I would like to request a strategic business breakdown research essay on the mobility and transportation
business specifically on a case study regarding the firm: https://www.busforfun.com/?lang=en located in
Italy, I’ll outline all the details below:
Main questions to be answered in the research essay:
It includes a written essay on the business module, responding to threats against covid-19, alternative
business modules that could leverage on the opportunities that could have been seized in covid, a new
set of activities that the company could have developed to face the economic backlash of the pandemic,
resources and partners the firm might need to approach in order to survive the post-pandemic era of
business.
Case Study:
“it all started in 2015 in Italy” the, Co-founder. “At the time I was a manager in a transport company my
friends on the board. For some time wanted to set up something of our own. We sat at a table, drank a
spritz and finally talked about it serious. We came up with the idea to create Busforfun: a
mobility/transportation company that offers low cost bus connections that take to the events and
entertainment.”
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creating a platform aggregating people who wanted to enjoy an event and needed a ride to it
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user-friendly booking system and an extensive route network, together with the access to all
major entertainment events in Italy.
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Bus for Fun’s advantage is the simplicity of using the service. The user connects to their website,
chooses an event, the bus stop which is more convenient to him/her, the date of the event and
the number of tickets to be purchased. The booking takes place on their website directly.
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Reached a network with more than 500 travel agencies in Italy to reach the important segment
of users who prefers the offline channel to complete the payment.
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#WeTheFun, #WeTheTech, and #WeTheGreen synthetize Bus For Fun value proposition. A
combination of high tech-startup, e-commerce-platform and transportation company, Indeed,
Bus for fun provides customers with offers at low budget, through smart network planning,
dynamic price management and an adaptive web engine.
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The platform business model relies on the digital infrastructure that the company set up in
collaboration with an IT partner that developed the platform. Skills in data analytics and in other
IT services then completed the competency portfolio of the firm.
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Bus For Fun addressed other contextual factors. The physical structure of the country is the
first. Given its geography, Italy offers few locations able to host large events, such as concerts of
international stars and high-end, international sporting events. The demand to attend these
shows is high and distributed over Italy, and a system composed of a platform and pre-defined
stops made it easier for event-goers to plan their trips and avoid hours of travel by car.
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Covid-19 loss: Bus For Fun’s growth path was shattered by a black swan (a business terminology:
A black swan is an unpredictable event that is beyond what is normally expected of a situation
and has potentially severe consequences.), The company was managing a fortunate and brilliant
scaling-up phase. Many of their customers were loyal and satisfied however, the burst of the
COVID 19 emergency brought a violent halt to their growth because of the lockdown period and
restrictions imposed by many governments starting from March 2020. Covid-19 has emphasised
some difficulties in the mobility sector in Italy and has changed the market, pointing out the
limits in the current Italian public transport system. New rules for public transport, such as social
distancing, have impacted public mobility demand, leading people to reconsider the use of cars.
all the main events that were scheduled, and that were pivotal for the cash flow of the
company, were cancelled or postponed. Mobility, not only that related to large entertainment
events, was becoming problematic. Limited to the necessary services, public mobility was
subject to very strict measures of social distancing and a drastic reduction of carrying capacities
to avoid the spreading of the infection.
Breakdown of the Research Essay:
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Introduction:
o Outline their core business module (mobility and transportation), with an explanation of
how their daily operation works and how is it different pre & post-pandemic. (it doesn’t
need to be exact or directly from their website you can use general writing about the
mobility business from other companies on how they use to operate before the
pandemic)
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Evaluating different growth options of Busforfun (expanding into more services that could be
included in the website.
o advantages and disadvantages of different trajectories of the mobility and
transportation industry
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Covid & It’s Impact
o Brief outline of how covid affected the mobility and transportation industry
o Seize opportunities offered by transformations of business induced by covid (include
examples of: virtual events, going all online regarding event bookings, shifting to live
streams for events)
o Outline alternative how the immediate shift to these business model related to the
mobility and transportation industry during covid could have had leverage on the
resources and competencies of the company’s situation between 2020 and 2021.
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Customer segment pivot: Offering music or theme park events that could be done via VR and
AR (Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR)) in the Busforfun website
o Outline a business proposed strategy that could offer VR or AR events in Busforfun’s
website and how this could place them in an advantage in the future
o Define the resources and partners the firm might need to pursue this suggested strategy
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Channel pivot: Key Partners, Partner with a company that offers outdoor events including
music, food trucks, sports, festivals etc.
o Outline how Busforfun can partner with companies in Italy that offer outdoor events
and embed that into their system (give examples if possible).
o Outline why should Busforfun commit to this strategy in order to survive it’s business for
the coming years since outdoors are more covid friendly and people tend to be more
comfortable attending them
o Which resources would be needed to make partnering with companies that have
outdoor event possible and a course of action
o How introducing the outdoor events industry into Busforfun ticketing option can
leverage untapped opportunities
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Conclusion:
o Outline how can Busforfun can survive a post-pandemic economic and consumer era
with it’s current business module and how diversifying their business could let them
survive in the long run.
Each section of answers and claims stated in the essay should include data and evidence (i.e 1 reference
per section).