Assignment on Event Management Firm Ayojon

The venture, an event management firm will be known as Ayojon. Ayojon is a Bangla word which means making arrangements or organizing.

Legal Form of the Venture

The company will be a sole proprietorship and be registered under the Bangladesh Company Act, 1994. If required the form of ownership will be changed in time.

Ayojon will be a service oriented company that is the firm will provide intangible goods or perform useful labor on behalf of another person.

The company will start its operation in early 2006, if everything goes as planned by the proprietor.

For the purpose of registration the entrepreneur must acquire the following licenses.

1. Trade License – From Dhaka City Corporation
2. Article of Incorporation – From Registrar of Joint Stock Company
3. Tax Certificate – From National Board of Revenue

The location of the office for Ayojon will be decided when the firm will go into operation in 2006. The location for the office will be decided based on the convenience of the prospective customers of the company. The probable locations are Dhanmondi or Gulshan. Uttara is also in the list of probable location, if that is convenient for the customers.

Mission of Ayojon will be to provide its customer services to their utmost satisfaction.

Vision

Ayojon pledges its dedication to serve the community with quality services and set an example of professionalism and ethical business practices in the industry.

The vision of Ayojon is centered towards becoming the market leader in event management within 5 years of inception through hard work and commitment, maintaining the leadership and carrying the flag of uncompromising quality into the unforeseen future with constant value addition and a strong line of innovation.

Ayojon will start its operation in a small scale, targeting a segment of the market that has not been targeted by the existing firms before. It will focus its attention to the needs of the small and medium sized organization – both profit and not-for-profit.

Historically ours has been a culture that nourishes strong roots of occasions. We as a nation like to celebrate a lot of events, and our program calendar hardly sees a week when anything significant does not take place. In congruence with that ongoing heritage of celebration that is instilled in us, the concept of event management is as old in our culture as the concept of celebrating that event. What has been lacking until recently is the ability to see the big picture – which is the ability to see the opportunities and the problems associated with such big scale events. And this is precisely where event management fits in.

 Present Scenario

The event management industry in Bangladesh is not yet fully developed. There are few established event management firms in the country. The three established solely event management firms are Jetset PR, AntarShowbiz and Wizard. These firms are dedicated exclusively to the show business events.

But, the corporate market for event management has largely been unexplored. Although there is a demand for professional event management organizations, there is few such firms that cater exclusively to this demand. The advertising firms made the most of this situation, as they took up event management as a very lucrative side business. The initiative of managing their client’s events was started by Asiatic ad agency and soon followed by most of the advertising agencies. In fact Asiatic was so much interested to see the profit in this sector, that they have opened a separate subsidiary called Asiatic EML, for the sole purpose of managing their clients’ events. But other than that, no significant movements were taken to create a service firm for the purpose of managing the client’s events professionally.

A market survey conducted by a group of MBA students of IBA made an effort to find out the customer satisfaction level with the existing firms that provide event management services. The surveyors asked the clients of these companies to assign different numbers to the following seven dimensions of a company’s event management capability. The average is presented below.

Here 5 = Highest satisfaction with the service

          1 = Lowest satisfaction with the service

From the survey, Unitrend, Andes, and Asiatic EML can be identified as major players in the industry of event management. They have a high profile client base like –

• Lever Brothers
• British American Tobacco Bangladesh
• ACI
• Social Marketing Company (SMC)
• GQBall Pen
• BRAC
• Pran
• Saudia Airlines
• GMG Airlines
• Siemens

Unitrend and Andes are basically advertisement agencies, which provide event management as additional service. As mentioned before, Asiatic EML is a subsidiary of advertising agency Asiatic.

Other than Asiatic EML, CEMS (Conference and Exhibition Management System) is currently the only firm delivering event management services.

Windmill is an advertising firm, which also manages their clients’ events as a side business. According to ReazuddinMosharaf, the CEO of Windmill, the demand for professional event management firms has been strong and the number of events as well as the number of customers getting interested to look for professional help in arranging their events is increasing. The demand is growing at the rate of 16% every year. (Page 21, A Performance Analysis of the Advertising Companies in Bangladesh, Farshed Alam, Institute of Business Administration). But, the supply is no where near to match the demand. This large gap between supply and demand presents an opportunity for the entrepreneurs in this sector.

