Comprehensive Business Strategy Report: Creating Careers Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the business strategy employed by Creating Careers, a UK-based e-learning solutions provider. The report begins with an introduction to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and their significance, followed by an assessment of Creating Careers' strengths and weaknesses, including its e-learning services, employee expertise, and marketing strategies. The analysis includes comparative performance measures across technology, human resources, marketing, and financial positions. Recommendations are provided to overcome weaknesses, such as adopting new technologies, improving team management, and enhancing promotional opportunities. The report also explores ways to maintain and strengthen existing performance through performance record-keeping, stakeholder relations, and market position maintenance. Furthermore, it suggests new areas for business expansion, including identifying new courses, assessing course requirements, and utilizing research techniques. The report concludes with an evaluation of existing business objectives and plans, incorporating changes into the business plan, and outlining an action plan for implementation. Finally, the report considers the impact of proposed changes on the business and its personnel, change management strategies, and performance monitoring.

Business Strategy

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ...............................................................................................................................4
TASK 1.................................................................................................................................................4
AC 1.1 Small business enterprise with its strengths and weaknesses.............................................4
AC 1.2 Analysis of the business using comparative measures of performance..............................5
TASK 2 ................................................................................................................................................5
AC 2.1 Recommendations for appropriate actions to overcome weaknesses in Creating Careers 5
AC 2.2 Analyse ways for maintaining and strengthening existing performance.............................6
AC 2.3 Recommendations for new areas in which the business could be expanded......................7
TASK 3 ................................................................................................................................................7
AC 3.1 Assessment of existing business objectives and plans........................................................7
AC 3.2 Business plans to incorporate appropriate changes.............................................................8
AC 3.3 Action plan to implement the changes................................................................................9
TASK 4.................................................................................................................................................9
AC 4.1 Impact of the proposed changes on the business and its personnel....................................9
AC 4.2 Changes management in Creating Careers........................................................................10
AC 4.3 Monitoring of performance improvements of the business .............................................10
CONCLUSION..................................................................................................................................12
References..........................................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Small medium enterprise (SME) hire small number of employees and have sales in less
volume. These enterprises also called as small business which are privately owned and sole
proprietors operate them. The size of such type of business depends upon the nature of the business.
These enterprises are responsible for new innovations in various sectors (Hayes, 2014).
The present report has based on SME and to understand its importance in the context of
business, Creating Career has taken into the consideration. The study consists of objectives, plans,
performance, strengths and weaknesses of the small business. It also includes required changes,
strategies for implementation of those changes, management of applied changes and impact of them
on the firm. In the end, it is concluded with the summary and key findings of the whole study.
TASK 1
AC 1.1 Small business enterprise with its strengths and weaknesses
Creating Careers Company is one of the leading firm of UK which was established in 1999
with a vision to provide equal learning opportunities to everyone. It provides e-learning solutions
for students of primary and secondary schools. It is a online portal for e learning which provides
various facilities to the students and professionals. It has divided course as per the standard and
choices of the students. It helps in providing solutions to the students by solving their queries. The
strengths and weaknesses of Creating Careers is as follows.
Strengths:
 It provides quality service to the students
 It motivates students to learn and implement new courses.
 The employees of the business is well trained and experts.
 It has good relations with colleges, institutions and schools (Rao, 2012).
 Time to time research of market keeps it updated.
 It provides employees an opportunity to work on wider variety of projects.
Weaknesses:
 It has less promotional opportunities as compare to the other firms.
 Ineffective team management.
 Lack of advertising skills leads to improper marketing of the courses.
 Undefined software standards.

 Lack of innovativeness and creativeness to attract more students of various fields (Bridge
and O'Neill, , 2012).
 Lack of opportunities creates difficulties for employees to learn industry latest and best
practices along with various methodologies.
AC 1.2 Analysis of the business using comparative measures of performance
There are various comparative measures of performance used by the Creating Careers
enterprise is as follows.
 Technology: Business is using old version of technology which effects on the efficiency of
performance. It needs to improve the technology as per the present scenario. To improve the
performance as compare to the other businesses, it is necessary to use best technology. This
makes the operations and functions easier and simpler (Reid, Hazell and Gibbons, 2013).
 Human Resources: Employees are the most important assess of any firm. The performance
and growth of the Creating Careers depends upon the skills, knowledge and ability they
posses. It has talented and knowledgable professionals who helps in achieving the goals. It
also provide training to them for time to time development (Measure Business Performance.
2015).
 Marketing: The strategies used by Creating Careers for the advertising of its online courses
are simple and not have any attraction point. The company needs to plan strategies by
keeping the market scenario and competitors marketing strategies in mind. The innovative
and unique advertising strategy will leads to attract more people (Mason, 2015).
 Financial Position: Financial position of the enterprise is very strong which leads it to top
position. It compares the growth with its competitors which helps it in knowing the market
position and its performance. It compare the profit with the other companies which results to
better performance if required (Massa, Farnetiand Scappini, 2015).
TASK 2
AC 2.1 Recommendations for appropriate actions to overcome weaknesses in Creating Careers
Recommendations for improving the performance and solving the weaknesses of Creating
Careers are as follows.
 Technology: Company should use latest technology which helps in improving its
performance and achieving its goals effectively. It needs to update the ERP system and to
improve its database as per the requirement. Company needs to use biometric systems for
keeping all the attendance record of the employees. The website is also needs to redesign by

