UY The Transport Industry & Carbon Emissions Research Paper

Module Structure
We will spend the next hour walking through each of these three parts:
● Part ~1: Group research – 3,000-words – Strategic Business Plan
● Part ~2: Individual research – 4,500-words – Business Operating Plan
● Part ~3: Self-Reflection – 500-words.
Please ask any questions in the chat.
Module handbook (2021) p.6
Part One: Strategic Business Plan – 3000 words
“Work with your group to research and then individually write up a
strategic business plan for an enterprise that addresses issues around
the environment and sustainability.”
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Write with a potential investor in mind – idea must be compelling
Include an executive summary, introduction, value proposition, business
performance objectives, risk mitigation plan, long term growth strategy and macro
and micro analysis of your target market.
Use secondary research and evidence throughout the report.
Private business or a social enterprise (Community Interest Company).
Apply academic tools and frameworks to create a credible argument. for
investment in your enterprise.
Do not include operational plans for operations, HR or marketing and sales for this
section as these belong in part 2 of the project (you may however, include costs for
ops, HR & marketing & sales in the finance section of part 1).
Applying Academic Tools to the Strategic
Business Plan
● Throughout part 1, you should apply academic tools and frameworks from
your reading to create a credible argument for investment in your enterprise.
● In part one we are looking for the application of academic tools &
frameworks to the business idea rather than an academic discussion of the
relative merits of various theories.
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Eg: You may decide to apply Porter’s 5 forces to your business idea. In this example we
would want to see you use Porter’s theory to help analyse the macro-environment for your
business and target market, to help you build a compelling case for investment.
Strategic Business Plan – Assumptions
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You may include up to three assumptions in your group report, which should allow you to be a little
more ambitious and creative with your business idea.
Example assumptions may include:
○ A source of funding (eg a loan from a bank or investor, or a grant)
○ Access to a technological innovation that doesn’t actually exist yet (in this case the
innovation should be in development or could be assembled from other parts of existing
technology)
○ A contract with ONE (not more) major retailer who has agreed to stock/sell your product
Each assumption should be detailed with as much supporting research and evidence as possible.
For example if you are assuming your business will benefit from a grant from a charitable
organisation, your report should demonstrate that you meet the criteria for that organisation’s
grant programme. If you are assuming your business will receive a loan, provide details of this
funding including the source, payback term and interest rate. If you are assuming a retailer will sell
your product, your business plan will need to provide evidence that there is a genuine demand for
the product/service in the market segments served by the retailer)
Examples of assumptions that are not appropriate would be that there is a ready market for your
product (you need to provide research to show this instead) or that multiple retailers will stock
your product.
Strategic Business Plan – Industry Sectors
Your business idea must address issues of the environment and sustainability
and the industry for your idea will be in the one area your team already chose
from the below list:
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Fashion
Transport
Food (eg: retail / hospitality / agriculture)
Energy
Plastics (eg: recycling / plastic alternatives)
Strategic Business Plan – Financials
● Include income statements and cash flow forecasts for the first 4
years of the business – the cash flows should be broken down to
monthly level, the income statements can be shown as annual figures.
● You are not expected to demonstrate technical financial knowledge,
the ask is for you to use your research to demonstrate that that the
business makes commercial sense – that the business can generate
p r of it in lin e w it h t h e b us in e s s ob j e ct ive s us i n g b a s i c f i n a n c i a l
statements.
● The next slides provide further information on how to approach the
finance section, should you require support.
Financials – Getting Started
1. Forecast your sales revenue each month – use your market sizing and
market analysis guide you.
2. Consider whether you will require further funding and where you will source
this from (eg start up loan, venture capital, crowdfunding etc).
3. Gather evidence to build a realistic idea of costs for the business
4. Use the above data to start to build your cash flow forecasts and income
statements (recommend you use excel for this).
5. Once you have a first draft of the financial projections, tweak them until they
make sense – for example you may need to find ways to increase sales or
reduce costs.
