Small Business Enterprise Report

This report investigates the performance of Cloudreach, a small business enterprise providing web services and cloud storage. It analyzes Cloudreach's strengths and weaknesses, comparing its performance to a competitor, Cloudsense. The report then proposes changes to improve management and business performance, including addressing rising competition, diversifying the workforce, and attracting investors. It revises business objectives and plans to incorporate these proposed changes, outlining an action plan for implementation. Finally, the report examines the impact of change management on the business's operations, considering both positive and negative consequences and suggesting the use of Lewin's change management model. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of strategic planning and adapting to market opportunities for small businesses to achieve success.

SMALL BUSINESS
ENTERPRISE

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
LO 1: BE ABLE TO INVESTIGATE THE PERFORMANCE OF A SELECTED SMALL
BUSINESS ENTERPRISE..............................................................................................................1
1.1................................................................................................................................................1
1.2................................................................................................................................................2
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................3
LO 2: Be able to propose changes to improve management and business performance............3
2.1................................................................................................................................................3
2.2................................................................................................................................................4
2.3................................................................................................................................................5
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................6
LO 3: Be able to revise business objectives and plans to incorporate proposed changes...........6
3.1................................................................................................................................................6
3.2................................................................................................................................................7
3.3................................................................................................................................................8
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................8
LO 4: Be able to examine the impact of change management on the operations of the business
.....................................................................................................................................................8
4.1................................................................................................................................................8
4.2................................................................................................................................................9
4.3..............................................................................................................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
The present era of development and innovation has provided various benefits and
opportunities to each and every sector. Advanced sources has helped individuals in
accomplishing greater results from the overall activities structured by them. It is vital for them to
understand the way by which available resources can be utilised in order to gain appropriate
results and improvements (Ackermann, 2012). The ability of gaining support from factors direct
a vision for the small business enterprise to expand their market boundaries. It has been
addressed that by the help of sources they are able to acquire better results and outcomes. The
personal contribution of an individual in the business is generally limited up to a certain level
which creates limitation for them.
It is essential that the team of small-size enterprise ascertain values and tasks that are to
be achieved by them. For this, they should analyse the internal as well as external areas which
are helpful in generating better and crucial information. Similar to this, report is based on
understanding the concept, structuring and procedures of small or medium-sized enterprises
(SME) in order to determine their capabilities and effectiveness in leading business to greater
heights (Altinay, 2014). It includes the assessment of information based on requirements for the
ability to attain the desired forms of results from the activities performed by them in a particular
period of time.
TASK 1
LO 1: BE ABLE TO INVESTIGATE THE PERFORMANCE OF A
SELECTED SMALL BUSINESS ENTERPRISE
1.1
Present report is developed with the information of small-size businesses and their
functioning by considering the business concern named Cloudreach. The stated company is
ranked among one of the most preferred options in the list of web service providers and cloud
storage systems. They provide high range of web services and utility to their clients which are
needed for transferring their data from a place to another (Bridge and O'Neill, 2012). Cloudreach
is a small-size firm which has limited number of individuals in their team who execute all
operations and business activities defined by the business. It was established in 2009 and since
then, they have been gaining a great development and improvement in their overall working.
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Step by step promotion has assisted the business in gaining higher results from market areas.
Cloudreach mostly works for Amazon and Google to transfer their precious, valued and managed
data which is already stored in their computer systems. The company commitment is to transfer
and store the data in actual and managed format (Ashrafi and et.al., 2014).
Cloudreach has maintained their position by addressing the business purpose and aim.
Mission of the cited entity is “To make it happen” and vision is “To become a unified cloud
service provider for a company”. Currently, they have expanded their management team with 54
new talented and efficient employees. The managers of Cloudreach are effective in
implementing better and strong professional relations with their employees. Due to this, they are
awarded as one of the best places to work in the United Kingdom in man power sector (Cassar,
Ittner and Cavalluzzo, 2015). Moreover, following are the critical factors that highlight the
internal environment and effectiveness of cited company:
STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES
 Positive working culture in the
business.
 Highly diversified workforce has
promoted them to work professionally.
 Effective in satisfying the clients' needs
and requirements (Mariotti and
Glackin, 2014).
 Organisation has invested around
£1800 capital annually for training and
developing their workforce.
 Rising competition generally impacts
market and business operations of firm.
 54 staff members hired in which only
7% are females and rest are males.
 Innovation in the technology increases
their investment criteria.
