Interim report 2: Organisational Scan

Name : Shannon Timmer

Company : Golden Moments
Company mentor : Darren Handley
School mentor : Hermine Overwater
Date : 4-9-2010

1
 Table of contents

Chapter Page

1. History………………………………………………………………………………………………………….1…
2. Company’s business
3. Main products
4. Most important clients
5. Sales channels
6. Main suppliers
7. Personnel
8. Company’s structure
9. Tasks and responsibilities of departments
10. Mission, vision and strategy
11. Competitive advantage
12. Value chain
13. SWOT analysis
14. Appendices
a. Appendix 1 Organogram
b. Appendix 2 SWOT Matrix

2
1. History
Golden Moments was founded in August 1999 by Steve and Paul Cheatle, identical
twins, who first gained a passion for experiences in the world of horseracing.
Although the company was doing very well, they decided to expand their assortment.
Due to an economic downturn in the year 2003, sales dropped and less money came
in. The company got into big trouble and needed to survive. Luckily, they got
through the recession. After the recession the company had to be restructured. While
many competitors did not survive the recession, Golden Moments was back in
business.

Today, the company offers over 7500 gift experiences from over 3000 locations
across 11 countries.

2. Company’s business
Golden Moments operates as a third party agency (intermediary) organising activity
related experience events, such as racing a Ferrari, Porsche and Lotus at break neck
speed or diving with great white sharks in South Africa. Golden Moments’ employees
are known as ‘the experience hunters’.

3. Main products
Golden Moments offers all kind of different experiences that can be bought online or
over the phone. On their website individual and corporate customers can choose
from a wide range of experiences. Those experiences can be found under the
following main sections: Gift Vouchers & Gift Boxes, Driving Experiences, Flying
Experiences, Action Adventure, Body & Soul, Personalised Gifts, Lifestyle, VIP
Exclusive, and Summer Activities. Sometimes customers can find even more
experiences under the subsections.

Customers can buy experiences for themselves, but the actual idea is that customers
buy an experience for somebody else. In comparison with their competitors, Golden
Moments has a packaging that matches the uniqueness of their experiences. Each
voucher is presented in a stylish box that invites the recipient to become an
‘Experience Hunter’. The experience starts by plugging in their 1 GB USB stick to
launch a digital introduction to their experience with music and video. The content on
the stick is dynamically driven and personalised, containing a special message to the
recipient. Corporate customers can take advantage of the co-branding space
available to incorporate their logo and communication messages. The customers can
also choose for receiving a classic paper voucher instead of an USB stick.

4. Most important clients

Golden Moments offers all kind of experiences to individual as well as to corporate
customers. 80% of the sales are online sales, directly bought through their website.

Golden Moments has partnerships with Publicis and Mosaic. There companies buy
experiences, but they also work together to organise marketing campaigns. These
companies are very important, due to the fact that these companies are well known
and have a good reputation. These aspects will contribute to Golden Moments’
success.

3
5. Sales channels
Currently, Golden Moments is purchasing its experiences by making use of the
following six sales channels:

1. SPI (Sales Promotion Incentives):

Corporate customers use the experiences of Golden Moments to motivate an action.
They use the experiences as external rewards or gifts (PR, Marketing, Advertising
and Sales Promo) or as an internal reward or gift (Sales, Marketing and HR).

2. Loyalty:
Corporate customers can reward their own customers with experiences from Golden
Moments for being a loyal customer. For example, the Hilton HHonors’ points which
customers will receive after staying at a Hilton hotel. When a customer has collected
enough points, he or she can choose from a wide range of Golden Moments’
experiences.

3. Retail:
Tangible gift boxes can be sold at department stores, gift shops (Dreamland),
lifestyle shops (FNAC) or supermarkets (ASDA). Golden Moments provides these
retailers gift boxes in different price ranges. Customers can choose from a variety of
experiences in this price range when they come to redeem their gift box.

4. Reseller & Affiliates:

In this case the reseller sales are orders through other websites. The reseller is an
online company that has a contract with Golden Moments to sell their experiences.
Affiliation allows the affiliate/publisher to place links to Golden Moments on his
website. This can be done in various forms such as banners, text links, video ads and
product feeds. Then, when a user from the affiliate’s website clicks through to
Golden Moments and places an order, the affiliate will receive a percentage of the
order value.