In most cases, managers from different departments are brought together to form a committee to manage corporate events. This arrangement put extra pressure on the managers and sometimes results in lack of professionalism as managing an event professionally and cost efficiently require a good liaison with a number of suppliers. A manager responsible for other corporate activities usually can not maintain this liaison. But, it is not financially feasible for organizations to recruit a manager solely for the purpose of managing the corporate events, which is not more than a few per year in numbers. Hence more and more organizations are looking for professional help in managing their events.

Non-corporate sector also presents opportunities for the potential event management firms. Even a decade ago family programs used to be organized by the family members. For example during any wedding, family members from all around the country used to come together to arrange the ceremony. But, with everyone spending more time in the workplaces, arrangements of family events like weddings or akikahs by the family members are becoming increasingly difficult. Again people are looking for professional help in arranging family programs.

The survey mentioned in the earlier section revealed that there is a high demand for professional event managers. The result of the survey is shown below:

To be successful, a firm must do a better job than its competitors in satisfying target customers. That is why marketing plan must be geared to the needs of customers and also to the strategies of the competitors. An organization should constantly compare the value and customer satisfaction delivered by its products or services, prices, channels and promotion with those of its close competitors. In this way they can discern areas of advantage and disadvantage.

Market Segmentation

In Bangladesh, the prospect for event management firms is very good. The vast market out there has not been explored yet. This market can be divided into three major segments.

• The corporate clients
• The non-corporate clients
• The Bangladesh Government

The Corporate Clients

This segment includes various multinational companies, local public and private limited companies, financial and non-financial institutions, joint ventures and franchises, small businesses, NGOs, research institutions, private and public educational institutions, showbiz companies, social marketing companies, theater groups, cultural forums etc.

The corporate clients are located in Gulshan, Dhanmondi and Motijheel – which will be the main area of focus while conducting the marketing activities.

MNCs that are situated in Gulshan are the biggest market for event management companies.

MNCs are willing to add professionalism in event management and looking for innovative and improved ways to manage their corporate events. The survey mentioned in section 02 found out, most of the companies would like to be associated with an event management company, rather than conducting their events in-house.

 The Non-Corporate Clients

Due to changes in our socio-cultural and economic condition, people are spending more time at work. As a result, they have less time to spend on social affairs – get together or a may be a birthday party for the children. These people make up the non-corporate client segment of the event management market.

Aged below 26

Ayojon hopes to tap the early college graduates who have begun their professional careers but have not yet started their families. These events will focus mainly on themes with moderate to high energy appeal, such as, dance parties, concerts, fund raisers etc. The majority of weddings will fall into this segment.

Ages 27-55

The persons that fall into this age group are employed, middle to upper-middle class families. The reason they choose event planners is they are too busy to do it themselves, such as picnics. The majority of special occasion planning will occur in this market segment.

Ages 56 and Above

 Persons over the age of 55 have reached the turning point of life. Many are retiring; others are celebrating anniversaries of significant years, and still others are seeing that their children’s special events are taken care of. Most holiday parties, birthday parties and other special occasions, such as wedding receptions and reunions, will occur in this market segment.

Religion based sub-segment

The major religious group in our country is the Muslims. The minority religious groups include the Hindus, the Christians and the Buddhists. Although these religious groups live in harmony, they have some distinct rituals, weddings for example. So, these groups have to be offered with different packages based on their different religious practice.

 Income based sub-segment

• Personal Income– Over 15,000
• Personal Income– Over 20,000
• Personal Income– Over 35,000

On the whole, this segment represents upper middle to high income families. This segment has strong family bonding and they are willing to pay professional event management firms to arrange their family programs.

The Bangladesh Government

Another major segment in this market is the Bangladesh Government. Each year the Bangladesh Government hosts a variety of programs. Which firm will be in charge of these programs are decided by tenders.

 Target market determination

As has been mentioned before, the market for event management has been unexplored. But, at the same time, this market is too vast to be targeted by a small firm like Ayojon. To be successful Ayojon will have to focus its attention to segments or niches that the big players have overlooked or ignored. This way, Ayojon will be able to avoid confrontation with the major players in the market by specializing along market, customer, service and marketing mix lines. Through smart targeting, Ayojon will be able to earn as much profit as the market leaders.

A study reveals that the corporate customers are moderately satisfied with the way their events are managed.

The corporate clients, especially the MNCs are very much willing to engage in long-term contracts with professional event management firms. But most of them already have contracts with various advertisement firms for their event management. They are not willing to terminate their contract immediately and would like to engage both an event management firm as well as advertising firms on a short term basis to see just how much value professionalism adds to the process of event management. But, the number of events that these corporate clients are going to initiate is likely to increase by more than 10% in the coming year. Most significant increase will take place for the manufacturing companies and MNCs. This will present Ayojon with the opportunity to have contracts with established MNCs.