 Limited level of capital can also impact
their business approaches (Fifka, 2013).
1.2
To address the values and abilities for performing well in business activities can be
systematically analysed by the use of some effective methods and techniques. This assessment
would help the business team in attaining actual information about the present capabilities of
executing task in a proper format. Further, it helps them in comparing their actual results with the
overall activities delivered by them (Li and Zahra, 2012). Similarly, a comparative analysis for
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Cloudreach is highly beneficial for the business to address their efficiency in order to satisfy
their customers. It is essential that a business should have potential to accomplish their
commitments made with the clients in order to build up loyalty and values from operations. By
analysing the market, it has been ascertained that Cloudreach is facing a great competition from
the market and similar group of business. But the major impacts of competition is from
Cloudsense (Ghosh and Dubey, 2013). As evaluated from the market report, Cloudsense is
offering similar types of services and assistance as provided by Cloudreach. Due to the presence
of a major competitor, Cloudreach has to share their market values, clients and profits with them.
Furthermore, it has been ascertained that Cloudreach is strongly complying with the
needs and wants of their customers and operates its business in 25+ countries which shows the
betterment in performance within a limited period of time (Spronk, Steuer and Zopounidis,
2016). The cited company gains competitive advantage by offering a range of unique services
which enables the users to assess the data from computers, smartphones and any other devices
that is totally secured by strong online vaults and safety checks (Rolstadas, 2012). Moreover, the
product portfolio and service orders of Cloudsense is much impressive than Cloudreach due to
which they are able to satisfy their customers. On the contrary, the Cloudreach has maintained a
team of 150 staff members in their business which is quite high in quantity and quality as
compared with the team of Cloudsense.
TASK 2
LO 2: Be able to propose changes to improve management and business performance
2.1
In order to overcome the weaknesses that unable the business to make appropriate and
desired form of achievements, they need to place and schedule a plan based on effective actions.
This process required professional knowledge and expertise for implementing better strategy to
address improvements. For this, it is essential that they should take ideas and suggestions from
the internal as well as external factors which are capable of providing them critical information.
The internal factors includes their employees, managers, investors, suppliers, etc. and on the
other hand, external elements are the competitors, government, customers, etc. which are useful
in attaining real and actual information (Vukšić, Bach and Popovič, 2013). Likewise, Cloudreach
should also assess helpful information by analysing the situation and factors that are responsible
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for generating values for implementing decisions. It is essential that Cloudreach should plan up
productive and profitable strategy so that the company can overcome their weaknesses and
limitations in order to gain required results by the business actions (Rausch, Sheta and Ayesh,
2013).
The entire kinds of major weaknesses for Cloudreach has been evaluated previously and
thus, the following are the recommendations which needs to be placed by the managerial aspects
with an aim to defeat the limitations:
 Assessing the disabilities of competitors, developing ways to attract and satisfy
customers, maintaining the service value range, etc. could help Cloudreach to reduce the
impact of rising competition.
 Hiring talented, innovative and energetic employees in the management team would
support the business in getting better opportunities and sources to maintain their ability
of offering unique and satisfying services (Shields and et.al., 2015).
 Cloudreach should avoid discrimination practices and biasness with female and male
candidates, so that they can give equal chances to the members for being a part of the
organisation.
 The cited company should develop and organise a innovation team whose aims would be
to assess the advancement and up-gradation currently prevailing in the market. This
would be beneficial for the company to make changes in the current approaches of
executing the business operations.
 The management team of Cloudreach should focus on attracting investors and sponsors
that are able to support the business by providing funds and capital (Gollenia, 2016).
2.2
It is necessary for any business to maintain their sustainability in the market so that they
can attract the aimed targets in the concerned sector. For this, they need to assess the areas in
which they are getting immense form of return and support by their business operations. In that
context, the enterprise needs to adopt strategical and tactical methods which are useful for their
team to address the effective ways or techniques for bringing advancement (Rosemann and
Brocke, 2015). These ways needs to be implemented in the organisation and their strengths to be
promoted in order to gain appropriate form of return and benefits. Cloudreach is a business
engaged in the IT sector that needs to be creative and efficient in acquiring better opportunities
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from the market. Hence, it is significant for them to identify various implications and changes
that are to be placed in the business to promote and maintain their present effectiveness in the
concerned sector (Ferreira and et.al., 2012).
