Heavenly Bakery — SME Case Study (UAE)

This paper examines a case study on a small to medium enterprise within the UAE. The company selected for the case study is Heavenly Bakery. Many Emirati women conduct their business from home and among them, there is an 18-year-old Emirati woman named Shamma Al Shamsi who developed Heavenly Bakery with her partner, Mahra al Hammadi from her home. Heavenly Bakery was developed in 2017, when the couple started specializing in various kinds of flavors and tastes of rocky roads based on their strategy of selling (Ahmad, 2018). The focus of this business was to introduce unique flavors and tastes of rocky roads which have not been in the market, hence satisfying the demands of consumers.

Based on some statistical reports, it is perceived that the bakery market of UAE is valued at almost $683 million and grows around 4.2 percent annually, with demands of Heavenly Bakery baked items rising continuously (Chesters, 2017). Hence, Heavenly Bakery is perceived to grow in the future. As it is perceived, the baking sector has a huge opportunity in terms of growth. The business is expected to make huge revenue in upcoming days. As for now, Heavenly Bakery has already become popular among the residents of UAE. The bakery produces around nine flavors and tastes at home that include peanut butter, home-made rocky road and pistachio (Igrabcafeae, 2021).

A mission statement is mainly a statement utilized by a firm to explain the main purpose of their business. Based on the mission statement, Heavenly Bakery seeks to produce a bakery that makes the best and most tasteful quality of baked items. The company intends to give quality service to its customers and make an eminent brand name in the UAE.

Vision The vision of a firm mainly entails what they intend to acquire during the long-run timeframe. The vision of

Heavenly Bakery is

¡ To provide satisfying service to all customers and share optimism in the UAE marketplace.

¡ To develop success, growth and influence the business in the local market as well as in the global market in near future.

Organizational Structure

The organizational structure for Heavenly Bakery is

provided below

Business Planner Sales Associates Owners Employer Financial Advisor Secretary Figure 46: Organizational Structure of Heavenly Bakery Based on the above organizational chart of Heavenly Bakery, the business group consists of two owners, a secretary, an employer and employees including a financial advisor, a business planner and a sales associate. The owners of the company are responsible for the stability, growth and direction of the operation.

The role of the secretary is to manage the employees within the company, while the employer is responsible for maintaining safety in the workplace. The financial advisor is said to be a finance professional who gives advice and consults on the finances of the entity, while the business planner works with the company to aid it in business procedures. Finally, the sales associate works to promote the services and products of the firm by means of quality customer service.

Leadership Leadership is very important in any business as it helps develop morale and improve the level of satisfaction among employees as well as customers. It is perceived that Heavenly Bakery is under good leadership that drives productivity of employees by developing their confidence and establishes a positive environment, which is conducive towards productivity (HR Payroll Systems, 2021). Heavenly Bakery was founded by Shamma Al Shamsi and Mahra Al Hammadi in 2017. Under their leadership, the organizational needs and employee needs are coordinated effectively. The team consists of the owners (Shamma Al Shamsi and Mahra Al Hammadi), one secretary, one employer and three employees. The leadership style followed at Heavenly Bakery is a mix between transformational and transactional leadership.

The following features show the idea

o u n a ti o n T e a T e a P e rf o r a n e A p p r ai s a ls F r e e o e ff e ti e n e s s b u n g o n it o ri n g Figure 47: Leadership Style of Heavenly Bakery

There was not any kind of restructure at the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the entire workplace remained hopeful and consistent in the time of turmoil. However, the business entity, under the influence of this effective team, introduced some new flavors and initiated the platform of online selling in particular response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

There was a dedicated process that was followed, which

can be shown in the following diagram

More online orders Home deliveries Cleanliness of packing Scanning of vendors Use of safety measures Proper sanitization

Phase 1

Safety upgrade

Phase 2

Operations

Phase 3

Sales Figure 48: Restructure Process

Heavenly Bakery’s products are mainly

¡ Rocky roads, which consist of various flavors of biscuits, chocolates, nuts and marshmallows.

¡ Wafers, which are covered with chocolate along with around three different flavors, like hazelnut, rose and pistachio.

¡ Chocolates cubes with various messages and flavors including hazelnut, rose and pistachio.

Business strategies are extremely important for a business enterprise, as they help determine and assess the direction of the entire business. With the help of a business strategy, an organization is able to assess strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT analysis, one of the major components of business strategy) of the business. Heavenly Bakery follows the strategies of “most innovative service or product” and “improves customer service.” ¡ With the use of the “improve customer service” strategy, the company makes sure that the demands of customers are met effectively.

¡ On the other hand, with the application of the “most innovative service or product” strategy, Heavenly Bakery developed unique selling points by making significant changes inside the marketplace. It also gained growth and success by distributing products across the UAE through this strategy (Indeed , 2021).

