7BE322-TMA01-2009-2010

Faculty of Business Studies

CIET (Shipping Co) Business Plan

Prepared

By

Maysaa Ballout

Ahmad Soubra

Mhamad El-Sabea

Presented

To

ID Number: 8366

Course: BE322

Section: 518

TMA Number: 01

Semester: Spring2010

Date:

7BE322-TMA01-2009-2010

PT3F O R M

Faculty of Business Studies

TMA Cover Sheet

Lebanon Branch

Second√□ First□Semester2009-2010Academic Year

2□1√□ TMA No.…………BE322……………………Course No.

I. Student Information (to be completed by the student)

Maysaa BalloutStudent Name

518Section No.8366Student No.

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I hereby certify that the work presented in this TMA is my own and is not copied from any source.

/ .…… / ..……20 Date of Submission……………………………………Signature

TotalAppendixFinancialsThe

OrganizationThe Market

The Company

Executive Summary Questions

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TotalE-LibraryReferencingPresentationPT3-FormCriteria

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I. Tutor's Comments

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7BE322-TMA01-2009-2010

1. Executive Summary………………………………………………… 42. The Company

2.1.Vision ……………………………………………………………………... 52.2.Mission ………………………………………………………………….… 52.3.Legal Form ……………………………………………………………..…. 62.4.Industry ……………………….…………………………………………… 6

3. The Market3.1.Introduction ………………………………………………………………. 7

3.2.Market Research …………………………………………………………. 6

3.3.Economics

a) Market Size …………………………………………………… 8

b) Estimated Market share ………………………………………. 8

3.4.Challenges and Barriers …………………………………………………. 9

3.5.Product ………………………………………………………………….. 9-10

3.6.Competition ……………………………………………………………..10-11

3.7.Competitive Advantages ……………………………………………….. 11

3.8.Customer/ Segment ……………………………………………………. 11 - 12

3.9.Marketing Strategy ……………………………………………………. 12

3.10. Pricing ……………………………………………………………. 13

3.11. Distribution ………………………………………………………. 14

3.12. Location from Marketing perspective ……………………………. 14

4 Appendix …………………………………………………………………... 15

Plan Outline

7BE322-TMA01-2009-2010

Executive SummaryIn the country of tourism and trade, the best chance for creating a successful business comes from both domains.Trade means shipping, transportation, and customs clearance.

Entering the world of such business carry unpredictable rewards and profits if it was highly studied and well planned

From this vision, we decided to establish CIET (corporation of import, export and transport) that activates in the field of shipping and transporting cargo nationally from and to transport facilities, and internationally across borders for and from the country of region.

CIET will provide cargo transportation via trucks, sell bill of ladings, and perform brokering of shipping and customs clearance.

All of the above activities will be listed under one company name (CIET) and interact efficiently to deliver high quality logistics and compete in the term of quality against its rival.

CIET location and means of connection are well established and competitive, we use to be located in all provinces using an online system for direct connection with our customers, thus we will reduce our expenses and save our customers time that is very important in this market.

Shipping and transportation market is highly competitive in the term of quality depending on time efficiency; CIET will set time and logistics as its target and develop competences in this field.

Financing our company is considered easy using indirect finance as bank and car retailers for purchasing needed trucks as mortgages where the rest of the investment will be financed from the equity of the partners who have a well considered experience in this domain.

After preparing offices and trucks we will make our connections with shipping companies and start acting as agents, this is easy and affordable.Forecasts of sales and expenses show positive results and motivate for starting this business.Briefly; CIET will be financed easily, benefit from its partners experience, and offers a distinctive product made of a package of services.CIET slogan is quality, time challenge, and customers comfort.

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Company Summary :

CIET is Shipping Company which will transport all kinds of products in an efficient and effective way, using ships planes and Trucks, in all over the world crossing seas, besides CIET is environmental care since we only

use recycled packaging .

VisionTo become a leading shipping company with services covering both Lebanese and international trade.

Mission1. To become a leading shipping company

from the aspect of development, innovation and service quality.

2. To always strive to be the best by offering fast, accurate and reliable service.

3. To form and make available skilled, efficient and highly dedicated Human Resource by applying quality operation of modern technology and first class customer service.

4. To establish close working relations with customers, business partners, relevant institutions and government in implementing the Company shipping business.

