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AUTHORED BY:
CYNTHIA SMITH-WALKER
APRIL 2013
Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 2 of 49
TABLE OF CONTENTS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ..........................................................................................................4
The Medusa Family of Companies and Organizational Structure..............................5
MEDUSA SCIENTIFIC:
COMMUNICATION .............................................................................................5
ULTRASOUND.....................................................................................................6
SENSING...............................................................................................................7
ENERGY SOURCES.............................................................................................8
IMAGING..............................................................................................................9
ELECTRONICS................................................................................................... 10
SCIENCE ............................................................................................................. 11
ENGINEERING................................................................................................... 12
TECHNOLOGIES ............................................................................................... 13
RECOMMENDATION................................................................................................................ 16
PROBLEM OR BUSINESS NEEDS................................................................................. 16
FUNCTIONAL AREAS ......................................................................................................... 17
SOLUTIONS........................................................................................................................... 18
1. Human Resources........................................................................................................... 18
College Internships ............................................................................................... 18
Work-Study Programs .......................................................................................... 19
Hiring Independent Contractors............................................................................ 19
Contract Recruiter Services .................................................................................. 20
Social Media ......................................................................................................... 21
2. MARKETING (Online Presence).......................................................................... 21
A. BRAND/SERVICE VIABILITY ................................................................... 21
Products and Services........................................................................................... 22
Target Customers and Demographics .................................................................. 22
Medusa Scientific Organizational Benefits.......................................................... 22
B. ONLINE COMPETITORS................................................................................. 23
C. WEBSITE STRATEGIES AND RECOMMENDATIONS.................. 25
PR Strategies ........................................................................................................ 25
Begetting the Buzz ............................................................................................... 25
Community Branding........................................................................................... 26
Sponsorships......................................................................................................... 26
D. SEARCH ENGINES............................................................................................. 27
E. SOCIAL MEDIUM INTEGRATION............................................................ 28
F. ONLINE CLIENT RELATIONSHIP............................................................. 28
Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 3 of 49
G. INTERNATIONAL CONSIDERATIONS................................................... 29
H. ASSOCIATED COSTS FOR WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT................ 30
Summary............................................................................................................................... 31
3. RISK MANAGEMENT............................................................................................. 32
Risk Register.............................................................................................................. 32
A. RISK RESPONSE...................................................................................... 33
Risk Number One: Attacks from Terrorists...................................................33
Risk Number Two: Fire.........................................................................................34
Risk Number Three: Data Compromises........................................................34
Risk Number Four: Disruptions: Communications and Technology....... 35
Risk Number Five: Exchange Rates.................................................................35
Risk Number Six: Loss of Key Employees....................................................35
Risk Number Seven: Theft...................................................................................36
Risk Number Eight: Natural Disaster...............................................................36
Earthquakes ...............................................................................................................36
Business Contingency Plan....................................................................................... 37
A. Protecting Sensitive Data ....................................................................... 37
B. Communication Plans.............................................................................. 38
C. Restoring Operations................................................................................ 39
D. Summary...................................................................................................... 40
IMPLEMENTATION .......................................................................................................... 41
TIME LINE .............................................................................................................................. 41
1. HUMAN RESOURCE SOLUTIONS .................................................................. 41
2. MARKETING SOLUTIONS .................................................................................. 42
3. RISK MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS................................................................ 43
IMPACT .................................................................................................................................... 44
Financial Impact................................................................................................................. 44
Organizational Impact...................................................................................................... 47
REFERENCES............................................................................................................................ 49
Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 4 of 49
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Medusa Scientific boasts a creative work environment and state of the art laboratory
and test equipment for their scientists and engineers. Their goal is to innovate, develop
and design exotic and unique technologies for specific applications that solve the
challenges presented to by their customer base. Prototypes are built and tested that have
proven solutions. As a group they foster the same atmosphere like that of most highly
innovative periods in world history – the post WWII institutional research grouping and
think tanks of major aerospace and governmental labs. They have a passion for their
technologies and are inspired to solve real-world requirements from their sister Medusa
divisions as well as customers who rely on them for unique and efficient solutions to
real problems.
