partnership firm. After recruitment firm will have to pay
attention on retaining by providing proper training and development programs to the employees.
B) Advising Phil as to which form of enterprise ownership to select? Also Giving advantages and
disadvantages of each.
Partnership is a organization in which two or more then two person share profits and losses
on basis of their partnership agreement (Partnership – advantages and disadvantages, 2015). As a
business advisor, I will advice Phil to opt for a partnership. As partnership will reduce the burden
of any loss and mishap incurred by the business. The pros and cons of partnership, sole trader and
company are described below.
Advantages of Partnership Disadvantages of Partnership
 Capital: It is easy for the partners to fund
for the business. As the number of
partners will be more the sharing ratio of
the capital investment will decrease. The
partners are eligible to share capital, it
also reduces the risk to face huge losses
by one partner.
 Decision Making- Partners are capable
in efficient decision making. As always
two is better then one (Catacutan, 2013).
It is easy for the partners to involve in
better decision for the profitability of the
business.
 Responsibility- Partners of a partnership
organisation share their responsibility of
running their business on a equal
 Liability: Each partner in the partnership
is liable for the losses incurred by the
business/. This may be a problem in
times when the business incurs huge loss
or when a partner leaves the partnership.
 Disagreements: When two or more
people are involved in the decision
making, disagreements on thoughts and
ideas are normal to arrive. Difference in
opinion among partners may create a rift
between them which is not considered to
be ideal situation for any business.
 Actions: Each partner is liable for the
action taken by the other partner. As in
cases of one or the other partner it is
obvious that the present partner may take

business. Thus any one partner can be
eliminated from the heavy baggage of
extra responsibilities.
 Legal structure- Being in a partnership it
is easy to switch to a different type of
business in a later stage.
decision (Carroll and Buchholtz, 2014).
This situation may prove to be dis-
satisfactory for the other partner.
 Valuation: At the time of death and
partner leaving it is a difficult situation
for the business to revaluate the assets
and liabilities. It is a costly and time
consuming process.
Company is a voluntary association formed to perform a business aspect of earning profits.
Advantages of Company Disadvantages of Company
 Limited Liability: The employees
working in a company have a limited
liability against any losses or expenses
incurred by the company. For example,
the employees will be liable only for
salaries and not for any loss experienced
by the company.
 Separate Entity: The company is a
separate entity from its owners. That is it
is a separate person from its owners and
shareholders (Wheelen and Hunger,
2011). The companies activity will
continue despite any owners death or
retirement from the company.
 Ownership: The directors hold the power
and control of the decision making in an
company. They are the ones who will be
responsible of any advantage earned
from the decision taken by them.
 Restricted Power: The employees and
shareholder working in an company have
restricted power of authority. They are
not invited in any decision making, thus
they lack in participation with the
companies prospects and activities.
 Capital issues: The big disadvantage is to
raise the capital of the company. As
company is a big entity it is difficult to
raise capital (Weske, 2012). Capital is
considered as the fuel for the company
and at the times of investment of
additional capital, issues of accumulation
always arise.
 Expensive Maintenance: Maintaining the
affairs of the company is a expensive
task. To pay for the expense incurred in a
company is considered to be a
disadvantage. As many employees tend
to use the resources of the company in a
wrong way.
A sole trader is the independent owner of the business. He/she himself/herself is entitled to