5. To create conducive working environment by giving priority to safety, integrity and work quality throughout the Company.

6. To increase revenue and return on investment for the shareholders by adhering closely to disciplined financial and operational practices.

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Management

CIET will be a limited liability partnership registered in the state of Delaware for tax

purposes. Its founder is Ms. Maysaa Ballout, a f master distributor with Mohammad

sabea. Ms. Maysaa has brought together a highly respected group of individuals who are

well versed in foreign trade processes.

Company Ownership

The company will have a number of outside private investors who will own 27% of the company's shares. The rest will be owned by the senior management including Ms. Maysaa, (25%), Mr. Ahmad Soubra (20%), and others. All other financing will come from loans.

Management Summary

Company officers include our President, Ms. Maysaa, our head of exports Mr. Ahmad Soubra., and our head of imports, Mr. mhmammad sabea.Personnel

CIET management brings to the company strong capabilities in all aspects of trade relations, logistics, contracting and selling.

7BE322-TMA01-2009-2010

The Market

Starting our business needs many researches and studies; in order to know our competitors and to know the Strengths & weaknesses (SWOT analysis).we should know the market we are dealing with and the rules.Since we are in a world which became global CIET will meet this need in relating the whole world together within an efficient and effective Shipment.

Market Search

According to searches done Lebanon have a number of $5.035 billion (2008 est.) in Imports and a number of $16.25 billion (2008 est.) in Export. So we notice that Lebanon depend on trading in which CIET will take a part of shipping.

As searched in the Internet we found that most customers prefer to use the internet for making their work, in this way they save time and money.Also we will offer a complete packaging and we will make all the papers needed for shipping which gives us a competitive ad since the research showed that no one provide that service.

CIET will be known through Advertising in which we searched and found that the most successful way of ads is through the internet so it will be shown in all search engines (Google, Yahoo, Ask....) also flyers will be disturbed in all the companies in Lebanon.

We searched for a trusted source that people will feel safe to deal with in order to do their payments online and we found the PayPal is the most trusted one.

CIET will deal with Med gulf insurance.

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CIET will provide the highest quality of every transportation available. Customers will be transported with the latest safety features, including dual airbags, safety features, and everything that company ofeers to have the customer comfortable w and loyal to our company

. We believe in the old saying "Treat others as you would want to be treated". This is the philosophy of customer service. To achieve and maintain excellent customer service, proper training and monitoring of employees will be critical.

The service will provide is safe and fast responsible transportation exclusively for all...

EconomicsMarket Size

CIET customers will be international Companies in which they have to trade globally, also we have the customers of e-commerce business in which they sell online so we will Deal with to ship their products for their customers( EBay , Amazon ...) so with time will be dealing with more companies and our market size will

decrease...

Market Share CIET will Deliver a Full Package in which at first it will have a small market share (7%)

but with time and according to our strategies that we are going to follow our market share is expected to rise and to be noticed by others.

Barriers

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Such kind of business needs a large amount of capital and finance .so finance along the investment for purchasing and operating will be the following:

Personal funds of the partners will be 60,000 $ each contribute by 20,000 $

Bank loan will be in the form of mortgage trucks and mini trucks that will be purchased.

We will purchase 5 big trucks that holds containers each costs 50,000 $ total 250,000$, this amount will be paid periodically (installment)5 mini trucks that holds cargo as cartons and pallets each costs 10,000 $, total 50,000 $ also will be paid periodically to the bank (installment)Total 300,000 $ for purchasing trucks of both sizes60,000 $ for other expenses, operation, and reserveThe market of cargo shipment and transporting is showing a growth in demand and increase in profitability.

Also CIET will face the acceptance of customers since we have lots of known Competitors but with our strategic and the advertising that we are going to attend customers will be familiar with our Company; also Competing in term of quality is easier than price wars... It just need some time .

Products

CIET will deliver a service which is Complete

related to shipment the service will be full

packaging in an efficient and effective way, also

since we are a company which cares for

environment our packaging will only be recycled.

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CIET provides online Service in which it make it

easy for its customers to deal with it and in this

way we save Time and money, Customer will

feel safe for dealing online since we work in

security way.

Competition

CIET Main competitors are: Aramex , Fedex & MSC,TNT and Gifco.

