Analysis of OLIO: A Report on SME Management and Development

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of OLIO, a small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) focused on food sharing through a mobile application. It begins with an introduction to the entrepreneurial nature of the founders, Tessa Clarke and Saasha Celestial, highlighting their innovative approach to addressing food waste. The report then delves into the SME start-up process, outlining key steps such as business planning, securing funding, and establishing a business structure. It further examines OLIO's business concept, competitive advantages, and growth trajectory, including its incorporation in 2015 and its expansion through partnerships and digital marketing. The report also discusses the challenges OLIO faces, such as cyber security, financial management, and unrealistic expectations. Finally, it explores OLIO's current growth and development strategy and potential government support measures to overcome these challenges. The report concludes with a summary of the key findings and insights into the management and development of OLIO.

Managing Small and
Medium Size Enterprises

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Nature of entrepreneur behind the venture..................................................................................3
SME start up process...................................................................................................................4
Business concept and source of competitive advantage.............................................................5
Growth and development of business of the business to date.....................................................6
Challenges of managing and running the businesses..................................................................7
SME's current growth and development strategy........................................................................8
Government support measure to overcome challenges...............................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFRENCES.................................................................................................................................11
Books and Journal.....................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Entrepreneur focuses on running, organising as well as managing their own business
venture. To run their own start up they take huge risk to formulate decision and exploit the
opportunity. Start up business or small and medium size enterprise are run by creative or
innovative thinkers (Cerrato and Piva, 2012). For the better understanding of this report OLIO
has been taken which is a small enterprise that connect the neighbour through mobile
application. Their work is to transfer the surplus food so that it don't get wasted or thrown away.
These food items can be in form of raw material, cooked, sealed or open. This report cover
following topics like nature of entrepreneur, start up process of SME, business concept and
source of competitive advantage. Moreover, sources of competitive environment, growth and
development of business. Furthermore, discussion will be made on the challenges of managing
and running business. Lastly, it consist SME current growth and development strategy,
government measure that may help the business to overcome challenges.
Nature of entrepreneur behind the venture
Co founders of OLIO were Tessa Clarke and Saasha Celestial, on the basis of first
interview session which was with Tessa Clarke who is an imaginary entrepreneur. Their family
had a dairy farm where they used to feed cow, moving stock and mucking out. While looking
after their farm they realised production of food is not easy task as it involve huge supervision.
So food need not to be wasted as it require huge effort in production. When Tessa Clarke grew
up observed that large quality of food is being waste by people. That moment the idea of mobile
application clicked in her mind to share the food easily instead of getting hesitated to knock the
door of anyone.
On other side, the other co founder of OLIO was Saasha Celestial, she was bought up in
large but poor family. They have even made the use of things that was discarded by other people.
At that time their family realised that the trash of one individual can be treasure for other. From
childhood respective co founder dreamed of opening her own venture.
Later on when both the co-founder met they worked on mobile application for food sharing their
motive was to make utilisation of extra or unnecessary food rather than going into trash.
After going through their background the nature of entrepreneur is (Karadag, 2015):

Innovation: An entrepreneur needs to be innovative thinking rather than running
traditional business or working under other's company an entrepreneur must make its own path.
In context to, OLIO both the co founders of it were problem solver they made an ecosystem by
connecting people. This process not only solved the problem of food taker but giver also because
no one likes to waste food which is our basic need.
High achievement: Successful entrepreneur are more likely to achieve the need thus
they have high need of achievement (Lavia López and Hiebl, 2014). Herein, OLIO both the
entrepreneurs made deliberate effort to achieve their motive of utilising the food rather than
getting waste as they know how handwork it took to produce the food.
Analyse the market problem and convert it into solution: An entrepreneur is one who
tap the untapped need of an individual. Before taking any action an entrepreneur of OLIO with
their proactive vision analysed the external market condition and lead their business according to
provide the solution to people regarding left over.
Group level effort: An entrepreneur cannot run by its own they need the group effort to
expand their market and reach to its prospectus. Respective company knew that their range is
huge due to which they made the use of technology that is mobile with their application to
interlink people. Along with that they made partnership alliance with more than thirty
organisation like Sainsburry, KERB, The big bunch and so on which helped them to reuse the
food rather than getting wasted.
Therefore, these points clearly indicate the nature of entrepreneur and how they strategies
their business to increase its reach.
SME start up process
Various steps to start a small business like research work , planning and so on are
identified at the beginning of business to achieve the objective of start up. Therefore, various
steps of procedure for start up are defined below (Turner, Ledwith and Kelly, 2012):
Make a business plan: Business plan is basically a detail valuation of an entrepreneur
idea to convert it into business plan. At this stage OLIO has made detail projection regarding its
business. These planning vary on the basis of objective of business like goal of OHIO was to
reduce the wastage of food which means their target customer or mile radius to be covered was
huge. However, regardless of detail thinking or project work, here the founder must think about

