PART I: ORGANIZATIONAL PLAN
SECTION 2: SERVICES
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need to give continuity to the habits and knowledge acquired during their stay in our facilities, which is crucial to achieve a life changing experience for our clients, and thus, the development of an effective service.
In this regard, finding qualified psychologists, psychiatrist and nutritionists that share our ideals and principles is essential to create an effective program for our customers; thus, the correct execution of this strategic partnership is critical for our business.
1.6. SWOT ANALYSIS:
SECTION 2: SERVICES
Our main service consists of a holistic one-month home-stay program for young women that suffer from obesity, overweight and/or eating disorders. This program aims to grant our customers a life changing experience, where our qualified staff will provide them with information and personal development tools that will help them to acquire a healthy life style.
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The program consists of the following features:
a. Non-traditional psychotherapy. This therapy will feature the Socratic Method as the main approach. The Socratic Method is a dialectical method or logical manifestation which purpose is to find new ideas or approaches to existing information; it aims to develop critical thinking on the patients who are object to this kind of therapy.1
In this regard, our qualified staff will always approach the patients using the Socratic Method.
During the whole program, our staff will be in charge of monitoring and evaluating the patients’ condition, evolution, as well as assessing their needs and provide them with the information they require to overcome their concerns and acquire good habits that in the long run will help them to achieve a healthier lifestyle. It is important to mention that our staff do not necessarily need to be certified psychologists or psychiatrist, since the Socratic Method as explained before is merely the dynamic in which two or more people exchange point of views an ideas to reach a different or new point of view over existing information; hence, while our staff might not require to be certified psychologists or psychiatrist, they do need to have certain features that will be further described in this chapter.
b. Recreational Activities. These activities will be provided as short courses or lessons during the length of the program; they include physical and entertaining activities like yoga classes, cooking lessons, make-up lessons, fashion courses, physical training and so on. These activities aim to provide the patients with additional information that will help them to enhance their daily life. For example, the cooking lessons will be focused on how to prepare healthy and yet delicious food that they can eat on their regular diet. During the cooking lessons we will also teach the patients the importance of a healthy diet, the nutritional factors of the food they eat every day and so on.
We will also include seminar-type courses where we will convey useful information to the patients, like philosophical and psychological related matters that will help them to get
1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socratic_method
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personal development tools like “awareness” and “reflection”, personal assessment tools, and so on. These courses aim to build up the patients’ self-esteem, and to provide them with tools they can use for the rest of their lives to periodically make self-assessments and then automatically readjust their conditions to always seek for a better personal situation.
The physical activities aim to seed in the patients the habit of exercising and practicing sports or physical activities. It also seeks to enhance the serotonin levels in the patients, since serotonin is the brain’s chemical that is in charge of the mood, the higher the levels of serotonin, the happier the patient might feel. This chemical is often used to treat depression.2 In this regard, exercise or practicing any physical activity are natural triggers for serotonin.3
c. Continuous support from the staff. Our staff will remain available during the whole program to provide a holistic support for the patients. We will further see in this section the particulars and description of our staff; nonetheless, it is important to mention that they will dwell in the facilities during the whole program and, as mentioned before, they will be in charge of monitoring and evaluating the patients’ condition, evolution, as well as of assessing their needs and provide them with the information they require to overcome their concerns and acquire good habits that in the long run will help them to achieve a healthier lifestyle. By having a 24/7-staff we aim to customize the program to the patients’ needs, since each of them have different needs and evolve in different pace. This last feature will be one of our service’s core values.
Due to the uniqueness of our services it is necessary to create awareness among our potential customers about the importance and usefulness of the same. As we will further see in the competitors and market analysis, we need to differentiate ourselves in the market, since there are many services targeting obesity, overweight and/or eating disorder problems, however none of them in a holistic way; hence, we need to convey this to our customers in an effective fashion. In order to achieve the aforementioned, we will provide additional services, which
2 http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=5468
3 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2077351/
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are “seminars and conferences”. These services will be offered and provided to high schools and universities, as well as to other strategic partners. However they won’t be offered only to the final customers but also to their parents, since the decision making process to acquire our services, rely mostly in the parents of our potential customers due to the following reasons: (i) they have greater consciousness about the health problems involving obesity, overweight and/or eating disorder problems issues; (ii) ultimately they will be in charge of covering the price of the services; (iv) our targeted customers are young people who still emotionally and economically depend on their parents. The revenues from these services won’t contribute greatly to our income since these services are mostly accessories as well as part our marketing activities. Nonetheless, some amount will be charged for this, at least to cover the time invested on them.
