MKT3031: Strategic Consultancy Report for Checkout.com Startup

This strategic consultancy report provides a comprehensive analysis of Checkout.com, a UK-based payment platform. The report begins with an introduction emphasizing the importance of strategic planning for business direction and resource allocation. The main body of the report delves into entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial strategies, including a nine-step roadmap encompassing vision, market segmentation, problem identification, solution sketching, value proposition creation, channel and revenue modeling, MVP launch, innovation accounting, and growth experiments. It also examines Checkout.com's strategic situation, including market dynamics, financial management, problem-solving, and the need for adaptability. The report further outlines implementation strategies consistent with identified objectives, such as staying ahead of emerging technologies, prioritizing design and usability, and learning from competitors. Alternative problem-solving approaches, including aligning change with goals, determining impact, communication strategies, support structures, and effective training, are also discussed. The report concludes by summarizing the key findings and emphasizing the importance of strategic planning for business success. The report is designed to provide a comprehensive understanding of the strategic challenges and opportunities for Checkout.com.

STRATEGIC
CONSULTANCY REPORT

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..............................................................................................................................................3
Entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial strategies..........................................................................................3
Organization’s strategic situation and its entrepreneurial capability and position...................................6
Implementation strategy that is consistent with identified objectives......................................................7
Alternative approaches to problem solving..............................................................................................8
CONCLUSION...........................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..........................................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
It is very important for the business to have an effective strategic planning as it provides a
right direction to the business for making effective decision and allocating essential resources
(Carter and Tamayo, 2017). Present study is based on the startup Checkout.com that is UK based
and was launched in the year 2012 and was given authorization as a payment institution. They
provide unified payments platform and multiple payment options to its customers. Report will
include Entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial strategies that the company can adopt for bring right
strategies for the business. Report will also include Organization’s strategic situation and its
entrepreneurial capability and position. Report will further Implements strategies that is
consistent with identified objectives. Report will finally identify the alternative approaches to
problem solving.
MAIN BODY
Entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial strategies
Entrepreneur is a person that uses its innovative ideas for identifying the need of new
creation of a business. They are creative and imaginative personality(Garud, Gehman and
Tharchen, 2018).
Intrapreneur is an employee that is assigned a task to develop innovative idea or project
for the startup.
Entrepreneurial and Intrapreneurial strategies:-
Figure:- 1

Illustration 1:- Entrepreneurship Roadmap
It is 9 step process and these steps are as following:-
Step 1:- Vision and team
It is very important to have an idea of the new products and service that the business wants to
launch before creating the actual offerings. It is very important for Intrapreneur at Checkout.com
to understand what they are actually looking to achieve from the idea so that they can work
accordingly. They have to identify how the life of people would be changing with the help of this
idea. An intrapreneurial team needs to rely on their vision and not only on the idea. It is very
important for them to reduce the risk and work to maximize the return from the startup(Kuratko
and Hornsby, 2017).
Step 2:- Market Segmentation
Entrepreneur and Intrapreneur both needs to work on identifying their target market as it
is not enough to just create an offering, but it is also important to analyze the audience whom the
business is offerings the final product. Though the market is not specific enough, new business is
required to identify its potential customers. This step is to figure out the actual customers of the
Checkout.com. Business is required to divide its large market into smaller parts and categorize
them on bases of demographic, geographic, psychographic and on bases of behaviour.

Step 3:- Problems and Opportunities
Understanding the prospect is also important for the business that is the key jobs and
tasks, different goals and values of the customers that they want to achieve with the help of
business offerings and also the respective challenges. This helps Checkout.com to achieve their
goals and extract the possible opportunities(Choi, Ruskov and Tsolova, 2016).
Step 4:- Sketch
The fourth step of Corporate Entrepreneurship roadmap is to have their focus over the
respective solutions. Checkout.com is required to sketch different ideas and goals into a fully
fleshed out solution. This can be done by building an effective relationship with the audience and
conducting a structured solution interviews in order to take their feedbacks and accordingly
working in the product development.
Step 5:- The Value Proposition
The next step of Checkout.com is to create a value proposition that is how their business
is different from others and their products are worth paying attention to. There are different ways
to frame a value proposition and the best way is to understand the end result that customer wants
and in time period in which they want the offerings. Deriving value proposition unlocks what the
startup has that differ from others(Asma and et.al., 2017).
Step 6:- Channels, Revenue and Cost Model
It is very important for the Checkout.com to build a significant path for their customers
and there are multitudes of channels that are available for Intrapreneurs which they can utilize
for extracting a potential market. With the help of different channels such as Email, Radio, TV,
SEO, social media etc. business is able to market its offerings.
Step 7:- MVP and Soft Launch
MVP is product that is having features to satisfy the early adopters and it also helps to
provide feedback for future development of the product. It is a viable product that is the
customers must have willingness to pay for the offerings. So, the Entrepreneurs at Checkout.com
are required to have such offering and promote the same with the help of different channels. It is