Medusa Scientific takes projects from a Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of 1
and develops them to a TRL of 9.
Intellectual Property – Medusa Scientific has developed a number of technologies
and their patent portfolio of intellectual property includes, but is not limited to:
1. Cyclops – Full color night vision designed for incorporation in helmets or as
stand-alone goggles. The goggles contain the sensors and a full color display
image superimposed over direct vision.
2. IsoToPower – The photonic conversion of the energy released by an elemental
isotope to electron potential. The generator has a safe, useful and finite, but long-
lived lifetime ending as safely disposable.
3. TM (Transpositional Modulation) – A fundamentally new carrier signal
modulation that is mutually transparent to conventional modulation methods,
thus, when added doubles or more the information capacity within a fixed
bandwidth, while possessing encryption capabilities.
4. SeaLINK – The combination of two technologies. Proprietary broadband
modulation of ultrasound as the communication linkage of a mesh network
providing tether-free underwater matrix communication of voice, video
and sensory data.
Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 5 of 49
The Medusa Family of Companies and Organizational Structure
Medusa International is the parent company of Medusa Scientific.
Medusa Aero owns military aircraft and provides Contractor Air Services (“CAS”)
for air components of the U.S. Armed Services.
Medusa Space is focused on the business of space developing advanced technologies
for commercialization specializing in uniquely valuable organic and inorganic
materials and structures.
The Protolab is an extreme precision machining and fabrication facility for
prototype design and limited run production. With EDM machines, multi-axis CNC
machines, mills and lathes, plasma cutting/welding and laser machining. Medusa
supports their own needs along with those of their strategic partners and customers.
Medusa LLC is a company using advanced technology and experienced personnel
to provide security solutions for corporate and governmental clientele.
Wraith possesses both manned aircraft and UAVs for differing mission sets
including support of local, county and state law enforcement agencies as well as
available for forest and cropland overflight sensing, search and rescue and other
unique solutions. The sensor applications include Electro-Optical, Infrared, Multi &
Hyper Spectral imaging, SIGINT and more. Wraith doesn't sell UAVs, it sells
capabilities.
MEDUSA SCIENTIFIC: COMMUNICATION
Medusa Scientific personnel have years of experience and expertise developing
improvements and new methods of communications in two different media:
1. RF – Electromagnetic communication using a fundamentally new method of carrier
signal modulation, Transpositional Modulation or TM for short. Adding TM to an
existing conventionally modulated transmitter is accomplished by one of two methods.
The carrier signal internal to the existing transmitter is intercepted in order to add TM
prior to the power output amplifier. This is not as practical as it was once. Transmitters
that are single chip designs render this method impossible unless TM is incorporated in
the design of a single monolithic integrated circuit transmitter.
Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 6 of 49
2. The second method of adding TM is to include a transmitter that is slaved to the frequency
of the existing conventionally modulated transmitter. The slave operation produces both a
frequency and a phase lock so that the slave transmitter and existing transmitter outputs can
be combined and sent to the existing antenna. There is no frequency or power limits to
producing a TM slave transmitter.
ULTRASOUND
Communication by moving the molecules of the transmission medium. Gas media such as air at sea-
level has the greatest amount of loss due to absorption and scatter and therefore air has the shortest
distance of communication range for a given frequency and power. Liquid media such as water has
about a 200 times greater communication range due to reduced loss for the same frequency and power
level. Solids such as steel have the least amount of loss and several hundred times lower loss than
water.
Communication depends on producing a change in a carrier signal. Medusa Scientific has developed a
breakthrough in broadband modulation of ultrasonic energy for underwater use, referred to as USM.
The modulation conveys information by “pushing” and “pulling” water molecules in a longitudinal
direction. When there are other particles in the water, the ultrasound is scattered. Ultrasound will also
reflect off the upper surface of the water as well as the bottom bed of the river, lake or ocean. These
realities produce the challenges for receiving and demodulating the ultrasonic energy.
Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 7 of 49
In a practical communication system, intelligence is added to the modulation information to ensure
accurate reception. Forward error correction and hand-shaking are key elements to a successful
communication system.
Another key ingredient is management of the communication link or links in a multiple node network.