realistic plan by evaluating the idea. Thus, entrepreneur must able to anticipate its growth at this
stage.
Reach out to an advisor: Once small business is done with their research or planning
part then they decide the source of finance. There are various sources of finance for new venture
like personal source of income, bank or venture capitalist to convert the dreams. Like, respective
company took the finance from financial institution like bank of England, bank of Scotland and
from third parties which was approx 150 million in its initial years. Thus, utilised that fund for
the help of people.
Determine business structure: Business structure define the activities like coordination,
level of communication and task allocation to perform the business objectives. Various company
adopt various structure on the basis of its objective and vision of company. In context to, OLIO
can adopted functional start up organisation where organisational employee are divided into
groups on the basis of their specialisation. Though OLIO cover worldwide are but all its
operations take place from its headquarter which is in London.
Register business: Once an organisation is done with financing as well as decide the
appropriate structure they register itself. Thus, small scale business register itself to start running
up its business worldwide. Herein, OLIO company they started their operations from 2015 by its
co founders to donate surplus food and reduce the wastage.
Set up business location: Choosing appropriate place to conduct business is a most
significant decision taken by business (Wynarczyk, et.al., 2016). Like, OLIO company conduct
their business operation via online platform to connect large group of people worldwide. They
launched mobile application to widen their reach and make their task easier.
Promote small business: Once business is set up and run its operations then they attract
the client by promoting their business through various platform like traditional tool of
advertisement, print media and modern tool to perform operations. Hence, OLIO can make the
use of social media to spread brand awareness about the product.
Business concept and source of competitive advantage
Business concept: OLIO is basically food sharing revolution which makes the use of
mobile application to exchange the edible surplus items. Tessa Clarke and Saasha Celestial
brought up this concept because they know the value of production of food due to which they
decided to take some measure to control or avoid the wastage of food. The mission of their

business plan is to unlock the importance of food among in home, party or community. This help
the firm to avoid overall food wastage by demonstrating people the importance of food.
Moreover, before implementing the idea both the co-founders validate the idea by conducting
marketing research to understand the people's attitude regarding wastage of food. They were
helped by approx 300 respondent to gain the insights about the validation of idea. After
evaluating the feedback gained from the customers they connected neighbour that is either peer
to peer or business to consumer by using digital technology to deliver the surplus food.
Additionally, they make the use of mobile application which is available in Apple's as well as
Android version.
Competitive advantage: The top competitors of OLIO are Food Cowboy, FoodLoop,
meal sharing etc. Their competitors also makes the use of digital technology like website of
company, its application and so on. But OLIO can gained core competency because they have
formed alliance with more than thirty companies to support as well as promote OHIO. Apart
from that respective company can extensively promote its brand through social media to spread
the awareness about the company. This will help the firm to gather huge customer base and
make their application famous among their existing and potential market to cater international
market (Gronum, Verreynne and Kastelle, 2012).
Growth and development of business of the business to date
The company of OLIO was incorporated in 2015 by Tessa Clarke and Saasha Celestial.
While converting their idea into reality they conducted whole research process and gathered the
information about the people's thinking related to wastage of food. After summarising the
information they came to know that their idea will take them to right direction. Instead of that
they were not so sure about the success of business like, if people don't like wasting food that
does not mean they will share it via mobile application. Due to which they made an investment
from a low level which include medium range of people and incur low cost like Whatsapp.
Therefore, respected company invited around 12 people from their survey report, made a group
with them and finally checked the post regarding surplus food. Later on to enhance the growth
and development of respective company, made an application to connect people globally. Along
with that they post various content online like through their website and presence in search
engine. Furthermore, company has received various awards like UN Momentum for change
award and sustainable city award for their efforts in favour of society.

