Institute of applied entrepreneurship Assignment

Institute of applied entrepreneurship - Assignment Example I would like to personally thank you for reviewing my letter of employment and genuinely hope you will find my entrepreneurial competencies to be a valuable fit for your grand organisation with a rich history in the United Kingdom. 1. Introduction Thornton’s Chocolate was founded in 1911 by Joseph William Thornton, establishing a very recognisable brand in the United Kingdom ever since. Now that Cadbury has been taken over by Kraft company, Thornton’s is now considered the largest independent chocolatier and confectionary business in the UK. Through decades of brand-building activities and increases in sales revenues, Thornton’s now boasts 360 different shops and a variety of franchises across the United Kingdom supported by 2011 revenues of ?218 million (Thornton’s 2012). Thornton’s has, however, experienced problems with maintaining market share among major competitors and the business is losing sales revenues, especially in the High Street stores that sell Thornton’s products. Thornton’s has always maintained a premium positioning strategy, justifying a higher-priced model associated with legitimate and consumer-perceived brand quality. Because of this, the business is seeking a revitalisation and restorative business strategy designed to give the business a more contemporary brand image with important target markets. This letter of employment is to illustrate entrepreneurial characteristics both internally and as related to the employment candidate to illustrate how the candidate’s competencies can benefit the new positioning of Thornton’s for sustainable success and profitability. 2. Defining the entrepreneurial organisation An entrepreneurial organisation is one that is willing to absorb risks, as being able to compete against well-established competitors, such as Cadbury, requires making decisions that are innovative and do not have a precedent established. This is necessary to achieve unique competitive advantage and differentiate one business from another that offers similar products with like characteristics and benefits. It is the risk-taking prowess of important organisational leaders that establish the foundation for an entrepreneurial organisation (Covin and Miles 1999). Once this entrepreneurial spirit has been established, the entrepreneurial organisation becomes one that is equipped to develop new products and services. A corporate entrepreneur focuses on establishing efficiencies and productive structures that can assist the organisation in aligning strategic intentions with external market conditions (Dess, Lumpkin and McKee 1999). Outside of basic managerial or executive-level decision-making such as budgeting and cost control, the entrepreneurial organisation recognises opportunities to make positive changes and then aligns the internal operational and staffing models to achieve strategic goals related to the opportunity. The entrepreneurial organisation m aintains staff and managers that are able to juggle innovative ideas in their imaginations that translate into creative work to better position the business competitively. This type of organisation looks toward people and product as tools for achieving profit growth (Gaglio and Katz 2001). Innovations should occur in human resources policies and procedures as well as related to the actual product or service in order to be considered