This is implemented as a mesh network and the entire system is known as SeaLINK. Each diver,
submersible, surface vessel, buoy and/or shore installation has multiple and independent links with
each other, thus maintaining communication as movement of one node may cause blockage of
individual links behind obstacles.
SENSING
Medusa Scientific has experience and knowledge of developing, designing and using sensors of
various parameters utilized in a variety of applications:
Hyper-Spectral – Sensing energy over a wide range of wavelengths. Examples include cameras
sensitive to short wavelengths such as 200 nm for ultra-violet through visible wavelengths and into the
long wavelengths such as 1000 nm (1 micron) for infrared. Longer wavelengths are also of interest for
detecting and measuring specific molecules. Crop health evaluation is an example of how hyper-
spectral imaging is used. Detection of oil pipeline leakage is another use.
Color Night Vision – New very low light level image sensors capable of operating in narrow
bandwidths for full color imaging. The ability to see normal colors at night greatly aids in the
identification of objects and people at night. This product is for both military and civilian uses.
E-field – Sensing the change in the electric field as small as a single electron. Sensing the E-field
has numerous applications including the movement of objects for intrusion detection, imaging to
visualize static charge fields and detecting an increasing static charge buildup as a dangerous
condition in chemical, nuclear, medical and biological laboratories.
Florescence – Sensing the florescent response of molecules when stimulated by specific wavelengths
of energy. This behavior of molecules is the basis for remote sensing of dangerous material such as
toxins, gases and explosives.
Mass Spectrometry – Detecting specific molecules based on their ratio of mass to charge. An applied
E-field causes molecules to move in specific paths depending on their mass, thus acting as a sorting
function. Counting the molecules at a specific location will be the means of detection and
measurement.
Quadrupole Mass Spectrometry – Preceding the Mass Spectrometer with a quadrupole acting as a
filter of molecules enhancing the sensitivity of mass spectrometry. As the illustration shows, there are
four poles that set up the E-field which directs the molecules as they pass through the quadrupole.
There is a combination of a static electric field and a high frequency dynamic field. The result is an
oscillatory motion as the molecules pass through the quadrupole. This behavior produces a filtering or
tuning function allowing the mass spectrometer to be more sensitive.
Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 8 of 49
ENERGY SOURCES
Medusa Scientific has several ongoing research and development projects in the fields
of energy conversion, energy harvesting and energy storage:
Chemical – Studying and evaluating various chemical systems and reactions for
primary cells and for secondary cells used for energy storage. This includes chemical
systems that improve the energy density capability of various lithium based systems
as illustrated. Energy storage is another application of improved chemical systems
that achieve higher energy storage with low inductance for high pulse load
requirements.
Other configurations include closed systems having several process steps that are able
to be packaged in small forms such as AA battery size.
Nuclear – Medusa Scientific has a nuclear battery technology known as IsoToPower.
There are a number of elements that emit energy in the form of particles and waves.
Energetic elements produce high energy alpha particles that are easy to contain and
produce high energy output with a short life. Beta emitters do not produce as much
energy for the same amount of material but have longer lifetimes. Beta particles require
more shielding. Beta cells have been implanted in people to power pacemakers and
those having the implant more than 3 decades ago have lived with no ill effects.
Particle – In addition to the beta-based nuclear battery program at Medusa Scientific,
alpha particle emission is being researched in a direct conversion configuration. Higher
efficiency and higher power capability with ease of containment (paper stops alpha
particles) with shorter life for safe disposal of spent batteries.
Harvesting – Energy harvesting is not a new concept but has a new sense of importance
and urgency. Harvesting is making use of existing sources of energy as the graphic
illustrates. Examples of energy sources include sunlight, temperature difference, physical
vibration, acoustic noise, radio signals, as well as wind and ocean waves.
The focus of ongoing research and development lies in the means of converting non-
electrical energy into electricity. The effort to improve energy storage is an important
part of energy harvesting in how the energy harvested is stored in the smallest size
possible.
Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 9 of 49
IMAGING
Medusa Scientific has the experience and expertise to develop imaging systems
using the following technologies:
E-field – Sensing the E-field in an area or space as defined by the sensing antennas and
presenting the level of charge and their spatial position. The image at the right shows
the capability of Medusa Scientific in this area.