also important to collect the specific data that can analyze what will be the reactions of target
market towards the MVP.
Step 8:- Innovation Accounting
Next step for the Entrepreneurship roadmap is to track the respective data of customers who have
actually reached out the business and have made a purchase. Checkout.com is also required to
have their focus on activation and retention that is first experience of the customers with the
brand and will they retain that is whether they will come back or not(Taucean, Strauti and Tion,
2018).
Step 9:- Growth Experiments
Final step of the Roadmap is the growth experiment which is a framework that constantly
delivers new value to its customers and drive growth. Checkout.com have to conduct growth
experiment in order to identify whether they are satisfying their customers with the respective
offerings or not.
Organization’s strategic situation and its entrepreneurial capability and position
There are different strategic situations that may arise while the startup introduce its
offerings in new market. It is on the capability and position of entrepreneur at Checkout.com that
how they handle the situation. The different strategic situations are as following:-
 Keeping up with the market:- Entrepreneur at Checkout.com must have the capability
to keep up with the market while launching its new products. The conditions of the
business usually changes on continuous bases and it is important for the business to have
a market research on continuous bases as not doing so may lead your business to risk as
out dated information may not work effectively for the business. Business is required to
set its objective to lead the market with an effective sales growth and profit margins. The
best strategy for the business is to understand where its products are being lying in the
lifecycle in order to analyze the respective profitability(Rodrigo-Alarcón and et.al.,
2018).
 Cash flow and financial management:- It is very important for the business have
control over cash flow and Checkout.com is required to use its finance more effectively

with a proper business plan and by assessing new opportunity from the market. The
different elements with respect to working capital have to be controlled carefully in order
to maximize the free cash flow. Checkout.com has to see that they are having effective
supplier management in order to have effective growth of the business(García-Sánchez,
García-Morales and Martín-Rojas, 2018).
 Problem solving:- Generally, the new business run in perpetual crisis mode and there are
various challenges that are in need to be resolved within the time period and the business
waste its most crucial time in troubleshooting. Not only this, business also has to ensure
intellectual property in order to protect their ideas. Entrepreneurs at Checkout.com have
to keep their focus on marketing campaigns in order to develop their brand image in
market.
 Welcoming change:- It is not good for the startups to get satisfied easily and have
assumptions that the success of their products and services will continue without bringing
any new change in the offerings on time to time bases. For the same, Checkoout.com is
required to revisit its business plan and update the same in a particular interval of time.
This business plan helps the entrepreneurs to understand the changing conditions of the
market and they must respond positively to the respective changes. Business needs to
understand that the updated plan helps to bring an effective action plan and modifies the
way of its operations. It is important to train the employees time to time as it helps the
business to grow more effectively. The technologies need to be updated on continuous
bases and the use of advance technology will be quite beneficial for the startups(Teece,
Peteraf and Leih, 2016).
Implementation strategy that is consistent with identified objectives
Different strategies that can help the startup to meet its business objectives are as
following:-
 Stay on top of emerging technologies:- It is very important for Checkout.com to be on
top with respect to the use of emerging technologies that are coming in market. In today’s
market, the customers easily switch their products if they find some new and advanced
features somewhere else. Therefore, it is important for the business to work with