all the profits and losses incurred in the business.
Advantages of Sole trader Disadvantages of Sole trader
 Profit retention: Sole trader is the only
responsible person behind the business,
thus he/she is responsible to retain the
profit to himself/herself. The trader
maintains full control of the business
activity.
 Control: The authority to take any
decision lies with the sole trader. He/she
is the boss to himself/herself and is not
entitled to work under any other
supervision.
 Privacy of accounts: The sole trader
operates the business on the personal
level, thus he/she can maintain privacy
of the accounts (Myers, 2013). No one
else will have to be consulted to take any
decision in the business.
 Liability: The trader is not considered as
a separate legal entity by the legal
framework. Thus he/she himself/herself
is entitled towards any loss or expense
incurred by the business.
 Decisions: As all the decision are made
by the sole trader, there is a high
frequency of discrepancy in the decision
taken by him/her (Khurana, 2010). In
absence of guidance and constancy the
trader might fall for a bad decision which
may prove to hazardous for the
business. .
 Capital: The investment of additional
capital is a issue for the sole trader. As
business in many times requires
additional capital. It is a huge issue for
the trader to surf for the sources to bring
in capital for the business.
C) Advising Phil on the merits and demerit of starting a mobile phone business.
As Phil is starting a new business to sell high end mobile phone at £2000, it is necessary to
ascertain business merits and demerits.
 Merits of the mobile phone business:
Phil is providing mobile phones at a price of £2000, which is not usual as there are
cheaper phones available in the market. Apart from this this is a huge opportunity to success
in the mobile industry. Customization of the mobile phones will attract new customers, as
there are customers with a good pocket who are interested in purchasing a high end mobile
phone (Longenecker, Petty, Palich and Hoy, 2013). For example, the business class people
and the niche society of UK will prefer these mobile phones. As they like customized

products which serve to the requirements of rich. It will be a advantage for Phil and he will
be able to receive a good customer base who will be willing to pay for the high end
customized phone.
 De-Merits of the mobile phone business:
The biggest de-merit of the mobile business is that the features provided by the
company may not be successful in order to attract customers towards the product. Phil will
have to struggle to provide innovation in the technology been used by the mobile
partnership company. UK's mobile industry is very competitive and there are various
companies providing customized phones on a cheaper source then Phil. It will be difficult
for Phil to compete with the competitors technology as they are already well established and
have heavy pockets to support for the additional requirements of additional (Chaffey and
White, 2010). Supply and demand of the product might also create problem for example, It
will not be easy for Phil to tackle with the fluctuation in the demand sources. There might
be times where there are huge demands for the phone and on the other hand supply might
not be fulfilling for the same.
TASK B
A) Explanation and role of “marketing”.
Explanation of the term “marketing ”
Marketing is a process to identify and meeting customers needs and wants. It is a activity of
creating communicational message to deliver and exchange offers and values of the
products/services designed by a company to the consumers (Jeston and Nelis, 2014). Marketing
allows the business in understanding the necessitate of the customers and helps in fulfilling those
requirements to the consumers.
Role of Marketing in the society
Marketing plays a vital role for the society in the following way.
 Educates: It is a tool for educating society about the products and services offered to
them by the producers or manufacturers.
 Informs: It informs the consumers whether a certain product or service will fulfil
there needs and wants or not (Hawken, 2010).
 Promotes: It is a source to promote the current market trends prevailing in the
market.
Thus it can be said that, marketing helps in earning customers loyalty by managing and

accomplishing their expectations towards a specific product or service.
B) Advise for marketing research techniques.
To market the new battery in the market, Gary can use the following research techniques. Surveys- A survey research is conducted through discussions with the consumers about the
specification of the products and services used by them. Gray Innovation can survey about
the needs and wants of customers found out about a certain product (Wright, 2014). The
company can make a group and ask them to question or inquire about what specification
consumers want in the product. They can also identify the demand of the product in the
particular area. Interviews- Through interviews, interviewer can get in to personal contact of the
interviewee. Interviews use question in a open communication, where the interviewer asks
question to ascertain customers knowledge about a certain product. Gray Innovation can use
this technique to find out about the features customer want in the product (Schaper, Volery,
Weber and Lewis, 2010). Interviews help in identifying the actual behaviour of the
consumer towards the products. This will prove to be beneficial in identifying the habits and
reference of the consumers. Field Trials- Company can provide few phone to some of the customers or stores. Field
trails helps in acknowledging customers response towards the products. By placing the
product for use in stores will help users to try the product. This will be a test trial for the
company (Becker, Kugeler and Rosemann, 2013). As the customers will provide incites
about the pros and cons they found in the product. It will also advertise the product in the
eye of the customers.
 Focus Groups- As a part of mobile technology users can use the product and review about
the same. Focus group is a facility where a group of consumers uses the product on trial
basis. Then a session is conducted where all the user get together and they provide their
feedback about the certain products (Trkman, 2010). A fix location is chosen for conducting
the session, and in each new session new participants are invited to catch the eye of the
customers.
C) i) Explanation of the “4 P’s” of marketing
The marketing mix is a tool used to evaluate the result based on the four variables of the
mix. These variables are product, price, place and promotion. Explanation of these 4 P are done as

