Thesis Proposal – Business plan for a Thai Massage Salon with a view on culture specific incentives
Problems to be studied
Within this thesis I will address two topics that I encountered during my studies. Like with most executive MBA courses the business cases that were presented had to be solved in a very short time. Usually the time only allowed to define the actions one should undertake and to list the points that have to be considered while doing so. In this work I plan to fill in the real data wherever it is possible in this however theoretical case. Apart from this I want to address and to involve the problem of monetary incentives into this work. Do these incentives really have an effect on performance? And is the same occidental approach useful when working with Thais?
Background
Some time ago I had a discussion with some friends of mine about needs that are not properly met in Lucerne. Casually I mentioned that for some time now I was looking for Thai massage and that all I found so far was either an apparently backyard salon or even worse an unmoral offer. From this recognition sprung the business idea of opening a traditional Thai massage salon. After some thoughts, it soon became clear, that we did not possess the necessary contacts to a trustworthy Thai masseur/masseuse who could act as a business manager. As such a person was regarded as being critical for success the idea got dropped. Now it gets revitalised as an exercising tool for the creation of a business plan.
Objectives of the thesis
On one hand I want to find out if the business idea of opening a Thai massage salon is a sound one. On the other hand I would like to shed some light on the connection between compensation and motivation, as behind customer needs motivated employees would probably be the most mission critical factor for such a start-up.
Method and design
The work on the business plan will mostly consist of internet research. Even when using...