Mission
The mission of the company “Online Anytime” is providing the customers with the flexibility in selecting the personnel of their choice. The main factor in such mission is in attaining the quality of manual personnel selection with the flexibility and the convenience of internet technologies. This is ultimately shall lead to the ultimate goal of the company, which is being the leader in the service sector of online recruitment.
Goals
The goals of the company, in the short terms, can be summarized as follows:
- Establishing the presence of the company in the market.
- Gradually expand the number of the company’s customers.
- Cover the expenses and increase the profit of the company.
The goals of the company in the long term are as follows:
- Becoming the leader in proving a quality service in the region.
- Expand geographically to other regions of the Arabian peninsula.
- Expand the number of services to include training and development.
- Establishing own representatives in the supply countries.
Profitability and growth
The present business can be considered as profitable, where such positions as servants, drivers, cookers and nannies is demanded in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It is estimated that almost 25% of the country’s foreign labour are working as domestic servants (Ambah). Considering the initial location of the business, i.e. Al-Riyadh (Research Center), which is the city with the highest median salary in the country, the country’s total population of 28 million (Federal Research Division), the growth of internet users in the country, and the existence of a large target population, all of these factors provide a great opportunity for such sector to be demanded.
Products and Services
The service provided by the company is a pool of carefully selected employees, the profile of which will be available on the company’s website. The website will provide several options to select the characteristics required for the employees of a selected position. From the customer’s perspective, the main advantages can be seen in the ability to perform the selection from the personal computer of the customer as well as appointing the interview, and numerous payment options. Additionally, search filters and categories will reduce the amount of time necessary for the selection to be performed. On the other, the company will perform the official aspects of selection, credentials assurance, and the legalization of the employees’ presence in Saudi Arabia.
The company, the administration and the Location
The company will have its main office in Al-Riyadh, with the possibility to open affiliations in other cities of Saudi Arabia in the future. The form of ownership is partnership, in which each partner will manage different departments and responsibilities, i.e. IT department, marketing and sales, and foreign relations.
Distinctive Competencies
The company will provide services for customers who will prefer indicating special requirements as well. The term special requirements will cover the aspects, which are not available in the specifications and the categories available on the website. The delivery of the services will be largely dependent on the availability of the personnel within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, or the time necessary for the travelling from the country of the origin and the legal procedures required. The company will have a pool of both categories of foreign employees.
Market Analysis
The industry
The services provided by the company are a part of the industry of recruitment, which despite following the main trends of such industry, can be distinguished by several characteristics. One of such characteristics is its largely belonging to the middle-, upper- middle, and upper classes of the population. The services sector in general constitutes 29.8% of the employment rate in the kingdom. Such industry is not expected to grow vastly, as the unemployment rate in the Kingdom grew in the past years.
However, a shift to quality might be expected. The target market size, in terms of demand and volume is expected to be around 100,000 employer, and $3-$4 millions respectively. There are no defined statistics in that regard for Saudi Arabia, where the estimations might be based on the fact that around 2 million employees are in the household staff employment. In comparison the market of recruitment agencies in the UK is worth over £200 million, while recruitment advertisement is worth £700 million (Mackay).
The target market can be identified through conducted a series of surveys, in which the profile of the population having a household staff or intending to have will be identified.
Target Market/Demand
The target market of the company can be seen through the demographics, internet usage, and median income. Generally, the characteristics of such population are people between 28-50, who own computers, and have an internet connection. Considering that the average monthly income of household servants to be between $250 and $400, where the average income of the target population was estimated to be between $3000 and $5000. Such estimation was based on the fact that as an Arabic country, the families in Saudi Arabia are big.
Competition/Supply
Competition
The direct competitors can be seen through Almusharraf housemaid recruiting, and Essnad recruitment, two agencies having an online representation on the web, and solely dedicated to the household staff employment. The indirect competition on the other hand, is related to the employment agencies in general, a few of which are of Saudi origin, while the rest are regional covering the Arabic world, specifically the Arabian Gulf countries.
The identification of direct competition can be seen through the example the Essnad Agency, which websites is not operating properly, merely offering 3-4 candidates for each position, the corresponding salaries, the time of delivery and the contacts. The strengths can be seen only in the existence of an online representation of such sector. In direct competition, on the other hand, is more advanced although the sections related to household staff comprise the slightest portion of the websites’ offers.
Description for each competitor
Entry Barriers
The main entry barriers for the business can be seen only in knowledge of the specifics of the market and the customers’ requirement, where the investments are mainly in the IT section, with the assets requirement being a small office. The regulatory restrictions are related to the foreign employment legislation.