5. EBS (Employees Benefit Scheme):

Employees of companies which have an affinity EBS scheme with Golden Moments
will benefit from a discount on their entire range of experiences and gifts by using a
unique offer code.

6. Direct:
This concerns all sales through Golden Moments’ website which includes the online
sales and sales of individual customers by phone. Sales through other channels
generate less profit, as all deals with corporate customers and partners involve
offering a discount. This discount will decrease the margins on the amount of
products sold. This is one of the main reasons why Golden Moments is trying to
generate more sales through its website.

6. Main suppliers
Golden Moments has a lot of different suppliers. It is hard to mention Golden
Moments’ main suppliers, due to the wide range of different experiences per
countries. However, there are several suppliers active in more than one country. For
example Marriott International, a hotel chain which operates in the United Kingdom
and Ireland. Gtemoción, Star Registry and Formula GT are important suppliers as
well.

4
7. Personnel
At the moment there are more interns working in comparison with the permanent
employees. Due to the economic crisis there are only five permanent employees left,
including the two owners. There are three interns active per country. With eleven
countries this is 33 interns in total. All these interns have different backgrounds,
languages and nationalities. Everyone is obliged to speak English during working
hours. However, there are some exceptions.

8. Company’s structure
The two directors/owners, Steve and Paul Cheatle, are in charge and Laura Mellor
takes care of everything what is related to Human Resources. Next to that, Steve
and Paul divided the company into three main departments: Content & Marketing
department, Sales department and the Finance & Commercial department. Every
department has their own tasks and responsibilities. The interns are trained by the
team leader. He also explains what needs to be done and checks the quality. At the
bottom of the organogram you can find the interns, the so-called native speakers.
Please find Golden Moments’ organogram in Appendix 1.

9. Tasks and responsibilities of departments

The Content & Marketing Team deals with all content and marketing related activities
and is responsible for liaison with the suppliers as well as to keep the purchase and
booking processes running smoothly. The Sales Team deals with individual and
corporate customers as well as handling all the orders and redemptions. They also
have contact with suppliers in order to book the experiences with them. In addition
to this, the Finance & Commercial Team is responsible for all accounts and business
projects related to Golden Moments.

10. Mission, vision and strategy

The mission and vision of Golden Moments are brief, clear and direct.

Mission:
‘Our mission is to be the front-mind provider of experiences for European buyers’

Vision:
‘Only those who live and permanently seek experiences can offer you that experience
you are looking and wishing for’

Strategy:
Golden Moments’ philosophy is the continuous search for and creation of new
experiences. Their strategy is in line with their philosophy. As global competition
increases, the company wants to stand out from the crowd by differentiating their
experiences, and being competitive in terms of prices at the same time. It can be
concluded that Golden Moments uses a cost leader ship strategy as well as a
differentiation strategy, applied at the business unit level.

Golden Moments offers an exclusive gift packaging (1 GB USB stick). However, the
company also tries to be competitive in terms of prices. It tries to keep the fixed
costs as low as possible. The company saves a lot of money, as it operates with
more interns than permanent personnel.

By using a cost leader ship strategy, the company will focus on becoming the low
cost producer in a market for a given amount of quality. The lower the costs, the
more profit it will have. A differentiation strategy calls for innovation and unique

5
features added to a particular product or service. Innovating in order to add more
value to a particular service or product will cost extra money.

Personally, I believe that a company positions itself by taking advantage of its

strengths. In general I think that it would be better to choose either for a low cost or
a differentiation strategy, and not using both strategies simultaneously.

“Strategy is about making choices, trade-offs; it's about deliberately choosing to be

different.” - Porter, Michael.

Competitive advantage
As already described in previous paragraphs there are two basic types of a
competitive advantage:

 Cost advantage
 Differentiation advantage

A competitive advantage exists when Golden Moments delivers the same benefits as
its competitors but at a lower cost (cost advantage), or delivers more benefits than
its competing substitute products (differentiation advantage). A competitive
advantage enables Golden Moments to create superior customer value and big
profits for itself.

