Is this IA RQ for B&M HL "good enough"?

[vals]

Hi all, I'm currently working on the Research proposal for my B&M Internal Assessment and the more I try to find a tangible, realistic research question, the less ideas come to my mind
I've already contacted the company I want to analyse: it's a cupcake shop in my former city (in Italy, while I'm living in Poland atm), therefore quite a small business. My teacher told me it's much better to focus on such companies rather than on big multinationals, because of the difficulties one could encounter when it comes to data fetching, timing and so on.

At first I wanted to explore human resources but it wasn't realistic: how many employees could a store which is at the largest of 30 mq. possibly have?
Thus I moved onto the business organisation/environment topic, putting an emphasis on expansion: I was thinking of suggesting that the business opened another store or perhaps analysing and suggesting ideas for product development.
Since, as I've said, it's a pretty small business, opening a new shop wouldn't make that much of a sense, would it?
In the end, I think I'll focus on product development: at the moment they sell cupcakes in many flavours, cakes and they offer catering service and training for cake designing.
How about suggesting them to create a "pro-health" line, featuring ingredients such as soy milk, whole-grain flour, natural colourings, etc?
This is how I'd phrase my RQ using this very lats prompt: "Would creating a "healthy choice" product line be beneficial to XYZ cupcake shop's annual sales revenue?"
Combining "healthy" and "cupcake" clashes a bit, though...
What's your opinion?

Oh, another thing: is it possible to sell cupcakes over the internet? Nay... right? I'm starting to rave

edit: another idea I have is having them to integrate a café in their business, is this realistic or do businesses need a special license to serve food in a local? Cause if they do, I assume it's rather expensive and I don't think my business could possibly afford it.

edit #2: would it be better to say "in order to increase their customer base"? Sticking to sales revenue would probably require much financial data, do you think the business could be reluctant to provide me with the information I'd need? And would dealing with customer base only decrease my chances of getting a high grade for my IA? I really want/need to push myself and score high in business!

I just noticed one of the tags has ECO in brackets, which is misleading since I'm talking of business... I sincerely apologise and I hope someone from the staff will fix this

Edited December 23, 2013 by vals

[crimson.threads]

I do BM HL, and that IA was terrible to start with! It got easier though....

Here's what worked for me- first off, I talked to the company themselves! If you've got a contact there that's business-minded, maybe you could get some help and ask them what they're considering in the future, which can easily prompt good IA questions, as these tend to be generally specific. Next, I wouldn't really look into the cafe expansion- it's too broad for an IA. Something that really would work and help you to get into the question in only 2000 words would be a question dealing with stuff such as perhaps a new oven for the company.

The healthy choice line might be good, but if you're not careful it could balloon into something massive.... If I were you, I might look at the staff themselves- would it be more efficient to hire staff? Would staff be more productive if given incentive of x amount? ( that was my IA question!) This works pretty well, as your cupcake shop is in essence a secondary / tertiary sector, and so is reliant on staff being happy + motivated.

And for the finance- don't worry! I had about one small table of data, and everything else was interviews, job descriptions, business statements etc.... and it did okay

Message me if you want!

[bluedino]

To answer your questions:

- Hmm I personally actually think your RQ sounds okay. The idea of healthy cupcakes is a bit conflicting but I believe you could make it work by suggesting that it has less sugar/calories or something. Such a question doesn't sound too broad to me and quite doable actually. What does your teacher think of your RQ? You sound like you have a decent teacher, as the advice about focusing on smaller companies rather than multinationals is absolutely correct.

- FYI I think it is possible to sell cupcakes over the internet. As in, your cupcake store could have an online ordering form where the customer can browse through, select and pay online, and then either the store drops off the cupcakes at the customer's house, or the customer comes by and picks it up. Such a website would probably require web/computer expertise and be beyond the skills of the average person. I think exploring something like this might be a good IA for you!

- I do agree with ^ that the idea of cafe expansion does sound a bit too complex for the cupcake store you're describing/for your IA so maybe not. I think you have some stronger ideas. I also want to say that I'm not sure about the licenses, but you could always do some google research. However, I disagree about focusing your IA on something like whether to buy a new oven or not - such things are kinda trivial for an IA and might be too simplistic? My teacher recommended us to avoid questions like that.

- I think both 'increasing annual sales revenue' and 'increasing customer base' could both make good IAs. As for whether the company will give you financial data - why not just ask them this yourself? As you're not able to actually physically visit the cupcake store you're relying a lot on the company being able to stay in contact and convey information with you in other ways, so just be aware of this. I'm not sure if you're contacting the company via email or telephone.. if it's email then obviously you'll be stuck if they don't respond/you'll have to wait each time for them to reply! How friendly are the store owners/willing to help? If they're really nice people you sound like you've got yourself a really good business, but if they're a bit reluctant it'll make your job a lot harder.

Hope this helps you! It seems like you've got lots of potential for a really good IA in my opinion.

[Danyon Thomas]

I agree with your teacher about smaller business being better easier to do. My concern with your RQ is that it could require you to gather a lot of primary data, other wise how will you know that there would be demand for a healthy sort of cupcake. But if you already have that, it would definitely be a go-er. It should allow you to look at R+D (in a sense) assuming they would need to develop a recipe, trial it etc. and the costs associated with this, because developing this new line and marketing it could have some significant expenses (Investment Appraisal - which is really good for the BAM IA).

If you can't get some of this data, talk to your business about what they are planning on doing in their future, remember your report needs to have value to management. It is also Okay to say the business should not go through with the decision, as long as it does not seem like a no-brainer i.e. why on earth would they consider this. So say you cupcake business is considering opening a cafe, or a store in a neighbouring town, you could look at it (a balanced argument), and then decide no they shouldn't do it because of xyz, but in the future if abc improves it could become viable.

Hope that helps! Any questions just ask me!

[Srg_19]

Hi! I am just starting with my BM IA and I am not sure how to write and what to include in the mail that I am about to send to the company that I want to take up. I had initially spoken with their COO and he requested me to send a mail to him in regards to what exactly I want to do and what I would require from them. Could someone help me out here because I am not sure if I know what I need to ask for exactly?