Ayojon will also target the local manufacturing companies, local service companies, private and public educational institutions, financial and non-financial institutions, and small businesses. As it is very unlikely that the number of events the corporate customers initiate would decrease in coming future, the firm is looking at a very positive market indicator.

Ayojon will also target the Government programs and bid for them. This will give Ayojon a boost in image, which will help the firm to capture the attention of the whole market.

A study revealed that the personal customers are very much interested in event management services.

• 66% of the consumers said that they are willing to appoint an event management company to organize their events if the price is affordable.
• 59% of the customers claimed that they do not possess the necessary expertise to conduct a big personal event successfully without outside help.
• 68% of the customers claimed that they would appoint an event management company to save time. 22% will do it because it will make their life hassle free.

These customers will form Ayojon’s non-corporate target group. The firm will focus on the residential areas of Gulshan, Dhanmondi, Baridhara, Uttara, Banani – as these locations represent the affluent income groups among the general population who can afford Ayojon’s services.

So, for Ayojon, there are four distinct niches that the firm can serve effectively.

Services to be Provided

Ayojon is mainly service oriented, where we will be offering the following services initially. We have divided these services into four groups, where each group has its individual name, individual target market, individual positioning strategy and individual growth pattern. These four groups are –

Customized Corporate Events

These are the events that are generally conducted by various advertisement companies and event management companies with direct orders and specified guidelines from different corporate clients. Ayojon is also planning to do them, but its offer will be different in this sense that the firm is going to add professionalism to the service, by providing “one-stop” service for the customers. Ayojon is going to cut down the hassle required in arranging the events, and also through superior supplier relationship the firm will reduce the total time required to arrange these events.

Creative Corporate Events

These are the events that are currently not performed by any of the companies but present an opportunity through which they can enhance their corporate and brand image. Ayojon will come up with ideas of new events and the firm’s sales people will pay an occasional trip to the companies, present the idea before them and point out the benefits that they can have by conducting that event through the firm’s guidance. For example – there is a current trend in our country of associating different brands with different occasions, such as, Anchor with Mother’s Day and Ponds with Women’s day. Ayojon will come up with ideas that will associate different brands of different companies with different occasions like that, come up with ideas of events (such as, Talk Shows) that will strengthen the bond between that concept and the brand and present them in front of the companies.

Customized Personal Events

These are the events that are currently done by individuals through their own initiative – but often require too much time or effort for his or her liking. That is why Ayojon is presenting the concept of event planning for individual events like high school reunions, graduation ceremonies, wedding ceremonies etc for the first time.

Government Events

These are the events that Bangladesh Government sponsors for various purposes, like the national week for science and technology, national tree plantation week, etc. The Government also hosts programs like LDC Ministers’ Conferences. These programs present enormous opportunity for Ayojon.

Using Computer Technology Effectively

In order to provide better services to its customers than the competitors, Ayojon will maintain a number of databases –

Customer database

There will be separate databases for corporate clients, non-corporate clients, and the Government programs. This database will provide the firm with a tool to create loyal customers and provide them the best value. Ayojon maintains that creating new customers is much harder than retaining them.

Supplier database

This database will include name of the suppliers, their office location, name of their products and/or services and price tags.

Venue database

This database will include name, location, and rent of different venues in the country.

Using Internet Effectively

Keeping in mind the effectiveness of a net solution, Ayojon has decided to add online services for its customers. This website will allow the customers to log on 24 hours a day and order for their events, and also view what are the resources that are available to him or her for arranging desired event. The website will help a customer to express his or her opinions or launch a complaint, so that the firm can quickly get back to the particular customer in the least possible time. Ayojon plans to hire an IT specialist who will maintain the website. Data from the website will directly go to the customer relations department. The website will be updated daily for the convenience of the customers.

Ayojon will launch its website at the very beginning of its operation in early 2006.

Products or Services to be Introduced in the Future

After Ayojon starts its operation, it will introduce new products or services to add value to its existing services.

Step-by-Step event Planning Guides

These booklets include a calendar to map out the event, a step-by-step guide on what is needed for and how to put together a successful, worry-free event, resource information, popular refreshments with recipes, games, and tips to put their event in the record books. The events available include meetings, retreats, parties, vacations, and special occasion celebrations such as graduations, holidays, showers, weddings, and receptions.

