Sososo assignment a detailed field report PDF

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this is a field report that details how the company was created from inception up to its current levels of operations...

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THE POLYTECHNIC FACULTY OF COMMERCE DEPARTMENT OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES PROGRAMME:

BACHELOR OF COMMERCE (ENTREPRENEURSHIP)

COURSE TITLE:

CORPORATE ENTREPRENEURSHIP

COURSE CODE:

COR-413

SUBMITTED TO:

MR J. MANDA

SUBMITTED BY:

MARIA TANDWE

REG. NUMBER:

BCME/16/SS/030

DUE DATE:

29 APRIL 2021

THE EVOLUTION OF ORGANISATIONS SOSOSO COACH SERVICES This discussion is based the understanding of the development processes and changes that occur in the organization from its inception to the current levels of operations. My interest fell on Sososo coach services, and will be the core of discussion. BACKGROUND A. Whether the idea of this business was an original idea or a copy, has been understood to be a copy from other operations Mr. Chibambo was a frequent traveler to Tanzania, where he studied and admired their coaching services and aspired to own his own coaching services just like the way the Tanzanian coaching services were. His interest on the operations of in Tanzania was drawn after having looked at the local coaching services in his country and acknowledged some weaknesses in their operations and desired to make a change. This business idea was a sole idea as he was the one that thought of introducing the business after having copied from others; it wasn’t a group decision. B. This business was started by Gift Chibambo as an individual C. The business is said to have started in 2001 The business bears roots from long back events even though it is believed to have been newly introduced. The main business of the coach services was born from other minor businesses which will be of relevance in this discussion as they are the background or the stepping stone of the mighty ‘Sososo coach service’. D. The offices were initially located and have still maintained the location in Blantyre, Petroda. E. No loan from the bank was obtained to start this business. The capital was self-regulated from smaller businesses. In 2001, Mr. Chibambo used to collect cars for other people in Tanzania for a certain amount of money and brought the cars to the owners. Usually on his way back to Malawi people would offer him money to buy the car from him, but he would not do so as those weren’t his cars until one time he risked it, sold the car at a very high price without the owner knowing, then went back to Tanzania and got a car for the original client. He was left with excess money which he used to even acquire a car for himself. This was the beginning of the business chapter for Mr. Chibambo. After acquiring the car, he sold it again at a profit and used the proceedings to get a minibus which started to move about in Blantyre. He was patient enough and used proceedings from his small business to acquire more minibuses that he had a good number of them. He was still collecting cars from Tanzania at an agreed amount of money. His business for minibuses in Blantyre was going so well that he acquired coasters. These coasters were used as local buses at Wenela for trips like Blantyre to Lilongwe and back.

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The business acquired more coasters and minibuses were still operating. It was in 2017 1st of June that he acquired his first Coach bus. So as it has been explained, the business capital was self-sponsored, no loan from the bank was acquired. The shareholders of the business at its inception was him alone, so there was one shareholder The original intended products or services for starting the business were local minibuses to be moving about around Blantyre, but lucky enough there was enough returns to develop the business to coasters and thereafter coach services. Blantyre was the original target market for the firm as this was where it was operating at first hand. The percentage of the local market was estimated to 8%. It does not seem like there was any foreign market since most customers were Malawians and would be hard to calculate foreigners boarding the buses. The business technology was more of Capital intensive as it required more buying of minibuses, coasters and the coach services. It was not very much of labor intensive since he was also the driver in most cases and all they needed were a few other drivers and conductors. Question on management and their qualifications can be answered briefly as the management only comprised of the owner, a holder of diploma and a few drivers who had their driver’s license.

IMPLEMENTATION a) At the birth of Sososo coach service, their actual production output and sales is based on the following figures; Customers; 7 people a day Blantyre to Lilongwe; K6,000 Lilongwe to Blantyre; K7,0000 For 2 trips in a day; Total = K13,000 Total for two trips = K26,000 In a month = K754,000 b) The number of staff employed at the time were 5 At Blantyre Head office constituted of; 2 of Mr. Chibambo’s nephews and three drivers and three drivers c) The actual technology used was the Coach buses that were bought d) The market coverage then started with Blantyre and Lilongwe then covered Mzuzu after a while. e) After the implementation the service offered was the Coach Service after running local buses and minibus for a number of years

DEVELOPMENTS/CHANGES This section will underline the changes that have been made from the start of the firm till now in terms of i.

