Small Business Enterprise Analysis Report: Performance in People Ltd.

This report presents a comprehensive analysis of Performance in People Ltd., a small business enterprise (SME) operating in the UK. The report begins by establishing the company's business profile, outlining its mission, vision, and key environmental factors, including economic, competitive, and demographic influences. It identifies the company's strengths, such as a positive work environment and strong customer base, and weaknesses, like limited advertising and technological adaptability. The report then formulates SMART objectives and utilizes key performance indicators (KPIs) based on customer feedback and satisfaction levels. Comparative measures, including customer satisfaction, benchmarking, and progress against objectives, are employed to assess the company's performance. The analysis extends to financial profits and return on investment. The report concludes with recommendations to overcome weaknesses, such as diversifying services and seeking investment, along with strategies for business expansion and change management. The report also provides an action plan for implementing these changes and monitoring performance improvements.

Small Business
Enterprise
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
1.1 Producing business profile by identifying SMART objectives and strengths and
weaknesses...................................................................................................................................3
1.2 Analysis using three different comparative measures...........................................................5
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................5
2.1 Recommending appropriate actions with justifications to overcome the weakness..............5
2.2 Analysing the existing performance for maintaining the strengths.......................................5
2.3 Areas for business expansion.................................................................................................6
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................7
3.1 Assessment of existing business objectives and plans..........................................................7
3.2 Revised business plan............................................................................................................7
3.3 Action plan for implementing changes..................................................................................8
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................9
4.1 Impact of proposed changes..................................................................................................9
4.2 Change management plan......................................................................................................9
4.3 Monitoring improvements in performance..........................................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12
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INTRODUCTION
Small business enterprises are those set ups that are largely contributing in the economic
development of nation to a great extent. These are mostly referred to be small scale business
establishments with no more than 250 numbers of employees. Many startup businesses are
together representing themselves in the category of small to medium size organizations (Storey,
2016). It is where they are either owned by the individual’s themselves depicting a sole
proprietorship firm or by their family members in partnership. There exist yet other criteria to
fulfill the norms of Small to medium size business entities also termed an SME where they must
possess less than £25m turnover with minimum £12.5m gross assets. The present report has
outlined such constitutional formation of SME organisations by electing an analogous venture
named Performance in People Ltd. It is one of the renowned SME Corporation in UK known for
their customer service consultancy and mystery shopping.
TASK 1
1.1 Producing business profile by identifying SMART objectives and strengths and weaknesses
About the company:
Performance in People Ltd. is one of the organisations that works with global and
national brands as a consultancy firm so that customer experience can be improved. This
organisation has about 35000 mystery shoppers and 90 employees working at the head office
(About Us, 2017). Established in 2000, the organisation has been able to achieve great
recognition amongst mystery shoppers. The company has developed wide range of applications
that are helpful in increasing the satisfaction level of customers with enhancement in sales.
This is in context to create the business profile of Performance in People Ltd where they
are mainly relied upon their undertaken organisational missions and visions that are as referred
below- Mission- A considerate mission of the cited entity is to deliver a variety of industry
leading amenities as a way of improving the customer service level for their respective
clients and users (Curran and Storey, 2016).
 Vision- It is in correspondence to the above stated mission of the quoted firm where they
are thoroughly looking to improve customer service level across UK.
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It is therefore on conducting both macro and micro analysis of Performance in People Ltd.,
below are the macro environmental factors that involves some external environmental factors
influencing the undertaken decisions of business- Economic factors- These are the factors that largely impact upon the fiscal decisions of
business organisations like Performance in People Ltd., where UK is presently dealing
with a stabilized economic status (Burrows, 2015). In context to which, there are now
equal number of middle to low income classes that can be targeted by the cited firm. Competition/ Competitors: Competition is a factor which helps in bringing more
effectiveness in the functioning of the organisation. It also helps in prohibiting the
exploitation practises against customers which often occurs due to monopoly (Hayes,
2014). The competitors of Performance in People Ltd. are those firms and organisations
which are functioning in the consultancy sector. Whitehouse Consultancy is one such
competitor of this organisation.
 Demographic factors- These are those influential factors that plays a crucial role in
determining the value of organisation’s projected products and services. It is where this
constituent is likely to specify the actual preferences of the customers that in turn assist
the quoted firm to design accordant commodities for them (Agrawal, 2016). It is thus in
context to the present demographic trend of UK, there exists a large number of young
age users who are more concerned with the acquisition of modern-day facilities.
However, the micro factors are certain internal environmental factors that equally
influences the business to a great extent and are as referred below-
 Managers- The appointed managers of Performance in People Ltd Are extremely
supportive in nature where almost all their employees are favourably agreed to their
undertaken leadership methods (Storey, 2016). Also, all the managers are mostly
positioned at this level after going through an internal promotion that in turn depicts their
thorough cognition about the overall work procedures of the cited entity.