Resources Manual

This valuable guide acts as a review for all the resources located in the surrounding area. A ranking is given to the various services, such as caterers, decorators, disc jockeys, bands, and facilities. This manual gives the client the freedom of making a choice based on experience.

Core Competencies and Uniqueness of the Services

Ayojon’s core competency is based on two value additions that the firm will be providing. These value additions will position the firm totally apart and always ahead of any existing and potential competitors. These two value adding dimensions are stated below.

Professionalism

Various event management and advertising companies are already arranging most of the corporate events – but they are done very informally, with most of the things being done at the last moment. As a result the only available supplier is being contracted, the only available venue is booked and temporary employees and volunteers are hired in a very informal way from their known people to work during the event. But Ayojon is planning to do it in a thorough and professional way – where the firm’s main emphasis would be saving time of the clients, making an assortment of supplier available for the client through strong networking with suppliers, getting the booking list of the venue available to the customers and frequently updating them, allowing the customers to know what is available 24 hours a day through logging on to the website and hiring temporary workers in a very professional way from credible sources.

Innovation

Ayojon’s distinct and most fundamental capability is that the firm will always be adding innovative ways to serve the customers. At the beginning, the firm will be allowing the customers to get updated information of what is available regarding their events, from the firm’s website. Other than this, Ayojon is also planning to introduce step by step guides and resource manual in future – each of these products being the first of its kind in the country.

Price is the most sensitive element of marketing mix. Once set at a level, it is hard for any firm to change it. As a new comer in the market, Ayojon has to be careful in pricing its services. After considering a number of factors, Ayojon has decided to offer its customers a number of packages – all based on mark up pricing.

10% Mark Up Package

This package is for the corporate clients and to be used in bids for Government programs. Currently, all other companies are charging 15% mark-up on existing cost as agency charge. Ayojon is charging only 10% – to send a message that the firm is not only providing superior services, but actually providing them with much lower cost. This is a strategy that Ayojon will use to lure clients from the competitors.

It will also attract small corporations, who at present are unwilling to hire event management services due to high costs associated with it.

8% Mark Up Package

This package is also for the corporate clients – those who are interested in sponsoring charity programs. For example, a company wants to sponsor a concert to raise funds for children suffering from cancer. If they hire Ayojon to organize the concert, the firm will charge them 8% mark up on cost instead of usual 10% mark up on cost.

15% Mark Up Package

This package is for non-corporate clients. In this case the firm is charging higher with 15% mark up over prices. The purpose is sending a message that Ayojon is not interested in small events and also to communicate to the market that the firm is providing quality services at a premium price. Ayojon is claiming that the firm is looking for prestige and professionalism – and someone looking to cut cost in a birthday party is not the person the firm is looking for.

Sometimes customers may want to reduce the price. However in most of the cases Ayojon will try to ignore these requests as they will hamper the firm’s business in long run and it will be able to assure the customers that the cost is a result of quality the firm is providing.

Ayojon is looking to distribute its services in two ways.

• Traditional distribution network.
• Non-conventional Distribution network

Traditional Distribution Network

In this process the customers will call Ayojon or come to its office in search of help to organize events.

Non-conventional Distribution Network

• To find new market, we will try to use our sales force and other channels to get customers. Our sales people will go to corporate offices to find potential clients, to induce them to use our service.

• The clients can get access to the website at any time of the day and make queries about the events that he/she has in mind. This is a process that is not yet followed in our country. This online service will include ordering for the event, reviewing and approving the budget and monitoring the progress. This will save both time and money of both parties.

Most of the services of Ayojon are positioned to take advantage of future market opportunities and openings. For that the firm has tracked the current market trends, forecasted the future market openings and positioned the services and service upgrades accordingly.

Trend 1

 In a not so distant future, people will be so hard pressed for time that they will try to save time as much as possible from possible sources.

To keep in pace with this trend, Ayojon has prepared a website where people can get access 24 hour a day to make advance bookings for events, to see which venue is open for booking at which date without making several phone calls, to get access to the firm’s assortment of services without coming to the office etc. – all of which will help people to save a substantial amount of time.

Trend 2

An inevitable impact of western culture which is currently prevalent in our society would mean that people would look for new ways to express their identification with the west – which will enforce a more party going, free-spirited behavior.

For that, Ayojon is planning to introduce a few events initially which is very much prevalent in the west but not yet introduced in our culture. Some of these events are Drive-In movies; Mask party, etc. If maximum security and professionalism is adopted, people will be very much willing to adopt this new time-passes.

