Business and Leadership Project: E-commerce Venture for Apparel Brands

This project assesses Apparel Brands Pty Ltd's declining performance and proposes an e-commerce venture to establish an online brand. The project outlines steps including market research, product identification, supplier communication, brand development, website creation, shipping management, revenue goals, and marketing plans. It also covers team formation, objectives, member engagement strategies, team dynamics, consensus-building methods, and team norms. The project includes a third-party report evaluating the candidate's contributions to team participation, responsibility, goal determination, and conflict resolution. The project also details strategies for ensuring team member participation, outlines team policies and procedures, defines team goals and responsibilities, and discusses fair task distribution. Finally, it identifies additional duties to support team members, such as conflict resolution and problem-solving, to enhance team effectiveness and achieve project objectives. This project underscores the importance of leadership and teamwork in launching a successful e-commerce venture.

Running Head: Business And Leadership
BUSINESS AND LEADERSHIP

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Table of Contents
Assessment 1- Project................................................................................................................3
Assessment 2 - Project.............................................................................................................16
Assessment 3 - Observation.....................................................................................................23
Reference list............................................................................................................................28

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Assessment 1- Project
1. Review of information regarding Apparel Brands Pty Ltd.
Apparel Brands manufacture clothes and footwear. They distribute their products to retailers
and currently, performance of this form is declining. They must create their own brand and
sell products directly to customers by setting up e-commerce venture. This company has set
target to establish online brands within the next five years and following aspects need to be
determined by project team to help this company to achieve its goals.
● This company will offer innovative designs of clothes and footwear to its customers
in the next five years. This manufacturing company will reduce production cost to
offer best quality products at affordable prices. Customers will get innovative designs
and a wide range of options for products at an affordable price range.
● People, who usually shop online, are the target customers of Apparel Brands. Modern
age young customers prefer to buy products online at lower prices to save time and
money (Cox & Bobrowski, 2016).
● As opined by Stokes et al. (2016), market research needs to be done before setting up
the venture for identifying demand of customers and position of similar brands.
● Management of this company may consult with e-commerce marketing experts and e-
commerce website developers regarding their new business goals. According to Costa
et al. (2017), consultation with experienced person helps to enrich knowledge
regarding specific subject.
● Steps to set up e-commerce venture are mentioned below,
i) Identification of high potential products will be done first.

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ii) Communicating with suppliers to get the best quality material at lower prices as
this aspect may help in reducing production cost as well as product price (Pugel et al.
2015).
iii) Appealing brand name needs to be developed.
iv) It must be ensured that brand name will be in the form of name of domain and it
must be easily available for social media users.
v) An expert may be hired for developing the e-commerce website of Apparel Brands.
vi) Strategies must be developed to manage shipping and fulfillment related matters.
vii) After that, this organization must establish a goal of revenue generation.
viii) An effective marketing plan needs to be developed for attracting maximum
potential customers towards business.
ix) Finally, the e-commerce venture can be considered as ready to be launched.
● Benefit will be calculated by measuring progress towards lower-level tactical
objectives and higher level strategic goals (Aga, Noorderhaven & Vallejo, 2016). The
amount of objective coefficient of need to improve before it becomes profitable must
be computed to determine reduced cost. The total number of units would be
completed needs to be divided by the total amount of time that would be spent on this
project for determining increased productivity.
● Total product cost can be determined by adding total direct labor cost, total direct cost
of material, and the total cost of manufacturing (Noe et al. 2017).
2. a. Formation of a team
It is important to constitute a team by considering some essential factors that include size of a
team, knowledge and skill mix and defined goals. This team will be of 3 members among
which one will collect data about e-commerce and apparel market. Other members will form
different planning to make proposal regarding e-commerce for this business firm.