You will need to gather a realistic idea of
costs: Item
Cost Per Month
Premises (rent/mortgage)
£
Water / electric / gas
£
Wages / salaries
£
Raw materials
£
Marketing
£
Transport
£
-The above provides a few examples – in reality your business will have many more costs.
-Consider which are start up costs, and which are ongoing costs
-What sort of professional services might you need? (payroll, legal, accounting, etc?)
-Do you need to trademark, patent, or copyright any of your intellectual property?
-What insurances will you need? (public liability? Building and contents?)
-Divide up among your team the tasks to find out information about how much these costs will be.
A simple cash flow forecast (objective – break
even)
Example Cash flow forecast
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Figures are in £
thousands.
Round the figures to the
nearest appropriate
figure – avoid showing
very small
denominations.
Ensure the business
doesn’t run out of cash in
a given month.
You need to show
monthly cash flow
figures for 4 years.
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Income Statement
Sales – Cost of Sales = Gross Profit
Gross Profit – Operating costs = Operating Profit (EBIT)
Operating Profit – Interest = Net Profit (EBT)
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This example shows figures for one year. For the
project you will be showing annual figures for 4
years.
The income statement would also usually show tax
and depreciation, but for the purposes of this
project, you do not need to include these.
*Paul Burns (2018). New Venture Creation: a
framework for entrepreneurial start-ups, Palgrave
Macmillan, p432.
Finance Considerations
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Every item in the financial projections must be evidenced (using either a
footnote or supporting information in the appendices):
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Eg 1 – Premises – evidence might be a link from an estate agent
Eg 2 – Employee wages – evidence might be a link from a recruitment agency
For the purposes of this project, you do not need to include the following:
○ Taxes such as VAT, corporation tax
○ Employee pensions or national insurance
○ Depreciation
● Consider the production / sales lead time for your business – when will you
realistically start to incur costs and receive revenue?
● Consider how seasonality affects your projections.
Reading
For further examples and templates of the cash flow forecasts and
income statements, see Paul Burns (2018). New Venture Creation: a
framework for entrepreneurial start-ups, Palgrave Macmillan as a
starting point.
● Available as an ebook from the library.
● See especially Chapter 13: Preparing and Using Financial
Forecasts.
Part Two: Individual Report – Business Operating
Plan – 4500 words
Building on the same business idea you submitted as part of the group project, expand your
business plan to explain in more detail how the business will operate in practice. Choose one
of the following functional areas (Operations or HR, or Marketing & Sales) to expand the
business plan:
Operations: If you choose to focus on Operations your plan may include for example:
operations strategy, how your business will deal with product design & development, supply
chain, process design, capacity mgt, planning & control, quality mgt etc.
OR Human Resources: If you choose to focus on Human Resources your plan may include for
example: human resources strategy, leadership, mgt team and personnel structure, learning &
development, compensation, health & safety, employee relations etc.
OR: Marketing & Sales: If you choose to focus on Marketing & Sales your plan may include for
example: marketing & sales strategy, positioning & branding, marketing mix, customer journey,
attracting & retaining customers etc.
Business Operating Plan – Tips
● All aspects of the operating plan must be supported with evidence from
secondary sources to justify the approach and to explain the rationale
behind the strategy.
● The operating plan must be consistent with the strategic plan you outlined
in part 1.
● As you did in part 1, you should apply academic frameworks, theories, and
concepts to your proposed operating plan to demonstrate how they will be
applied in practice to your business idea.
● Different from part 1 however is that in this section you must also
incorporate a critical analysis to evaluate the literature within your chosen
functional area to justify each aspect of your plan and explain how theory of
entrepreneurship has influenced your work. You should seek to incorporate
a wide range of sources into this section and draw original conclusions.
Part Three: Self-reflection – 500 words
“Look back on the group work project and use academic theory to
critically examine your team’s performance and in particular, your
own contribution to the team”.
● Focus on your learnings and personal development through the
collaborative process with your team.
● You could include aspects of group dynamics, leadership, crosscultural working, or other relevant concepts.
● Be critical – what challenges did you face and how did you develop
new skills and capabilities in response to those challenges? What did
you learn? What will you do differently in the future?
