Creating a Budget Plan for the Commercial Expansion in the Russian Market
As you all know, our company’s business activity in Russia has been highly successful since we entered that country’s market in 2016. Our product’s considerably low prices and high quality have helped Xiaomi gain Russian consumers’ trust and interest in the company’s product. Therefore, we should extend the market of our products and Xiaomi’s business influence in the field of electronic information and mobile internet. Expanding our marketing activity on the Russian territory will bring the company significant financial benefits that will subsequently allow Xiaomi Corporation to develop on commercial, technological, and corporate levels. However, I need to submit a well-prepared budgeting plan to the executives’ board in order to get this marketing company approved and receive the necessary budget to achieve our goals. Thus, I want to gather specific information related to our company’s internal activities and current financial condition to prepare a solid budgeting plan that will quickly gain the board’s approval, and I need your help.
The Importance of Budgeting
First, I want to illustrate the importance of budgeting to motivate you to take my further instructions seriously. Budgeting is not just an organizational strategy to allocate financial resources; it is also a powerful technique that can result in productive management (Shim et al., 2011b). It is an instrument facilitating communication and control within a company and motivating employees. This motivation has a simple explanation: efficient budgeting leads to high rates of the company’s general performance and financial success, which significantly influences your professional self-fulfillment and income. Furthermore, the process of budget planning itself implies considering our company’s investments to ensure that we will achieve our goals with the usage of preliminarily allocated funds. That way, we can rest assured that Xiaomi Corporation will not suffer any damage from potentially wrong decisions, and our employees, managers, and stakeholders will all benefit from our marketing strategies.
Another vital element of budget planning that you should comprehend is its internal structure. Shim et al. (2011b) defined budget as “the formal expression of plans, goals, and objectives of management that covers all aspects of operations for a designated time period” (p. 1). This definition presents three essential elements of budget planning: objectives, operations, and a designated time period. Using these elements, we can divide the budgeting process into three primary stages: identifying the purposes of the upcoming events, determining specific operations to be conducted, and defining the amount of time required. Therefore, I have divided this memorandum into three sections as well in order for you to understand what information I need from you and for what purposes.
The Main Goal and Objectives of our Expansion Company
Firstly, I will present to you the primary goal of our future expansion. We intend to increase Xiaomi sales in Russia by 25%. The goal is specific and measurable, meaning that, as your manager, I will be able to monitor our progress toward achieving it (Shim et al., 2011a). Although this goal is still divided into separate objectives, concentration on fewer targets allows to give them more attention. With that being said, I want you to focus on this specific target since you should constantly ask yourselves, “Do my actions contribute to the major goal?” while tending your particular tasks. Each of you will have specific missions to accomplish, but I do not restrict you from expressing your creative thoughts and veering off course in case the company can benefit from your ideas and actions. Focus yourselves on the goal of increasing our sales in the Russian market and apply your skills and knowledge to achieve that goal.
I also want to discuss specific objectives that we need to follow to accomplish the desired results. The first of them is sending more of our products, primarily smartphones, to the Russian Xiaomi stores. We should ensure our business presence and availability of our goods to the customers in the targeted area, as the global smartphone market is characterized by highly intense competition (Grigan, 2021a). The second objective is to analyze our commercial activity in Russia to define what types of products are not presented there yet. Then, I want you to explore Russian customers as a part of the electronic information field. If your research shows that some of Xiaomi Corporation’s goods not presented in Russia have demand there (for instance, people actively buy them from other manufacturers), I want to know about it. Our company is currently in increasing competition with many international providers of electronic services (Grigan, 2021b). Therefore, we should ensure that all of our demanded products are available for Russian customers.
The Operations Required to Achieve Our Goal
This section will provide you with direct instructions regarding what particular actions you should take to achieve the objectives described above. I want you to collect quarterly information on the number of goods we currently transfer to our Russian market. Then, please analyze their demand in Russia and compare those indicators. That analysis will help us understand how many production units we want to unload in our Russian stores next year. For the purposes of our second objective, I need you to gather information on the goods we sell in Russia and the goods that are not yet available in that country. I need two corresponding lists by the end of the month, and once I receive and analyze them, we will extend our expansion strategy.
The Designated Time Period and Our Priorities
As I mentioned before, increasing our sales in Russia is a short-term goal, and I intend to achieve it by the end of the year. I need your total commitment and assistance in order to accomplish this goal, as your mental connection to this undertaking is an essential part of our mutual success (Aziz et al., 2021). The general market value of Xiaomi Corporation has increased more than ten times since the time this company was born, and all of you have contributed much to its growth (Sun & Fah, 2020). Thus, we need to strengthen our positions and keep working to enhance our profits. I want all of you to take this memorandum seriously and work hard while following the instructions I have given you. It is a matter of high significance for this budget plan to be approved by the executives’ board, so I rely on each one of you. If you need more details or have any questions, do not hesitate to contact me during my office hours.
References
Aziz, H. M., Othman, J. B., Gardi, B., Ahmed, A. S., Sabir, B. Y., Ismael, N. B., Hamza, P. A., Sorguli, S., Ali, B. J., & Anwar, G. (2021). Employee commitment: The relationship between employee commitment and job satisfaction. Journal of Humanities and Education Development, 3(3), 54-66.
Grigan, N. (2021a). Marketing research of Chinese companies Xiaomi and Huawei in the Russian market: Findings and conclusions. Sciences of Europe, (72-2), 17-22.
Grigan, N. (2021b). Strategic analysis of Xiaomi in Russia: SWOT and PEST analysis. Norwegian Journal of development of international science, (60-1), 10-17.
Shim, J. K., Siegel, J. G., & Shim, A. I. (2011a). Strategic planning and budgeting: Process, preparation, and control. In Budgeting basics and beyond (4th ed, pp. 29-44). Wiley.
Shim, J. K., Siegel, J. G., & Shim, A. I. (2011b). The what and why of budgeting: Introduction. In Budgeting basics and beyond (4th ed, pp. 1-28). Wiley.
Sun, L., & Fah, C. T. (2020). Xiaomi – transforming the competitive smartphone market to become a major player. Eurasian journal of social sciences, 8(3), 96-110.