Draft of Final Business Report Unit Learning Outcome(s) Reflects in assignment: Draft a formal business report (CLO 2) Synthesize sources to build an argument in a formal business report (CLO 3) Introduction: The purpose of this assignment is to draft your business report and submit it for feedback from your instructor. Please read the announcements throughout the week for more clues and tips! (It’s more effective to spread out the information in small bytes–rather than a too-large chunk here at one time.) Directions: Here is the assignment again: Long Report With Parts Due Week 4-6-8.pdfPreview the document Please do look at the long report in the text book (598-606). Your report should look EXACTLY like this: Single space your entire report Have a cover page, table of contents, executive summary, introduction section, body of your report, recommendations and conclusions, and bibliography Skip the letter of transmittal. The Executive Summary is the ONLY item your boss will actually read–or will read first, but you must write your whole report in order to create the Executive Summary. A huge number of points in the final report will come from this one page. Format and develop it well. The recommendations and conclusions are NOT the things you talk about in your report, but are the STEPS to be taken to implement the actions suggested in the report. Use ALL parts of the Introduction. They are mandatory/standard. Your CENTERED topics/headings are from the TOPICS TO INVESTIGATE from your proposal. Use the smaller bullet points under those main headings from the proposal in the report as your smaller, left-justified headings. The report in the book is TRUNCATED–part of it has been cut out. You will need 8-10 pages of single spaced text from the Introduction to the Recommendations and Conclusions! The title page, executive summary, table of contents and the bibliography do NOT count as part of your paper length. Please remember to add visuals. Directions: Write a first draft of the final business report and submit it to your instructor for written feedback and revision advice. Keep in mind that draft does not equal an outline or one or two pages of notes. While you may not be finished entirely with the draft, you should give your instructor as much material in the body portion as possible, so they can give you feedback on global content issues such as organization, document design, development, or use of sources. While the points you are awarded for this assignment do not account for the overall quality of the work you submitted (as the primary purpose is not evaluation), you will get maximum points for submitting a substantial draft. There is an additional benefit here in that the more material you submit for feedback, the better feedback you will get, and the better revisions you might do for the final graded draft. If you have specific questions you would like your instructor to address, include those in your draft. Due Date: Sunday, 11:59 p.m. (CST)

Draft of Final Business Report

 

Introduction

Airbnb is a company that is privately owned with her headquarters being in San Francisco, USA (Foo, 2015).   The firm operates an online market that offers hospitality services. The services offered by the company are available to their clients and prospective consumers through the company website and mobile apps thus clients who have signup through their devices can get a variety of services. The services include bookings for lodgings, tourism expenses and primarily homestays. It is imperative to note that the company neither own the listings of the rented real estate, nor does it host events. However, the firm acts as a broker between the hosts and the guests hence generates revenue from the proceeds of commissions earned from the bookings.

Important to note is the fundamental growth that the firm has realized over the past period of years since its establishment that has threatened the traditional markets and business operators in the field of tourism and hospitality management. Consequently, such threat has created a competitive war between various industries and competitors to an extent that Airbnb is under threat. For instance, there are several online companies that have been inspired by the profitability realized by Airbnb to an extent that they have ventured in the same business to offer alternatives and share the market niche. The traditional hotels are most threatened since most people book hotels rooms for meetings and travel stays whenever there are business trips and tour visits. The hotels pay taxes and other statutory fees for operations yet they face stiff competition from Airbnb which operates as a broker from private citizen`s homes.

Nature and Scope of the Problem

Just like any other business, Airbnb has been experiencing growth but such growth is currently undergoing stagnation due to competition, brand identity, regulations from the government and consumer satisfaction (Schlichter, 2017). Most notably, competition has increased for the technology company from the traditional markets and the contemporary rivals in technology advancement. The said companies offer similar services and have ambition to cut into the local market of the United States and other regions. Competitors are often a threat to a growing business since when they flood a market, they give interest to the government to introduce more regulations. Moreover, when there are various companies offering similar services, laxity comes in to make the business operations easy hence irregularities and complaints which taint the name of the business venture.  

