Name : Joy Juby

Student ID Number : 19403460

Assignment Title : Business Plan for the “It’s Time” venture.

Module Title : Entrepreneurship Report

Module Code : MKTM033

Module Tutor : Dr. Lim Keai.

Assignment Submission Date : 22nd July 2019.

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Contents

1. Executive Summary.................................................................................................................3

2. Sales and Marketing Plan........................................................................................................4

2.1. An effective way to advertise to the target aged Indian customers and Non-Resident

Indians...........................................................................................................................................5

3. Financial Feasibility.................................................................................................................7

4. Operational Plan....................................................................................................................11

4.1. Primary business activities.............................................................................................12

4.2. Other supporting activities.............................................................................................14

5. Action Plan..............................................................................................................................16

6. References’..............................................................................................................................18

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 1. Executive Summary

The report seeks to propose a business plan for the “It’s Time” venture, which is a company
that manufactures the state of the art pill dispenser. The “It’s Time” pill dispenser as
mentioned in the previous report: opportunity analysis, connects the near and dear ones of the
intended user via an accompanying mobile application and keeps them in check with the pill
consumption compliance of their aged parents/near and dear ones. Thus, the targeted market
segments are the lone aged Indian population and their off-springs, who live far away from
their parents. The following report will illustrate the sales and marketing strategy, the
operational plan, financial feasibility, and the action plan for making the business a success.
The author proposes the marketing and the operational plan, which he feels is only the
rationale way of conducting a business in this era of massive competition from the rival
businesses. Furthermore, with the projected profit and loss statement as presented in the
previous report, a Break-even point analysis was conducted and from the same it was
concluded that the “It’s Time” venture will be running in profits right from the first year of
its establishment. Thus, making it a financially viable option for the author to pursue his
business idea. At last, an action plan was proposed, which defines each and every business
process of the “It’s Time” venture that will make it a successful business.

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 2. Sales and Marketing Plan

The “It’s Time” business intends to target the aged Indian population and the Non-Indian
residents. The product, as discussed in the opportunity analysis, is for the lone aged
parents/patients, but the product can be targeted towards the off-springs, who live far away
from their near and dear ones and sincerely care about their wellbeing. Therefore in this
section the author intends to propose the marketing strategy which will propel the firm into
new heights.

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 2.1. An effective way to advertise to the target aged Indian customers and
Non-Resident Indians

In this era of technological advancement, there are several ways to promote or advertise a
business. Be it the old fashioned newspapers or the trending digital marketing, all are
effective ways to communicate a business’s products or services. With India on a verge to
transform itself into “Digital India”, the IT infrastructure across the country has improved
immensely. This can be understood by the fact that there are almost 566 million internet users
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all across India out of 1.2 billion Indian population. And this number is expected to rise at a
steady pace in coming years. Thus, giving a platform for digital marketing (Keller, 2001).
However, a different study has to be conducted which determines the viewing pattern of
the aged Indian population and the Non-resident Indians and then in-fluxing those time
slots and channels, be it television or digital marketing, with the “It’s Time”
advertisements. Advertising the “It’s Time” products at the right time slots and channels
will help the business to build on the consumer based brand equity, such as brand recall,
brand association, brand’s perceived quality and so on, and thereby gain a competitive
advantage in the target market (Keller, Parameswaran, &, Jacob, 2011). However, the
impact of an advertisement mainly depends on the content of and advertisement (Jensen, &
Klastrup, 2008). Studies like Xu, & Chan (2010), have been conducted, which ascertains the
factors that determines the quality of an advertisement. So the “It’s Time” firm will advertise
its products with following qualities to its Indian target segment:

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Thus, bombarding the different means of communications with the high quality content “It’s
Time” advertisement and at a time slots that are preferred by the target audiences, will
definitely allow the “It’s Time” firm to capitalize on the consumer based brand equity and
slowly and steadily capture the targeted Indian market share.

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 3. Financial Feasibility

The following section seeks to determine the financial feasibility of the “It’s Time” venture
and to ascertain whether pursuing the business is profitable by a significant margin or not.