introducing new the features and services (Schawel, and Billing, 2012).
 Marketing: For attracting more students and professionals, Creating Careers needs to use
innovative and creative strategies. Planning and designing of new strategies should be in
proper manner for effective marketing. It needs to use digital and traditional marketing
techniques for promoting and advertising its courses and services.
 Team Management: For effective team management, organization needs to conduct training
programs for increasing cooperation and coordination among the employees. In addition to
this, by conducting formal and informal meeting, the relations among the employees and
management can be improved (Kwong, Thompsonand Cheung, 2012).
 Promotional Opportunities: The enterprise needs to provide various promotional
opportunities to the employees to increase their confidence, motivation, abilities and
performance. Promotions can be in the form of incentives, bonuses, transfers, etc which
leads to better results and increase employee retention ratio.
AC 2.2 Analyse ways for maintaining and strengthening existing performance
For maintaining the existing performance and to improve it, Creating Careers can use
various ways which are described below.
 By maintaining performance records: Company needs to maintain its performance records
in a proper documentation format. It helps in comparing the current performance with the
desired performance. The result of this is to know where company stands in the present time
and the actions required for improvement (Burnes and Cooke, 2013).
 Maintaining good relations: For achieving the targets and growth in the market, company
needs to maintain good relations with its stakeholders. The effective relationship help in
creating better image and reputation of the enterprise in the market (Performance
Measurement. 2015).
 Business strengths: By analysing business strengths, company can maintain and improve
the performance. Creating Careers needs to find out own strong areas and uses them for
betterment. It has helped in overcome the weaknesses which leads to improve the current
performance (Rao, 2012).
 Maintaining market position: By maintaining the good market position, company can
increase market share . Creating Careers is one of the leading firm in the UK among its
competitors. To maintain the top position, it needs to use innovative and creative ideas and
strategies.

AC 2.3 Recommendations for new areas in which the business could be expanded
The new areas for expanding the business and improving the performance of Creating
Careers are explained below.
 Identifying Area of expansion: The company needs to identify new courses and various
different services to expand its current position. It can provide various course in different
field as per the customer demands and preferences which attracts diverse customers. It can
increase the number of present customers by providing various offers, discounts, free
services, seasonal offers, etc (Reid, Hazell and Gibbons, 2013).
 Assessing course requirements: Time to time evaluation of the courses leads to find out the
requirement of it. Proper analysis leads to know the requirement of resources, faculty and
professionals, time for completion of course, subjects required in the course, etc. Proper
assessing of courses leads to satisfy the students.
 Research Techniques: Company can use new techniques for researching the subjects and
courses offered by universities and colleges. These techniques helps in knowing the student
preferences and demands. Research is one of the important task of this firm the effective
techniques makes it simpler and more appropriate. The obtained results helps business in
deciding new services and enhancing its business (Bridge and O'Neill, , 2012).
 Risk assessment: Creating Careers faces various kinds of problems and issues while
planning and implementing business strategies and maintaining databases. By the help of
Risk assessment, company can improve its performance by keeping alternative option with
it. It leads to create risk handling and problem solving skills of workers (Schawel, and
Billing, 2012).
TASK 3
AC 3.1 Assessment of existing business objectives and plans
Business objectives and plans of Creating Careers are formed by keeping the procedures,
policies, competitors strategies, laws, economic systems and market structure. The assessment of
the existing business objectives and plans of Creating Careers is as follows.
 Composition of objectives of business: The business goal of the company is to providing
quality services to the students as per the demand and current scenario. The objective of the
firm needs to be flexible and adjusting so that any kind of change does not effect it along
with the working of the enterprise (Rao, 2012).
 Evaluation of business objectives in respect to existing performance: The evaluation of the

business objectives in respect to present performance helps in measuring the growth and
success. It can be measured by various financial tools, it helps in comparing the previous
figures with current. This assessment helps in selecting objectives as per the change.
 Formation of changes in objectives of business: The evaluation of objectives in various
areas helps in finding the ambiguity. This assessment leads to identify ambiguity in the
performance which can be improved by applying changes in the business objectives. These
changes takes company to the new growth and success (Creating Careers. 2015).
 Consequences of changes on business plans: Changes in small scale enterprises are
resisted by the employees and disturbs the working in the company. But after
implementation, it benefits the employees, company, customers, etc in many ways (Hayes,
2014).
AC 3.2 Business plans to incorporate appropriate changes
To incorporate appropriate changes Creating Career needs to revise its business plan. The
business plan should have following changes.
 Changes in the budgeting results to better financial status. This also helps in taking decisions
for the betterment of the company.
 It needs to applied those changes which fulfil the requirement of current scenario. The
courses should according to the demand and requirement of the students.
 Technological changes helps in recording the performance and also makes the operations
easy (Burnes and Cooke, 2013).
 Changes in the services such as video conferencing with the faculty, chat option, group
discussion or face to face communication facility, etc helps in satisfying students.
 Changes in the courses by increasing variety of courses and subjects attracts variety of
students for choosing this online course portal (Creating Careers. 2015).
 Evaluation of the plans against the business objectives helps in improving the performance
which leads to better achievement of targets or goals.
 Business plan need to be according to the business objectives. It should consider all the
factors that plays important role in achieving good performance and objectives (Bridge and
O'Neill, , 2012).
 Preparation of business forecast helps in implementing the changes appropriately. This
forecasting helps in developing operational and staffing plans which makes enterprise
successful (Advani, 2015).