The above carried analysis have further assisted to assess the strengths and weaknesses of
Performance in People Ltd., that are as defined below-
Strengths- A positive work environs in Performance in People Ltd is referred to be their
leading forte with a well-managed team of individuals. This in turn have illustrated varied
progressive work agendas by them where they are getting into greener work technologies in a
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dedicating manner with a prior support of their proficient managerial team. Quite large customer
share has been acquired by the company according to the operational standards. The mission and
vision of this organisation have been developed appropriately which automatically helps in
building strong strategies.
Weaknesses- A lacking agenda of advertisement with less recognition of their business
are referred to be certain weaken dimensions of Performance in People Ltd (Goss, 2015).
Additionally, low level of fund to invest more into the enlargement of their existent business is
together referred to be yet another major weakness of the elected company. The company is not
so compatible or adaptive to technical advancements which means it lacks updation of
technology.
Opportunities: The business world is full of opportunities when assessed and analysed on
time. It is important for the concerned company to recognise and utilise these opportunities so
that larger benefits can be gathered. Performance in People Ltd. has opportunity of improving its
services and products for the current customer share (Blackburn, Hart and Wainwright, 2013).
On the other hand, the organisation also holds an opportunity in bringing in new services and
products or expand business in different locations. This helps in increasing brand awareness and
recognition amongst potential customers.
Threats: Increasing competition is a major threat which is faced by the company in the
current functioning market. This competition if not tackled correctly can bring in a lot of trouble
in the near future (Cavusgil and et. al., 2014). It is possible that the entire customer share will
substitute services of Performance in People Ltd with other organisations' products. This implies
increasing awareness of customers and opportunities for competitors is a major threat for the
company. Furthermore, the factors like Brexit, Immigration and diversity are more threatening
for the company.
Both these analytical approaches have subsequently supported in framing three SMART
objectives for Performance in People Ltd., as stated below-
1. To determine the factual preferences of today’s contemporary set of customers with a
special context to young age consumers.
2. To identify those influential factors that directly impacts upon the purchase decisions of
customers (Blackburn, Hart and Wainwright, 2013).
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3. To ascertain the role of customer satisfaction to enhance the loyal perspective of users
associated with Performance in People Ltd towards their proposed goods and services.
Key Performance Indicators:
The key performance indicators are referred as KPIs which help in developing
appropriate links with the business objectives so that strategic actions and activities can take
place. The KPI for Performance in People Ltd. is based on the ranking and ratings which are
acquired by customers and stakeholders in surveys and feedbacks. Furthermore, the index and
percentage of employees or customers that are satisfied with the services and products of
company.
1.2 Analysis using three different comparative measures
Comparative measures are basically undertaken to analyse the existing position of the
organisations like Performance in People Ltd with that to the contenders in the market. It is
based upon several parameters of comparison to relate among the undertaken practices of one
organisation with that to the another organisation operating in a similar area of business.
This is basically to analysis the present business performance of the quoted entity with
support of three distinct comparative measures, as outlined below-
1. Customer satisfaction- It is a foremost method to analyse the business performance of
the cited firm by continually surveying their clients and users by the employees via
feedback forms, etc.
2. Benchmarking- It is yet another beneficial tact by comparing one’s own performance
with the contenders as a way of analysing any gap in one other’s provisioning (Ratten,
2014).
3. Reviewing progress against business objectives- This is one of the most feasible tact
while referring to expand the business by investing funds where the targeted
objectives must be constantly measured by the quoted entity to check their growth.
The key performance indicators which have been used by Performance in People Ltd.
include ratings, rankings and percentage satisfaction. These parameters have been helpful in
bringing more effectiveness in the delivery of services and products.
Financial Profits:
The financial profits help in stabilising and fulfilling the monetary demands that occur in
different business operations. There is always a minimum margin which needs to be kept so that
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expenses can be managed and further investments can be made. In the process of improving
customer service, the company does earn sufficient profits which are further utilised for different
operations. It is hereby on referring to the real facts of financial profits in context to SME
business organisations such as Performance in People Ltd., where they are estimated to earn and
average profit of 1, 000 GBP as of the year 2018 (Average profit of SMEs in the UK 2014-2016,
by enterprise size, 2017). It is together with reference to its increasing number of profits in
comparison to their previous years earnings.
Return on investment:
Any investment that yields maximum profit for the company without incurring any other
cost is considered as return on investment. The Performance in People Ltd. is able to manage
their resources especially the financial ones effectively and bring in many return on investment
projects.
Comparative analysis:
The Whitehouse Consultancy is one of the prominent competitors of Performance in
People Ltd. The resources which are utilised by the company have to be accurate when
considered in terms of quantities. The company is able to strategically plan and utilise its
resources so that business objectives are met and there is no much wastage or loss. On the other
hand, White consultancy is also providing a neck to neck competition which helps in bringing
innovation and strength for the company.