● Be concise – the word count is very limited here – make sure that what
you write is impactful.
Structuring the submission
● The next few slides provide an indicative structure for the project,
meaning you may choose to place greater emphasis and word count
on some sections than others, depending on the nature of your
business idea and industry.
● See the module handbook for more details.
1) Strategic Business Plan – Indicative
Contents
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Cover – with company name and logo
Table of contents – (does not count towards wordcount)
Executive summary (Approx. 500 words, does not count towards wordcount.)
Introduction & Assumptions (approx. 300 words).
Business strategy and growth plan (approx. 600 words)
Industry and Market Analysis (approx. 750 words)
Financing and financial forecasts (approx. 750 words)
Risk Assessment Plan (approx. 600 words)
2) Business Operating Plan – Indicative
Contents
● Critical analysis of literature – You may choose to dedicate a separate
section of your report to this or if you prefer, you may incorporate it into
the business operating plan for your chosen area if you prefer. ( approx.
1500 words).
● Business Operating plan for your chosen area – One of marketing and
sales, or operations or human resources. (approx. 2700 words).
● Conclusion – A summary tying together the key themes and findings from
the business plan report as a whole (parts 1 & 2) (approx. 300 words)
3) Self-Reflection – Indicative Contents
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Critical reflection – Summarise how you responded to group work and
individual challenges and how you developed new skills and capabilities in
response to them, as well as how you will work differently in your career
based upon your experience of studying for your MSc.
Appendices –– include here any background or supplementary information
additional to that which you have included in the main body of the document
(not included in word count).
References List – Provide a list of sources used throughout the document.
Best practice for business planning and business reports is Chicago style (i.e.,
footnotes) referencing (not included in word count).
Whole Project – Referencing & Software
● Both reports for this project should use Chicago referencing rather than
Harvard, to give a more realistic feel to the business plans.
● Full details of how to use the Chicago (footnotes) style of referencing can
be found on the University of York website.
● You may find Paperpile to be a useful tool for compiling and formatting your
references. It is free to use and can save a lot of time.
● You may use Canva to create a logo for your business as part of the
branding for your business, be sure to reference Canva if you choose to do
this.
● It is recommended that you use a shared google drive for storing your
teamwork documents.
● Use Googledocs to document your research – this allows other team
members to annotate with questions and additions.
What should you currently be focussing on?
(1/2)
● Read the module handbook and this presentation thoroughly.
● Ensure your team has a comms platform set up (eg whatsapp, wechat etc),
a googledrive and a meeting schedule in place.
● Brainstorm ideas for your enterprise and pick one to move forward with – be
ready to explain the idea in principle to your supervisor at your first
supervision meeting.
● Agree how you will start collecting market and industry information to
create a compelling case for investment – write tasks up into a research plan
or gantt chart – bring this to the meeting to help explain how you intend to
organise your activities.
What should you currently be focussing on?
(2/2)
● Write down any questions you want to ask at the first supervision meeting.
● Read the business planning literature and also read around your chosen
industry sector.
● It is a good idea to think ahead towards part two of the assignment and
consider which functional area you will focus on in this section – take note of
any relevant materials that you come across, if you think they will be useful
for your chosen functional area.
● Consider keeping a learning journal of your observations, experiences, and
learnings throughout your team work on the project. Documenting these
will help with your reflective writing later in the project. Read the literature
on reflective writing to help with this.
Next Steps – action:
Prior to your first supervision meeting in mid-May:
The group should prepare for the first supervision meeting by jointly producing one
1–2-page document outlining the group’s chosen business idea, a research project
plan showing who will research what and by when and any questions for your
supervisor.
Submit this document to your supervisor a week in advance of the supervision
meeting (failure to submit this document in advance will mean your first supervision
meeting is less useful).
References
All images are from:
● Pexels (2021) Pexels. Available at: https://www.pexels.com/. Accessed:
28/03/2021.
● Pixabay (2020) Pixabay. Available at: https://pixabay.com/. Accessed:
14/12/2020.
● Pixabay (2020) Pixabay. Available at: https://pixabay.com/. Accessed:
28/03/2021.