Traditional market shareholders were hotels and tourist companies which dominated markets in hotel bookings and offering tourists destinations. Some hotels are well furnished with tour guides and business-related facilities like conference rooms and team building or capacity enhancement places. The hotels offer stiff rivalry to Airbnb since some hotels have brand identity and name, while other are very popular at some local areas. However, the emergence of Airbnb threatens such status quo making the markets uncertain for the traditional market shareholders.

Similar challengers come from the local governments who see the technology company as assisting the locals evade taxation. Ting (2017) advances that San Francisco and New York City legislators have shown the way with their explanation being, tax eversion from hosts who get paid by their guests for few days in their homes and such income doesn’t get taxed. The local governments and authorities indeed are not able to track the records of private citizens who hire their homes for visitors who are looking for comfortable places to stay in during their business trips or are looking for some adventurous places to visit for tourism in a locality like a mountain walk. Regulations are being passed to ensure that the limits of Airbnb do not encroach scope that is perceived to be hotel industry areas. It is therefore essential for the organization to conduct a substantive analysis to diagnose these problems to offer both short term and long-term solutions to ensure the organization maintains a competitive advantage over rivals. Per se, such compelling challenges calls for radical and swift change of tact by the Airbnb management.  

Prospective Audience

The management is indeed the most suitable audience to get quick recommendations from research and make the needed changes. The audience would include all the stakeholders particularly the management, hosts, guests, and shareholders. The management specifically would deal with the organizational operations and direct the way in which other stakeholders contribute to the implementation strategy arising from the research recommendations.  

Recommendations

• It is recommended that the firm to adopt a comprehensive internationalization strategy and establish such processes (Sui, & Baum, 2014). Internalization is where the firm would sort to operate beyond the local market boundaries. It is important to note that Airbnb has internationalize majorly in Europe but the competition and challengers the firm is facing are still the same as those in the local USA market.
• It is recommended that the firm to source for an expansionist approach to management so as to increase the scope of services offered and geographical locations both in local and international markets. Expansion would increase the market niche and offer more services to the prospective consumers in terms of services offered.
• It is recommended that the organization to work in a comprehensive brand image. Brand identity will assist the organization to have a mental image of the organization and to create a test of value. Brand identity makes consumers identify with a commodity or services hence leading to consumer loyalty.  
• Recommendation for the firm to establish a proper organizational culture and integrated communication system for both internal and external usage. Organizational culture makes employees love their job, and get motivated to work within the environment of the job. Communication system helps information to flow amongst employees and with their customers.
• Recommendation for the firm to use PESTEL and SWOT tools of analysis among other tools to champion proper internationalization and expansion processes. PESTEL analysis is imperative in helping understand foreign markets in terms of political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal scopes of operation of such countries. SWOT helps understand the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of an organization.
• Foreign markets in Asia and Africa be exploited both in developing and developed countries to tackle local competition.
• Increase corporate social responsibility in new countries ventured to

Conclusions

Only effective management, with proper tools of management that incorporates customer satisfaction tracking tools, employee motivation, and incorporation of a corporate social responsibility can affect successful competitive advantage and profitability.

 

References

Foo A. (2015). The Online Economy: Strategy and Entrepreneurship. [Online]. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved on September 23, 2018 from http://www.onlineeconomy.org/challenges-facing-airbnb/index.html

Schlichter S. (2017). 7 Airbnb Problems and How to Solve Them. [Online] Smart Travel. Retrieved on September 23, 2018 from https://www.smartertravel.com/7-airbnb-problems-solve/

Slee T. (2016). Airbnb Is Facing an Existential Expansion Problem. [Online]. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved on September 23, 2018 from https://hbr.org/2016/07/airbnb-is-facing-an-existential-expansion-problem

Sui, S., & Baum, M. (2014). Internationalization strategy, firm resources and the survival of SMEs in the export market. Journal of International Business Studies, 45(7), 821-841.

Ting D. (2017). Airbnb Tries to Clear Away Political and Legal Challenges in New York and San Francisco. [Online]. Skift. Retrieved on September 23, 2018 from https://skift.com/2017/05/01/airbnb-tries-to-clear-away-political-and-legal-challenges-in-new-york-and-san-francisco/