advanced technology and make the experience of the customers more
effective(Srinivasan and Venkatraman, 2018).
 Prioritize design and usability:- It is very important for Checkout.com to have a
software that is user friendly and customers are able to use the technology more
effectively and easily. The expectation of the customers is generally to have such product
and services that work easily for them. User friendly software helps the business to make
its customers feel comfortable in using the offerings and their satisfaction leads to brand
value in market.
 Learn from your Competitors:- It is very important for the startups to have a look on
their respective competitors and also on their work. There are many new things that these
startups learn from their competitors and can bring change in business strategies in order
to have their focus on actual needs of the customers. A clear idea of the target market and
ways to approach these markets is very important for Checkout.com. It is important for
the startups to reach such market with some different ideas and offerings before the
competitors reach the market and grab their target market. Analyzing the strength and
weaknesses of the competitors also helps the businesses to come up with innovative
strategy to fight back and extract new market(Zulfa, 2019).
Alternative approaches to problem solving
Business is required to bring an effective change in the organization in order to achieve
the respective objectives and to solve different business problems. For solving these problems
and to bring such changes, business is required to adopt the following strategies:-
 Align the change with business goals:- Checkout.com is required to review the
organisational objectives and performance of the business in order align them in right
direction both financially and strategically.
 Determine the impact:- Business is require to determine the impact of the change that
they are bringing towards the business and have to analyze that the introduction of new
technology will be adopted by the organisational structure or not.
 Communication strategy:- In order to identify the problem and to have its various
solutions, business is required to have an effective communication with the help of
different channels(Al-Henzab, Tarhini and Obeidat, 2018).

 Implement a support structure:- It is very important for the business to have a support
structure and build proficiency of behaviors and technical skills within the staff so that
they are able to achieve the desirable results of the business.
 Provide effective training:- Business is required to provide an effective training to the
staff as its enhances their skills and knowledge and the required business results can be
achieved with its help.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it is been analyzed that the in order to start a new business, the
Entrepreneurs are required to adopt an effective entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial strategies in
order to develop a successful business plan. Report also concluded that there are different
organisational strategic situations and entrepreneurs are required to have an effective capability
to deal with them and to set their objectives. Report also concluded that it is important for
Checkout.com to implement different strategies for the business in order to meet the respective
objectives.

REFERENCES
Books and Journal
Al-Henzab, J., Tarhini, A. and Obeidat, B.Y., 2018. The associations among market orientation,
technology orientation, entrepreneurial orientation and organizational
performance. Benchmarking: An International Journal.
Asma, A. and et.al., 2017. Social entrepreneurship: a roadmap to reach out poverty.
Carter, M. and Tamayo, A., 2017. Entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial skills of managers as
determinant of organizational performance of small and medium enterprises in Davao
region, Philippines. Philippines (March 6, 2017).
Choi, J.I., Ruskov, P. and Tsolova, S., 2016. Roadmap Design for Technology and
Entrepreneurship Commercialization in Bulgaria. In International Conference
“Аutomatics and Informatics (pp. 247-250).
García-Sánchez, E., García-Morales, V.J. and Martín-Rojas, R., 2018. Analysis of the influence
of the environment, stakeholder integration capability, absorptive capacity, and
technological skills on organizational performance through corporate
entrepreneurship. International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal. 14(2).
pp.345-377.
Garud, R., Gehman, J. and Tharchen, T., 2018. Performativity as ongoing journeys: Implications
for strategy, entrepreneurship, and innovation. Long Range Planning. 51(3). pp.500-509.
Kuratko, D.F. and Hornsby, J.S., 2017. New venture management: The entrepreneur’s roadmap.
Taylor & Francis.
Rodrigo-Alarcón, J. and et.al., 2018. From social capital to entrepreneurial orientation: The
mediating role of dynamic capabilities. European Management Journal. 36(2). pp.195-
209.
Srinivasan, A. and Venkatraman, N., 2018. Entrepreneurship in digital platforms: A network‐
centric view. Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal. 12(1). pp.54-71.
Taucean, I.M., Strauti, A.G. and Tion, M., 2018. Roadmap to entrepreneurial university–case
study. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences. 238. pp.582-589.
Teece, D., Peteraf, M. and Leih, S., 2016. Dynamic capabilities and organizational agility: Risk,
uncertainty, and strategy in the innovation economy. California Management
Review. 58(4). pp.13-35.
Zulfa, M., 2019. The Development Model of Marketing Adaptation Strategy based on
Entrepreneurial Capacity towards Export Performance. Calitatea. 20(171). pp.104-108.
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