Greenleaf developer and owner of mobile application, Connections

Greenleaf is a Brisbane based tech start up, which was first established almost 12 months ago. The company have developed a mobile application called, Connections. The app is a designed to help individuals establish or expand their friendship circles by connecting like-minded people. Friendships can be formed based on similar interests, hobbies, personalities and/or backgrounds. Connections is a paid subscription which costs $10 a month and is currently only available to people who reside in Queensland. However, following a recent meeting, the CEP/Founder believes that the app is ready for national expansion, which will see it being available to individuals across all states and territories in Australia.

Task

You are part of the Board of Directors who provide advice and guidance to the CEO/Founder to help inform their decisions and investments to ensure the success of the start up. You are meeting to discuss and make recommendations against three key agenda items:

How to spend the investment money

Strategy to support with sales and marketing

An action plan to support the expansion of the business

Background Information

Business Structure

Board of

Directors

CEO &

Founder

Frankie Wells

Chief

Operations Officer

Chief

Technology Officer

Chief Sales Officer

Chief

Marketing Officer

CEO and Founder responsible for the overall direction of the business, vision and culture Board of Directors support the CEO in key decisions to ensure the growth and success of the business.

Chief Operations Officer responsible for the operational functions of the business. Chief Technology Officer is the Engineer and responsible for the technology and project development.

Chief Sales Officer is responsible for revenue generation and ensuring that sales targets are met.

Chief Marketing Officer is responsible for how the product is perceived in the market.

Email from David (new investor)

To: Frankie Wells, CEO & Founder

From: David Fitzgerald (Investment Manager, Forward Thinking)

Date: Four weeks ago

Subject: Investment Proposal

Hi Frankie,

The team and I are excited to be partnering with you to support the growth of Connections. As discussed previously, we have accepted your proposal and Forward Thinking will be investing $250,000 across the next 3 years into Connections.

Based on your proposal, the team and I strongly believe that the money would best be spent on the sales and marketing of the product. The market is fiercely competitive at the moment, and you need to separate yourself from the competition. For the business to continue with the success that its had in the last 12 months, it is vital that you continue to increase your customer base.

We understand that the investment decisions do fall with the Board of Directors, however we would like you to consider investing in your sales and marketing strategy.

I look forward to receiving an update soon.

Kind regards

David.

E-mail from the CEO & Founder

To: Board of Directors

From: Frankie Wells, CEO & Founder

Date: Three weeks ago

Subject: Expansion Strategy

Hi,

Ive just finished up on the strategy day with the team and wanted to send an email clarifying our focus for Connections for the next three years. By no means does this differ from what we have been doing and it still aligns with some of the new sales and marketing strategies we have been looking in to, but I wanted to provide a summary to ensure transparency with the board. The key three things we are looking to focus on, according to the business strategy are:

1. A sophisticated and dynamic product, that is tailored to individual needs we propose to do this through increased investment into product development.

2. Customer base growth through broadening and diversifying our customer reach 3. Business growth in particular, expansion of the team through recruitment of experts within the field (e.g., Business Development Manager, Customer Support Manager or additional Engineers/Developers)

I have arranged a meeting to talk about this all in more detail next month.

It will be important to keep these factors in mind when addressing your key agenda items in next months meeting.

Regards

Frankie

E-mail Outlining Customer Retention Results

To: Board of Directors

From: Samantha Brown, Chief Marketing Officer

CC: Frankie Wells, CEO & Founder

Date: Yesterday

Subject: Sales & Marketing Strategy

Good Morning,

The team and I have recently completed some analysis on the number of new subscribers we have had to the app compared to the number of people that have unsubscribed (see below).

New App Subscribers vs. Unsubscribes

250

200 150 100 50

0

5

20

31 39

210

167

110 112

42

41

56 43

Month 1 Month 2 Month 3 Month 4 Month 5 Month 6 Number of new subscribers Number of customers who unsubscribed

As you can see the number of new subscribers has decreased over the past 6 months, which concerns me greatly. Therefore, I wanted to take this opportunity to present two potential solutions to increase the business presence within the market and ultimately our revenue over the coming years. Please see below:

Option 1: Investment into a Customer Data Platform

This tool would help to:

Support with data collection to build customer profiles

Better insight into our customers who they are, what they want, how to attract them and what will help to retain them

Data will be used to help inform marketing decisions.