AC 3.3 Action plan to implement the changes
The action plan to implement the changes in Creating Career are as follows.
 For implementing the changes company should involve staff members, customers,
community into it (Schawel, and Billing, 2012).
 Company can use appropriate system for recording the progress of implemented change.
 While implementing the changes, their should be effective and proper allocation of
resources.
 Firm needs to conduct training and development programs for learning and accepting the
applied change.
 Time to time monitoring and evaluation of changes helps in knowing the progress.
 Firm needs to set deadlines for implementing the change.
 By measuring the performance, company can evaluate that applied change gives the desired
results or not (Mason, 2015).
TASK 4
AC 4.1 Impact of the proposed changes on the business and its personnel
The proposed change impacts the business and its employees in both positive and negative
manner. Due to the proposed change, employees resist it and try to ignore it due to the fear and
insecurity This resist to change creates ineffective time management with inappropriate working.
But proper guidance and explanation of benefits helps them in accepting and adopting change. The
proposed change provides many learning opportunities to the workers which leads to enhance their
skills, knowledge and abilities. Change is slow process which takes time in bringing improvement
which needs time to time monitoring and reviewing (Implementing the action plan. 2015). This
increases the market share and market position of the firm. For increasing the market share,
company hires more employees which increase firm's organisational structure. It leads to better
utilisation of resources, use of latest technologies, improves the working environment, etc. The
applied changes improves marketing strategies which helps in attracting more customers of
diversified fields and interest. It leads to provide various services such as online attendance, one to
one communication, availability of notes, downloading and uploading of the form and required
documents which increase the number of users. The applied changes bring improvement in the
performance and working of the enterprise. The feedbacks and responses shows the impact of
change either in positive way or in negative way. If the impact of the changes are not as per the
expectations then firm needs to review and improve it (Creating Careers. 2015).

AC 4.2 Changes management in Creating Careers
Change management is the process of managing the change and development in the
business. The systematic approach is important implement and manage the changes. Managing the
change consists of three different aspects which are adapting the change, controlling change and
effecting change. For managing the change, Creating Careers needs to use Kurt Lewis model which
is as follows.
 Unfreezing: In this employees and management prepares itself before implementing change.
It this way they feel the urgency for applying the change which results to more motivation.
Change should have deadline for applying it on time and for keeping employees excited and
motivated. Unfreezing provides company an opportunity to find out the pros and cons of the
change (Rouse, 2015).
 Transition: In this stage enterprise applied the change in the required areas. It is one of the
crucial stage where employees need time to understand and work with the change. Creating
Careers needs to provide training and coaching to their workers so that they accept change
easily. It can also allow staff members for developing their own solutions for the arise
problems. Proper communication related the change keeps the management updated about
the desired results and its benefits (The Kurt Lewin Change Management Model. 2015).
 Freezing: This is the last stage of the Kurt Lewis method which is also called as Refreezing.
In this stage, organisation try to maintain the stability after accepting the change. Employees
adopts the change and feel comfortable in working in new environment.
AC 4.3 Monitoring of performance improvements of the business
After implementing the changes and adopting it, the next step comes for the Creating
Careers is to monitor those changes and modifications time to time. The monitoring leads to
determine the progress and analysing the results with the actual outcomes. This helps in checking
the performance and perception of employees towards the change. For monitoring, they can record
the whole change process in the system with its status, time of completion, expected results, actual
results, areas in which changes are applied, etc. Proper maintenance helps in evaluating gap in the
applied change and comparing it from the previous performance. If the change are not providing
expected outcomes then enterprise needs to re-plan and redesign it (Rao, 2012).
Table 1: Gantt Chart for monitoring of performance improvements of the business
Activity (in months ) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Objective setting

Market research for analysing
the demand
Development of new services
and courses
Maintaining market position
Forming reputation in the
market
Increase in number of users
Business expansion globally
Implementing and monitoring
changes
Controlling change
Evaluating change
CONCLUSION
As per the study it is concluded that small scale enterprises plays essential role in developing
economy of the country. Creating Careers is providing online courses to the students which is one
of the best way of providing various opportunities to the students and enhancing their career. By
comparing measures company can evaluate its performance along with strengths and weaknesses.
Timely evaluation helps in finding the areas which require change or improvement. By applying
appropriate changes firms can bring improvement in their work and employee abilities. Firm should
have business and action plan for implementing the changes in right manner. Proper monitoring and
documentation of the applied change helps in comparing the performance.

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