The image is of a strong charged spiral-shaped object sensed two-dimensionally and
displayed three dimensionally. The vertical axis is related to charge level. The
horizontal and depth axes describe the two dimensional area of sensing. In reality, the
presentation can be made using glasses as a single image. Another option is to present
the left and right images individually to the eyes.
Rotation and other manipulations of the image greatly enhance the realism of the
image. To provide quantitative data, the use of 3-dimensional cursors and automated
measurements of charge level and XY positional data is available. Single axis and triple
axis sensing are also capabilities as appropriate for specific applications.
Ultrasound – For decades, ultrasound has been used for medical imaging of internal
structures as viewed from outside the body. Ultrasound is also used for non-destructive
testing of metallic assembly faults and cracks. Medusa Scientific has proprietary
technology for broadband modulation of ultrasound. By applying specific modulation
patterns, ultrasonic scanning of objects, underwater or in air, produces much improved
target surface feature resolution.
With ultrasound, measuring the delay between emitted sound and the reflection yields
the distance to the reflecting objects. Physically moving the ultrasonic transducer or
using a phased array, vertical and horizontal scanning takes place. Together with depth,
a three-dimensional ultrasonic view is readily available using Medusa Scientific
imaging technology.
Color Night Vision – Very low light level imaging has historically used an image
intensifier device producing a monochromatic image that is converted to video or a
standard still image format. The human eye operates differently at night than in
daylight. We see a lack of color outside at night. Conventional night vision systems
have been valuable in that they can image objects not seen by the human eye.
Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 10 of 49
Low light levels do not eliminate the wavelengths of light we see during daylight. Medusa
Scientific has developed and designed a very low light level image sensor system that
produces quality images with very low light levels. The image is filtered into fundamental
wavelengths to ultimately produce a full color image.
The Cyclops technology contains this proprietary technology in a helmet or goggles with
image presentation to the eye.
ELECTRONICS
Medusa Scientific is equipped and staffed to design electronic circuitry using the
following substrates:
Silicon Level Design – Monolithic single chip designs using standard CMOS,
BiCMOS and other configurations of transistors plus passive components such as
resistors, capacitors and diodes. These components make up electronic circuits that
perform functions dictated by the requirements they are designed to meet. Silicon
chips offer smallest size, low cost and low power for production runs, extremely
small and light weight products, lowest power needs and increased security of
design.
Medusa Scientific has over 3 decades of experience in designing chip solutions.
Analog, RF, digital and mixed-signal submicron designs may be the right method to
meet client requirements.
System Level Designs – This is a critical distinction of the design process since this is
the overall or global design that is a top-level design looking at the whole picture. This is
a design discipline that defines the sub-functions of the system to meet the requirements.
Symbolic or block design is usually the first phase using behavioral simulation followed
by precise component level design of each sub-function at the schematic level and
simulated using precise component models. Simulation at this level is very accurate.
Implementation of the system level design is at the circuit board level of assembly
and may include one or more integrated circuits as designed with this process.
Digital functions can be performed by a micro-controller or microprocessor,
depending on the speed of execution required. Fast execution is performed by an
FPGA. High performance analog and power circuitry may be separate.
Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 11 of 49
DC to Beyond Light – Often work with very wide bandwidths in a facility are
referred to as “DC to Daylight”. At Medusa Scientific we literally deal at DC
with their E-field sensing which, for intrusion detection, has a bandwidth of DC
to <1 Hz. Medusa deals with ultrasonic and RF frequencies for communication
and their imaging work occurs at infrared, visible and ultra-violet frequencies.
Sensing sub-atomic emissions of their particle physics work pushes their
“bandwidth” to literally beyond daylight. They have multiple labs for this very
reason.
Many disciplines are required throughout the “DC to beyond daylight” and different
scientists and engineers will be involved with projects depending on the nature of the
application. It is not unusual for a requirement to deal with a variety of frequencies,
many times involving different disciplines of science and engineering.