Products and Services
The service provided by the company is matching the customers’ expectations for household staff with the most qualified employees in that sector. The company will contain a pool of the employees of various qualifications and specializations, the profiles of which will be available on the company’s website for the customers to search, select, make an order, and pay for the service. The company will perform all the formal procedures required for the employees to legally work on the territory of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The advantages of the company can be seen in meeting certain requirements, which fulfils the demands of the customers, in terms of qualifications, training, skills, language, etc. Additionally, the company will represent the interest of the employees, dealing with any legal obstacles, disputes, etc. The main disadvantage can be seen through the initial stages of the selection process, which will require certain time until the pool of the employees will grow enough to cover all the needs of the customer.
The main area source of the household staff is coming for the countries of East Asia, mainly from the Philippines, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and the Indian subcontinent, which can b explained with the availability of the aforementioned labour already in Saudi Arabia as well as relatively good balance between qualifications, performance and salary.
The Marketing Message
The main marketing message of the company will be customer-orientation, through emphasizing quality and the wide choice of selection criteria, all within few clicks on your personal computer. Accordingly, the message for the employees, wishing to register within the agency’ database will be in promoting the ability of selling a career opportunity to the widest selection of customer audience, which is not reached through the usual manual method.
Promotion & Advertising Strategy
The promotion & advertising strategy will be focused on three directions, which are internet, television and printed media, with their importance being given in the same order they are mentioned. The internet advertisement was selected due to the main audience being internet users, while television and printed media advertisements will redirections for the main website of the company. A key factor in the promotion strategy for the television and printed material is the choice of a website domain to be consonant with the name of the company, which is easy to remember, and which does not require writing, e.g. www.onlineanytime.sa , www.online-anytime.sa , etc.
Distribution Channels
The main distribution channel of the company will be relied solely on the internal sales of the company through online channels. Although e-commerce implies multi-channelling (Hiebing and Cooper), i.e. the availability to purchase either online or through the main office, the focus will be on online channels.
Sales Force
The main driving sales force will be through the creation of marketing affiliation on various websites, dedicated to employment, in both foreign and domestic sites (Taulli). The commission paid to the affiliates will be based on site visits, banner clicks, and in the future, the tasks will be extended into filling the forms and search possibilities. The latter will be provided for both employees and customers.
Sales Activities
The main priorities, in terms of their importance, will be ordered as follows:
- Increasing the database of employees to 300-500 in the first year of the company.
- Returning the investments made in a year.
- reaching the number of 100 customers.
Sales Goals
Pricing Strategy
The general pricing strategy will be taking two approaches, competitive for the main directions of the company’s activity, and premium, charging high prices for special clients, with specific requirements. For candidates the registration will be free, while VIP candidates, i.e. the candidates who will be available for search by VIP clients will require a fee.
Operation
Product and Service Delivery Procedures and Capability
Internal
The internal activities of the company are as follows:
- Designing the website (1 month; IT department).
- Publishing the website (1 week; IT department).
- Preparing the database (varied time; IT department).
- Registration of the applicants (customers-candidates).
- Taking the order (Customer service).
- Receiving the payment (a day; accountant).
- Contacting the candidate-the customer (varied time up to a month; customer service).
- Performing the legal procedures (up to a week; administrator; customer service).
- Signing the contract (up to three days; administrator).
External
The parties which might involved in the business processes of the company are as follows:
- Online affiliation (at the process of registration).
- Foreign recruitment agencies (at the level of registration).
- Ministry of foreign affair.
- Web Hosting services (publishing the website and database creation).
Suppliers
Due to the nature of the business the only two points that can be pointed in this matter is time frames and quality. In that regard, it can be stated that time frames will be established based on the maximal upper and lower limits, depending on the availability of the applicant and the country of the origin. The minimal and maximal time limits will be 1 week and one month respectively. In terms of quality, the applicants will be required to submit the certificates of his credentials with the application, while in the case of VIP candidates, personal interviews might be conducted.
Management and Ownership
Owners
The ownership of the company will be 50 percentage partnerships between two partners.
Works Cited
Ambah, Faiza Saleh. “Ads Focus on Abuse of Foreign Servants by Saudis“. 2008. Boston. Web.
Beardwell, Julie, and Tim Claydon. Human Resource Management : A Contemporary Approach. 5th ed. Harlow, England ; New York: Prentice Hall/Financial Times, 2007. Print.
Business Resource Software. “Marketing Plan”. 2009. Business Plans. Web.
Federal Research Division. “Country Profile: Saudi Arabia“. 2006. Library of Congress. Web.
Hiebing, Roman G., and Scott W. Cooper. The Successful Marketing Plan : A Disciplined and Comprehensive Approach. Fully Rev. and expanded 3rd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2003. Print.
Mackay, Adrian. The Practice of Advertising. 4th ed. London: Butterworth-Heinemann, 2005. Print.
Research Center. “Salary Survey for Country: Saudi Arabia”. 2009. PayScale. Web.
“Saudi Arabia: Job Market”. 2009. Prospects. Web.
Taulli, Tom. “Creating a Virtual Sales Force“. 2005. Forbes. Web.