Our main service, this is the home-stay program will be provided in our facilities located in Sabancuy, Campeche, Mexico, while our management team will be located in our offices in Mexico City.
Sabancuy is a beach located in the State of Campeche, Mexico. This beach belongs to an area that has not been fully developed for tourism; hence, it has many pristine beaches with small waves that make it safe for people to enjoy the beauty and peace of the ocean. In this place we have found a 2000m2 piece of land with a market price of US$ 23,483 where we can develop the facilities for the clinic where the home-stay program will be provided. The construction of the facilities will carry an approximate cost of US$28,906.
Our Sabancuy facilities will include dormitories (single and double bedrooms), pool, sauna room, gym, multi-purpose class room, recreational areas, class rooms, kitchen, administrative office, garden, cafeteria, Temazcal (pre-Hispanic steam-room), TV and computer room, and a little SPA.
The patients will remain most of the time within the facilities; however, they are free to go in an out at their will. During the daytime several activities and classes will be scheduled, so the patients would invest most of their time engaged in the program. During specific hours the
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field trips will be scheduled so the patients won’t find their stay exhausting and/or unbearable.The idea is to find a balance point where the patient is willing to absorb all the information and knowledge that the program has to offer.
Our facilities in Sabancuy will host a staff divided into two categories, those who will dwell in the facilities during the length of the program and those who will visit them to provide a specific service. Hence our wages related to the Sabancuy facilities will be fixed depending on the amount of patients entering the program each time. In this regard, it is important to mention that no worker-employer relationship will be established with our staff in order to avoid entering into by-law expenses like social security and payroll taxes. The aforementioned is possible since our service provision is not continuous; this is, in the first stage of the business we expect to implement the program 3 times each year. Hence, our staff shall not be considered as permanent workers for our business.
The Mexico City Operational Office will allocate our management team that will basically consist of two people in charge of PR, marketing and general management. These people will be in charge of the marketing design and execution, as well as the administrative and accounting activities. Since our financial structure and book keeping activities are not that sophisticated we won’t need a special department for these issues. Only in case of special matters we will outsource a specialist. The idea is to keep our fixed costs as low as possible in those issues not directly related to the provision of our main service, so the time spent/time billed ratio will be as profitable as possible.
Since no customers are expected to visit our offices, we will place them in the founder’s personal estate, and will only incur in operational expenses like: internet service, stationary, transportation expenses and so on. From our operational office we expect to have a monthly expense of no more than US$500 excluding wages. Regarding the wages related to the operational office, we will manage them under a commission basis with a minimum fixed wage, since our revenue will basically depend on the amount of clients we attract. The fixed wages will represent a US$2,900 monthly cost for our operational offices.
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Our facilities in Sabancuy will represent a considerable initial investment, also its maintenance will carry an important fixed cost for the business; hence, these facilities when not used for the program purposes, will be leased to freelance workers and/or specialist, for example: cooking teachers, yoga professors, beauticians, physical instructors, and so on. For this purpose, we will have a general manager in Sabancuy in charge of managing these leasing activities.
It is important to mention that some of the freelance workers and/or professionals to whom we expect to rent our facilities, are those who will work with us during the program; thus, we will create a sort of strategic alliance with them that will benefit both parts. The revenue for the leasing activities is difficult to determine at this point since it will depend on the demand from our “strategic allies” and other potential customers. In order to publicize our leasing activities we will use low cost marketing tools mostly on the internet, keeping these marketing activities to the lowest possible cost. The pricing for the leasing activities will be determined according to the expenses of the facilities and the maintenance cost among other factors.
SECTION 3: ADMINISTRATIVE PLAN
3.1 LOCATION
As mentioned in the previous section the facilities where our main service will be provided will be located in Sabancuy. Sabancuy is a small beach located in the State of Campeche, Mexico. This area has not been fully developed for tourism purposes; thus, it has a peaceful environment ideal for the location of the clinic. The surroundings has many pristine beaches and other natural zones that are perfect for field trips where the patients can connect with nature and forget about daily life issues and concerns. The State of Campeche also has some archeological sites ideal for field trips.
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Sabancuy is a small locality of 6,159 people, within the township of Del Carmen City in the State of Campeche. This State is located in the south of the Mexican territory, and which shores belong to the Mexican Gulf.4
Campeche is one hour and a half away from Mexico City, by airplane, which makes the location of the clinic very convenient for our customers.
The Operational Office that will allocate the management and marketing departments will be located in Mexico City, since is in this city where our main strategic partners are located, as well as the gross of our initial target market.
The office will be set in the founder’s estate; hence, no rent expense will be incurred. As we will further see in the Legal Structure section, the business will be incorporated as a Limited Liability Company (LLC). Nonetheless, for accounting purposes, the economic events of the clinic and the offices will be treated together with the corresponding annotations of where they took place.