SCIENCE
Medusa Scientific is active in both research and development. Basic research takes
place in their labs as well as other facilities throughout the country. Development is
frequently associated with engineering design to be most efficient. Development mostly
takes place in their labs and results in a way that can be implemented in physical form.
Research – Fundamental research takes place in their laboratories in the broad areas
of electric fields, magnetic fields, sensing, energy and communication. In other labs
we continue with basic research into the understanding of atomic and sub-atomic
particles for applications in energy generation, energy storage and other uses.
Research takes place both in intellectual thought, group discussions, advanced
capability of modeling and simulation and actual lab experiments.
Development – Research establishes a set of understanding that provides the direction
for physical implementation. Actual lab experiments adds and refines research
knowledge and begins an understanding of how to ultimately describe the physicality
of the technology in order to pass the knowledge on to engineering for actual design
implementation. Development also provides the information necessary to describe the
technology to others in order to foster further research and to commercialize the
technology.
Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 12 of 49
Mathematics – The base of understanding and the language of communication of any
new research is mathematics. Math also is a fundamental means of understanding and
the foundation of any work furthering the understanding of a technology.
Medusa Scientific math is rooted in MatLab which is global math software used by
most governmental and educational labs and groups working in science.
Medusa Scientific modeling and simulations use Maple Sim and COMSOL. Both are
also universally used. COMSOL gives Medusa a research and development tool key
to most of their R&D efforts. Maple Sim also provides a powerful development and
design tool for modeling and simulation.
ENGINEERING
Medusa Scientific actively designs many electronic and mechanical devices and
assembles them in prototype quantities for field evaluation and demonstrations.
Electronics – Designs frequently are based on the Research and Development work of
the scientists at Medusa Scientific. Customer specific applications also set the direction
of design efforts.
Designs frequently start with symbolic models, block or system level schematic
diagrams and behavioral simulations to establish a design concept. Detailed schematic
diagrams with exact circuit components and precise models are then used for accurate
Berkeley Spice simulations whether the design is a printed circuit level assembly or a
silicon chip.
Physical design then proceeds with a layout that is an actual design process depending
on the production technology. Printed Circuit Boards are designed with several different
software tools depending on the frequencies involved. Altium and AWR are used for
high frequency designs while Altium or Multisim/Ultiboard is used for low frequency
designs. Tanner Design or AWR are used for monolithic layout designs in a silicon
environment, depending on the frequencies and wafer foundries chosen.
Medusa Scientific designs at the system or block diagram level with software including
SystemVue or AWR.
Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 13 of 49
Mechanical – Design of housings, fixtures and enclosures for communication, sensing
and energy devices developed and designed by Medusa Scientific and outside
customers. Most design is done in software such as SolidWorks and may be ported to
MasterCAM for ultimate programming of edm or multi-axis machines in their sister
company, The ProtoLab (www.medprotolab.com) to produce prototype parts or
produce short production runs. Materials include any electrically conductive material
for edm machining or non-conductive materials for multi-axis machining by The
ProtoLab.
TECHNOLOGIES
Medusa Scientific has expertise and decades of experience among the scientists and
engineers in a variety of fields. In some cases, papers are available on these subjects for
downloading. A brief description of the technologies includes:
Sensors – Airborne, ground-based and portable, hand-held sensing using a number of
methods such as ultra-violet, visible, infra-red and lower frequency electromagnetic
radiation such as radar and goniometers. E-field and ultrasonic based sensing are other
sets of disciplines in development and design.
Cyclops – Seeing in darkness is facilitated with electronic devices such as image-
intensifiers, electron multipliers and other devices that amplify a very low light
level and present an image visible to the eye. What has been missing is the
technology to present a true full color image at night level illumination. Medusa
Scientific has developed and designed such a system, now covered by U.S.
Patents.
E-field – Sensing the ambient electrical field by sensing electrical charge with a
sensitivity of less than one electron at the input of the Medusa Scientific
electronics module. Using multiple element antenna structures and input modules
allow for the visual presentation of the location of those charges in one, two and
three dimensional displays plus charge magnitude measurement data.
Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 14 of 49
Communications – RF and ultrasonic wireless communication systems.
