Elite Business Solutions EBS Worldwide Inc Field Report Essay

Elite Business Solutions (EBS) Worldwide, Inc.

Introduction

Change management is a crucial part of any business because, given the ever-shifting economy and the relevant economic forces, a business must change to adapt to the prevailing market forces (Doppelt 2017). The process of change management can either be successful or a failure, and its success or failure can significantly affect the continuation of the business. It is not always that failure of change management will translate to failure of the business, but it can significantly affect growth. This paper focuses on the Indian business environment by analyzing a Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) and an Entrepreneur who has experience of managing change. The analysis of the business will be done through Lewin's Change Management Model. Therefore, this paper analyses EBS Worldwide Inc., formerly known as EasyBuyMusic and the entrepreneur Chris George.

Overview of the Company

EBS Worldwide is an international full-service company that offers business development and general management consulting services for SME privately-held companies in North America. The company's mission is to help companies increase their profit margin through operations and management streamlining (EBS Worldwide Inc. 2009). However, before EBS Worldwide, the company was known as EasyBuyMusic, and it dealt solely with music. The company CEO was Chris George, who is a graduate of St. Mary's University in Texas and an MBA holder from New York University. George started EasyBuyMusic in 2000 with an investment of Rs 45 lakhs. Easybuymusic.com was a pioneer in the e-commerce industry, and under his leadership, the company grew to have branches in nine Indian cities with over 200 employees (Financial Express 2002). However, in 2004, George realized EasyBuyMusic had to change, and though the website had taught him invaluable lessons, the turned EasyBuyMusic to EBS Worldwide (Rodrigues 2012). Today EBS Worldwide provides marketing tools and services and has offices in India, Europe, and the US. Some of its products are MarketBlox, CreditMax, and PeopleMax.

Changes the entrepreneur made

The entrepreneur made a complete transformation of the company, not only the name but also the products offered. However, the company maintained the business model, which is e-commerce. The transition of the business was first in the business name. George changed the company name for EasyBuyMusic to EasyBuy with the e-commerce website URL as easybuystore.com. the primary reason for changing the business name was to accommodate the new avatar of the business (Financial Express 2002). However, it is to be noted that these changes began after the CEO had noticed the need for change to respond to the market forces and the changing customer needs.

After EasyBuy, the business did not take the needed course to profitability, and thus, the CEO reinvented the company to Elite Business Solutions/Analysis Inc. The new business name reflected the new products the company dealt with, which include marketing and business management tools. This was the most radical change the entrepreneur made by shifting the company from selling music to selling marketing and organizational management tools. Also, the entrepreneur widened the reach of the company from only India, in which EasyBuyMusic operated to a global reach with operations in the USA and Europe, specifically UK (EBS Worldwide Inc. 2009).

The outcomes

The outcomes of the changes the CEO made helped to turn around the company. First, the company entirely refocused its target customers. Initially, the company targeted music lovers who wanted to buy new albums and music CDs in India. After the change, the company now targeted corporates, organizations, and mostly all types of businesses, both small and medium, and in all types of the business sector (EBS Worldwide Inc. 2009). This has, therefore, expanded the company's customer base, which translates to increased income and a higher profit margin. Also, expanding the business to an international level means that the customer base is even more expanded.

As EasyBuyMusic, the company had to deal with logistic planning and high transportation and postal costs because after a customer bought an album, it had to be transported to the buyer. However, once the company changed, any product bought by a customer can simply be downloaded to the customer's computer system or simply given login details to access the product as a service. The eradication of transportation costs means that the company helped to cut costs. More importantly, the eradication of the need to transport means that the company did not have to factor in timely deliveries, which is a critical step for any e-commerce business. Non-adherence to delivery timelines is one of the issues that cause customer dissatisfaction for e-commerce businesses.

Specifically, to this case, the change outcome was significant since it helped turnaround the company's fortunes and, thus, the return of investors who withdrew earlier. As the easybuymusic.com e-commerce, the company had begun to see a decline in sales as a result…

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…comprehensive analysis of both EasyBuyMusic and EBS Worldwide from a comparative perspective.

iii. In completing this assignment, several challenges were met, and solving them would help improve this assignment. The first challenge was a limited understanding of change management. To improve this assignment, I, therefore, would recommend an extensive understanding of the theory of change management. The second challenge was a lack of credible, original documents. I, therefore, recommend that to improve this assignment, there is a need to contact EBS Worldwide for original documents.

3. In the area of Corporate Entrepreneurship and Strategic Human Resource Management, two or three things that I learnt that I did not know before reading the assignment

i. The first thing, in the area of corporate entrepreneurship, that I have learned in the process of completing this assignment is the need for a solid business plan. In both EasyBuyMusic and EBS Worldwide, it is evident that Chris George, as the CEO, had a solid plan of what he wanted to create. Even though the first business failed, as a result of various limiting external factors, the second business has succeeded and operates at an international level. The second thing I learned is in the area of SHRM on the need for effective and transparent communication with the various stakeholders. Before, I thought that only good news for the company should be communicated, but it is now clear that even negative business should also be communicated.

ii. With the current change in the workplace, especially with the emergence of the digital workspace, it is essential to establish a clear human resource management protocol and provide staff with practical tools to complete their work. It is evident that, for EasyBuyMusic, there was no active management of human resources, e.g., by being let go through phone calls. The second this I have learned is on cooperate entrepreneurship and the need for networking, especially for startups. Through this assignment, I can now adequately appreciate the need for effective and extensive networks.

iii. The first thing I learnt as a result of completing this assignment is the need for a corporate entrepreneur to learn their niche. It can be argued that EasyBuyMusic failed as a result of an inadequate understanding of the niche. The second thing I learnt for corporate entrepreneurship is the need to be flexible and forward-looking. Once EasyBuyMusic failed, the CEO was flexible enough to move on…