Considering the strengths of Cloudreach, it has been addressed that the business has a
great potential of overcoming the challenges and accomplishing the opportunities present in the
area. It is vital that their team should maintain their current approach of attaining benefits and
better form of results (Carroll and Buchholtz, 2014). In that respect, they need to assess the
measures which are to be implemented in their current set of strategies that enables them to
maintain their actual strengths. Moreover, the managerial aspects of Cloudreach should consider
the following techniques to ascertain the values and enhance the strength level which are: Building on business strengths – It is important that a business should effectively
improve their present form of strengths and capabilities for directing the path of the
business towards positivity and relativity (Hayes, 2014). Thus, Cloudreach should aim
on developing new structure of building strengths that creates new sources and areas of
attaining information in regard to access innovative opportunities.
 Holding up market share/position – The quality of griping a tight hold on the existing
market shares helps the business to enhance their position in the sector which eventually
allows them to improve their efficiency in the employed in the marketplace (Cameron
and Green, 2015).
2.3
Expansion is a process by which a business is able to enlarge their aimed boundaries and
sector so that they could get more revenue and response from the aspects present in the market. It
is based on strategical actions and step by step activities which has to be processed in order to
gain desired form of outcomes. However, business needs to have required amount of capital and
resources (time and cost) that support the team in executing the expansion process (Frankland
and et.al., 2013). In the rising stage, Cloudreach has also expanded their market areas starting
from market areas of UK in 2009 to 25+ countries by the end of 2015. It clears that the cited
company has maintained their approaches in establishing their presence in the emerging
marketplaces which helps them to gain better opportunities. Moreover, their team should focus
on acquire information regarding the areas that are helpful for the business in gaining more
profits and response.
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Cloudreach is a web service provider which offers the facility for storing the data and
transporting information from a device to another. They also give the service of cloud storing
that enables the companies like Google and Amazon to maintain their important information in a
system or a particular place. It is vital that they should assess and determine the approaches that
are helpful in addressing new areas for expanding their business boundaries (Quinn and et.al.,
2012). Cloudreach should analyse the market areas with an aim to identify the aspects which can
be believe as new regions of acquiring profits and better business results. However, Cloudreach
should consider following areas as the most beneficial sources for attaining proper set of
objectives:
 Cost and funding sector in which Cloudreach would offer low cost and high return
services to their clients
 They can introduce the system for processing the risk assessment
 Data Analytic sector is also profitable source for Cloudreach
TASK 3
LO 3: Be able to revise business objectives and plans to incorporate proposed changes
3.1
Business plan is a set of activities and procedures which are systematically structured in
the organisation so that the organisation is able to acquire the proposed list of objectives. It plays
a significant role in defining a direction to the business in a specific path of success. By working
as per the plan and structured strategy, an organisation is capable of utilising their addressing
opportunities that are present in the market and evaluate them in an effective manner. It is the
responsibility of the business aspects to assess the value and implement a systematic action plan
which utilises all the available sources and reach the organisational goals (Hornstein, 2015).
Likewise, Cloudreach is a SME which is also working as per a scheduled business plan and
structure. It has the vision of the getting the enterprise to the top position in the list of cloud
service industries at UK. The objective for the organisation is developed by the management
team of Cloudreach is realistic as they have the access its capabilities and utilise the resources for
accomplishing the aimed targets (Gerth, 2013).
Furthermore, the teams of leaders and employees hired in the cited company are liable to
manage their work effectively and due to which they are able to overcome their targets for within
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the specified period of time. The management team of Cloudreach are focused on creating a
group of workforces which are talented, professional and creative so that they could place better
ideas and suggestions for improvements. This efficiency of implementing ideas enable them to
ascertain the work and divide accordingly (Analysing the small business enterprise, 2012). It is
highly advantageous to the firm in gaining results and outcomes from the business approaches
placed by them. Cloudreach is also directed towards the aim for acquiring more clients and
provide high quality services to the companies that are need of the offered facilities.
3.2
Considering the business plan of Cloudreach, it has been ascertained that the company is
mainly concerned on limited areas which helps them to focus their efforts in a specific form.
However, it is crucial that they should also aim on different aspects that are productive and
profitable as well. With the motive of addressing such factors and changes that could help the
business team of Cloudreach to build up effective action strategy which helps them in attaining
higher level of return from the business operations (Bold street coffee, 2016). It is essential that
the team should assess the limitation and disabilities of the business plan by monitoring the
entire structure of the plan. This would help the team of Cloudreach to identify the areas in
which better development and improvement is required. Along with this, they could collectively
research the factors that are needed to be implemented for bringing positive changes.