Trend 3

With the advent of technology, people will look for more and more customized product and service.

Ayojon’s focus will be to customize the services as much as possible to cater to the customers’ need better.

 Promotion

Ayojon is a new organization and certainly needs exposure to the market before it moves into business. So the firm has divided its promotional campaign in a number of dimensions

• Pre-Launching Promotion
• Advertisements
• Relationship management
•  After sale service

The firm must also consider the following aspects for promoting

• Public awareness building
• Service attributes promoting
• Success promoting

Pre-startup promotion

The pre-startup promotion period will determine our initial market share and reputation in the industry. As we are forming a new organization and moving into the industry for the first time, we need to create organization image and familiarity among our customer base. To do this we plan to perform the following promotional activities:

Press Conference

After forming the organization, Ayojon will arrange a press conference to announce the date of starting operation of its business and other related information about other service. This will be the firm’s first formal approach to the target market. In event management business, media plays a very important role as they can enhance the image of the firm’s services if properly used. The following is a summary of the pre-launching press conference:

•             The conference will be held 15 days before inaugurating.
•             It will be held at a reputed venue, preferably a reputed hotel.
•             About 100 selected media people including journalists, and selected business people will be invited.
•             Full-time employees of Ayojon will be introduced to the invitees so that future relationship becomes easier. 
•             Cost of the press conference will depend on the venue of the press conference. If the press conference is held at a hotel in Dhaka, it cost will be near tk.50,000.

News Coverage

In the press conference, Ayojon will have to make sure that the firm is covered well by the media. The right exposure to the market through media should be achieved. The firm should also make sure that the event and the organization – Ayojon – make story in Naksha (weekly supplement of Daily Prothom-alo) and Lifestyle (weekly supplement of Daily Star) and other supplements like those.

Advertisements

After the successful completion of the press conference, Ayojon will emphasize on the 14 days that the firm will have before inaugurating. At this point the promotional campaign will be intense and very critical for the success of the organization. To do this the firm will take the following steps:

Newspaper Advertisement

Ayojon will start advertising on newspapers seven days before the inauguration. The firm may select two Bangla and one English daily (preferably Daily Prothom Alo, Daily Jugantor and Daily Star). The Ad on first four days will try to create public awareness about the event management organization. On the 7^th day which would be the inauguration day, the firm will give a full-page prospectus on those papers about Ayojon’s organizational activities, services and other related topics.

 Moving into the first month of the business, the firm must consider new promotional tools to reach the target market. For that purpose, Ayojon will continue with newspaper advertisement in the first month of business. However the firm will move the advertisements in the third page of the newspaper instead of the first page. Ayojon will select one Bangla and one English newspaper (preferably Daily Prothom Alo and The Daily Star). The ads will come to each paper once every week (in different days for the selected papers).

After first month the frequency of newspaper advertisements will be reduced and will be shown once in two weeks and in the process only 4 times per month.

Banners

 Banners will be put on prime points on Dhaka city for the launching and long-term promotional campaign. The locations chosen for the banners are Firmgate, Mahakhali, Mirpur, Dhanmondi, Gulshan, Motijhil etc.

Formal Inauguration and Cultural Show

Ayojon will arrange an inauguration ceremony in reputed venue. The program will include the following parts:

• Official Inauguration of the Organization
• Cultural Program
• Dinner

In this ceremony, the firm will invite representatives of its potential corporate customers, media people, media stars and some of the top business person. Approximately 200 guests will be invited in this ceremony. The program will be covered by print media. Special gift items will be given to the guests. The cultural program will be performed by local artists.

 Personal contact

The most effective way to negotiate with corporate buyers is using personal contact. By using personal contacts, the firm can influence the decision making process of the corporate buyers and also can attract them. For private users word-of-mouth can be an effective way. Successful arranging of private ceremonies like wedding ceremonies, picnics will enhance the company image as well as developing loyal customer base.

To get in touch with potential corporate customers, membership in different clubs of the city like Dhaka Club, International Club may be helpful.

Open Air Concert

To get attention of the non-corporate customers, Ayojon will arrange an open-air concert. The firm will bring both the traditional and modern singers as well as the top bands of the city to perform on stage. The concert will be held in Army stadium. For that, sponsorship of Transcom Beverage (Pepsi) will be sought.