under.
A product is the good or the service provided by the company. A product must be made in
accordance of the quality, quantity, feature, design, and customers needs and wants. It is important
to understand what exactly the customer needs and the product must be made in keeping mind
customer satisfaction that the product will generate (Nickels, McHugh, and McHugh, 2011). The
company also must have a clear knowledge as to what it wants to serve to its customers.
After the perfect understanding of the product, the company can formulate pricing decisions
for the product. Price includes the operating cost incurred by the company on manufacturing the
product. The capability of a consumer to pay for the product must be considered and evaluated
before making any price related decision (Zott, Amit and Massa, 2011). Price is effective for
positioning the product in the customers eye. Price affects the revenue generation ability and profit
margins of the company thus pricing decisions must be made very careful way.
It is said that to successfully market a product the marketer must place the right product at
the right place. Company will have to evaluate the right target market and position to market and
advertise the product (Storey and Greene, 2010). For example, to sell a product the right must be
chosen which can be a physical store or a online store. The decision to choose the right place will
benefit the company in generating better customer traffic towards the product.
After assessing the price and place to market the product, it is important to choose the right
promotional tool to market the product among the customers. Promotion is a way to raise customers
awareness about a product or service (Gesteland, 2012). It is done by publicizing the product
through TV ads, print media and social media. Advertising, Public relations, Email marketing,
online marketing are also elements of promoting a product or service.
ii) Apply marketing mix to the launch.
Marketing mix can be used to launch the product of Gray innovation in the market in the
following way.
1. Product- In order to generate maximum customer satisfaction, it is important for the
Product
Price
Place
Promotion

company to identify the needs of the users using mobile phones. The product must be
capable of providing the feature it uses for promotional activity (The Four Ps of Marketing,
2016). As this will help the company to earn customers loyalty towards their services. Gray
innovation must make an effort to position their product effectively in the customers eye.
2. Price- The price of the battery must not be to expensive n either it should be too cheap. As
this will hamper brand image of the product in the market. The price must be in accordance
with the feature the battery supports (Catacutan, 2013). The price can be estimated with the
demand of the battery in the market. This is achievable with the research attempted by the
company.
3. Place- In order to choose the right place Gray must focus to see the product through the
online stores and the physical. The company must not open an outlet store of its own instead
must use retail store to sell their product (Khurana, 2010). This will help the company I
reducing the expense that will be incurred on a physical store. Also selling through the
online market will help to cater a larger customer base.
4. Promotion- Gray Innovation can use social media advertising, Email advertising, online
video advertising for its online store. To attract customers to its physical store the company
can use TV advertising, print advertising and hoardings (Hawken, 2010). It is important for
the company to promote heavily for the product as the product is new for the market and for
the customers.
D) Characteristics of an effective team
The characteristics for team are as followed.
 The important characteristics of effective team is the the unity among the diversified
participants of the team (Weske, 2012).
 For a effective team there must be lot of discussion. It helps in generating better results as it
further improves the decision making ability of the members.
 Communication must be proper i.e. each member must maintain cordial communication
among the (Weiers, 2010). As this will improve the interaction level among the team
members which is important aspect of a effective team.
 Team members must obey to the rules and policies formulated by their team leader. Thus
there must be great leadership ability to operate a effective team in an organization.
It is important for each member to understand these characteristics to generate effective
team for their organisation.