Figure: Start-up cash outlay

Source: Author’s work

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Again just as the opportunity analysis, the author has converted the CAPEX from Indian
rupees into Singapore Dollars for the sake of reader’s convenience

As discussed earlier in the opportunity analysis, the author was initially interested in seeking
450,000 SGD as a bank loan from an Indian bank @ 9% annual interest rate for the period of
3 years. But borrowing 450,000 SGD from a bank means that the author had to repay
135,000 SGD as an interest on the principal amount of 450,000 SGD for the whole 3 years.
This indeed will crunch the cash flow, which is very important for any start-up business (Yoo
et al., 2012). So, as a result the author decided to loan only 300,000 SGD from the bank and
borrow other 100,000 SGD from an entrepreneur scheme established in the year 2015 by the
Government of India, which is totally interest free and was established by the Indian
government for creating job opportunities in the Indian market. Thus saving approximately
48,000 SGD as an interest amount. The breakup for the investment is shown in the above
table. The CAPEX was invested in land, building, machinery, technology, vehicles, furniture,
and warehouses. As can be seen, there are no other major investors expect for the bank, but
the bank has no part to play in the day to day business activities and will fade away from the
business accounts as soon as it recoups it loaned amount and interest in 3 years. Therefore,
the author still holds the 100% equity stake in the “It’s Time” venture.

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Figure: Projected profit and loss
Source: Author
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From the Break-even point analysis (Ekren, et al., 2009);

B.E.P = Fixed cost

Sales revenue per unit – Variable cost per unit

Therefore, from the 1st year projected profit and loss statement; it can be inferred that for the
1st year of business

Determinants SGD

Total Fixed Cost 541800

Revenue/Unit 200

Total Variable cost 409500

Variable cost/unit 27

B.E.P (Units) 3137

Therefore, it can be seen from the above table that the “It’s Time” venture needs to sell 3137
units of its product per year so as to break even and recoup the fixed and the variable cost
involved in manufacturing the products. Now the contribution per unit of “It’s Time” product
is 173 SGD (Contribution per unit = Selling price – the variable cost/ unit), and this excess
contributes to the profit of the company.

Now, the “It’s Time” firm aims to make 1,000,000 SGD profit every year.

Therefore, Fixed Cost + Target Profit

Contribution per unit
i.e. 541800 + 1000000 = 8912 units.
173

Therefore, it can be inferred that the “It’s Time” venture needs to sell 3137 units of its
product per year just to break even. And 8912 units per year to achieve the desired target

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profit. And the margin of safety for the “It’s Time” business is 8912 – 3137 = 5775 units, i.e.
the amount of sales that the company can afford to lose but still end up in recouping its
expenditure. And as seen from the projected profit and loss statement, the “It’s Time” has
estimated the sales of 15000 units of its product for the first year, thus implying that from the
1st year of its operation the firm is expected to run with the desired profits. Furthermore, the
sales every subsequent year is expected to rise by 20%, thus resulting in reduced variable cost
and much better contribution margin and much better financial results. Therefore, from the
above discussion it can be inferred that the “It’s Time” venture is expected to run in profits
right from the very 1st year and thus is financially viable option for the author to pursue his
desire in running the business.

4. Operational Plan

A business is a collection of activities or processes that are executed to design, manufacture

or produce products or services, market, deliver, and support its product(s) or services. All
these activities can be illustrated using a value chain. A business’s value chain and the way it
observes its individual activities accentuates whether the business is in compliance with its
vision, mission, and its strategies and whether the business’s strategies are superior to that of
its competitors. Thus using Porter’s value chain (McPhee, & Wheeler, 2006), the author will
try to demonstrate his strategies and his vision in terms of the operational execution of the
“It’s Time” venture.

In this era of globalization, the customers have a choice of switching the product brand(s) if
they are unsatisfied with their brand’s offerings (Keller et al., 2011). Therefore, it’s of an at-
most priority for a business to offer best products/services to its target customers and that’s
too at a relatively cheaper price, thus enhancing their consumer based brand equity.
Therefore, it is mandatory that the “It’s Time” firm performs all the following business
activities effectively and efficiently.

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 4.1. Primary business activities

(1) Supply chain

An effective supply chain management demonstrates its ability to move the right product at a
right time and at a right quantity.