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b. Team members have agreed to meet all team objectives regarding improving market
opportunities of Apparel Brands Pty Ltd. Objectives of this team include identifying e-
commerce opportunities for apparel brands in both the Australian and international market.
Another objective is to propose ideas regarding online business that can help to increase
satisfaction rate of customers. Innovative ideas in business create opportunities in market and
increase satisfaction and experience of customers (McEwan et al. 2017).
3. a. Each team member needs to be engaged with the process and give their input in
planning process. This can be done by:
● Providing them a good work environment
● Giving them clear idea regarding aims and objectives of the project
● Offering opportunities for self-development (Hu & Liden, 2015)
● Setting clear personal goals.
b. If a team or group has positive dynamics to one another, then they make decisions
collectively and take responsibility for their own performance. The ideas and policies that can
ensure responsible behavior of team members are:
● Accepting diverse opinions from other members.
● Promoting shared way of problem solving and teamwork.
● Encouraging active listening
● Encouraging other contribution by asking questions.
c. Main goals of this team are to identify different e-commerce opportunity that can help to
develop own brands. This team can achieve goals through framing of team ground rules. This
can help to increase cohesion among team members and can ensure that all the members are
working for the same goal. As said by Kerzner (2017), team ground rules are a set of
standards that states how team members treat each other. Moreover, mode of communication,
cooperation and participation can be ensured through these rules.

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d. Strategies for gaining consensus among the team include:
Clarification of issues: Sharing relevant information to team members regarding the problem
can help them to share inputs. As opined by Mäkikangas et al. (2016), sharing of proper data
regarding a problem and making sure that each member understands the problem can help to
engage.
Exploration of issues and discussion of alternative solution: Gathering ideas and different
reactions from members can help them to engage with the process and provide input. They
can be motivated to provide alternative solutions and discuss the advantages and
disadvantages of each (Costa, Passos & Bakker, 2015).
e. In a group, it is essential to follow team norms for presenting ideas and working for a
common goal. Ideas can be presented through an effective communication style, which
allows team members to hear and understand. Moreover, Stanton & Baber (2017), argued
that body language like posture, facial expression can also be used to communicate messages.
In addition, for working effectively in a team it is essential to be respectful to others.
Moreover, the contribution of others needs to be recognized and avoidance of gossip needs to
be done.
f.
Assessment 1 – Third-party report for candidate:
Did the candidate propose and agree on strategies for ensuring
participation of team members?
Y/N

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Describe how:
Different strategies are explained like provision of good work environment, providing clear
ideas about vision of the company and goals of the project. These strategies are framed
according to the vision of the project.
Did the candidate help develop policy and procedures to ensure team
members take responsibility for own work?
Y/N
Describe how:
Different policies and procedures are framed that includes encouraging active listening and
accepting different opinions. This is done through analysis of group dynamics and its
impact on team performance. Moreover, personalities related to this project and nature of
work is also evaluated.
Did the candidate work with groups to determine common understanding
of organizational requirements and team goals?
Y/N
Describe how:
The candidate worked in a group by providing respect to others opinions and leveraging
collaboration in the team.
Did the candidate work with group to determine and agree on specific
duties to support team members with assigned responsibilities?
Y/N

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List the candidate’s support duties:
- Solving conflicts among team members
- Providing feedback regularly
- Discussion of common goal with team members regularly.
- Assisting team members in problem-solving
Did the candidate demonstrate knowledge of group behavior and how to
gain consensus and work within groups to enhance team effectiveness?
Y/N
Describe how the candidate demonstrated this knowledge in their interactions with
the team:
The candidate described this by elaborating the ways of working in a team. In addition, the
candidate described how to listen and respect personal opinion of other members. This can
help to foster diversity of culture in a team.
Team member/observer’s name Signature/date
Candidate’s name Signature/date
XXXX XXXX
e. Preparation can be done to take notes for collecting evidence for team meetings. This
includes noting essential details on top of the paper. This is the first step of taking notes that
includes writing essential details about evidence like date of collection. Own language needs