In order to modify the present business plan of Cloudreach, their team needs to focus on
specific areas and sources that are profitable for their business. For this, they must consider
following areas and sources that are crucial for the business in overcoming the limitations
(Wynarczyk and et.al., 2016). In that context, they should consider the following aspects that
enables them to gain improvement in their business plan:
 Assess the innovative changes developed in the IT sector.
 To upgrade their cloud storage system with some creative software and related methods.
 Determine the improvements as per the needs and requirements of the customers.
 Expanding storing capacity among the cloud system.
 Designing new ways of satisfying the clients (Urban 75 blog, 2016).
 Introducing strong vaults and security checks in order to protect the data of client.
 Creating a team which is aiming on defining the development taking place in the market.
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 Introducing new software and system that provides higher performance and satisfaction
to the client.
3.3
Concerning the changes proposed for Cloudreach, it is essential that the team should
implement an effective action plan that supports the organisation in overcoming the limitation
and build up effective improvements in the current business plan. With an aim to implement the
changes, an action plan would be extremely useful for the aspects of Cloudreach to assess
benefits and defined set of targets (Liedholm and Mead, 2013). In that respect, the team of
experts, professional and experienced person should organise a meeting in which they could put
their suggestions and ideas that are helpful in implementing the action plan and attaining positive
results from the changes designed by them. It is necessary that the team should assess the
information regarding the changes by determining the possible results which can be attained
from the implementation of the proposed action plan (Voss and Voss, 2013).
Furthermore, the team should structure the entire action plan step by step and through
creating a link which would be helpful for them to ascertain the direction of bringing
improvement. Firstly, the team should the potential customers present in the market and generate
a list of all the possible clients (Williams and Schaefer, 2013). Then, schedule a official meeting
between their managers and leaders with the team of Cloudreach in which their needs and
requirements are to be addressed. Analyse entire necessities and their suitability for the company
by evaluating the outcomes. After this, changes are to be placed in the business plan as designed
by the management aspects. At last, monitor the changes and their results attained from them,
this would help the team in generating better benefits and maintaining the flow of business plan.
TASK 4
LO 4: Be able to examine the impact of change management on the operations of the business
4.1
It is ascertained that every business plan has the ability of impacting in both form
(positive and negative) which generally depends on the situations and conditions of the market
areas. The team of organisation should be efficient enough to address the possible impacts that
could be witnessed in the further approaches and business cycle (Vázquez-Carrasco and López-
Pérez, 2013). For this, they must adopt effective measures and methods that are helpful for them
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in executing, monitoring and reviewing the entire set of plan. This is vital for every organisation
that their team should be able to address possible results that are to be faced by them (). As it
helps them to overcome the critical situation which can be generated in future. Being a futuristic
approach, the team should be effective in analysing the factors in both aspects so that better
results could be gained by them (Olszak and Ziemba, 2012).
In case of Cloudreach, the proposed changes would have positive impact on the entire
business and helps them to enter the path of attaining benefits in every possible manner. Changes
linked with improvising organisational objectives and goals supports the firm in encouraging
their overall efficiency. Moreover, by expanding operations in innovation and advancement
section helps the company in increasing their set of functions. It enables them to serve better
facilities to its customers in systematic manner (Fujita, 2012). This would result in rising the
efficiency level in addressing new clients and gain positive impact on the brand image,
attractiveness and loyalty of organization. Furthermore, by strengthening the team members of
the firm which can increase its profitability and sales level. Other than this, changes taking place
in designing and implementing new teams will adversely impact the functioning of the staff
members as presently they have low performance level in the firm (Kamakura, Ramón-Jerónimo
and Gravel, 2012).
4.2
Considering the impacts encountered from the changes that are to be implemented in the
business plan which needs to be effectively adopted by selecting the set of methods for handling
and controlling the direction of stated strategies. It is observed that an organisation has to adopt
various strategic and innovative techniques which are assistive for them in overcoming their
weaknesses and incapabilities (Kumar and et.al., 2014). Moreover, the method should help them
in improvising their present area of working and executing the task defined by the structuring of
the changes. In that context, Cloudreach has to assess the most effective theory or method which
is productive and profitable to the firm in monitoring and reviewing the changes that are planned
to be implemented in the business plan. Moreover, there are different theories presently available
in the sector which could be adopted by the team of Cloudreach. The perfect theory would assist
the team in making possible recommendation for the company to manage changes that are
connected with organisational purpose and overall structure (Da Costa, 2016).
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