Unit 27: Virgin Money - Entrepreneurial Ideas, Analysis, and Viability

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of entrepreneurial opportunities for Virgin Money, a financial services company. It begins by identifying and evaluating various sources of entrepreneurial ideas and innovation, including external environmental factors and Drucker's sources of innovation. The report then explains the rationale and market gap for a specific entrepreneurial idea, utilizing market segmentation and customer identification techniques. It presents the necessary data to support the gap analysis. Furthermore, it employs a SWOT framework to objectively assess the entrepreneurial idea, and evaluates the competitive and market environments to determine its potential viability, concluding with an overall assessment of the identified opportunities and their potential for success within the financial services sector. The report leverages concepts of market segmentation, demographic analysis, and technological advancements to support its findings.

Unit 27
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Table of Contents
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
P1 Determine & evaluate different sources of entrepreneurial ideas & innovation with
examples......................................................................................................................................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................7
P2 Explain rationale and market gap for a specific entrepreneurial idea using relevant tools
and techniques.............................................................................................................................7
TASK 3..........................................................................................................................................11
P3 Present data required to support gap analysis in evaluation of a particular entrepreneurial
idea............................................................................................................................................11
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................17
P5 SWOT framework to collate an objective assessment of a particular entrepreneurial idea.
...................................................................................................................................................17
P6 Evaluation of competitive and market environments in which idea will be launched to
assess potential viability............................................................................................................19
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................20
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................22
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INTRODUCTION
Entrepreneurial opportunities are usually referred as a situation where products and
services could be sold at a higher price greater than cost of their production. An entrepreneurial
opportunity is defined as a situation and an opportunity where entrepreneurs could take actions to
earn profits. Entrepreneurial opportunities come in various forms and are being influenced by
socio, economic conditions. As increasingly entrepreneurs are being asked to take a more
balanced approach between financial and environmental considerations when they are assessing
an opportunity. As there are various to identify various entrepreneurial opportunities by various
ways such as listening to potential clients and past leads, listening to needs and requirements of
customers, identifying wants and needs of markets and identifying various company trends and
insights to build various opportunities of markets. This report is based on identifying
entrepreneurial opportunities of Virgin money, which is a banking and financial service company
operating in United Kingdom. Virgin money is a financial brand which is used by three
independent brand licenses globally. Virgin money branded services which are presently
available in Australia, South Africa and United Kingdom. This report includes possible sources
for new and innovative business ideas, entrepreneurial idea for investigating and market gap,
identification of primary and secondary data, evaluation of entrepreneurial idea in terms of
market and competitors and make an assessment of potential viability along with its conclusion.
TASK 1
P1 Determine & evaluate different sources of entrepreneurial ideas & innovation with examples.
As per the latest market scenario, organisation need to adopt new marketing strategies
and use new & innovative business strategies and ideas so that organisation can easily encourage
to their employees to use current marketing trends. On the basis of relevant resources and
research, organisation identify their customers’ needs and also understand the various resources
that can help to implement their ideas. With the help of proper skills and knowledge,
organisation usually convert their innovative idea in to reality (AHMADI, AKHAVAN and
MOKHTARI, 2018). To execute the idea, organisation focus on the internal and external
environment so that organisation will get high level of opportunity. The description of external
environment, Drucker’s sources of innovation of Virgin money are discussed below-
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External Environment
Macro environmental factors are also known as external environmental factors that can
help to analyse and evaluate the whole outside marketing situation and also useful to maintain
the external elements that directly influenced the organisation. Virgin money is a famous
financial service provider and expand their business operations all around the world (Bolzani, et.
al., 2019).Virgin money mainly analyse and evaluate the macro environment factors and it is
identified that social and technological factors directly influence the performance and
productivity of the organisation. On the basis of economical consideration, Virgin money take
various types of challenges so that organisation can easily adopt the innovative features to make
easy access of the financial services. Social Factors – These factor involved culture, religion, customer behaviour, education
level and purchasing power behaviour of the customers. The main motive of the
organisation is to focus on the customer services so that organisation easily attracts the
people toward their products and services. Virgin money can focus on the preferences of
the people so that it make easy for the organisation to target the large number of
customers. With the help of useful consideration of the services, Virgin money easily
reduce the socio- culture barrier and also diminish the negative impact on the external
environment of the organisation. It can help for the entrepreneur to motivate and
encourage their employees and also introducing the innovative products and services.
