MM5015

BUSINESS INITIATION

MID TERM EXAM: CASE ANALYSIS

SELINA ASTIRI
29120184

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

SCHOOL OF BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT
INSTITUT TEKNOLOGI BANDUNG
2021
 1. What should Gibran do: press on with the ripple sensor and dive into data services,
or branch out the company into coastal shrimp?

I would recommend Gibran to Not to Shrimp which means eFishery should not develop the
company into Shrimp Feeder and focus on ripple sensor and dive into data services based on
several criterias.

● The potential of Ripple Sensor development

Although at first the first generation feeder was difficult to develop, Gibran still
interested in improving this product by developing ripple sensors which could provide
additional 7% of savings, making the feeder ability to save 32% (25% + 7%) of feed
costs., Gibran felt a sensor would give the “Wow!” factor and offer a strong selling point.
With the large market size, this addition will make it more interesting for farmers to
invest on the feeders.

● Funding availability for Ripple Sensor

The sensor is proven to attract investors. In 2016, eFishery received US$750,000
from Aqua-spark and Ideosource in exchange for 27.5% of equity. Small portion of the
funds are used for developing ripple sensors. Even though the current estimation is the
sensor will cost about $50 in unit cost, Gibran could use the funding to continue
developing the ripple sensor that matches the target price. This could be done by Gibran
by outsourcing the development and production to China which has worked previously
with Gibran. The impressive farmers’ cost savings with ripple sensor will also decrease
churn rate and attract more customers. Thus, Gibran will be able to reduce the cost of
current ripple sensor.

● The platform ideas for Data Services

Gibran has many ideas and opportunities by optimizing eFishery data, its power
to create new value for farmers and to a wider ecosystem of players who can benefit from
improved data services. Gibran sees several avenues for adding value and growing
eFishery from a hardware solution to a new kind of meta-platform broker and market
maker. By expanding the value chain, eFishery can connect farmers to the ecosystem
more efficient and smart suppliers, buyers and financial intermediaries. eFishery will
have more credibility in the fishery industry, making it possible to continue to gain new
customers.
 2. Think about the pros and cons of the alternative projects (Shrimp Vs FishBiz and
FishFax). Which one would you select if you were in Gibran’s shoes and why?

SWOT analysis is used to gain better understanding of the pros and cons of both projects, thus
making it more efficient to make decisions regarding the next move of eFishery.

a) SWOT Analysis of Pursuing the Shrimp Market

STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES

● Shrimp farmers have a higher ● Estimated 50% risk of failing

probability of purchasing the feeders
instead of renting than Fish farmers by
having better margins.
● The sales team may have less
demos/sales due to geographical
difficulty to reach farms location
● Need to start the development of the
shrimp feeder from scratch, can not be
modified from the fish feeder because
of the different characteristics of
ponds.

THREATS OPPORTUNITIES

● Full of competitors ● A larger ticket size per sale with five

times the number of ponds compared to fish.

b) SWOT Analysis of FishBiz and FishFax

STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES

● Provide farmers with predictive ● In terms of technology adoption, the

capabilities to improve their
operations.
● Low barrier to entry because the target
customers are the same with the
current product
● Already have knowledge and
understanding for the target
customers’ needs to develop a
problem solving product in quickier
time
● Strengthen engagement and
farmers will need time to understand
the benefit
● Unsure if the company had enough
good data on the dashboard, a big
enough pool of customers, or the data
processing expertise to roll out a
viable and compelling product.
 dependance of current customers to
the company
● Reduce customers churn rate with
more completed fishery business
management
● The valuable resource in current era
which is data, is already available and
own by eFishery only

THREATS OPPORTUNITIES

● The risk of conflicts of interest in ● The field of smart analytics is

connecting buyers and sellers if
eFishery supplied FishFax and FishBiz
to only some farmers and not others
blossoming, making it very likely to gain new
investors
● Many new ideas and opportunities for
data services such as Marketplace and
eCosystem
● Boost banks’ confidence to extend
loans by solving an adverse selection problem
in credit markets.

If I were in Gibran shoes, I would choose the FishBiz and FishFax projects to be
developed first. By comparing the SWOT Analysis, it could be concluded that FishBiz and
FishFax have more concrete strength because Unlike Shrimp project, FishBiz and FishFax will
have less time because they already have access to the data and target customers.
Gibran will be able to retain and even increase customers' demand for Fish Feeders
products, because eFishery will become more credible and trustworthy by Indonesian fish
farmers with their new services that optimize their operation. The technology barrier could be
eliminated faster by rapid sales rep effort to give better understanding how the benefits will
reduce their operational cost.

3. Pay specific attention to the type of capital goods required for both new business
lines, shrimp and data services. Which can scale up faster? Why?

For the shrimp business, the capital goods required is machinery. For the data service the
capital goods are cloud platforms. The shrimp feeders equipment which will need R&D from
scratch will be harder to scale up. To foray into the shrimp market, eFishery would have to stop
R&D on the ripple sensor and divert 20% of its scarce cash resources into fabricating a shrimp
feeder.
 On the other hand, data services which mostly require intangible assets such as skills and
cloud platform to develop the product, are faster to scale up in the digital age. It is proven that
cloud based software is trending all over the world and forecasted to continue growing. With the
accessible customers’ data, eFishery could develop many data services opportunities such as
eCosystem and Marketplace in a shorter time.