Most of the businesses face the threat of going through the bullwhip effect if it has an
unreliable forecasting system. Bullwhip effect is a phenomenon where the business either
overestimates or underestimates the future customer demand and as a result of which, in case
of underestimation the business will end up in product out of stock situation and in case of
overestimation the business will end up with excess inventory (Tajima, 2007). This in turn
can affect the downstream supply chain. In case of “It’s Time” venture if the raw material
supplier of the firm underestimates the future product demand, he’ll be in no position to fulfil
the R.M need of the firm thus hindering the manufacturing of the “It’s Time” product.
Similarly, if the “It’s Time” venture too underestimates the future needs of the customers,
it’ll be in no position to fulfil the same and this in turn can lead to customer un-satisfaction
and a loss in potential sales (Lee, Cheng, & Leung, 2004). To compensate for the risk of
underestimation of the future product demand and keep the supply chain going, it’ll be
foolish for a firm to overproduce because overproduction will lead to increased overhead cost
or inventory carrying cost and later will result in an increased product cost, which is against
the unique selling proposition of the “It’s Time” firm that is “to provide the best product at
the cheapest price” (Sarac, & Absi, 2010). So to fight against the bullwhip effect, the author
intends to practise the “Information Technology enabled Integrated Supply chain
management” with the venture’s suppliers and retailers. Integrated supply chain management
is a practise where all the logistics and distribution of the raw materials or the products is
managed by a single centralised system right from the suppliers to the end customers rather
than having a multiple systems, thus eliminating the possibilities of miscommunications or
miscalculation in terms of future product demand (Attaran, 2007).

The use of RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) can help in achieving so (Waller et al.,
1999). With the RFID technology, the suppliers of the “It’s Time” venture can have an access
to the real time product information data, like the raw material consumption rate at the “It’s
Time” manufacturing facility, R.M stock level at the facility or the customer’s purchasing
behaviour at the retail outlets, and thus can plan or project their future sales more reliably and
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 will always be in a situation where it can fulfil the R.M needs of the “It’s Time”
manufacturing facility (Sarac, & Absi, 2010). Therefore resulting in an unhindered supply
chain process from the suppliers to the “It’s Time” facility. Similarly, the “It’s Time” venture
too will be in a situation where it can study the consumer purchasing behaviour at the retail
outlets and project much more reliable future sales forecast and be fulfil the same
accordingly. Thus, creating an efficient supply chain management system where all the
demands are met. Furthermore, since the suppliers have the real time data about the R.M
stock levels at the manufacturing facility, the author intends to practise VMI (Vendor
Managed Inventory), where the suppliers will automatically replenish the R.M stock level
when it hits the “It’s Time” R.M re-order buffer zone (Sarac, & Absi, 2010). Thus making
the supply chain more responsive and efficient by reducing the lead time by completely
eliminating the need to raise the purchase order for replenishing the R.M stock levels and
waiting for its approval (Lee, Cheng, & Leung, 2004). The same can be done with the “It’s
Time” venture and the retail outlets, where the “It’s Time” will automatically replenish the
shelves of the retail outlets.

(2) Operations/Manufacturing process.

In-order to compete with its competitors in India: e-pill, GMS Bluetooth pill dispenser, &
MedSmart Plus, the “It’s Time” venture will have to provide the best product and at a
relatively cheap price. This can be achieved by implementing the time tested methodologies
like lean manufacturing, Total Quality management (TQM), lean six sigma, kaizen and so on
(Abdulmalek, & Rajgopal, 2007). Implementing these concepts will not only reduce the
manufacturing cost of the product drastically, or improve the product quality but also make
the manufacturing process more lean and efficient by eliminating or reducing the non-value
added activities in the process, thus making the process quicker and responsive to the
external product demand. To tackle the issues related with the quality of the product, the firm
will observe the “one piece flow system” instead of the batch production system (Yang et al.,
2011). Following the one piece flow system will help the firm in controlling the product
rejection rate due to inferior quality, thus minimizing the probability of rework or salvage
and the cost associated with it. Thus with the less cost involved in manufacturing a unit of
“It’s Time” product, the venture will be in a position to compete with its rivals in the target
market with a superior product and with a better profit margin.

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(3) Sales and marketing

The strategies for the following factor is discussed in the section Sales and marketing

(4) Service

An at most priority will be given to the activities like telephonic customer service, refunds
and exchanges, relevant mobile application updates and furthermore the customer will be
able to give his/her product feedback via an associated mobile application on what are the
shortcomings of the product and how it can do better in comparison to its competitors. The
relevant suggestions will be considered and implemented so as to be the best in the market
(Chaniotakis, & Lymperopoulos, 2009). The main objective of this services or activity is to
build on the consumer based brand equity and slowly and steadily dominate the target market
by offering them a better product and a better customer service.

Thus, by implementing the above said supply chain, operational, sales and marketing, and
support activity strategies, the “It’s Time” venture will have a competitive advantage in the
target market by attaining operational excellence over its competitors.