Challenges of managing and running the businesses
Following are some challenges which are faced by the start up in running and managing
the business (Dora, et.al., 2013):
Cyber Security: This is the age of digitalisation every data is available digitally. As the
company OLIO is an application which tracks the surplus food. All this data is processed online
and every information about the users of the application are stored on the company's cloud
system. If the company does not have any proper cyber security then that data can be easily
hacked by the hackers and can hurt the users in many ways. If the company wants to grow than
the cyber security should be first priority of the company to keep the information of users safe.
Financial Management: Financial management is also the most important part of any
business. In order to expand and grow the business proper management of the funds is necessary.
As the income rises the expenditure also rises. As OLIO is a new start up it completely relies on
the investors, but as it starts generating revenue the pressure to manage the funds increases.
Many of the start ups fails due to the improper management of their funds.
Unrealistic Expectations: Success always brings expectations along with it but
sometimes the expectation are realistic or may be unrealistic. The entrepreneur should
understand the difference between these two. The young start ups face these problems resulting
in the shut down of the start up. As OLIO company is purely involved in providing services
through the online application it does not have this unrealistic expectations as they get their data
from the number of users who are using their application. Some start ups face the challenges in
managing their business if their exceptions becomes unrealistic in nature. At the initial stage the
main focus of the start ups should be only on the sustainable which requires constant efforts.
Winning the Trust of Customers: The ultimate challenge which is faced by the start ups
is to win their customers trust. For any organisation it is very important for the organisation to
win the trust of the customers. As the revenue which is generated by the company is only
because of the customer. Customers play an important role in creating the image of the company.
It is very important for the company to win the trust of the customers. As OLIO is in the service
industry distributing the surplus food to the ones who need it, for them it is very important for
the company to win the trust of their customers.

SME's current growth and development strategy
Every business whether small or large wants to grow by promote its products and
services by formulating as well as implementing various development strategies (Brunswicker
and Vanhaverbeke, 2015). The growth and development strategies followed by OLIO are as
follows:
Market penetration strategy: Market penetration is a situation when a product or
service is being acknowledged and people purchase them through a particular market. It helps in
increasing proportion of surviving product as well as service by planning distinct strategies.
OLIO adopted such strategy to expand its shares in existing market. By adoption of some
techniques and strategies which are distribution channels, improving services along with
diversification. Such organization is successful in making various additions after doing a detailed
study about the choices, taste and preference to satisfy the existing people.
Market Expansion strategy: Market expansion is another name for Market Extension.
Under this, companies formulates various strategies to enter into a new market with the existing
product or service. OLIO adopts the promotional, branding sales and distribution, strategies to
identify and targets the new segment of people towards the existing service. The company also
under takes actions to enter into international markets to gain the shares by providing existing
services.
Strategic alliance with other countries: Strategic partnership helps in long term
interactions between various organisations ans well as countries to pursue the objectives of
providing products or services to various targetted people. Such strategies helps OLIO to gain
various benefits such as sharing of various risks as well as expenses, optimum utilisation of
scarce resources in distinct activities, competitive advantages in the international marketplace.
Diversification: Diversification is adopted when an organization wants to sell new
products along with services to the new market at the same time period. Such strategy involves
huge risk. It is often used by the companies when they are not able to capture the required market
share, when new technology is available to produce new and innovative product as well as
services. OLIO uses the diversification strategy to enter in the new market with the new services
in order to gain more market share, to provide innovative services as per the customers demand.

