After You and Your Teammates Took Over the Management of the Bicycle Manufacturer SETTLER Inc.: Business Strategy Assignment, ICD

Assignment Brief:

After you and your teammates took over the management of the bicycle manufacturer SETTLER Inc., you were able to successfully sell bicycles on one foreign market in your second business year. The company’s shareholders, therefore, expect you to expand your business to two more countries in order to become a market leader there as well.

To understand the opportunities within the marketplace the shareholders commissioned you to prepare an Executive Presentation. They expect a presentation to give the key points and make a clear recommendation. Therefore, they give you some guidelines:

• An attention-grabbing opening detailing the business opportunity e.g. what need is being met internationally and how will value be created?
• The intended target customer/market segments and the route to those markets e.g. the youth market, the sports market, the E-market, or the standard market?
• Which international markets should be targeted? Where are the locations with the greatest chances of initial success? Analyse 2 countries of your choosing.
• The ecosystem (partnerships, alliances, acquisitions) needed to develop, deliver, and support the strategy.
• What is the competitive landscape of the targeted markets?
• Approach to market testing the solution e.g. how would you test the business opportunity to prove its potential?
• What are the risks and how can these be mitigated?
• How to promote the solution within the target market e.g. how to build the user base?
• Provide an overall summary of the business model, the value proposition, key resources, capabilities, costs, and revenue model.
• Finally, recommendations on the next steps e.g. how to build the business plan and validate the opportunities.

The shareholders have a short attention span, they do not want a lecture on business strategy, they need to know the facts and therefore the presentation must detail the key information to allow them to evaluate the above points and make investment decisions.