The cost of the concert will be recovered by selling tickets. The target will be to achieve break-even in this concert so that the firm will not have to incur any extra cost arranging the concert. On the other hand this will also work as a promotional tool for the firm.

Relationship Management

In the modern era, one of the most critical factors of success is to maintain relationship with different interest groups. To decrease the time required to arrange an event, cut cost and preserve quality Ayojon will maintain relationship with the following groups:

E  Designer

During different corporate events, different souvenirs will be published. The task of designing these souvenirs will be sub-contracted to Chitrolekha Graphics Design.

E  Printer

The task of publishing different souvenirs will be sub-contracted to a definite printing press. This press will print all the required papers and souvenirs required by Ayojon.

E  Chef

During wedding ceremonies or picnics, a chef will be needed to cook foods. Ayojon will have a contract with preferably FakruddinBaburchee to cook in the events organized by the firm, if necessary.

E  Flower shops

Flowers will be required for decoration purpose. Ayojon will sub-contract the supply of flowers to a reputed flower shop of the city

E Decorators 

Ayojon will also maintain relationship with a decorator, in case their service is required for any event organized by the firm.

After Sale Service

The customer relations department will call the customers after the completion of every event, to know whether the customer is satisfied with the service they have got. They may also congratulate the customer on the successful completion of an event. All these will boost the good image that the company will promote regarding their service – since the customer will think that Ayojon really care about the customers.

The customer will get the chance to express his/her complaints at any time in the website. The IT department will pass that complaint to the customer relationship department, who will reach the customers to solve his/her dissatisfaction at the least possible time which will give the firm a superior service image in the eye of the customers.

The main element of Ayojon’s service mix, created for the sole purpose of making a commercially viable service offer, will have to be the firm’s skilled human resource. Ayojon is not a primarily technology based company – and with such reliance on the human element of the enterprise, the firm has the unique opportunity to introduce high-class professionalism with a hint of personal touch. The dedicated and versatile employees recruited by the firm must be keen to serve the industries’ best and their diverse natures and skills should allow the firm to cope with any pressing situations in the near future.

Organizational Structure

Ayojon will have four departments. These departments as well as their functions are stated belo

Number and Designation of the Key Personnel

There will be five key positions in the firm. Their designations are given below:

• Chief Executive Officer
• Head of Marketing
• Event in Charge
• Head of IT
• Chief Financial Officer

For each key position, one person will be employed. It total, there will be five key personnel

Other than the five key personnel, there will be eight other employees. Their designations are given below:

A cleaner will also be employed for cleaning services and. People who can cook will be given preferences in this position.

Each employee of Ayojon will have a specific responsibility. The following table provides job description of the Ayojon employees.

The employees of Ayojon must have certain for the firm to ensure professionalism in its services.

For an organization to perform effectively, it must have a chain of command. For Ayojon, it will be as follows:

To get the best service from its employees, Ayojon must plan for an attractive compensation structure for them. The following table shows monthly expenditure on employee salaries.

These are the beginning salaries of the employees. The sales representatives will receive the cost of transportation to the corporate offices. They will also receive a 2% commission based on the cost of each client they acquire for the firm.

From the third year of the operation, the employees will get 5% annual increment. This increment will be for the employees who will have worked for Ayojon for two years.

During conducting different seminars, product launching events Ayojon may be in need of a number of volunteers. However, as the firm is striving to create professionalism, it will choose and pay these people following a more formal and appropriate procedure. The firm shall maintain a database on the girls and boys who want to work in this service. When the occasion arises, the firm will ask them to come to its office after reviewing the database. The CEO and the Head of the four departments will interview the candidates, and choose the appropriate person. This is how Ayojon wants to go at great lengths in promoting professionalism even at these trifle matters – which will definitely make the firm stand out among the crowd, in the eyes of the customers.

Performance Review

Every year there will be a formal performance analysis of the employees of Ayojon. Informal review will take place every now and then. Steps will be taken according to the findings of the analysis. Employees with good performance will be rewarded. If required employment of the people with unsatisfactory record will be terminated.

The proposed event management firm Ayojon will set up its office in either Dhanmondi, or Gulshan. A house with five rooms (at least) will be rented. The executives will be stationed in one room which will be divided into cubicles. Another room will be kept for the head of the departments. This room will also be divided into cubicles. The CEO will have a separate room.

The office will have a reception desk at the entrance. A small lobby will be adjacent to the reception desk. The entire office will be set up with new furniture—desks, tables, revolving chairs, etc. Air conditioners will have to be installed, preferably split air conditioners. Venetian blinds will be used instead of curtains. Simple and cheap partitions will serve to separate one cubicle from another.