 Technological Factors – This factor mainly consider the technological advancement and
modification in the technologies. This factor can provide the directly impact on the
operations of the organisation (Buli, 2017). New technological development will be
helpful to maintain the whole performance of the organisation and also useful to evolve
the market position of the Virgin money. With the help of technology, organisation can
expand their business effectively all around the world and create the positive brand
image. Virgin money can use some advanced technologies so that organisation can easily
attract the large number of people. Through technological advancement, Virgin money
can promote their products and financial services easily and also address the requirement
of the customers via digital technologies.
Drucker’s Sources of Innovation
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Every organisation need to some kind of sources of innovation which can helpful for the
entrepreneurs to identify the specific opportunities and also aid in the development of the
organisation. Source of innovation are essential for the growth of the organisation. Virgin money
also used specific source of innovation of that organisation can easily maintain their business
operations effectively (Chang and Rieple, 2018).Virgin money use Drucker’s Sources of
Innovation that is mainly given by the Peter F Drucker. There are seven sources of innovation
considered by the Virgin money which are given below- Unexpected – This type of innovation mainly take place undoubtedly that happened by
chance and this innovation generally come with the emerging the specific innovation.
Virgin money consider this predictable innovation that mainly occur accidently. This
innovation can help to mention the new ideas that is required for the implementation and
all the things come up randomly and accidently.
 Incongruities – This innovation comes under the inside source and also known as per the
concept of human nature. An entrepreneur who is responsible to solve the incongruities
that mainly occur in the organisation with the new source of innovation. With the help of
new source of innovation, entrepreneur can stay motivated and constantly search new
opportunities so that they can easily introduce new products and services in the Virgin
money. Through solving the incongruities, organisation need high recognition of ideas so
that they can take more market opportunities (Clark and Ramachandran, 2019).
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Figure 1Searching for innovative opportunities? These 7 sources will boost your creativity, 2019 Industry Structure – This innovative source provides the high level of opportunity to see
the market innovativeness by which the entrepreneur can proceed the upcoming business
growth. As per this scenario of the Virgin money, entrepreneur is utilising the “World
Wide Web” to investigate the different information through Google Brower. This can
helpful for the cater market & also grab the market opportunities that can be helpful for
the development of the organisation (Di Muro and Turner, 2018). Necessity – This source of innovation can useful for the business and help to set the
thinking of the entrepreneur in deep manner. This source mainly concerned on consider
those opportunities that maintain high success at the marketplace. Virgin money provide
financial services nationally and internationally so it is essential for the organisation to
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take care about the requirement of the customers in an innovative and new way.
Researcher can gather the ideas and conduct market research so that it will make easily
for the entrepreneur to full fill all the requirements of the customers. Demographics – This innovation source totally dependent on the customers and focus on
the lifestyle & need of the customers. Virgin money constantly working to satisfy the
requirements of the customers and also find new opportunities to grow their business
operation on other areas. This is considered as the best source of innovation because that
can help the entrepreneur to provide self-satisfaction and motivation (Ezeahurukwe and
Ameh, 2018). Changing Perception – This source totally depends upon the perception of the
customers and it is main responsibility for the entrepreneur to identify the changing
perception of the customers so that Virgin money can gain more profit advantages. The
changing perception of the customers can help the entrepreneur to address the mind-set of
the customers so that entrepreneur can easily create the healthy relation with their
customers and clients.
 New Knowledge – This source of knowledge mainly used by those organisations that
are in favour to introduce new ideas and innovation. New knowledge considers as the
ongoing method in which human skills and new ideas are used for the new areas &
dimensions. Entrepreneur of Virgin money putting new ideas and also work for the new
skills and knowledge which are required for the implementation of new idea. The
required skills and knowledge help to easy access to emerging the new ideas.
