MGMT20144 Management and Business Context

Innovation and Entrepreneurship OR

Knowledge Management and eCommerce

Identify a hypothetical business opportunity that if you had the funds, time and drive you would pursue as a business start-up. This could be an idea you believe has the potential to become a business for you to own and grow. Provide a brief description of your organisation: its size, the industry and country/countries in which it will operate, the strategy and vision that it will adopt. 

Describe the organisational structure that best suits your new business start-up.
Discuss the external and internal environmental forces that will impact your business organisation.
Analyse the risks that will confront your business organisation.
Describe the business practices that you will adopt to enhance organisational performance.
Discuss the most important functions within your business organisation and how these relate to its performance.

Answer:

Innovation and entrepreneurship has a key role to play in any business organisation.  If the business is a start-up, the innovation is an essential factor that has to be considered.  As given in part A, a start-up restaurant has been chosen, that is introducing Indian food in Australia.  This assignment highlights the importance of innovation and entrepreneurship on the business of the start-up restaurant. The impact that innovation has on the start-up restaurant is highlighted in this assignment. Moreover, the enhancement in the business that is brought in by innovation and entrepreneurship is also shed light upon, in this assignment. The importance of innovation has been realised, along with the need of innovation for the enhancement of the business of a start-up restaurant in Australia.   

According to the given case study in part A, the start-up restaurant will be open initially at Sydney and Brisbane.  With expansion, the restaurant will open its branches all over Australia. This restaurant will be serving Indian food in Australia.  Moreover along with Indian food, Indian culture is also the main attraction in the start-up restaurant (Bain & Kleinknecht, 2016).  It is important that innovation and innovative challenges are taken up in order to ensure that the restaurant is one of a kind.

One of the essential innovations that the restaurant needs to implement is the innovation in the look and feel of the restaurant (Hartmann et al., 2014).  Since it primary serves Indian food, the  outlook and ambience of the restaurant should be similar to that of Indian culture.  Furniture and cutleries that are similar to Indian culture should be used.  One of the most traditional ways to eat Indian food is to use a banana leaf instead of plates.  This is an innovation in Australia since none of the contemporary restaurants serving continental food or Australian food offers food using a banana leaf instead of plates.  This innovation reflects Indian culture and the customers coming in to experience the Indian culture and the food will have a real life experience of Indian culture (Lee, Halla & Sardeshmukh, 2016). Moreover, innovations in the restaurant will make it unique in Australia.

Another innovation that could be done is in the food that they serve.  Indian food is rare in Australia (Huberman & Miles, 2013).  This restaurant needs to use this as their unique selling proposition and offer authentic Indian food of various parts of India so that Indians staying in Australia get the feel of authentic Indian food (Bain & Kleinknecht, 2016).  The furniture and the cutleries that are used in the restaurant should have a feel of Indian culture (Hartmann et al., 2014).  These innovations are essential for the success of the start of Indian restaurant at Australia

The attire of the waiters as well as other staff wear should be absolute Indian.  Instead of presenting themselves in western formals, they should be dressed in authentic Indian traditional clothes.  This will enhance the feel of the customers coming in to experience Indian culture (Bain & Kleinknecht, 2016). The Ambience of the restaurant should be similar to that of Indian culture.  For example Indian song and Indian dance performances should be a part of the restaurant.

Innovation in the menu is one of the major innovation challenges that to start up restaurant need to take up (Huberman & Miles, 2013).  Though Indian restaurants are there in Australia however, some Indian restaurant might be giving tough competition to the start-up restaurant (Bain & Kleinknecht, 2016).  To be in competition with the already established Indian restaurants, innovation in the menu has to be incorporated (Hartmann et al., 2014). The authentic Indian foods should be presented and prepared in innovative way.  Along with innovative food menu fusion of Australian and Indian food should also be done (Bain & Kleinknecht, 2016).  Innovations are important challenges and should be taken up by the start-up restaurant in order to attract more customers.

Along with innovation in the ambience and food menu, technological innovations should also be incorporated in the restaurant (Bain & Kleinknecht, 2016).  Use of robot for cooking the food as well as serving the food to the guests is also an essential innovation (Lee, 2015).  This will attract more customers as they would like to experience and see robots cooking Indian food and serving them (Hsu, 2016).  Using technical innovations will enhance the start-up restaurant. This is because; labour is a main issue in Australia (Hartmann et al., 2014).  If majority of the workforce be replaced by robots the labour issues of the restaurants to be reduced, along with attracting more customers (Bain & Kleinknecht, 2016).  Along with reduction of the cost the innovation will attract thousands of customers increasing the business of the start-up restaurant. The use of automated self-service machines is also an essential part of the innovation (Zhang, 2016). The customers can come in and choose the ingredients that they would like to incorporate in their order and innovative Indian recipe will be cooked with the chosen ingredients by the customer (Bain & Kleinknecht, 2016).  This is a new concept in Australia and customers will be attracted to challenge the steps to cook and unique Indian authentic food with the chosen ingredients by the customers.