TM – RF communication work is centered on TM, Transpositional Modulation.
TM is a fundamentally new method of modulating a carrier signal that will
double or more the information bandwidth within a defined and in-use
communication channel. TM is a modulation that is mutually transparent to
conventional modulations. TM is a Medusa Scientific patented technology.
Ultrasonic communication is an acoustic or physical particle based technology as
opposed to RF which is an electromagnetic wave method of communication.
Acoustic energy limits the transmission to a non-vacuum medium. Air can be
used but gasses are much less efficient than liquids. Of course, solids are an even
better medium for ultrasound propagation. Water is the focus of Medusa
Scientific's efforts in untethered underwater communication.
USM – Historically, modulating ultrasound has been limited to having less than
desirable modulation bandwidth. Methods of modulating piezo-electric
ultrasonic transducers with wide bandwidth and linearity have been designed and
are now covered by Medusa Scientific owned U.S. Patents.
SeaLINK – Utilizing USM modulation technology, a network of multiple nodes
can be assembled using mesh-network technology that conveys various types of
data throughout the network. Data such as voice, physiological information,
sensory data and even video can be sent throughout the network using
untethered communication. Encryption of several levels is used for external and
internal privacy. SeaLINK is covered by U.S. Patents of Medusa Scientific.
Energy – Chemical, nuclear and physical means of converting, generating,
harvesting and storing energy.
IsoToPower is an environmentally-safe source of energy using the conversation
of radiation from an isotopic material into a current flow that is a nuclear
battery. Material is chosen for long life, low level energy to short life, high level
energy for high power, short duration applications. Both cases are completely
environmentally safe and conventionally disposable. Medusa Scientific has a
number of patents covering various design aspects of the IsoToPower battery.
Work on this is conducted under contract at nuclear laboratories outside of
Medusa Scientific including the University of Arizona.
Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 15 of 49
Photo-Kinetic Generation – Is a closed loop chemical system capable of
producing significant amounts of energy in relatively small enclosures resulting
in high energy density.
Harvesting – Is a means of converting one form of existing unused energy into a
useful form of energy – in their case an electrical output.
Other chemical systems and mechanical designs are in research and development as
sources of energy to power modern electronic devices and systems.
Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 16 of 49
RECOMMENDATIONS
PROBLEM OR BUSINESS NEED
Our client is Medusa Scientific, an Arizona LLC and a wholly owned subsidiary of
Medusa International, a Nevada corporation. Medusa is an R&D organization
possessing important and valuable Intellectual Property (IP) that has been (a) used in
government contracts as well as (b) applied to numerous proposals to government and
major government contractors such as L3, Boeing, Elbit, Lockheed-Martin
(LockMart), Northrop-Grumman, etc. and (c) submitted proposals to agencies
including DIA, CIA, NSA of the U.S. government.
The parent company has other divisions dealing with branches of the Department of
Defense for training and other purposes. The U.S. Government has drastically cut back
on funding of new Research and Development contracts and delaying payments on
existing contracts to private businesses, not just Medusa Scientific.
The financial foundation of the organization has been changed. No longer can they rely
on government funding of R&D projects or any other government income for the other
divisions within the parent company. Awareness of this problem began to increase in
2011 but became a factual issue by summer 2012. Since then the emphasis on funding
projects has shifted to the private sector. Medusa does not want outside corporate
ownership of its technology, thus, the terms have shifted with the IP to isolate the IP by
various structures on investment. This has resulted in a number of failed negotiations
where the initial aspects were of a benign – almost angel -like funding – nature only to
reveal a hostile aspect of an investment. To mitigate the problem, Medusa has pursued
private financing through several types of corporate structure changes. They are re-
structuring the entities as public companies encompassing each Intellectual Property as
a stand-alone public company all owned (for now) under the parent company. This
actually has the advantage of being able to sell off a specific Intellectual Property
independently and with no effect on any of the other IPs.
The broad problem is financing on-going operations. The path of financing the owned
Intellectual Property strengthens negotiations with potential users of IP because of the
work performed and ability to support claims of the IP. In addition, MEDUSA
Scientific has no Risk Management Plan in place.
Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 17 of 49
FUNCTIONAL AREAS
Due to the cash flow issues, hiring personnel (HR) is a huge problem for the company,
as is marketing (for example, no online presence). This impacts Human Resources
because their financial issues prevent them from securing qualified personnel. Medusa
Scientific is unable to offer competitive wages and benefits to prospective employees.
Because of these financial hardships, Medusa Scientific has had to scale back the
number of technologies they are currently developing. They don't have the labor force
to assist them with projects because they are not able to afford full-time workers.
They are currently without a marketing budget, so they are also without an online
presence. This creates more problems for Medusa Scientific because without an online
presence, it becomes an obstacle for new customers to find them, pay for products and
services, thereby increasing Medusa's profits. Executive members of Medusa Scientific
have had to spend valuable time finding and securing clients themselves. Having an
online presence would help tremendously with their marketing and could become an
additional source for communication with distant employees as well as aid in a Risk
Management Plan.
A Risk Management Plan is necessary because without it, Medusa Scientific would be
risking the loss to data, products and human capital which they clearly cannot afford to
be without. Much of the work that Medusa Scientific has done in the past has required
Top Secret, High Security Clearances. In conversations with Mr. Gerdes, we have
learned that they do not have a Risk Management plan in place. Mr. Gerdes has shared
that they endured a significant losses to theft which, due to the fact that they are a high
security clearance facility, mandated investigation by the FBI. Implementation of a Risk
Management Plan can, potentially, reduce the amount of risk for theft and other risk
factors. Reducing these types of losses with a Risk Management Plan would thus
improve Medusa Scientific's future financial performance.
Therefore, the Functional Areas planned to examine for Medusa will include:
1. Human Resources;
2. Marketing; and
3. Risk Management.
Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 18 of 49
SOLUTIONS
1. Human Resources
Due to lack of funding, Medusa Scientific struggles with paying permanent
employees wages and benefits. We believe that there are a number of outsourcing
solutions that Medusa Scientific could benefit from including college internships,
work-study programs, hiring independent contractors and utilizing Contract Recruiter
services.
College Internships
Many colleges encourage their students to participate in internships in an effort to
strengthen their awareness in their selected field of study as well as gain business
experience. Generally, internships consist of short -term work relationships up to
about 200 hours whereby an employer provides students training, supervision,
business experience and feedback. Internships can be completed for school credit,
work experience, and wages, or a combination of any of these. Medusa Scientific
could solicit the universities in their area offering short- term internships in the various
areas for which they have business needs: Accounting, Engineering, Human
Resources, Marketing, etc.
This would require little effort on the part of Medusa Scientific and minimal costs. It
would entail gathering the names and addresses of the Universities they want to solicit
and write a letter regarding their offer of Internship. While it is possible to reduce costs
by contacting the various Universities via email, even with paper and postage, the costs
would be minimal.
Utilizing interns would be a way for Medusa Scientific to take advantage of cheap
yet skilled labor and intelligent labor, thus improving upon their future financial
performance.
Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 19 of 49
Work-Study Programs
The Federal Work Study Program provides funding for part-time work to assist students
with their educational expenses. Students can receive this funding from over 3300
Universities. Hourly wages must meet the federal minimum wage standards. Medusa
Scientific again, could inquire with local Universities offering a Work Study Program. In
many instances, the college or the Business Partner must pay up to 50% of the student’s
pay.
This would require little effort on the part of Medusa Scientific and could help to reduce
wages by up to 50%. Again, Medusa would need to gather the names and addresses of the
Universities they want to solicit and write a letter regarding their offer of a Work Study
Program. While it is possible to reduce costs by contacting the various Universities via
email, even with paper and postage, the costs would be minimal. With this type of program,
if Medusa needed a receptionist, for example, they could solicit a local business college
about a work study program, and pay about half what they might normally incur for this
expense.
Medusa Scientific could also work with the University of Arizona's Work Study Program
to secure graduate students in the fields of engineering and physics. This would help
Medusa Scientific to secure assistance at significantly reduced wage rates, thus
improving upon their future financial performance.