TASK 2
P2 Explain rationale and market gap for a specific entrepreneurial idea using relevant tools and
techniques.
Entrepreneur consider an effective idea so that they can easily recognise the potential
customers and also full fill the market gap with the help of various tools & techniques. As per the
entrepreneur of Virgin money, some specific requirements and demand of the customers can
easily full fill through the offers of the organisation (Gianesini, et. al., 2018).
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Identifying Customers
In order to identify the requirements of the entrepreneurs, organisation mainly consider
the new ideas that can help to launch the new ideas so that Virgin money can serve the various
services to their customers. It is necessary to identify the potential customers and then apply the
new idea which can help to create the value on the mind of the customers (Katz and Green,
2018). Entrepreneur continuously try to highlight the idea so that they can effectively gain the
attention of the customers and then those customers are interested in their services then they can
easily add them in the list of their potential customers. With the help of market research,
organisation can identify the preference of their customers. Through survey, entrepreneur can
analyse the customers’ requirements and used that data to frame the research methodology so
that it will make easily for the organisation to enhance new opportunities at market place. By
utilising the clear picture of the market, it is important to understand the age, occupation and
propriety of the customers.
Market Segmentation
Market segmentation is a most useful concept that is mainly used by the each and every
organisation in order to target the audience. Under this concept, the audience is divided into
many segments as per their requirements and characteristics. With the help of marketing
segment, the whole population divided into many sub-groups and customers are mainly
distributed as per market strategies that are mainly applied by the entrepreneur to attract the
customers (Korpysa, 2020). Market segmentations is useful for the organisation to gain the
customer interest & address the needs of marketing strategies that are implemented at the
marketplace in order to meet the organisational objectives. There are many types of segmentation
which are discussed below-
 Demographic Segmentation – This market segmentation is based on the demographic
region that include the religion, culture, age, gender, income. Virgin money is a huge
financial service provider organisation that mainly divided their market as per the
demographical segmentation and prepare the market strategy according to this. This is
also coming under the most useful method that can help to provide products and services
to the different characteristic people (Lee and Lee, 2017).
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 Geographic Segmentation – This type of segmentation mainly divided on the basis of
regional territory. This segmentation is also considered by the Virgin money so that
organisation easily expands their business from one location to another. In context of
Virgin money, the main attention of the organisation to expand their business in the
various location and make more profit. Organisation can use this segmentation to spread
and provide the products and services various customers so that organisation can take
long term advantage (Maroufkhani, Wagner and Ismail, 2018).
 Behavioural Segmentation – This market segmentation helps to analyses the behaviour
and perception of the customers so that organisation can get the loyalty of the customers.
This factor mainly used by the Virgin money so that organisation can analyse the
requirement of the customers and also know the point of view about the organisation
products and services that are provided by the Virgin money. This segmentation is very
helpful to create the brand loyalty and image and also improve the market share of the
organisation.
Product & Services
The description of products and services as per the Virgin money are as follows- Tangible products – These products come under those products which everyone can see
and these are also known as physical products and consider some physical existence.
Virgin money provide various products that are tangible by nature. These products are
offered by the organisation to make more profit and create the effective brand image.
 Intangible products – This type of products are intangible by nature and these products
provide indirect impact on the products and services. These products include, price,
promotion, advertisement, marketing campaign activities. As per the Virgin money, there
are various services provided by the organisation which considered as intangible products
of the organisation (Marques, et. al., 2018).
Industry Environment
Industry environment influence the social, economic & political external market situation. With
the help of Porter's five forces model, Virgin money can easily analyse the industry environment
of the organisation. As per the market research, organisation can easily understand the need of
appropriate skills which can be use in the implementation of new ideas and innovation as per the
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industry environment. Industry environment provide direct impact on the business cycle of the
organisation (O’Connor, et. al., 2018).