TASK 2
2.1 Recommending appropriate actions with justifications to overcome the weakness
It is on the basis of above identified weaknesses of the cited firm where they are currently
referred to have a low financial prospect to further grow their business in a directional manner. It
is however due to a less fiscal stability, they are together dealing with a less scope of expansion
to further extend their business operations at an international level. However, they are hereby
recommended differentiating themselves by proposing more diversified products and services for
their clients and users as a way of contending their rivals in the market (Barber, Metcalfe and
Porteous, 2016). Apart from which, they can also opt for a private equity partner who can refer to
invest into their business. This in turn will support them to expand the business to certain
exponential marketplaces to acquire a profitable status with more number of shares and revenues.
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However, they can also refer to move onto some emerging markets by carrying out a primary
analysis to recognize the realistic needs and demands of the users they will be targeting over
there. This will be proven to be a first move advantage for Performance in People Ltd to
overcome their weaknesses in a distinct manner.
This is on the basis of above identified weaknesses of Performance in People Ltd, where
they are lacking in promoting themselves with some effective marketing strategies like
advertisements, etc. Also, they are referred to have less technical cognition with fewer funds to
invest. It is thus to get rid of these weaken dimension, McKinsey's 7S model can be used by
them in concord to its below defined measures.
 Strategy- This is to adopt some effective ways to resolve the above identified issues by
referring to a yearly planning approach by using certified techniques to operate in a
digitalised manner.
These techniques which are to be used for finding the best strategy:
Management skills improvement: Small medium enterprises need to improve the skills of their
management. It is management who take care of the employees and improve their skills in
respect of their satisfaction. They have to make interpersonal contact with the employees thereby
achieving the standards of the organisation and helps avoiding conflicts.
Professional procedures or advice: Small and medium enterprises need professional advice from
some of the experts, or specialists. Generally they need to take advice from the accountants.
 Structure- Herein, cross functional groups along with steering teams can be hired by
Performance in People to efficiently operate into a directional manner. This together
indicates another prime requisition of integrating with the digitalised tact of marketing
by appointing a distinct department of IT.
 Systems- Incorporated measures for the reporting of effectiveness obtained from digital
marketing by referring to certain technical solutions.
 Staff- A breakdown structure for the staff members can be employed on the basis of
their educational background, etc., to employ them at the most suitable position.
 Style- It is in context to the organisational goals of Performance in People Ltd where
they should adopt effective styles of leadership to handle their workforce by outlining a
long term vision for transformation.
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 Skills- Classifiable abilities of the key staff are required to be interpreted to address
some specific areas such as the selection of the suppliers, management of project and
content management by using specific e-marketing tools.
 Shared values- These are some guiding concepts for Performance in People Ltd to
successfully operate into the world of digitalization. Wherein, they are hereby required
to arrange liable sessions of training and development for the workers to acknowledge
the disciplinary way of utilizing the digital tools.
2.2 Analysing the existing performance for maintaining the strengths
It is in concord to some leading strengths of Performance in People Ltd discovered in the
preceding section of this report and in context to which, they are referred to have a reinforced
staff with active leaders and managers to handle their overall work prospects. In addition to
which, they are also possessing a fortified outlook towards technical associations at work by
getting into some greener technologies to accomplish their respective assignations (Cavusgil and
et. al., 2014). However, it is not referred to be a sufficient configuration of their work to succeed
towards a contending business for a long term survival. They are thus required to get into some
more beneficial agendas to fulfil the factual expectations of their clients and users.
This necessitates them to carry out a thorough analysis of their market whose trends often
kept on changing by together altering the customary demands of the consumers. However, for
bringing on such changed work set up at the workplace, the leaders and mangers are together
required to make some additive efforts to prevent their workers from resisting it (Cassar, Ittner
and Cavalluzzo, 2015). For this, they may refer to instil a lucrative reward system at work to
appreciate the standardised work performance of the employees. Several motivational tools
involving the tact of provisioning both monetary and non-financial benefits to the employees will
together justify such undertaken approach.
Beside this, there together exists some other recommendatory measures so as to maintain
the existent performance of Performance in People in Ltd with retained strengths- Maintained market share with retained profit/sales & cost- This reflects a foremost
objective of organisations like Performance in People Ltd to maintain their market shares
with raised sales and profits under a maintained cost. For which, the cited firm should
hereby conduct regular surveys in their market so as to acknowledge the recent market
trends and launch accordant products and services for the users to satisfy their latest
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needs and demands. This will in turn intensify their sales with a raised level of earnings
that will automatically turn into higher level of profits and market shares. Maintained performance records/feedback- This is yet another major consideration of
organisations like Performance in People Ltd where they must keep pertinent records of
their yearly performance by together exchanging feedbacks from the concerned officials. Customer satisfaction/ Benchmarking- This is one of the most important outlook of the
quoted firm to retain the customers where they must be fully satisfied from the services
that are being provisioning to them. Apart from this, benchmarking technique is together
referred to be a considerate measure to evaluate their attained objectives with that to the
set objectives to ascertain any gap among the two that can be fulfilled with some likely
measures.
