Case Study: Giant Bikes E-Bike Innovation & Business Development

This case study analyzes the potential for Giant Bikes to enter the smart e-bike market in Australia. It highlights the declining demand for regular bikes and the lack of competition in the e-bike sector, making it a viable business opportunity. The recommended solution involves establishing a new business focused on smart e-bikes with features like smartphone integration, GPS tracking, and fitness tracking. The study includes a costing evaluation estimating an initial investment of $30,000 for showroom setup, e-bike inventory, and IT infrastructure. Change management considerations are discussed, emphasizing the need for strong IT support and trained personnel to demonstrate e-bike functionalities. A detailed timeline for project delivery is provided using a Gantt chart, outlining key tasks such as data collection, showroom purchase and decoration, IT implementation, e-bike procurement, and business initiation.

Running Head: INNOVATION AND BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
Innovation and Business Development
Name of the Student
Name of the University

1INNOVATION AND BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
Part 5: Deliverability of the Recommended Solution
5.1 Details of Recommended Solution
The recommended solution for Giant Bikes Company is the new business with smart e-
bikers. E-bikes are set to take over the market in the next few years due to wide range of features
provided by the bikes (Chang, 2017). The e-bikers have several unique features unlike regular
bikes like smart phone assistant, GPS tracking, fitness tracking and others. Currently, in
Australia, there is a decline in demand of regular bikes as the people are looking for more tech
savvy and efficient bikes that will provide them with additional benefits rather than
transportation. Again, there is still almost no competition in the country in e-bike business and
hence, it is a suitable solution for Giant Bikes (Mason, Fulton & McDonald, 2015). However,
due to addition of so many features, the prices of the bikes will be higher than regular bikes and
hence, suitable business strategy must be developed accordingly.
5.2 Costing Evaluation
The initial investment needed to set up the e-bike business is estimated at around
$30,000. Firstly, purchase and decoration of a showroom for e-bike will cost around $10,000. In
the initial phase of the business, 50 e-bikes will be bought from the manufacturer for display and
sale that will require another $15,000. This amount will be paid in installments to the
manufacturer. Finally, the remaining $5000 will be utilized for IT implementation that includes
installation of business workstations, payment devices, business database server, demonstration
smartphones for fitness and GPS tracking and others.

2INNOVATION AND BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
5.3 Change Management
Significant amount of change management is required in order to move from regular bike
business to e-bike business. Bike business can be done through any regular stores without any
other requirements (Hsu et al., 2016). However, for e-bikes, in addition to the bike display, it is
required to demonstrate the functions and features of the e-bikes to the customers like working of
the fitness tracking system, GPS system and others. Hence, in order to set up the e-bike shop,
strong IT support is required with video demonstrations and smartphones that will be linked to
the e-bike for the demo (Lopez et al., 2017). Furthermore, additional human resources are to be
appointed who will assist the customers with the understanding of the demonstrations.
5.4 Delivery
A proposed timeline for the delivery of the e-bike store is shown in the following table.
Task Name Duration Start Finish
E-Bike Business for Giant Bikes 130 days Mon 5/21/18 Fri 11/16/18
Data Collection on Bike and E-Bike
Market
30 days Mon 5/21/18 Fri 6/29/18
Purchase of Showroom for E-Bike
Business
15 days Mon 7/2/18 Fri 7/20/18
Decoration of the Showroom 15 days Mon 7/23/18 Fri 8/10/18
Install Business Workstations 10 days Mon 8/13/18 Fri 8/24/18
Develop Business Database 10 days Mon 8/27/18 Fri 9/7/18

3INNOVATION AND BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
Connect Payment Gateway with
Database
5 days Mon 9/10/18 Fri 9/14/18
Purchase E-Bikes for Display and
Sale
25 days Mon 9/17/18 Fri 10/19/18
Initiate the Business 20 days Mon 10/22/18 Fri 11/16/18
The Gantt chart related to the delivery of the project is shown in the following diagram.
Figure 1: Gantt Chart of the Project
(Source: Created by Author)

4INNOVATION AND BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
References
Chang, C. K. (2017). Parking/Charging system based on the new urban sharing e-bike business
model, Urbee: Next-gen Urbee docking station.
Hsu, S. W., Lin, W. T., Fan, C. M., Zhan, W. X., & Yan, Z. H. (2016, November). A study of
application of Six Sigma in improving process optimization for e-bike pedal mandrels.
In Fuzzy Theory and Its Applications (iFuzzy), 2016 International Conference on (pp. 1-
8). IEEE.
Lopez, A. J., Astegiano, P., Gautama, S., Ochoa, D., Tampère, C. M., & Beckx, C. (2017).
Unveiling e-bike potential for commuting trips from GPS traces. ISPRS International
Journal of Geo-Information, 6(7), 190.
Mason, J., Fulton, L., & McDonald, Z. (2015). A global high shift cycling scenario: The
potential for dramatically increasing bicycle and e-bike use in cities around the world,
with estimated energy, CO2, and cost impacts.