CONCLUSION
Thus it can be said that to achieve the objectives of the organisation it is necessary to build
effective team in the company. Another important aspect is to plan for the staffing requirement of
the company in order to facilitate work in the organization. The report also studied the different
types of business. And it can be said that partnership business will prove to be beneficial for Phil in
order to succeed in the market. Also market research is helpful to identifying the needs and wants of
the customers. The report also concludes that marketing is important to position a product or service
in the market.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Becker, J., Kugeler, M. and Rosemann, M. eds., 2013. Process management: a guide for the design
of business processes. Springer Science & Business Media.
Carroll, A. and Buchholtz, A., 2014. Business and society: Ethics, sustainability, and stakeholder
management. Cengage Learning.
Catacutan, R., 2013. Education in virtues as goal of buisness ethics instruction. African Journal of
Business Ethics. 7(2). p.62.
Chaffey, D. and White, G., 2010. Business information management: improving performance using
information systems. Pearson Education.
Gesteland, R.R., 2012. Cross-Cultural Business Behavior: A guide for global management.
Copenhagen Business School Press DK.
Hammer, M., 2010. What is business process management?. In Handbook on Business Process
Management 1. pp.3-16.
Hawken, P., 2010. The ecology of commerce: A declaration of sustainability. Harper Business.
Jeston, J. and Nelis, J., 2014. Business process management. Routledge.
Khurana, R., 2010. From higher aims to hired hands: The social transformation of American
business schools and the unfulfilled promise of management as a profession. Princeton
University Press.
Longenecker, J., Petty, J., Palich, L. and Hoy, F., 2013. Small business management. Cengage
Learning.
Myers, M.D., 2013. Qualitative research in business and management. Sage.
Nickels, W.G., McHugh, J. and McHugh, S., 2011. Understanding Business 9th ed. Irwin, McGraw-
Hill New York.
Nickels, W.G., McHugh, J. and McHugh, S., 2011. Understanding Business 9th ed. Irwin, McGraw-
Hill New York.
Schaper, M., Volery, T., Weber, P. and Lewis, K., 2010. Entrepreneurship and small business.
Storey, D.J. and Greene, F.J., 2010. Small business and entrepreneurship. Financial Times Prentice
Hall.
Trkman, P., 2010. The critical success factors of business process management. International
Journal of Information Management. 30(2). pp.125-134.
Weiers, R., 2010. Introduction to business statistics. Cengage Learning.
Weske, M., 2012. Business process management: concepts, languages, architectures. Springer
Science & Business Media.
Wheelen, T.L. and Hunger, J.D., 2011. Concepts in strategic management and business policy.
Pearson Education India.
Wright, L., 2014. Principles of service marketing and management.
Zott, C., Amit, R. and Massa, L., 2011. The business model: recent developments and future
research. Journal of management. 37(4). pp.1019-1042.
Online
Developing Staffing Plans. 2012. [Online]. Available through:
<http://www.hr.wa.gov/WorkforceDataAndPlanning/WorkforcePlanning/Pages/
DevelopingStaffingPlans.aspx>. [Accessed on: 7th January, 2016].
Partnership – advantages and disadvantages. 2015. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.business.tas.gov.au/starting-a-business/starting-a-business-from-scratch/

choosing-a-business-structure-intro/partnership-advantages-and-disadvantages>. [Accessed
on: 7th January, 2016].
Primary market research. 2016. [Online]. Available through: <http://www.cleverism.com/market-
research-techniques-primary-secondary/>. [Accessed on: 7th January, 2016].
The Four Ps of Marketing. 2016. [Online]. Available through:
<http://www.purelybranded.com/insights/the-four-ps-of-marketing/>. [Accessed on: 7th
January, 2016].