Business Idea Assignment Eating Habit Of People Due To Covid-19 Pandemic
Question
Task: Every now and then, even the most successful business model will be challenged by previously unforeseen shocks to the economy or society (e.g. trade wars, BREXIT and Coronavirus). When this happens, you need to be prepared to adapt your business model to maintain product-market fit.
Would your business be able to survive and prosper? We would like you to envisage an external shock that could cause a fundamental change to at least one part of the Business Model Canvas developed for your team project this semester. For example, the shock might generate a change in the purchasing power of a specific customer segment, the sudden loss of a key resource or a change in the channels you have available for interacting with your consumer group(s) etc. With reference to your Business Model Canvas and Value Proposition Canvas, describe:
a) What the shock is and why it would impact your business model? (5 marks) b) Which component/s of your Business Model Canvas would be impacted by the shock? (5 marks) c) Evaluate whether you would have to adapt the rest of the business model in order to maintain a product-solution fit between your product/service and the market. (10 marks)
Ensure that you briefly justify your response for each business model component
Q2. Being able to empathise with others is an important skill to master in the business world. Over the course of this semester’s tutorial program you have been working to develop empathy with a range of different stakeholder groups and using the insights you have gained to enhance your team’s business idea. These skills can also be applied to improve the way you work with others. In this question we would like you to reflect on the six characteristics of highly empathetic people (introduced in Tutorial 2) and consider how they applied to the way your team worked together on your group project: 1. Cultivate curiosity about strangers 2. Challenge prejudices and discover commonalities
3. Try another person’s life 4. Listen hard—and open up 5. Inspire mass action and social change 6. Develop an ambitious imagination
Reflecting on your team and how you worked together:
a) Discuss one of these habits that came most easily to your team and one that was most difficult to develop. Use specific examples from your experience to help justify and explain your opinion. (5 marks) b) Reflecting on your own experience with group work this semester, identify one of the six habits that you believe will be most useful for you to cultivate in future group work activities and explain why using one or more specific examples of your experience from this semester.
Answer
Question 1
One of the unforeseen shock to the economy that is being faced today is the Covid-19 issue in which food habits of the people are changing over time due to continuous stay at work. Economic times (2020) it is seen that fewer to no people are eating outside and most of them are cooking at home. This is due to the health risks consumers are facing during such pandemic situation. This is an external shock that the business might face in the economy. This means that there is a huge change in the behavior of the consumer due to Covid-19 economic shock. This shock would impact the business model developed for the new business of selling recipes to help the student to spend less on restaurant foods across Australia. The shock might generate a change and expansion in the type of customers willing to purchase the recipes, an increase in the revenue potential of the business and changes in the channels that is made available for interacting with the consumer segments. This means that there are areas in the existing business model that needs change to maintain the product market fit.
There are three components in the business model that needs changes and will be impacted by the shock from changes in eating habit of people due to Covid-19 pandemic. These three components comprises of customer segmentation, channels and value proposition (Austin 2020). Looking at the first component of the model that needs change due to shock is customer segmentation where a planned mass targeting will be followed rather than segment marketing. This is because with the shock from Covid-19 it is seen that such recipes are needed in every household so that the family can get access to restaurant taste at home. Rising household demand for home cooked food with restaurant tastes will make the business to expand their target market from students to mass market. Secondly, the channel component will be impacted by the shock in which there will be an addition in physical stores as well such as supplying to book stores because elder members of the household will not be able to access web and app easily. Thus, printed version of the book will also be made available in stores for better channeling. Lastly, the value proposition component will be impact because now the business will also offer value of chef special restaurant taste at limited cost to every household.
The rest of the business model will be adapted by the business without any change in order to maintain a product solution fit between the recipes being launched and the market. This is because key partnership with restaurants and local market will be necessary to develop recipes for restaurant style dishes. Further, the revenue stream will be subscription and transaction based revenue, which will include both online and store transaction. Moreover, even with shock the key activities of the business will include sales and key resources will be the same cheap ingredients and wide recipe variations to help the people cope with such pandemic situation. Moreover, the cost structure of the business will still include maintenance, live chat, delivery and employee.
Question 2
Empathizing is one of the most important skills to be developed when dealing in a business environment. There are number of characteristics seen in the behavior of an empathetic people such as cultivate curiosity about strangers, challenge prejudices and discover commonalities and others.
• From all the characteristics the habit that was most easily applied in my team was try another person’s life when conducting team work and developing a business idea. This was the first thing that came into our mind when enhancing the business idea of the team. All the team member’s shared their life experiences and we decided to implement the life of a team member as the business idea. It was the easiest habit to be implemented because we are always inspired by someone else’s life easily and our ideas usually comes from the things we hear about others.
• For example, one of our team mates shared his experience of increased expenses in food and how he is facing issue while cooking at home. This helped us gain a business idea where a recipe book will be useful for him.
• There was a habit that was difficult to be developed in my team that is listen hard and open up. It was seen that listening and opening up capability differs among person to person. Every team member differ in their capability and behavior and bringing this empathetic characteristic among every member was difficult. This is because some showed lack of listening habit, while others displayed an introvert behavior.
• For example, some of the team member did not listen to the needs of the stakeholder groups such as students when interacting with them for knowing their food expense problem and enhance the business idea.
• From my own team experience where we applied different characteristics of empathy I would prefer using listen hard and open up behavior as my empathetic style to cultivate future group activities. This characteristic of being empathetic I feel is the most important when on needs to develop a creative business idea. This is because listening and opening up is the most important part of communication and a healthy and open communication is the path to bring creativity.
• Thus, a creative and enhanced business idea can only come if my team listens and open up effectively with each other and with our respective stakeholder groups (Snyder 2018).
• For example, during the semester I felt that we would have come with a better business idea and considered the economic shock that is coming when developing the business idea. This was only because due to lack of application of listening and opening up we failed to interact with the public much and in return it created a barrier in our team’s understanding.
• Thus, considering this characteristics will be most useful for me in future to cultivate a more successful and effective future group work activities.
References
Austin, E.C., 2020. BUSINESS SURVIVAL GROWTH MODEL (BSGM) CANVAS VS BUSINESS MODEL CANVAS (BMC). European Journal of Business and Innovation Research, 8(1), pp.52-68.
Economictimes, 2020. As Covid-19 pandemic spells disaster for restaurants, top Spain chef sees fewer people eating out, more cooking at home. [online] Economictimes. Available at:
Snyder, K., 2018. Resonance listening: A concept to help address worker stress and improve communication & creativity. In Participatory Innovation Conference, Eskilstuna, 11-13 january, 2018.
