Plux: Designing a solution for growth in the sports sector

• Author(s): Pereira, Manuel Maria Pestana
• Date: 2011
• Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10362/10041
• Origin: Repositório Institucional da UNL
• Subject(s): Plux; Start Up; Brand; Distribution; Innovation; Sports
• Document Type: Master thesis
• Language: English
• Advisor(s): Soeiro, Filipe Castro
• Contributor(s): RUN

Description

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Management from the NOVA – School of Business and Economics

This work project is aimed at cooperation with the company Plux towards a project, where we aim to solve a specific problem the company wants to tackle, thus simulating a professional consultancy project. I started by discussing the problem with the company, where we agreed that the research question for my project would be “How to Increase Plux’s Market Share in the Sports Sector?” Towards this end I structured my work project in 4 key areas. First, I worked towards the Identification area, where I did an environmental, competitor and internal analysis to be able to correctly identify the problem and its context. Then, I proceeded to the Disaggregation area, where I performed a SWOT, Porter’s 5 Forces and Value Chain analysis to disaggregate the problem into its underlying components. This phase concluded with the postulation of 4 hypotheses as to the manifestations of the problem. After arriving at these hypotheses, I did a Validation phase, where I tested the validity of each hypothesis to determine its strategic importance and arrived at the conclusion that the problem was mainly a Marketing and P&S Offering issue. Finally, I provide recommendations to solve both these issues, as well as some limitations as to their applicability and impact. In the course of my work project, I maintained a close relationship with Plux by way of email exchanges and periodic meetings at their office, conducted interviews to major clients and collected data from competitors and sector institutions. I considered it to be a very rewarding professional work, and I present my thanks both to Plux’s team, who have been extremely helpful throughout the whole semester, and my counselor, for his invaluable advice and support from beginning to end.