4.2. Other supporting activities

(1) Infrastructure

Firm’s infrastructure consists of a number of activities like general management, planning,

finance, Human resource management, legal, government affairs and most importantly
quality management. Infrastructure unlike other activities supports the entire value chain and
not a single activity/activities. It’s very important to build on this infrastructure so that the
“It’s Time” firm can operate smoothly and efficiently.

(2) Human Resource Management

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 One of the key factors for a successful business is a motivated and a committed workforce.
And for this purpose, the human resource management plays an important role. In “It’s
Time” venture, the author seeks to have a transparent H.R department, where all the
employee’s promotions, appraisals and incentives will be given to them according to their
level of compliance with the set KPI’s and KRA’s. The greater the level of compliance with
their annual KPI/KRA’s, the greater will be the reward. Thus, rewarding the employees based
on their performance and not based on their status or position in the company. Furthermore, a
special care will be taken to reward the employees according to the Maslow’s hierarchy of
needs, because their needs and source of motivation changes with a change in their years of
work experience, their skills, and their position in the company (Gawel, 1997). And to make
the company more responsive to the problems or challenges, special training programs will
be conducted every month so as to improve the skill set of every employees and make them
independed enough to carry out the day to day activities in a more efficient way. Thus
improving the employee productivity.

(3) Financial Management

It’s very important that the “It’s Time” firm has a sound financial management team, because
they’ll be the one who’ll ensure that there is enough cash flow in the company so as to meet
the day to day expenses, have enough inventory to meet the customer demands, and they’ll
be the one who ensures that there is enough capital available for the company when there is
an opportunity for the firm to grow (Bhimani, & Smith, 2007).

(4) Quality management system

Quality system is a lawful regulations established on a country by country basis. Since the
“It’s Time” venture will be established and the products will be marketed in India, the author
intends to talk about the quality regulations for the medical devices in India (Drosinos et al.,
2007). A quality management system (QMS) is a collection of business processes focused on
consistently meeting customer requirements and enhancing their satisfaction. It is aligned
with an organization's purpose and strategic direction (ISO9001:2015). It is expressed as the
organizational goals and aspirations, policies, processes, documented information and
resources needed to implement and maintain it. In the 21st century, QMS has tended to
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converge with sustainability and transparency initiatives, as both investor and customer
satisfaction and perceived quality is increasingly tied to these factors.

5. Action Plan

A business plan should be dynamic. Successful businesses prepares three to five year
business plan every year. And this includes updating the last year’s business plan and tallying
it with the goals and the achieved results and taking into account the new information, past
experience, new ideas and so on. The following will be the “It’s Time” business action plan.

(a) Accessing the situation

It is a phase where the business analyses the opportunities and the threats present in the target
market. It involves in creating a roadmap for a business by conducting an opportunity
analysis in the target market, SWOT analysis, competitor analysis, PESTLE analysis,
Porter’s five forces, and many more, which determines the feasibility and the profitability of
pursuing one’s business idea in the selected market segment (Castrogiovanni, 1996).

As seen from the previous report: business opportunity analysis, the author demonstrated the
need for the “It’s Time” product by conducting a primary survey among 50 aged Indian
respondents in India and 110 Non-Resident Indians working in Singapore and determined
that their existed a positive consumer buying intentions for the “It’s Time” product. Thus
finding a business opportunity in the Indian medical device industry. Similarly, all the above
mentioned analysis was conducted so as to ascertain the threats imposed by the competitors
and the relevant strategies were too recommended by the author.

(b) Developing a vision and a mission

Before getting further into the business, it is very important that one should formulate a
vision and a mission statement. A vision statement is the one which accentuates where a
business sees itself in far future. A vision shared by all the employees concerned with the
business acts as a motivational tool. Whereas, the mission statement defines what the

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business wants to achieve (Scott, Jaffe, & Tobe, 1993). Based on the mission statement a
business formulates its strategies and execute them accordingly.

(c) Getting Ready/Strategy Formulation phase

After the vision and mission statement, the actual work of executing the business idea starts.
Some important factors that one needs to address in this phase are as follows:

 One of the most important factor in this phase is the goal setting. The goals and
objective of a business should be set according to SMART (Specific, Measurable,
Achievable, Realistic, and Time bound), and it should always be higher than the
competitors so as to compete in the target market. “To be the best, you have to beat
the best”. And the most crucial thing with these goal setting is that it should be revised
every year, so as to lead the business into new heights and lead the path of continuous
improvement.
 After defining the goals and objectives of the business, there comes the strategy
formulation and assignment of the same to the respective departments’ in-order to
achieve those goals and objectives. The KPI’s and the KRA’s are assigned to the
employees in this phase.