I contrast to the above paragraph; Golden Moments is using both strategies at the
same time. As the company gains 80% of its sales through its website, this is one of
its most important channels. To prevent potential customers of going to a
competitor, Golden Moments tries to be one of the cheapest experience providers. At
the same time the company tries to differentiate itself, especially in terms of tangible
products. While most competitors offer classic gift vouchers, Golden Moments offers
special gift boxes with a 1 GB USB stick. Thus, when buying an experience at Golden
Moments you will have a competitive price and an extra digital experience.

Value chain
In general the value chain is a systematic approach to examine the development of
competitive advantage. Please see below how the value chain looks like.

6
Primary activities
1. Inbound logistics:
Paul Cheatle, who is leading the Finance department, takes care of the inventory
control. Warehousing is unnecessary, due to the fact that everything (e.g. gift boxes)
is stored at the office. The gift boxes are originally from Spain and the vouchers are
bought locally.

2. Operations:
The Sales department is responsible for the preparing the vouchers/gift boxes and
testing the USB sticks before sending by post.

3. Outbound logistics:
The Sales department also takes care of the order processing and distribution. The vouchers
and gift boxes will be send by post.

4. Marketing and Sales:

The marketing and sales are split up into two departments: Marketing & Content
department and Sales department. The Marketing & Content department takes care
of the advertising, promotion, pricing, etc. while the Sales department is responsible
for managing all the channels and selling the experiences.

5. Service:
The Sales department is also responsible for the customer care service.

Support activities
6. Firm infrastructure:
The directors and managers at Golden Moments take care of the general
management, planning, legal aspects and investor relations. The Finance &
Commercial department handles all aspects related to finance (e.g. invoices).

7. Human Resource Management:

Laura Mellor is responsible for everything related to Human Resource Management.
If new interns arrive, she will give them an introduction and explains how everything
works. She is also responsible for the recruitment of new interns and permanent
employees, promotion and Golden Moments’ reward system. Next to that, she
handles all documents (e.g. Erasmus documents).

8. Technology development:
The R&D, IT and process development is done by a free lancer. This person normally
works one day a week.

9. Procurement:
The directors/owners take care of all lease properties. The Marketing & Content team
contacts potential and existing suppliers to negotiate the contracts (e.g. margins).

SWOT analysis
The SWOT analysis includes a scan of the internal factors (Strengths and
Weaknesses), and external factors (Threats and Opportunities). The SWOT analysis
gives information which could be helpful in matching Golden Moments’ resources and
capabilities to the competitive environment in which it operates. Please find the
SWOT Matrix in Appendix 2.

7
Appendix 1 Organogram

8
Appendix 2 SWOT Matrix

SWOT Matrix

Strengths Weaknesses
o Cost advantages from o Using both strategies at the
proprietary know-how same time
o Different market offer (gift box o Lack of customer care
+1 GB USB stick) o Voucher redemption process
o Expertise in search engine o Small budget
optimisation (e.g. Google)
o Operating in 11 countries
o At least 3 native speakers per
country
o Using Fusion (pc program)
o Excellent team spirit
o Wide range of experiences

Opportunities Threats
o CRM database o Emergence of substitute
o Market penetration new products/websites
countries o Customer care in combination
with the KPI’s *

* KPI’s are points that can be earned by the interns. Golden Moments works with
these points to give its employees an understanding of the minimum targets they are
expected to attain on a weekly basis. Finally, a list of their achievements will be
recorded and used as a part of their mid term and final reviews. The initial minimum
target is 25 points.

-25 Points  Below

25 Points  Average
25 - 30 Points  Above average
31 +  Exceptional

9
Organogram and SWOT in appendix?
Interview 2 managers of the company for this purpose (and report on this).

Paar dingen in het report schirjven zo van: Volgens manager Darren Handley, …

...., says Laura Lerma.

Bla bla

a. Research Plan. Describe the research question properly, possibly complemented

with sub-questions. Which problem(s) need to be solved? Make up a detailed plan
with milestones.

10