Porter's five forces model
This model is useful to analyse the potential & appropriate forces that faced by the
organisation within industry. As per the market condition, entrepreneur can analyse the condition
of the market and evaluate its competitiveness and effectiveness. The explanation of this model
in context of Virgin money are given below- Threats of new entrants- This is considered the most appropriate steps of this model that
can help to understand the treat of new business for the organisation. Industry consist
some specific technologies & infrastructure in order to generate more profit as compared
to their competitors. In the context of Virgin money, they are considering the free market
entry in their industry and contain that there is not as much any type of investment
required. Organisation is dealing banking and financial services so that there is high risk
of failure and it also consider the least entry barrier (Parhizgar and Keshavarz, 2018). Threats of substitutes – There is moderate force of threat of substitute because every
organisation provide various types of products and services to attract the customers and
in context of this industry, if any customers trust in their band and become their loyal
customer so there is less chance to switch their brand easily. Bargaining power of buyers – The force of bargaining power of buyer is moderate
because this organisation comes under the service industry so that there is less probability
to bargain. To increase the potential customers, Virgin money provide many offers and
discounts so that people can easily have attracted and become their potential and loyal
customers. There is less possibility to switch to the other company products and services. Bargaining power of Supplier – The force of bargaining power of suppliers is low and
this organisation totally based on the investment and financial and provide loan and
insurance to the people of the domestic and foreign countries people. Bargaining power
of suppliers totally depend upon the number of suppliers in the market (Puni, Anlesinya
and Korsorku, 2018).
 Competitive Rivalry – The force of competitive rivals is high in term of Virgin money. It
is essential for the organisation to pay more attention to their competitor and also
concerned each and every activity so that Virgin money can easily analyse their
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movements and strategies so that it will make easily for the organisation to prepare
strategy and take more competitive advantage. Organisation need to analyse the risk that
mainly occur from their rivals and also work according to this (Shepherd and Patzelt,
2018).
TASK 3
P3 Present data required to support gap analysis in evaluation of a particular entrepreneurial idea.
In order to analyse the need of the analyse, it is important to understand perception of group of
people. To get more success, it is essential for the organisation to conduct the market research
and gather the data and specific information that can help in the development of the organisation.
With the help of research and analysis, it makes easily to understand the syntactical view of the
concept. Entrepreneurs can task help to the researcher to conduct the research task and identify
the latest trends and requirements and point of view of the customers related to the products and
services of the organisation. Virgin money is looking forward to conduct research in the market
and analyse the preference of the customers. There are various steps involved for the completion
of the research successfully which are given below-
Type of Research
Research are essential to identify the new facts and figures which can help to measure the
current position and scenario of the organisation at the marketplace. There are two types of
research used to make research task success. Primary research and secondary research are two
kind of research that can help the researcher to conduct the study in an appropriate manner. with
the help of primary and secondary research, research can collect relevant and appropriate data for
the study. The description of primary and secondary research is given below-
Primary Research – This is considered the most useful and appropriate type of research that can
help to collect first hand data and it is also known as original research that directly collected by
the target population. Primary data can be collected directed with the help of questionnaire and
survey. Research can get the clear point of view of the respondents and use in their study. The
main advantage of this type of research is that it can provide the valid information and data to the
researcher. For this study the sample size is selected is 15.
Secondary Research – This type of research also known as second handed research that can
already analysed and interoperate by the another person. The main motive of this type of
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research is to understand the whole concept of the research topic in an appropriate manner. This
research helps to provide the in-depth knowledge and understanding about the research topic.
This research considers the point of view, observation and perception of the targeted population.
Questionnaire
Name -
Age -
Address -
Q1) Is products and services of Virgin money is known to you?
Yes
No
Q2) Are you familiar about financial services that provided by Virgin money?
Yes
No
Q3) Are you satisfied with products and services of this organisation?
Yes
No
Q4) Did you experience any kind of problem while using their products and services?
Yes
No
Q5) Are you interested in the online marketing of this organisation products and services?
Yes
No
P4 Interpretation of data to provide evidence of market potential.
The interpretation of the data analysis helps to provide the effective market research and also
useful to maintain the market scenario. As per the research, the data that is collected by the
researcher are given below-
Q1) Is products and services of Virgin money Frequencies
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