Two telephone lines from T&T will be acquired, with parallel lines reaching the CEO, head of the departments as well as the executives. Utilities—electricity, gas, and water—will be in supply. A stove and a kettle will be kept in the kitchen so that the employees and others can use them. A small refrigerator would also come in handy, especially during the summers.

The office interior should be elegant, with a hint of personal touch. Ayojon wants to convey a message of professionalism and confidence in the minds of its clients, as well as making them feel at ease, so that the clients do not hesitate in saying what exactly they want from the firm.

The firm could have done the duty of renovating the flat that it will be renting. However, interior designing firms would have more competence in this regard; since they will be able to understand the effect of each element on the minds of the clients. So, professional help can be brought in for the purpose of office decoration.

Since Ayojon is focusing more on the human skills, rather than on the capabilities of machine, having state-of-the-art technology is not that important for the firm. However a certain level of technology is required.

There will be three computers, two for IT department and the other one for the rest of the office work. The two computers in the IT department will be used to maintain the firm’s website and the databases.

There will also be a color printer and a scanner in the office.

The firm wishes to maintain quick information flow among the employees. Therefore, the executives will be provided with mobiles. The people actually related with providing the core service will always have communications with the other departments so that any problems can be resolved immediately.

The following table shows the startup cost of Ayojon:

Sales Forecast

1^st Six Months

2^nd Six Months

So, in the first year of operation, Ayojon will organize a total of 84 events. Among them there will be 30 customized corporate events, 18 creative corporate events, and 24 customized personal events.

Ayojon plans go into operation in 2006. Projected income statement for three years are given below:

This income statement is based on certain assumption.

• Sales will be as forecasted.
• Average cost of customized corporate events and creative corporate events will be tk.500,000. The Charges will be 10% and 8% mark up on cost respectively.
• For customized personal events, average cost will be tk.300,000. The charge will be 15% mark up on cost.
• Growth in sales will be 10% per annum.
• Increase in all expenses will be proportionate to growth in sales.
• There are no loans, hence no interest.
• Depreciation will be calculated using straight line method.
• There is no transaction on credit.

Break Even Analysis

Contribution margin for Ayojon is 9.56%.Fixed costs elements are showed below:

So break even sales will amount to tk.7,845,200. Fortunately, Ayojon will be able to achieve this target in the first year of operation.

SWOT analysis for Ayojon has been done to delineate the progressive hurdles to be faced by the entrepreneurs as well as outlining the possible solutions for solving the problems.

Strengths

To find out the competitive edge of Ayojon over the existing competition, the firm must identify its strengths to emphasize on them. Ayojon has a number of advantages over its competitors.

First, Ayojon will provide “one-stop” service which will enable the customers to just visit the firm only and not any one else for the purpose of arranging the events.

The firm charges a lot less than the existing companies who enjoy a 15% agency charge, whereas, it will be charging only 10% mark up for corporate clients.

Ayojon will maintain superior supplier contracts and personal connections with officials of different venues which will enable the customers to choose from the highest possible variety of option

Through superior supplier contract and because of the policy of not handling too many events at the same time, the firm will be capable of arranging events faster than any other event management company that currently exists.

The firm will be there to take orders from the customers 24 hour a day. In a sense, for Ayojon employees there will not be any fixed office hours as the website will be there to take orders from them at any point of the day – so the customers can place order or make adjustments even at the eleventh hour. This is a service provided only by Ayojon.

Rather than only making events for the customers by taking their orders, the firm will also allow them to make their own events using its resources, such as “The Step by Step Event Planning Guide” – which is a service that only Ayojon will provide.

Weaknesses

The weaknesses of this new venture have been identified so that Ayojon can find a way to get over these obstacles. First in the line is that Ayojon depends a lot on successful enlistment of qualified personnel. For example the web-based customization offerings depend a lot on the firm’s hiring computer personnel who would be adept at both database manipulation and web authoring. The firm may not be able to locate this personnel and this will affect the performance.

Then, at the beginning of the operation, Ayojon may find that it has underestimated the marketing costs and this may leave the firm high and dry in terms of cash if it decides to continue with the campaign or the firm may be forced to abandon the campaign midway.

Prospective clients may react differently to what the firm has envisioned. This may force the firm to change the service mix.

The firm may find that it is consistently failing to meet the revenue targets. This would cast doubt over the firm’s ability to manage the business as well as the future prospects of the venture.

