Reward Partners, Investments in Consulting Business

Proposed Name: Reward Partners, Type of Company: Private Limited, Company Stage: Idea/Concept, Start Date: 01 July, 2011 (Expected), Promoter: Indranil Gupta, Industry Focus: HR Space, All Industries, Domain Focus: Job Evaluation, Performance Management and Total Rewards, Business Model: Product, Consulting, Learning Ware.

Project Profile

A Company proposed to be dedicated for providing offerings to enterprises in the following areas :

Job Analysis, Job Evaluations and Job Pricings
Job Families and Career Frameworks
Salary Surveys, Benefit Studies and Market Benchmarking
Compensation Planning and Benefits Designing
Performance Management Tools
Reward and Recognition Programs

These services would be delivered through a blended approach of online application based products, real time consulting and learning based HR support and solutions to the enterprises.

It is also recommended that such products, applications and solutions would be patented, as and when required, under the copy right laws in India.

Target Customer Base

The primary market for these services are targeted towards the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) and the Start Up Companies.

Such SME can be defined as those companies in the typical headcount range from 100 to 3,000 people.

The start up companies could be either in their infancy or growth stages of their organization lifecycle.

Those enterprises with no/small HR departments and low/medium HR budgets, which can ill afford to go to the larger firms in this area .

Such enterprises would require a mix of transaction based HR support from the application shelf and also consulting/coaching based support from the experts/specialists to put their Total Rewards systems and processes in place.

Revenue Models

Tools and applications will be offered to the enterprises on a one time purchase and annual subscription basis via a payment gateway (Model 1).

Research and consulting services offered will be charged on the basis of project and assignment scope, depending upon the time and resources allocated (Model 2).

Online training and real time coaching will be offered to the enterprises and also the individuals based on the actual demand and usage made of the learning ware (Model 3).

Competitive Landscape

The Total Rewards domain forms the most critical and strategic area in HR today, one which impacts the enterprise business and its people most directly.

The HR firms that already exist (all sizes, all types) are mostly in the areas of Recruitment and Training, since any new venture/initiative in this area would require solid domain knowledge and substantial financial investment in this highly specialized area.

There is a need of more quality service providers in the market, as the demands are of diverse and complex natures, and cannot be addressed by the existing human resources or outsourced service providers specialized to offer support in this area.

The very few market players that do exist in this area offer their services at price ranges that cannot be always afforded by the small and medium enterprises.

Tier I (large, established, multinational) firms which deliver these services to the big and large enterprises at higher cost ranges.

Tier II (medium, growing, homebred) firms which deliver these services to the small and medium enterprises at a more affordable cost range.

The big opportunity for Reward Partners is to enter and share the market in the Tier II market sector and enter Tier I market at a later stage.

Supporting Market Factors

There are 52 million SME companies in the world, with India only accounting for about 8 million itself (Source : NASSCOM).

The global market opportunity in the integrated Performance and Rewards consulting and outsourcing space is USD 700 million and growing every year (Source : SHRM).

There are very few players in the Tier II market place in India offering such services to the SME customers at the desired cost budgets.

There are no existing service providers in India that combine an on demand application support with real time consulting and specialized knowledge ware in this area.

The assumptions given here are believable and achievable, as the same are based on actual industry facts and real time market data available in this space.

Why Reward Partners

Uniquely blended business model comprising of products, solutions and services in the Total Rewards area of HR, targeted specifically for the SME and Start-ups.

The Total Rewards domain forms the most critical and strategic area in HR today, one which impacts the enterprise business and its people most directly.

The HR firms that already exist (all sizes, all types) are mostly in the areas of Recruitment and Training, since any new venture/initiative in this area would require solid domain knowledge and substantial financial investment in this highly specialized area.

There is a need of more quality service providers in the market, as the demands are of diverse and complex natures, and cannot be addressed by the existing human resources or outsourced service providers specialized to offer support in this area.

The very few market players that do exist in this area offer their services at price ranges that cannot be always afforded by the small and medium enterprises.

Our Value Proposition

Leverage on the knowledge, experience and credentials of the proposed promoter over the last 18 years in the HR industry.

Act as an external ‘Center of Expertise’ (COE) in the stated areas and complement internal HR capabilities of the enterprises.

Provide the best tools, research and practices to the enterprises in the most cost effective and quality conscious manner.

Add value by pooling in the knowledge and experience of the industry experts and the thought leaders in this area.

Offer enterprises a service model based on virtual application enablement and real time human resource support.

Have pragmatic tools, products and solutions in place that will really work for the targeted enterprises.

Planned to have in place a strong ‘Advisory Board’ of Business, HR and Total Reward professionals at the apex of the company.

Funding Requirements

Domain knowledge and leadership expertise to be provided by the proposed Founder.

A capable and experienced Management and Delivery Teams would be put in place quickly.

Full external funding would be required to kick start this project and launch services as planned.

Funding would take care of CAPEX (company premises, furniture, equipments, websites, IT systems etc) and OPEX (staff salaries, marketing activities, working capital, product development, application support etc).

Funding could come stage wise by way of seed funding/angel investment/venture capital/hedge funds etc over a 3 year period.

The Company could be expected to break even in the 3rd quarter of the 3rd year of its full fledged operations in India.

Investment and Exit Strategy

The Company is seeking a capital investment to the tune of 2 M USD spread over a 3 year time period.

In lieu of the above, it is ready to offer a 50% stake in the Company from the very start date.

It is open to future exits by way of a merger, sell off, IPO or any other viable option there by.

It is expected that the share price value will appreciate by10 times in a period of 5 years.