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to be used that can be easily understood and explained (Kim et al. 2017). Moreover,
keywords can be written instead of total sentences that can help in time management.
4. Establishing ground rules for team
a. Strategies to ensure participation of team members are written below,
● Asking potential persons to be a part of the team by defining benefits of participating
and setting proper expectations.
● Effective ground rules need to be set for encouraging participation of potential
members.
● Potential persons may be pushed by strategies to be involved in the team from the
beginning of project.
● Upholding ground rules and avoiding domination within team may help to ensure
active participation of team members (D’Innocenzo, Mathieu & Kukenberger, 2016).
b. Team policy and procedures
● Team members must provide respect to each other's cultural backgrounds, opinions,
and viewpoints.
● Work must be distributed equally within team members free from all kinds of biases.
● Team members must understand common goals and they must work collaboratively to
achieve common goals.
● Each one of the team members must be ready for compromising at any situation for
the benefit of the project.
● Team members must have effective communication and time management skills.
5. Team goals
The main goal of this team is to identify effective e-commerce opportunities for establishing
own brand. Sub goals are the followings,
- Determining value proposition

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- Identification of target market
- Collecting information regarding e-commerce opportunities
- Determining steps to set up e-commerce ventures
- Determining benefit to the company and total cost
Process to achieve team goals
- Identifying potential product and setting affordable price for the best quality products
- Market research can be done to identify potential target market and their present
demand
- Market research on potential opportunities of e-commerce can help to set up e-
commerce venture
- Total expense and earning can be calculated to assess cost and benefit of Apparel
Brands.
6. Responsibilities to achieve team goals
a. Responsibilities of Team member 1
- Outcome: Value proposition will be determined and target market will be selected.
These are agreed responsibilities of team member 1.
- Outputs: Potential products will be selected and affordable price of product will be
set. Development of best quality products will be planned.
- KPIs: Spending of minimum of 72 hours in performing responsibilities and ensuring
minimum of 5 pages of research.
Responsibility for Team member 2
- Outcome: Information regarding e-commerce venture setup will be gathered.
Consultation with e-commerce marketing expert and website developers will take
place. Steps of setting up e-commerce venture will be identified. These are agreed
responsibilities for Team member 2.

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- Outputs: This team member will conduct market research regarding e-commerce
venture set-up and will consult project objectives with experienced marketing experts
and web developer in e-commerce field. Steps of setting-up e-commerce venture can
be identified by evaluating existing similar businesses.
- KPIs: Spending minimum of 48 hours in conducting market research and consulting
with 2 marketing experts along with 1 website developer.
Responsibility of Team member 3
- Outcome: Financial analysis of benefit and cost will be done.
- Output: Cost and benefits will be calculated by considering all financial transactions.
- KPIs: Recording each and every transaction and determine cost and benefit.
b. Ensuring fair distribution of tasks
All required tasks will be distributed among team members regardless of all kinds of biases.
Based on ability and qualifications, tasks and responsibilities will be assigned.
7. There are some other duties that can help to support team member with assigned
responsibilities. This includes solving conflicts among team members. This can be done by
applying negotiation skills. Conflicts may arise during gathering of information regarding
apparel market and setting up the venture and determining costs. Moreover, Omar et al.
(2016) have stated that conflicts in a team can be managed through managing emotions of
members. Assisting team members in problem-solving is another duty that can be done
identifying solutions of problems. Problem can occur during setting the proper venture
regarding development of brands and determining costs. Provision of regular feedback is
another additional duty that can help to motivate team members. As mentioned by Shin et al.
(2016), provision of feedback helps in identifying gaps in performance of a team member.
Team members may get distracted from the common goal. Hence it is the duty of a team

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member to discuss team goals regularly with other members. This can help to maintain
concentration of all team members and any sort of confusion can be eliminated.
8. Individual Performance plan
Action 1:
Determining target
market and value
proposition
Action 2 (Support):
Solving conflicts
during data
collection for e-
commerce venture
set up
Action 3
(Support):
Assisting other
members by
solving
problems
Description
This is the main
action that needs to
be performed in this
project. Different
products will be
determined by
apparel brands that
can be sold through
e-commerce.
Moreover, target
market will be
determined for
whom the project
will be designed.
This includes
This is an essential
support duty that
needs to be performed
to eliminate any sort
of conflicts during the
project. This conflict
may arise during
setting of the venture
and determination of
costs. Confusion
regarding venture
steps and cost
requirements can give
rise to conflicts
between team
This is another
supporting action
that needs to be
performed to
achieve desired
group objectives.
Problem can
occur to
determine the
cost and process
of the venture,