BiKElocker Business Report Help
Executive Summary:
BiKElocker is the start-up bike locker company located in Perth city, providing solutions to the bi-cycle parking needs of clients. The target demography includes those who ride bicycles to the city or passionate about cycling in the age group of 18 and above. We have our locations available near all train stations and coastal areas in Perth city. The clients will be given a passkey to access the lockers. The company offers a place to stop, shower, get changed and relax before clients move onto their destination. We have a facility to dry the wet clothes when the clients come to take their bi-cycles after swimming in the beach. The clients are allowed to bring food at the location. We also sell the bike parts and supporting essentials such as head gears, knee pads, water bottles, and spare tyres. The weekly membership is available as the payment mode.
The organizational structure includes a Managing Director, Senior Manager, 2 Managers and 8 Support Staff. Manager 1 handles the manpower. Manager 2 handles the sales and business. There are 4 support staffs handle allocating the lockers to the clients. They also manage selling bike parts and supporting essentials. The fifth support staff assists with billing and invoicing. There are three remaining staffs maintain the cleanliness of the premises, lockers, sales goods and the environment.
Research and Analysis:
As a senior manager reporting to the managing director of the company, I conducted a research on the bike locker industry and the market. The key information about the potential clients (local, national and international tourists) who may use the lockers are gathered during the research and given in the table format as below.
Community |
Age |
Period |
Reason |
Residents |
18-30 |
Weekend, Holidays |
Exercise, Coastal Riding Experience, Fun |
Above 30 |
All days |
Exercise, Coastal Riding Experience, Leisure |
|
Working Group |
18-30 |
All days |
Save Fuel/Energy, Exercise, work |
Above 30 |
All days |
Save Fuel/Energy, Exercise, work |
|
Tourists |
18-30 |
Weekend, Holidays |
Fun, Exercise, Coastal Riding experience |
Above 30 |
Holidays, Weekend |
Leisure, Exercise, Coastal Riding Experience |
The analysis was made using literature from various books, reports, journals, websites and other online materials. The research has been conducted thoroughly and the recommendations are provided in order to grow and sustain the business.
Change Management:
There are external task environments such as clients, competitors, suppliers and the labour market influence the operations and performance of the company. I identified a serious problem of losing business to the competitors due to the company’s single membership mode. To generate more revenue, the company requires implementing three steps of OD process immediately (Samson & Daft, 2012). First step is freezing or identifying the problem. As shown in the table, there are various clientele use the bicycles for different duration and reasons. The company currently offers only the weekly membership to park their bi-cycles in the lockers. By offering different tariffs, the competitors may attract our business clients which can seriously affect the operations and performance of the company.
For example, the company will lose the business from the national and international market (tourists and cyclists from other cities) to a competitor who offers different payment tariffs. The same loss will occur from the local market clients who intend to use the service for less than a week. It is important to go to a second step of changing the current mode of payment. Introducing different payment modes such as daily and monthly rental is critical for business growth. The revenue can also be increased by introducing special offers to those who rent the lockers for longer duration. The third and final step is implementing the new payment models and special offers.
The marketing strategies need to be enhanced in order to attract the external clients such as tourists and cyclists from the neighbouring cities. Social media marketing strategies need to be implemented as a part of change management. It is very important to incorporate SEO techniques to the company website and use social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Human Resource Management:
As summarized in the bicycles – global strategic business report (2012), the factors such as growing environmental concerns over greenhouse gas emissions, increasing fuel prices and health reasons helped the adoption of cycling as a popular mode of exercise like aerobics and yoga. Perth being a coastal city and third largest in Australia, it has a high potential for bi-cycle locker rental companies. As a growing company, appropriate utilization and motivation of the employees is essential to sustain in the industry.
The company has 4 staffs to allocate the lockers and sell the supporting accessories. Whereas only one employee is taking care of billing and invoicing. He has been travelling to different locations to collect the bills and related information. The time and energy used to travel from one point to another will disturb the productivity in the long time. It is very important for the company to implement ERP system to manage the internal processes like managing invoices, bills and clients. Training the employees to use the ERP system is essential to improve the productivity. When the employees get an opportunity to learn new technologies and skills, they will understand the intricacies of what the company is planning to achieve. Learning new skills and technologies improve the teamwork and in turn productivity of an individual towards company’s growth.
Motivation:
Training the support staffs on the technical side of the business will boost self-confidence in them. Job satisfaction is considered as the most important motivational factor. Career planning and development clarifies the matches between organizational and individual career goals (UCSF, 2013). As a senior manager, it is my duty to monitor through the managers whether the entire staff is completely happy with their roles and responsibilities.
One of the most important goals of motivating human resources is through effective wage, salary systems, and benefit packages (Samson & Daft, 2012). I am planning to introduce a 360° appraisal method to identify the key performers. The staffs will receive a feedback from their peers, clients, subordinates, managers and the management. The key performers will receive special bonuses and awards. The goals will be set for each staff to encourage proactive participation in management activities and training programs.
Organizational Culture:
The performance excellence, social responsibility, integrity, worker involvement, customer service and teamwork are the most important values of any organizational culture. All these values are inter-related, the changes suggested in the human resource management and motivational factor will help in improving the performance excellence, worker involvement, teamwork, and customer service. The improved internal organizational culture encourages cooperation among internal departments and in turn become more responsive to external clients (Mitchell, 2002).
The company must focus more on using energy saving materials and eco-friendly products. Environmental management and practices are the important components of corporate social responsibility (Vogel, 2006). There are lockers made of elements where the quality can be maintained without using any chemical cleaning products. The powder coated, less volatile organic compounded, and lead-free lockers which neither pollute air nor generate any hazardous waste need to be used to protect the environment.
Leadership:
Leaders create, embed the culture into groups, must also change and manage culture for organizational growth (Schein, 2006). The leaders in the top level must educate the employees about the key values, culture of the company. Implementing the suggestions given in this report will help a great deal in showing the leadership qualities. For example, the top level management must focus on using eco-friendly products to make the employees understand how important social responsibility is to maintain the organizational culture. They must also understand how important organizational culture for the business.
The result of transforming leadership is a relationship of mutual stimulation and elevation that converts followers into leaders and many convert leaders into moral agents (Boje, 2000). For example, by using the ERP system effectively, the leaders must set an example to the employees. Effective usage of operational enhancements will develop teamwork, employee morale and overall growth of the organization.