Improve customer service Business Most innovative service or product Figure 49: Heavenly Bakery Business Strategies

Operational strategies are noted as the approach specifying the design and utilization of resources to support the business strategy. Heavenly Bakery’s operational strategies consist of continuous development in offering new products. Especially during a pandemic like COVID-19, companies are striving to remain competitive amongst their competitors. Thus, Heavenly Bakery keeps itself up-to-date and creates new products that gain customer attention. The other operational strategy is the optimization of its supply chain.

Speaking of marketing strategies, the four Ps of marketing are: mix, i.e., the product, price, place and

promotion. Heavenly Bakery’s are discussed below

Product

Heavenly Bakery offers the products of rocky roads, wafers and chocolate cubes. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the company developed some unique flavors which have become very popular among customers.

Price

As per the strategy of pricing, the company doesn’t sell in kilograms, and they have different boxes of various sizes that contain different pieces of sweets and chocolates.

The box which contains nine sweet pieces costs around Dh25. It is perceived that prices may increase up to Dh300 for larger sized boxes (Ahmad, 2018).

Place

To start, the business was conducted from home in the beginning but as the business grew, a branch was opened in the Pullman Hotel in Sharjah.

Promotion

The promotional strategy is the most important strategy of marketing for Heavenly Bakery. The promotion of the company’s products has been conducted through social media platforms like Instagram, Tik Tok and Snapchat.

The provision of loyalty cards and discounts are provided to customers to ensure brand loyalty.

Marketing Product rocky roads wafers chocolate cubes Instagram TikTok Snapchat Price 25 - 300 AED Place Pullman hotel in Sharjah Promotion Figure 50: Marketing Mix of Heavenly Bakery

Business challenges are the part of any business venture.

Although the company has not encountered any legal challenges, it witnessed some business challenges, which happened as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, with overall sales being reduced. Customers started consuming less product from bakery entities and Heavenly Bakery was no exception.

Apart from this challenge, a minor challenge encountered by the company was competition, as some business enterprises sold the same products.

Overcoming Challenges Overcoming challenges encountered in a business journey is very important, as it ensures the long-term success of the business. While facing the challenges of reduction in sales and competition from other entities, Heavenly Bakery developed some unique and brilliant ideas like coming up with more unique flavors of products, which gained attention of customers. In addition, a successful approach of Heavenly Bakery in overcoming challenges was changing the situation rather than its style, making it more flexible to overcome challenges that arise.

Successful Business Practices A successful business practice identified for this company is the introduction of unique flavors, being friendly and having trusted employees. Keeping customers updated and having a close relationship with them has also been one of the more successful business practices, in addition to using social media as an effective and efficient way of advertising. So many influencers have engaged in promoting the business. Finally, the far most important business practice is leadership, and how a team is led results in the success of any business. Thus, Heavenly Bakery is mostly recognized in how well the team is led.

Some of the practices which resulted in failure are

provided below

¡ Time-management gets very complicated at times.

¡ Organizing receipts and ensuring the delivery of orders is successful.

¡ Ensuring that information of customers is available for delivery firms.

¡ Making sure that demand and supply are equally aligned.

The company was first established as a home business, and it was later shared that Heavenly Bakery made quite a success in the UAE when conducting business from home. The company introduced some unique flavors that have gained significant attention among customers.

Recently, a café was opened by the company at Pullman Hotel Sharjah, and the company has begun to sell products in several cafes in the UAE, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Also, the company has gained more influence through followers on social media.

The above image shows the Instagram page of the company, showing that Heavenly Bakery has 31.1k followers (Figure 51).

Although the company has grown, there is still some room for improvement. Here are some notable recommendations that have been provided to the

company

1- Partner up with some well-known businesses.

2- Provide catering services for special occasions (birthdays, weddings, etc.…) 3- Provide training for employees from time to time.

4- Develop a loyalty program application for customers.

5- Develop a website for the business to grab more customers from all over Gulf countries.

The following chart summarizes the recommendations

Partnering up Services for special occasions Training Loyalty program Own Website Figure 52: Summary of Recommendations

The lessons learned from the case study of Heavenly

Bakery are

¡ Business conducted from home can be effective during a pandemic crisis.

¡ Challenges in business can be addressed by including unique features in the products.

¡ Focus on changing the situation to overcome conflicts rather than changing the style.

¡ A business can be enhanced through an effective promotional strategy.

Homemade and local Emirati cakes and sweets are very popular and well-known among the UAE individuals at the time of Eid Al Fitr and Ramadan. This paper has developed a case study on Heavenly Bakery. Various aspects were identified and discussed. Leadership has been one of the far most important elements of success within the business. The elements of success that are followed by the company are duly encrypted in its core

values and displayed in the following chart

Proper customer service Good quality product Promotions Sales figures Order frequencies Customer retention Success elements Figure 53: Successful Elements of Heavenly Bakery