Business Model
Discuss about the Current Business Model Followed By Think Childcare Limited.
Sustainability is the key factor for the contemporary business organizations to gain competitive advantages. Thus, it is important for the contemporary business organizations to have sustainable approaches in the current business environment in order to have more business potential (Bansal & DesJadine, 2014). However, it is also to be noted that sustainability is not only included with environment and it can be achieved by means of innovative business approaches. The more will be the chance of social development from the business approach, the more sustainable will be the organizations in their respective industries.
Think childcare limited is child care centre situated in Australia. They work mainly on community basis with different independent centers are working together (Thinkchildcare.com.au, 2018). Think childcare limited works with children before the start of their schooling systems. The core objective of their business model is child development in different areas and makes them suitable and eligible with the modern time environment.
It is reported that Think childcare limited is a publicly listed company and is having share valuation of AUD 1.680 as of July, 2018. This report will discuss about the business model of Think childcare limited along with determining their negative and positive factors. In addition, this report will identify the critical success factors for Think childcare limited along with determine the probable downside risks for them. Accordingly, a few recommended steps will be discussed.
There are total nine building blocks in the business canvas model. Each one of these blocks is interrelated with other and helps in identifying different business elements of the organization (Joyce & Paquin, 2016).
Urban customers from the New South Wales region of Australia are being targeted. Urban customers are being targeted due to the reason that they are having the affordability to pay the premium price of the services of Think childcare limited (Floh et al., 2014). In addition, urban customers are having the awareness about the business concepts of Think Childcare limited.
One of the major partners for Think childcare limited is independent partners of them. This is due to the reason that Think Childcare limited works based on these independent institutions and they are major revenue earning source. They both are working jointly in developing and improving innovative concepts in child development (Bocken et al., 2014). Think Childcare limited is also having number of external investors. They invested in Think childcare limited and helped them to grow and develop further. As they are public listed company, thus pubic is also one of their partners in further developing the business.
Building Blocks
Value propositions of Think childcare limited include different facilities offered for holistic development of the children. In addition, they also offer the parents, peace of mind about the care of their children. In addition, the independent centers working with Think Childcare limited are also leveraging the brand name and earning profits.
The core activities of Think childcare limited include developing the child mind in accordance to the current social trends. In addition, providing the basic education to the children is also their major activity.
Think childcare limited relies more on the word of mouth and customer loyalty. In addition, they also extensively use social media to reach out to the urban customers. Outdoor promotion is also being done by them to enhance the visibility of the brand. They are having effective approach of Omni channel marketing and promotional strategies (Verhoef, Kannan & Inman, 2015).
Major area for earning revenue for Think childcare limited is pre-schooling counseling to the children. Think childcare limited is having business to customer approach and thus revenue only comes from the end customers (Garnefeld et al., 2013). Capital invested by the external customers is being used in developing the business processes and technologies.
Cost for Think childcare limited includes developing the new technologies for child development. In addition, these technologies require huge capital investments. Thus, Think childcare limited is having the cost of this stream. Furthermore, they also have the cost for maintaining their infrastructure. Cost for managing the human resources is another major area for expenditure for Think childcare limited.
The key and major resources for Think childcare limited are their human resources. This is due to the reason that skills and expertise of the employees helping them to gain advantages. Financial and innovations are also their major resources.
They have dedicated customer service and grievances department that looks after the queries of the customers. In addition, they are having the section for customer chat in their official website.
Interrelationships
- There is direct relationship between the partners and the value proposition. This is due to the reason that partnership with different external partners such as what they currently have independent centers will help them to offer more diverse value to the customers. Partnering with different establishments will ensure that Think childcare limited will have access to more updated and innovative techniques that will further help them to enhance the value for the customers (Payne & Frow, 2014). In addition, the more diverse will be the products, the more will be the value for the centers also.
- Channels and revenue stream are also having relationship. This is due to the reason that effectiveness of the channels will determine the generation of the revenue. Currently, Think childcare limited is using only the social media marketing as their key channels (Ashley & Tuten, 2015). Thus, with the increase in the diversity of the channels, target customer segments will get increased along with increase in the revenue.
- Key activities and cost structure are also having relationship due to the reason that major cost involvement of Think childcare limited is on their key activities. Thus, the more increase in the activities for Think childcare limited will lead to the increase in the incursion of more cost. Thus, the more will be the key activities, the more will be the areas for cost and the more will be the revenue streams to be gained from different sources.
Critical success factors
There are number of critical success factors being identified for Think childcare limited. These critical success factors will help them in gaining more competitiveness in the market. The following sections will discuss about the major critical success factors (Alias et al., 2014). Increasing the market coverage along with the customer base will help Think childcare limited to have more diverse revenue stream. This is due to the reason that the more will be the market coverage, the more will be the market opportunity for Think childcare limited. In addition, having diverse product portfolio is another critical success factor for Think childcare limited.
Downside risks
Customer Segments
One of the major downside risks for Think Child care limited is increase in the competition. This is due to the reason that the more will be the level and intensity of competition, the less will be the profitability (Farago & Tedongap, 2018). In addition, another major downside risk for them will be economical recession. This is due to the reason that Think Childcare limited is a public listed company and they are depended on public money for business development. Thus, economic recession will lead to reduction in the investment and will cause barrier in development for Think Childcare limited.
I would recommend that Think Childcare limited should be extended their business line in order to cover more customer segments. If they can enter in the fully fledged education business in the form of primary school, then they will be able to retain more children. I also recommended that Think Childcare limited should target markets outside New South Wales and Australia in order to have more market coverage.
Conclusion
It is concluded that Think Childcare limited with their current business model is having number of risks. This report discussed about these risks and how they can have impact on the business. In addition, a number of benchmarks for enhancing the business are also being identified that can help Think Childcare limited to increase their business potentiality.
- Entering in new markets to cover more customer segments.
- Offering more services related to education to the children.
- Should offer services at different price points in order to cater customers from different income levels.
References
Alias, Z., Zawawi, E. M. A., Yusof, K., & Aris, N. M. (2014). Determining critical success factors of project management practice: A conceptual framework. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 153, 61-69.
Ashley, C., & Tuten, T. (2015). Creative strategies in social media marketing: An exploratory study of branded social content and consumer engagement. Psychology & Marketing, 32(1), 15-27.
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Bocken, N. M., Short, S. W., Rana, P., & Evans, S. (2014). A literature and practice review to develop sustainable business model archetypes. Journal of cleaner production, 65, 42-56.
Farago, A., & Tédongap, R. (2018). Downside risks and the cross-section of asset returns. Journal of Financial Economics.
Floh, A., Zauner, A., Koller, M., & Rusch, T. (2014). Customer segmentation using unobserved heterogeneity in the perceived-value–loyalty–intentions link. Journal of Business Research, 67(5), 974-982.
Garnefeld, I., Eggert, A., Helm, S. V., & Tax, S. S. (2013). Growing existing customers’ revenue streams through customer referral programs. Journal of Marketing, 77(4), 17-32.
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Payne, A., & Frow, P. (2014). Deconstructing the value proposition of an innovation exemplar. European Journal of Marketing, 48(1/2), 237-270.
Thinkchildcare.com.au. (2018). Think Child Care – About. Retrieved from https://www.thinkchildcare.com.au/about
Verhoef, P. C., Kannan, P. K., & Inman, J. J. (2015). From multi-channel retailing to omni-channel retailing: introduction to the special issue on multi-channel retailing. Journal of retailing, 91(2), 174-181.