The investment cost of a customer data platform will be $85,000 initial outlay + $15,000 per annum in monthly/annual license/maintenance fees

Option 2: Recruitment of an internal Business Development Manager

The recruitment of this role would help to:

Grow the app from both a marketing and sales perspective

Establish and build relationships or collaborations with other invertors / businesses to drive income and growth

Consider new markets for the business to expand or grow

Maintain market competitiveness by identifying ways to differentiate Connections from our competitors.

The recruitment cost of a Business Development Manager will be $120,000 per annum

Both options are likely to help increase brand awareness, market competitiveness, business and customer base growth and increased investment interest.

I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Regards,

Samantha.

E-mail re: Investment Budget

To: Board of Directors

From: Frankie Wells, CEO & Founder

Date: Yesterday

Subject: Investment options to support expansion

Good afternoon,

As you know we have been fortunate enough to receive $250,000 from our new investor to support the growth of Connections. David has requested a report in relation to how we intend to spend the capital over the next 3 years.

I have attached a high-level overview of the projected costs of some options that I have identified to support our expansion strategy. Note that the investment into a customer data platform (for a minimum of 12 months) would require an $85,000 initial outlay + $15,000 per annum initial spend and the recruitment of a Business Development Manager would be $120,000 per annum which may need to be taken into account.

I look forward to meeting with the Board and receiving some guidance on where the money should be invested.

Regards,

Frankie

	Projected costs
Product Development (per annum cost)	$90,000
Social Media Marketing	$20,000
Quality assurance testing	$35,000
Customer referral incentives (including, strategy development, marketing & cost to the business to incentivise customers)	$75,000
New office location as not enough desk space for current team (annual rental fee) N.B. need to commit to minimum 3year lease	$96,000
Recruitment Customer Service Support Manager (per annum cost)	$110,000
Technology Australia Annual Membership	$2,000
Staff wellbeing initiatives	$10,000

Customer Engagement Metrics

To: Board of Directors

From: Kris Schmidt, Chief Operations Officer

Date: Yesterday

Subject: Customer Engagement Metrics

Hi there,

Please find enclosed the customer satisfaction survey results. The results were captured from 200 early adopters of the Connections mobile app. The app had been used by customers for 3 months.

The document attached shows how we have faired against the benchmark (which is 3) for any given item.

Scoring is based on the following guidelines:

3.8 = Average

5 = Highest level

1 = lowest level

Frankie has asked me to send this to you so you can review and advise on any priority areas of focus. He is after two key priority areas, and some ideas on what can be done to tackle these issues.

Any questions please let me know.

Regards,

Kris.

Customer Satisfaction Survey Results (early Adopters)

5 4.5 4 3.5 3 2.5 2 1.5 1 0.5 0

The app is easy to navigate The app has helped me to build new friendships The app connects me with likeminded people The app is tailored to my interests and location The app produces fast results I would recommend the app to other people I enjoy using the app 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree Initial perceptions of the App vs. current perceptions (after using the app for 3 months) 120% 100% 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% User-friendly Data security Speed Personalised Helpful customer support Initial Current Value for money Appealing user interface Renewed App Usage Notifications of new features Family, Friends and Colleagues start using it Exclusive or bonus content Financial incentive (i.e. discount) 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% Action plan for customer base growth

Priority 2

Q: What is your justification for choosing priority 2?

Q: What actions are required for priority 2?

Q: What resources (i.e. people, objects, systems) will you require for priority 2? Q: What timeframes do you foresee for priority 2?

Recruitment to support sales & marketing strategy

Q: What would be the pros and cons of Greenleaf investing in the customer data platform to support with the sales and marketing strategy?

Q: What would be the pros and cons of Greenleaf recruiting an internal Business Development Manager to support with the delivery of their sales and marketing strategy?

Q: If you had to make the decision on the customer data platform or recruiting an internal Business Development Manager, what would be your choice?

Q: What considerations would be involved in the implementation of your proposed decision?

How should the investment money be spent?

Q: Decisions on where the investment money will be spent and why?