The innovation is essential in the start-up restaurant. However, there are various challenges that innovation has (Drucker, 2014).  No innovation is guaranteed to be a success.  Failure in innovation is a part and has to be accepted gladly.  However, failure in innovation could be costly for a start-up restaurant since the fund or the budget is limited in this case.

The innovation challenges are very risky and effectiveness analysis and an alternative strategy have to be included such that the start-up restaurant does not cease to exist due to the failure in one innovation challenge (Hsu, 2016).  In order to survive in the Australian market competition, the Indian start-up restaurant has to rely upon innovation.  The start-up restaurant could vendor small vehicle that will move around near office areas and places of public gathering (Bain & Kleinknecht, 2016).  These moving restaurants will offer authentic Indian food along with Indian Australian fusion food to the people.  This will act as an innovation as well as a promotional activity for the start-up restaurant (Drucker, 2014).  Regular office goers might of an experiment with the food and hence the chances that they will try the food from the start up restaurant vehicle are likely.  This is a promotional activity as well as people who are unaware of the existence of such a restaurant becomes potential customers and they can visit the restaurant if they like the food being served.

Before innovation challenges are taken up it is important that all the employees and the staff along with the chefs are given the adequate training to be well equipped to take up the innovation challenges (Khan, 2014).  The chefs should have the adequate knowledge of Indian authentic food along with innovations so that they can offer innovative food to the customers on the basis of their demands (Drucker, 2014).  The employees have to be well equipped with technological innovations that the start-up restaurant is using.  Lack of technical literacy among the employees is a major drawback for the start-up restaurant (Hsu, 2016).  Customers who come into the restaurant might not be technically sound to use the high and technology that the restaurant is using.  Assistance must be given to those customers.  For example, if customers have no idea of how to place order a robot, they must be assisted by  the employees of the start-up restaurant (Bain & Kleinknecht, 2016).  If employees themselves are technically challenged, then it is difficult to enhance start-up restaurant with innovation. The Indian culture that is an essential part of the restaurant should be authentic.  This will attract people who are come to know about the Indian culture.

Innovation has a major role to play in any business organisation especially in a start-up restaurant. However, it is essential that the restaurant and its staffs be ready to take up the innovation challenge.  Failure in innovation is not desirable in any business.  Moreover, since in a start-up restaurant the fund is limited and hence failures might be too costly for the business.  The above mentioned innovations incorporated in the business will attract more customers. Hence, the customers being satisfied with the innovation might also provide some new ideas and innovation challenges to the business, thus providing a platform for the innovation. Hence, innovation and entrepreneurship are essential for enhancement of business if they are implemented carefully and successfully. The innovation and entrepreneurship are effective in the start-up business. The profits of the business are likely to increase, with the attractions of more customers. Moreover, the innovative menus, along with innovation in culture as well as hospitality are indeed the unique selling propositions of the start-up business.  

References:

Bain, D., & Kleinknecht, A. (Eds.). (2016). New concepts in innovation output measurement. Springer.

Drucker, P. (2014). Innovation and entrepreneurship. Routledge.

Hartmann, P. M., Zaki, M., Feldmann, N., & Neely, A. (2014). Big data for big business? A taxonomy of data-driven business models used by start-up firms. A Taxonomy of Data-Driven Business Models Used by Start-Up Firms (March 27, 2014).

Hsu, S. K. (2016). The Case Analysis of Management and Strategy of Restaurant Industry's Business Model and Service Innovation.

Huberman, A. M., & Miles, M. B. (2013). Innovation up close: How school improvement works. Springer Science & Business Media.

Khan, M. A. (2014). Restaurant franchising: Concepts, regulations and practices. CRC Press.

Lee, C., Hallak, R., & Sardeshmukh, S. R. (2016). Innovation, entrepreneurship, and restaurant performance: a higher-order structural model. Tourism Management, 53, 215-228.

Lee, C. (2015). Innovation, entrepreneurship, and business performance: a mixed methods study of the Australian restaurant sector.

Zhang, W. (2016). Business Plan for an All You Can Eat Korean Restaurant in Ontario, California.