 Employee motivation/maintain their strengths- Employees being another most important
part of an organisation are always required to be kept motivated where Performance in
People Ltd should also use some considerate measures to encourage their workers. This is
basically for inspiring them to work in accordance to the set standards of the organisation
with an ultimate goal of fulfilling the factual desires of the customers.
Analysing the existing performance of the organisation various tools need to be used:
Marketing techniques: this is a very important aspect to be considered so as to target right
customers. Segmentation, targeting and positioning (STP) and 4 P's concept needs to be used
which describes which customers to target.
Segmentation: it is basically dividing the market into different segments. SME is identifying
different group of customers that require different products.
Targeting: It targets which customers to serve and this sector is basically targeted to specific
markets in which they can promote their products and services in an effective manner.
Positioning: the department of marketing in SME sector helps in building an image in the minds
of customers about their products as well as services.
4 P'S of marketing mix adopted are:
Product: to meet the needs of different customers small businesses have to choose the right
product and further improve the quality and adding more features to their products and services.
Price: price is also an essential element due to which customer is attracted to our products. Small
businesses generally keep their prices lower to keep their customer base constant.
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Place: choosing the right place where the product can be easily available to the customers is also
an important factor. Various products can be sold through distribution channels or through
various outlets.
Promotion: how to advertise your products to attract more and more customers to increase sales
as well as image in the market. Small business adopt this factor as they are not well established
and customers need to know about them to they need to advertise their products.
Customer relationship management is used in small businesses to interact with the customers so
as to maintain the relationship with the customers in future and attract more and more customers.
It is suggested that a company should provide loyalty schemes or cards to their customers so as
to promote their products and retain their customers.
Service quality is regarded as a main area which needs to be continuously monitored and needs
to be enhanced more. It is recommended that small business organisation should train their
employees in such a way that they can meet the standard quality of products and services. It is
also suggested that they should have a positive attitude towards their customers while providing
services. It can also be enhanced by making a commitment to the workers, and tracking mistakes
of the customers as well.
2.3 Areas for business expansion
This is to ascertain some profitable areas for Performance in People Ltd to further expand
their business as a way of developing it. It can be done by applying a marketing theory named
Ansoff Matrix also termed as growth matrix with its four leading constituents, as referred below-
1. Market Penetration- This strategy is usually being applied in the existent marketplace
where the cited entity can hereby refer to sell their existing products and services with
some more extensive tactics of marketing.
2. Product development- This is yet another growth strategy in which the companies are
more likely to launch newer set of commodities in their prevalent marketplace as a way
of attracting the customers with more differentiated products and services (Agrawal,
2016).
3. Market Development- This is simply to expand the business into newer market sets by
trading their existing products and services that can also be opted by Performance in
People Ltd.
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4. Diversification- This not only means to enlarge the business into new marketplaces but
together means to get into those market sets with new set of commodities as well (Acs,
Audretsch and Lehmann, 2013). This strategy can be applied by the quoted firm by
getting into the emerging marketplaces.
This is on the basis of above carried analysis with the use of Ansoff matrix, Performance
in People Ltd can hereby refer to opt for the tact of market development to get into some newer
set of markets. For which, they can hereby refer to extend their existent service into Asian
markets like India and Bangladesh, etc., that are still developing in nature. The economic
condition of these nations will together support the elected organisation over here to operate
under an affordable operational cost.
It has also been analysed and recommended adopting market penetration strategy which means
that selling their existing products and services in existing markets but in different segment to
increase their market share by adopting attractive promotional strategies. Hence, they can use
different promotional tactics to retain their customers such as providing the freshers with
recruitments for one year at affordable prices as compared to the ones who are experienced.
TASK 3
3.1 Assessment of existing business objectives and plans
Business objectives are developed for gaining a workable path for different business
operations. The company Performance in People Ltd. has current objectives of providing best in-
class services to customers. This organisation has provided a seven step process which will help
other organisations in meeting respective business objectives with long term sustainability
(Storey, 2016). Being a customer service consultancy, the objectives set by company are quite
appropriate according to their business operations. Business plan is prepared by the organisation
for arranging different business activities. The company Performance in People Ltd. has
developed a business plan which is efficient in acquiring present customer share (About Us,
2017).
The existing objectives must be developed with SMART principle so that company can
gain sustainability in the competitive markets. The existing plan of this organisation allows
customers to become mystery shoppers and then avail and experience according to which they
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