In case of “It’s Time” venture the operational, sales and marketing strategies have been
discussed in the early parts of this report. Those strategies have been designed to propel the
“It’s Time” business into operational excellence by making the process leaner, efficient, and
responsive to external demands.
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(d) The Implementation Phase

This phase involves in implementing the strategies that one developed in the previous phase
in-order to meet the set goals and objectives.

(e) The Monitoring and Reporting Phase

It is the final and the most crucial phase of all. It involves in evaluation of the actual
performance with the desired performance/set goals. Any deviation of the actual business
performance from the desired performance will be addressed in this phase by using the
PDCA (Plan – Do – Check – Act) cycle (Sokovic, Pavletic, & Pipan, 2010). The use of this
cycle or the concept, helps a business to continuously get the feedbacks from the business
process and instantly rectify any deviation in the process if found (Sokovic, Pavletic, &
Pipan, 2010). Furthermore, this phase also involves in constantly monitoring the business
environment for any threats and opportunities so that the business can capitalize on the same
and grow in the future.

6. References’
Keller, K.L., 2001. Building customer-based brand equity: A blueprint for creating strong
brands (pp. 3-27). Cambridge, MA: Marketing Science Institute.

Keller, K.L., Parameswaran, M.G. and Jacob, I., 2011. Strategic brand management: Building,
measuring, and managing brand equity. Pearson Education India.

Jensen, M.B. and Klastrup, K., 2008. Towards a B2B customer-based brand equity
model. Journal of Targeting, Measurement and analysis for Marketing, 16(2), pp.122-128.

Bill Xu, J. and Chan, A., 2010. A conceptual framework of hotel experience and customer-based
brand equity: Some research questions and implications. International Journal of Contemporary
Hospitality Management, 22(2), pp.174-193.

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Yoo, C., Yang, D., Kim, H. and Heo, E., 2012. Key value drivers of startup companies in the
new media industry — The case of online games in Korea. Journal of Media Economics, 25(4),
pp.244-260.

Ekren, O., Ekren, B.Y. and Ozerdem, B., 2009. Break-even analysis and size optimization of a
PV/wind hybrid energy conversion system with battery storage–A case study. Applied
Energy, 86(7-8), pp.1043-1054.

McPhee, W. and Wheeler, D., 2006. Making the case for the added-value chain. Strategy &
Leadership, 34(4), pp.39-46.

Tajima, M., 2007. Strategic value of RFID in supply chain management. Journal of purchasing
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Lee, Y.M., Cheng, F. and Leung, Y.T., 2004, December. Exploring the impact of RFID on
supply chain dynamics. In Proceedings of the 36th conference on Winter simulation (pp. 1145-
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Sarac, A., Absi, N. and Dauzère-Pérès, S., 2010. A literature review on the impact of RFID
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Attaran, M., 2007. RFID: an enabler of supply chain operations. Supply Chain Management: An
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Waller, M., Johnson, M.E. and Davis, T., 1999. Vendor-managed inventory in the retail supply
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Disney, S.M. and Towill, D.R., 2003. The effect of vendor managed inventory (VMI) dynamics
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Abdulmalek, F.A. and Rajgopal, J., 2007. Analyzing the benefits of lean manufacturing and
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Yang, M.G.M., Hong, P. and Modi, S.B., 2011. Impact of lean manufacturing and
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Chaniotakis, I.E. and Lymperopoulos, C., 2009. Service quality effect on satisfaction and word
of mouth in the health care industry. Managing Service Quality: An International
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Frazer Winsted, K., 2000. Service behaviors that lead to satisfied customers. European Journal
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Gawel, J.E., 1997. Herzberg's theory of motivation and Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Practical
Assessment, Research & Evaluation, 5(11), p.3.

Bhimani, A. and Langfield-Smith, K., 2007. Structure, formality and the importance of financial
and non-financial information in strategy development and implementation. Management
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Aggelogiannopoulos, D.R.O.S.I.N.O.S., Drosinos, E.H. and Athanasopoulos, P., 2007.

Implementation of a quality management system (QMS) according to the ISO 9000 family in a
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Castrogiovanni, G.J., 1996. Pre-startup planning and the survival of new small businesses:
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