Table of contents

Particulars Page no.

 About the business 2

 Vision Statement 2
 Mission Statement 2
 Business structure 2
 BRIE model 3
 SWOT matrix 4
 Marketing plan 5
 HRM plan 7
 Financial plan 8
 “The ICON Research Centre for Training and Economic
Development”

About the Business:

The Icon research Centre is devoted to theoretical and empirical research in Development
Economics in general and on Pakistan-related economic issues in particular to find solution to the
challenges faced by Pakistan’s Economy. It also provides expertise in the field of training, program
evaluation and also provides academic support in the form of research education.

Vision Statement
Our vision is to be the leading research conducting and training Centre of Pakistan by catalyzing
international quality research methods that contributes to the economic development.

Mission Statement:
Our mission is to develop and expand innovative research programs that address
important national and global needs, to expand our branches regionally and form international
partnerships with top quality research institutes, to provide expert training services to business
and common wealth government agencies from our expert quality research staff to provide
career opportunities in research and training to the graduates of top universities of Pakistan, to
foster systematic integration of research experience in graduate programs leading to quality
research learning across the institute

Business Structure:

ICON research Centre is a partnership business formed under partnership act 1932
with all five partners having equal 20% share.

 Sheraz Gul is overall operational head that looks after all the institute operations.
 Zeeshan Nawaz as Finance head for making all the financial decisions,
 Zain-ul-Abedeen as HRM manager,
 Shahbaz Shaukat is the Academic Head responsible for looking after educational
training sessions and seminars.
 Wajahat Ali as the Marketing manager.
BRIE model:
 Boundary:

 Location: The ICON research Centre for training and economic development
main Bosan Road, near Toyota showroom Multan
 Website: www.IconR&D.pk
 Telephone: 061-4554433
 Fax: 061-4554422
 Mobile: 03025551005
 Bank account:
 Account title: The ICON research Centre for training and economic
development
 Branch: MCB Abdali Road Multan
 Resources:

 Financial: Working Capital of Rs 50 million

 External financing: Debt financing through Bank and getting investment by
forming partnerships with renowned international research institutes
 Human Resources: 3 accounts officers , 2 managerial heads, 20 top quality
researchers for training graduates and conducting researches and 1 library
head
 Technological Resource: Hi-tech information system and latest Research
instruments for accurate measurement

 Intention:

 To enhance the level of researches in Pakistan as there is no proper research

to any problem occurring here.
 To play a key role in field of research and training that contributes to
economic growth to solve problems of financial sector of Pakistan.

 Exchange:

 Source of revenue is providing Services i-e ‘Research and training’

 Other sources include External financing though debt from bank and
investment by forming partnerships with foreign research institutes
SWOT matrix:

 SO strategy:

 strength of ICON research Centre is its highly skilled and expert research
staff which conducts surveys and empirical research and also train graduates
in the institute

 Opportunity is numerous other fields which needs research for finding

solutions to different problems.

 SO strategy is to expand our approach to various fields that needs research

other than economic development based on our expert skilled Research staff

 WO strategy:

 Weakness of ICON research Centre is very high survey Cost that that is a
barrier for visiting far off places for conducting surveys.

 Opportunity is ICON’s high-tech Information systems and data bases, vast

social network range.

 WO strategy is to use its social and electronic network range to conduct

Online Surveys for those places where it is unable to conduct physically.

 ST strategy:

 Strength of ICON research Centre is its strong and active legal team

 Threat for ICON research Centre is copyright violation by using its name to
run other institutes.

 ST strategy is to sue anyone abruptly who tries the copyright violation.

 WT strategy:

 Weakness is its low capital

 Threat is Hostile takeover by other institutes

 WT strategy is to keep more than 51% share in own hand , use partner's
investment and pay interest on it afterwards,
 Strength
Strength: expert research staff
Opportunity: various numerous fields that
Opportunity needs research
SO strategy: expanding approach to various
different fields
Strength: strong and active legal team
Threat: copy right violation
Threat ST strategy: sue the one abruptly who
violates the copyrights.
Weakness
Weakness: high field survey cost
Opportunity: High tech Information
systems and vast social network range
WO strategy: conduct online surveys to
areas that are unable for field survey
Weakness: low capital
Threat: Hostile takeover
WT strategy: keep more than 51% shares
and use partner’s investment

Marketing Plan:

Marketing plan of ICON research Centre includes 4p’s marketing mix

 Product ( lifecycle) :

ICON research Centre offers services i-e taking different research projects
and assignments from renowned companies, publishing and selling research articles,
provides academic research training to people. Mostly the demand for Economic
research is high at the time of Policy making by the government agencies for getting
facts about problems in previous policies, so the work load is high that time, ICON also
invests in many different exploratory researches throughout the year for developing
new ideas related to economy and financial sector and afterwards experimenting them
quantitatively. So its life cycle is depicted as follow. Firstly idea is developed through
exploratory research and then growth into empirically testing the hypothesis, after
publication it enters the maturity stage. Those problem areas in which numerous
sufficient researches have been done are in the saturation phase and investing in those
researches should be done only if major difference occurs.

 Price:
The Porter’s Generic strategies are as follow

ICON research Centre has following different pricing strategies

 ICON follows ‘Cost leadership strategy’ in solving research projects and

assignments and in Academic training sessions as it charges considerably less
fees in getting its Revenue in both cases
 ICON also follows ‘Differentiation strategy’ as it invests in many different
exploratory researches for developing different and new ideas and testing
them afterwards so it enjoys high profits on selling those published articles
  Place:

 ICON research Centre is located at the main Bosan road which is the
academic Hub of Multan City. An ideal location for those who want to get
research training or to obtain different published research articles. We plan
to open new branch to expand geographically in other cities too.
 ICON also provides paid articles online on its website and we are planning to
launch online surveys too through which our cost can be saved for far off
places.

 Promotion:

 0.5% of ICON’s revenue is used in its advertisement electronically and

through sign boards whereas remaining much of advertisement and
promotion is done through social networking as it has vast social networking
range

HRM plan:

Human Resource planning of ICON is done by HRM manager and it includes

Following points

 Selection Criteria:
The selection criteria at ICON is simple. We Hire PHD research staff only
for providing training and research services as we promise international quality
research so our criteria is not less than PHD of age not greater than 45 years.

 Pay roll:
Research staff at ICON research Centre is being paid more than the
payroll rate of other competitors because we promise to provide research and
training of international quality so the pay roll is also according to that.

 Rewards and Bonuses:

ICON research Centre offers high rewards and bonuses especially to
the filed survey staff for completing quality survey and research within the required
time span given to them and depends on success rate of survey.
Financial Plan:

 Capital:

 ICON research Centre has a working capital of Rs 50 million and major source
of acquiring capital is ‘Retained Earnings’
 Other sources of acquiring Capital Includes ‘Debt Financing’ and by getting
investment by forming partnerships with international top ranked research
institutes

 Financial Statements:
Following Financial Statements are prepared at the year-end in ICON

 Income Statement
 Balance sheet
 Cash flow statement
 All above ‘Projected Financial Statements’ are also prepared at the start of
new year which allows the finance department to maintain check and
balance during the next year with previous year’s values as well as to make
new strategies at the start of new year.

 Financial Budgets:

Financial Budgets in ICON are prepared on ‘Quarterly Basis’ for maintaining

proper record and assigning proper resources, especially main budgets prepared
are

 Cash flow budget

 Capital Budget
 Expense budget