3.2. LEGAL STRUCTURE
The business will be incorporated as a limited liability company (LLC) according to the Mexican legislation. This legal form suits perfectly our business since it embodies the combination of a partnership and a corporation. This legal form includes the corporate veil characteristic of capitalist corporations, but also the close partner-relationship featured by partnerships; hence, the personal property of the partners is duly protected, while the control and management of the business remains under the hand of the partners.
Due to the characteristics of the business, particularly the core values and corporate culture, we don’t aim to transform the business in a public company or a capitalist corporation in the
4 http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Municipio_de_Carmen_(Campeche)
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near future; therefore, the LLC seem to be the most suitable legal structure for the business purposes.
There will be three initial partners:
1. The undersigned, referred in previous sections as the founder. I hold a Law degree in Mexico, an IMBA from one of Taiwan’s top educationl institutions (National Chengchi University), and the experience of living three years in this country, where I acquired cultural information and experiences crucial to the development of an effective and efficient plan to help the customers to achieve our service’s purpose.
This makes the founder a key element in the creation, development and implementation of the business, as well as a particular and unique feature that will represent a differential advantage with our competitors; also making our service difficult to reproduce or imitate by the competition.
2. The founder’s brother. He holds a Cybernetic and Systems degree from an international University (La Salle) as well as a MBA from the same institution. His areas of expertise are networks and MIS, which will provide our business the optimization of resources. He is also one of the main investors in the partnership, holding along with the founder the majority of shares.
3. The third partner will be chosen among potential investors after a thorough profiling and examination. As mentioned several times before, the human resources are a crucial factor for our business’ success and differentiation; hence, it will be carefully managed through all layers of the business.
In this regard I want to further explain that this legal structure was not only chosen due to its practical features but also because it was my experience during my stay in Taiwan that the family businesses have proven to be very successful given the right management and focus, and the LLC is the most suitable legal form for these type of family businesses.
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During the first stage of the business, this is the first year and a half, the organizational chart of the company will be very simple, since the management, control and governance will be mostly by the founder, since the other two partners will initially provide capital resources and consultancy in terms of infrastructure.
For corporate decision taking purposes, there will be an “assembly” which is the same as the board of directors of a corporation, while the manager of the Sabancuy facilities, will be appointed by the partners, according to the Mexican legislation frame for this type of legal structure.
3.3. MANAGEMENT AND PERSONNEL:
a. Management:
As mentioned in the previous section, during the first stage of the business, and ideally during the first 4 or 5 years, the management will be under control of the founder, who will devote full time to the start-up, development and growth of the business. The founder posses the personal and professional experience necessary to develop and implement the service we aim to provide. Similarly, she has the capabilities to manage and run the business, since she has a six-years working experience, where she developed and acquired interpersonal skills and personnel management knowledge necessary to facilitate the success of our business. It is important to mention once more that the strategic talent management is a core value for our business, hence, the ability and capability to manage our personnel is a crucial factor for the project.
The company will have an administrative body in accordance with the Mexican General Law of Corporations, which establishes that a LLC shall have an “assembly” which is the supreme organ of the partnership, and shall be integrated by the existing partners. Similarly, this assembly will be in charge of the decision making process in terms of finances and legal structure; however, other decisions will be entitled solely to the founder, who will support the operation of the business together with the manager.
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The two other partners will be available for consultancy purposes at any given time, since both were chosen for their personal skills and abilities as well.
b. Personnel:
Due to the nature of our service, as well as the frequency in which the service will be provided, we won’t have a fixed staff, but hire them per group of girls we receive in the Sabancuy facilities. As mentioned in the “Service” section, we will work with freelance professionals or specialists, for example: cooking teachers, yoga professors, beauticians, physical instructors, and so on. Therefore, except of the Sabancuy Clinic General Manager, we won’t have a fixed staff.
Ideally for the first year of our business we aim to build up a team or staff formed by:
- A Manager for the Sabancuy facilities and only fixed member of the staff.
- A physical instructor that manages several activities like aerobics, dancing, kick boxing, and so on.
- A nutritionists - Psychotherapist - Yoga instructor
- Tai Chi (太極拳) instructor - Meditation instructor - 3 general assistants - Beautician
With these 10 people we consider it is possible to provide a holistic program to achieve the purpose of our service.
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The purpose of the 3 general assistants is to monitor the girls and help them in any issue they might have, however, in case of budgeting concerns, we may reduce this number to 2 assistants.
It is important to mention that the founder will be in charge of the whole operations, marketing planning and PR activities.