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Management Past Operations At the start of the coach business, the management was rather narrow as the owner of the company, Mr. Chibambo, was a general fitter. This is to say that he himself, was the Director for all. He alone was the Human Resource manager, Public Relations, Auditor, Marketing manager, Operations manager and he was also the driver. Current Operations The current management comprises the director (Mr. Chibambo), Every branch in the offices of Blantyre, Lilongwe, Mzuzu and Karonga has a supervisor with their general officers, junior staff as well the supporting staff. Product or Service Past Operations At the beginning of the business the service that was provided was transport though local minibuses in small parts of Blantyre. Current Operations At the current state the type of service provided has developed to the use of coach services for transportation while also using coasters for local business as well as other minibuses. Technology Past Operations Not much technology was employed, but the use of minibuses at that time. Current Operations The use of computers for data entry and processing can be said to be the technology employed. The use of E-business for booking and making payment online is also a new technology being employed by the company. Infrastructure Past Operations No Infrastructure was developed at the time Current Operations There have been developments having offices in Karonga, Blantyre, Mzuzu and Lilongwe.

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Market share Past Operations At the first instance, the only market share of the country the company covered was Blantyre which can summarize to a percentage of 4.5 of the country. Current Operations At this point, the market share has increased covering Blantyre, Karonga, Mzuzu and Lilongwe which can be summarized to a percentage of 18 of the entire country. Location Past Operations Original location of the business was Blantyre. Current Operations There has been a spread of locations due to the developments of the business, offices being found in Blantyre, Karonga, Lilongwe and Mzuzu. Government Policies Past Operations In terms of government policies, as a small business, it wasn’t in a place to follow through most government policies. Current Operations After some developments in the business, it was only right for Mr. Chibambo to follow though government policies as the business is operating on a larger scale. They now consider government policies like Pay as you earn taxes and consider that those that get below K100,000 are not to be taxed in compliance with government policies. Objectives Past Operations The main objective was to have increase profits Current Operations The objectives of the company have switched from being money oriented to focusing on customer satisfaction and having goals of expansions.

SUCCESS AND CHALLENGES 1. The stepping stones to reach the success  Sososo coach service expresses that one of their stepping stones that led to their success was the consideration of customer satisfaction aside making increased profits. The customer satisfaction starts from the way the buses are designed. Mr. Chibambo noticed that most coaches in Malawi have two seats on one side, and three on the other side which he saw to be a problem. He noticed that it is somehow uncomfortable for three strangers to share seats and evenly make conversation leading to customer dissatisfaction as they might not enjoy the journey. This is why he decided that his couches will have two seats on each side to make it easier for the customers to interact.

He also noticed that most coach services do not keep time and delay departure hours which leads to customer dissatisfaction. He made sure that was changed with his firm as they keep time all the time, even if there is 2 people in the bus, they leave and do not wait for anyone. This punctuality function attracted a lot to their door leading to their success. 

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The other stepping stone of their business is the fact that they performed Competitor Analysis (AXA). In this way they were able to capitalize on the weaknesses of their competitors and do better (second mover advantage). For instance, in the case of punctuality as explained, the seats, regular maintenance of their buses so that they always have buses available unlike other coach services who ran with inconsistencies as their buses would breakdown and not operate which led to customer dissatisfaction. Perseverance is also understood to be one of the stepping stones of this business to their success. As it is known business is never easy at its inception, there could be times when they only had 2 customers booking for a bus in a day. They still had to keep moving as they had vision and knew that it was patience that pays and capitalized on punctuality even if it means that the bus could carry 3 passengers. Their perseverance kept them in the business for a while and after people got used to them and liked the service of punctuality, it led to increased demand, thereby getting closer to their success.

2. The solutions used to mitigate challenges  The biggest challenge that was faced with this company was that it had less customers The solution that it employed was to keep moving and heavy advertisement for the awareness of the company and when the company was seen to be making heavy losses at the beginning of the business due to less customers, another bus was used for local transportation to mitigate the losses made by the coach service.  Another big challenge that the company faced was problem of settlement place for their buses. Sososo buses wanted their buses to be settling by Game complex as it was an easily accessible location, but it was already occupied by Premier buses. They had to move to Lilongwe bus depot but lucky enough after 2/3 weeks, the location was later given to them as the Premier buses were no longer operating there. The same case happened in Mzuzu whereby they wanted to settle by Shoprite but it was hard to acquire. AXA used to settle by a location called Mzuzu dry cleaners but later left for another spot and Sososo replaced them. Good for them AXA had sold off their goodwill to Sososo as customers came by the location hoping to get an AXA bus but found Sososo buses and ended up using Sososo. In this case they technically benefited from AXA’s customers and this led to their success.

NB: NO AUDITED ACCOUNTS WERE PROVIDED FOR SAFETY REASONS THE ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE

DIRECTOR

SUPERVISOR

JUNIOR STAFF

SUPPORTING STAFF

GENERAL OFFICER

JUNIOR STAFF

There is so much that was learnt on Evolution that takes place in organizations, Sososo coach services provided information that improved my understanding on this topic....