Operational costs like employee costs may turn out to be more than anticipated thus squeezing the profits. This would have negative impact on the business.

After starting the operation Ayojon may find that the existing market strategy is not suitable for the continued growth in the industry. This would force the firm to make a quick review and change of the current market policy.

When it comes to financing, the first risk that the firm may run into is that the amount of loan sanctioned by the bank may not be sufficient to satisfy our needs. Often banks put in too many regulations upon the entrepreneur in exchange for the loan. The imposed regulations may curtail the creativity and risk-taking propensity of the firm, which may have a negative impact over the management of the company.

The banks would often require that the founders commit their own assets as collateral as well as the assets of the company. If the entrepreneur accepts such requirements then he/she runs the risk of committing “double jeopardy” whereby the borrower may lose all his/her assets as well as the venture if the bank decides to recall the loan at any time.

Opportunities

The corporate event management industry is growing at the rate of 16% per annum. This presents a huge opportunity for Ayojon. If the firm can make proper use of this opportunity, it will be able to emerge as a major player in the industry.

Threats

For Ayojon, one of the major threats is that the firm may find out that the selected suppliers are unable to fulfill the firm’s needs as well as it would have liked. This may have negative impact upon the quality of the firm’s service and the mode of operations. If the firm is forced to get rid of the existing suppliers then it will need to get new suppliers and this would force the quality of service to fall as the firm get accustomed to new suppliers.

The competitors pose another threat for Ayojon. They have been in the market longer; and have established a reputation and client base. Because of being there in the market longer, the supplier relations of these firms will be much stronger.

Most of the MNCs and big companies are already under contract with the existing advertisement companies and event management companies. This will make it hard for Ayojon to capture the market.

Legal Environment

Currently there is no legislation regulating the event management industry. It will be some time before any laws are passed to regulate the industry. Without any rules relating to this particular industry, it may get harder to enforce some of the contracts which are unique to this industry.

Political Environment

The political environment poses threat only when it comes to capturing the Government market for event management. If Ayojon wins the bids for organizing some big Government events during the reign of one party, it may solely loose the market during the reign of another party.

The pace of managing any event is bound to suffer due to political unrest. Hartals, strikes will cause a problem in meeting deadlines.

Economic Environment

Economic environment is a major factor when it comes to the non-corporate market for event management. This service is targeted towards the upper middle class and the upper class of the society. But the majority of our population belongs to the middle and low income group. Unless these people gain economic prosperity, the growth of this industry will be stagnant at one time.

Socio-cultural Environment

We wish to capture the personal market as well as the corporate clients by giving them innovative services with regard to arranging events. However, in Bangladesh the job of arranging personal events like wedding or parties, have traditionally been performed by the family members or friends themselves. So there is real risk that demand for our product in the personal sector may not peak up as quickly as we would have liked.

Competitive Environment

For Ayojon, one of the major competitive environmental elements is the existing competitors of the company. These are the various advertising agencies that are operating in our country as they are providing most of the event management services at present to the corporate clients. Other than that there are two event management companies, Asiatic EML and CEMS (Conference and Exhibition management System), who are providing somewhat similar services can also pose a potential threat.

The potential competitors are those companies that would enter the market after our introduction. The firm will have to keep an eye on these new competitions to see what kind of value addition they are capable of, in order to stay one step ahead of the competition.

The low or non-existent barriers to entry and exit compound the competition situation further. The lack of effective barriers to entry and exit may present grave danger to the growth of our business as the industry matures.

In future more and more organizations will look for professional event management services to manage their events effectively. Ayojon intends to take full advantage of this opportunity. The business plan provides pros and cons of establishing a profitable business venture. The report went to great details in identifying the potential risks and threats, is simply because the entrepreneur wants to stay a step ahead of the problems that can hinder the progress of this venture. In identifying the potential risks, the author was as thorough as she could, simply because using such foresight Ayojon will be able to stay away from all sorts of trouble.

Event management firms can help different organizations and individuals to save time and money. The promotion of these firms is beneficial in terms of employment generation. Thus the organizations should encourage the establishment of these firms for their own benefit.

Conclusion

It has been evident from all the factual presentations of the business plan that Ayojon is a committed and resourceful for creating and developing the intellect of business in the country.

The owner and the visionaries are confident that they can make up a better service and establish a perfect network of event management business even in the tough times of Bangladeshi business environment through their wisdom and endeavor in the context of arranging different ceremony.