CIET competitors are located along all regions

Those competitors are good in: Reputation of competitors is high in the market, Capital advantage and High experience.

7BE322-TMA01-2009-2010

Besides they are weak in: They tend to interact physically with their customers (in offices), there are no

internet facilities.

They have high operational costs as a result of hierarchy and formal structure they are big corporations.

Fixed cost of big competitors are high as they tend to use ware houses.

There are no substitutes for cargo shipment and transportation, and the only barrier of entry to this market is experience.

There is no supplier power, truck suppliers number are very big and they lose negotiation power, also mother companies of shipment like MSC CMA MAERSK sell bill of lading to all agents and don’t have any exclusive agency.

CIET Differ from its Competitors since it concentrates to give a full package, and take consideration on the efficiency Besides, CIET has online business which gives it a point to be special from its competitors .

Competitive Advantage : CIET will provide for its customers cargo transportation from and to transport facilities (port, airport) as a primary business, and act as an agent for shipping from and to Lebanon. Customers will provide our operation by a scheduled data via internet about their shipments arrival in order to organize their transportation date, and make direct orders via phone or internet for reserving vehicles they need.CIET will provide a website containing all needed information about transportation and shipping including prices in an easy professional way, this will shortcut the need to have direct contact with our customers and manipulate time for us and them. The value added of CIET'S is its knowledge and expertise in the freight and transportation business and

7BE322-TMA01-2009-2010

its ability to attract customers by offering a total package of freight, clearance, and transportation.

CustomersCIET will target all customer of this market and all there needs.

There are many players in this market who are divided to three categories.1-Personal owner of trucks that only deals with transporting cargo from one location to another, example form the port to customers and vice versa.2- Small enterprises that owns small number of trucks and deal with transporting cargo inside Lebanon from transport facilities to second location also transport cargo from Lebanon to other countries and vice versa (import-export) via trucks and provide as agents shipments by sea and air.3- Well established organizations that operate big number of trucks and are agents for sea and air cargo shipment.

Marketing Strategy

1. Covering into a public company to enhance business professionalism and obtain access to external funding sources.

2. Recruiting professionals from the shipping sector. 3. Increasing total vessel capacity, vessel and container fleet. 4. Upgrading working co-operation with Freight Forwarding and Transshipment

Cargo. 5. Enhancing logistics business to support the Company’s major business activities

such as warehousing and stevedoring.

7BE322-TMA01-2009-2010

6. Optimizing vessel utilization through co-operation with other shipping lines.7. Entering into a co-operation with foreign shipping lines either as agent or through

Connecting Carrier Agreement (CCA). 8. Opening new, potential shipping routes and establish new representative offices in

line with the development of regional autonomy. 9. Developing competencies of Human Resources and management information

system that oriented to operational system effectiveness and efficiency.

As mentioned before CIET will deal with advertising via internet (search engine) and by distributing flyers for all companies in Lebanon besides putting posters in the main roads. We need to put a special budget for advertising since we are still new.

Pricing : CIET prices will be according to the quantity, kind of shipping and the place. Our prices will be much better than our competitors since we are delivering a full package which means that we are taking care of all what the customer wants and he will only deal with us and we will take all the other responsibilities. So this gave us a good advantage according to the price given which in all cases will be lower than if the customer will deal with competitors.

Location

7BE322-TMA01-2009-2010

CIET will take place in the airport road which is known by all, its building will consist of three floors and an underground floor which will be for parking. We will divide floors so a floor will be for managing and IT floor for Import care and a one for Export.Also we will take the opportunity that one of our partners have a piece of land which is not far from Beirut Port, so we will make it a warehouse in order to store products on it.So the location will be easy founded by customers and will be related to their expectations where they will not feel we are separate from the world,(every thing is near to them, parking ,Food…)

DistributionCIET will deal on land and online so we provide an easy service for our customers, by shipping through Trucks, planes and steamships .

Customers will find it very easy to deal with us since in our website we will provide a guide to show the customer how to operate and take what he want. Just like he is talking to us. Also he will find some one to help him incase of facing a problem in the guide or for any inquiry.

A ppendix

7BE322-TMA01-2009-2010

Flyer

Containers

7BE322-TMA01-2009-2010

Trucks