Government support measure to overcome challenges
Government plays a significant role to support small scale start up by providing them the
opportunity to expand and overcome their problem in following ways (Sheehan, 2014):
Financial support: Some of the start up company's receives financial help from the
government to execute their plan. Before gaining the financial funding they need to present their
business plan to government, if they find their plan is worth investing then government take the
care of their finance part. This is one of the most profitable methods company can use for the
business success.
Relaxation by government for start ups: Government provide grands and subsidies to
new start up beside this they also provide land on nominal rates to sole the problem of business
expansion to run their business internationally smoothly (Santos, et.al., 2013). Government keeps
on framing new policies and encourage their business to operate worldwide. As this increase the
employment rate, attract new investor and enhances the gross domestic product of company.
OLIO company also enjoys the various policies made by government of United Kingdom in
favour of start-ups or venture like relaxation of tax and so on.
Tax relief: Government plays a significant role by granting tax relief to new start ups.
Thus, they offer various scheme to reduce the burden of tax liability (Garay and Font, 2012).
Therefore, various types of allowances provided by government such as annual investment
allowances in which company buy various asset and government provide relief to company on
the total purchase amount of product. Creative industry tax relief if the business contribute for
the society and leads top social welfare due to which they get large tax deduction. In context to
OLIO get tax relief from the side of UK government to promote their business in order to expand
wisely worldwide.
Raising investment for growth: Apart from above described measures taken by
government they have also extended the credit amount for its customers (Hofmann, Theyel and
Wood, 2012). This measure has encouraged most of the start up to fulfil their idea. As financial
funds is one of the biggest constraint faced by entrepreneur due to which most of them drops
their plan of start up. Hence, extension of loan amount has resolved the issue for various start up
companies who want to run their own business rather than becoming part of any traditional
business.

Reduces import and export duties: To eliminate the trade barriers for start-up who has
gained renowned position in domestics market and thinking to expand its business overseas. In
this case government help the company to face to tax barriers imposed by importing company.
Additionally, respective government pay the custom duties on behalf of start up company
without taking that amount back. Furthermore, this help the respective company to flourish their
business at international market by reducing the tax burden or overall cost of company. Hence, it
increases the productivity, reach as well as profitability of company.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it has been concluded that start ups are started when a new and
unique idea comes in the mind of the entrepreneur. Basic requirements for the start ups is there
should be unique idea and the passion to convert that idea into business. Government also helps
the start ups to grow as they have a direct impact on the GDP of the country in which the start up
is initiated. To boost the start ups government has issued different polices and scheme which
gives many benefits to the start ups in terms of tax liabilities.

REFRENCES
Books and Journal
Cerrato, D. and Piva, M., 2012. The internationalization of small and medium-sized enterprises:
the effect of family management, human capital and foreign ownership. Journal of Management
& Governance. 16(4). pp.617-644.
Karadag, H., 2015. Financial management challenges in small and medium-sized enterprises: A
strategic management approach. EMAJ: Emerging Markets Journal. 5(1). pp.26-40.
Lavia López, O. and Hiebl, M. R., 2014. Management accounting in small and medium-sized
enterprises: current knowledge and avenues for further research. Journal of Management
Accounting Research. 27(1). pp.81-119.
Turner, R., Ledwith, A. and Kelly, J., 2012. Project management in small to medium-sized
enterprises: Tailoring the practices to the size of company. Management Decision. 50(5). pp.942-
957.
Wynarczyk, et.al., 2016. Managerial labour markets in small and medium-sized enterprises.
Routledge.
Gronum, S., Verreynne, M. L. and Kastelle, T., 2012. The role of networks in small and
medium‐sized enterprise innovation and firm performance. Journal of Small Business
Management. 50(2). pp.257-282.
Dora, M., et.al., 2013. Food quality management system: Reviewing assessment strategies and a
feasibility study for European food small and medium-sized enterprises. Food control. 31(2).
pp.607-616.
Brunswicker, S. and Vanhaverbeke, W., 2015. Open innovation in small and medium‐sized
enterprises (SMEs): External knowledge sourcing strategies and internal organizational
facilitators. Journal of Small Business Management. 53(4). pp.1241-1263.
Sheehan, M., 2014. Human resource management and performance: Evidence from small and
medium-sized firms. International Small Business Journal. 32(5). pp.545-570.
Santos, G., et.al., 2013. The main benefits associated with health and safety management systems
certification in Portuguese small and medium enterprises post quality management system
certification. Safety science. 51(1). pp.29-36.
Hofmann, K. H., Theyel, G. and Wood, C. H., 2012. Identifying firm capabilities as drivers of
environmental management and sustainability practices–evidence from small and medium‐sized
manufacturers. Business Strategy and the Environment. 21(8). pp.530-545.
Garay, L. and Font, X., 2012. Doing good to do well? Corporate social responsibility reasons,
practices and impacts in small and medium accommodation enterprises. International Journal of
Hospitality Management. 31(2). pp.329-337.

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