Hiring Independent Contractors
There are numerous benefits for hiring Independent Contractors rather than permanent
employees. Despite the fact that most business entities pay more wages per hour for
contractors, as opposed to permanent workers, in the long run, it drastically reduces the
costs. With independent contractors, you would not have to pay benefits, Medicare or
Social Security taxes, workers' compensation insurance nor state unemployment
insurance. This could be a 20-30% savings for Medusa for each position they fill using
independent contractors.
Hiring contractors increases flexibility. Medusa could hire a contractor for a specific
project, with the understanding that the worker will be gone once the task has been
completed. The employer will not need to bear the expense, trauma, and/or potential
legal trouble that often accompany layoffs and terminations.
Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 20 of 49
Medusa might also benefit from increased efficiency by hiring independent contractors
because most of them have specialized expertise and can become productive promptly,
eliminating training costs, and benefiting from the ability to expand and contract their
workforce as needed.
Hiring independent contractors is also a way to reduce their legal liabilities. Workers
have many rights under state and federal laws. Impinging upon those rights could land
an employer in a lawsuit for violation of those rights. Contractors, on the other hand, do
not share those legal protections, including:
 the right to 1 ½ times their regular wages for overtime;
 protections from age, race, gender, ethnic, color and religion discrimination;
 the right to form a union, and
 Family Medical Leave Act protections.
Medusa would still need to offer competitive wages to attract skilled independent
contractors but this method could drastically reduce their labor costs, thus improving
upon their future financial performance.
Contract Recruiter Services
As with the options listed above, Contract Recruiter Services also has many benefits.
Medusa would save a great deal of cash by hiring a Contract Recruiter over a staffing
agency. A Contract Recruiter is skilled for handling all hiring needs and they work much
like the independent contractor discussed above. This means that Medusa would not be
responsible for providing regular worker benefits/protections. In fact, Medusa could hire
a Contract Recruiter on a commission basis.
Hiring workers from a staffing agency puts the business entity at their mercy and time
constraints. Staffing agencies tend to have numerous clients and often cannot fill your job
vacancy as promptly as Medusa might desire. However, a Contract Recruiter would get
started searching for employees right away. They would be more likely to get the job
completed more promptly if they are motivated by commissions rather than hourly wages.
Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 21 of 49
Another advantage is an intimate knowledge of Medusa's organizational culture. They would
become intimately familiar with Medusa's mission and vision, and make hiring decisions in
alignment with Medusa's goals. For instance, if Medusa was searching for workers with
strong progressive instincts and who could work well without supervision, a Contract
Recruiter would add those qualities to their repertoire of screening criteria, in essence,
developing their ideal staff!
Unfortunately, it can be difficult to reach a representative at a staffing agency or HR firm, and
this could prevent Medusa from communicating time-sensitive information. With a Contract
Recruiter, they would be doing most of the work in-house, which makes them easily
accessible. If they had questions, comments or new information to disclose, the communication
would be easy to share. Not only does hiring a Contract Recruiter simplify communication, but
it would allow Medusa to collaborate with their Recruiter on hiring decisions. Just because
Medusa is not able to handle the hiring, interviewing and training themselves does not mean
that they hold a desire to be completely closed off from the process; Medusa could drop in on
their Contract Recruiter whenever necessary to meet new hires or to assist with interviewing.
Social Media
Medusa could also create profiles with the popular online social mediums such as LinkedIn,
Twitter and Facebook at no charge. This would be an opportunity to recruit skilled workers
from around the world, without incurring additional expenses. By creating a Facebook
business page, for example, Medusa could connect with Universities in their area,
continuing to promote work study programs and/or internships. Thus the use of social media
could help Medusa Scientific improve upon their future financial performance.
2. MARKETING (Online Presence)
A. BRAND/SERVICE VIABILITY
Medusa Scientific was formed in 2010. Medusa Scientific's mission is to develop
unique and owned intellectual properties (IP) to the point where they are useful
technologies for targeted markets.
Medusa Scientific has experienced some measure of success. Medusa Scientific took down
their website because it ultimately proved unsuccessful, but they did keep the domain
name. However, they never had a SEO strategy in place. Medusa Scientific hasn't used any
social media for the promotion of their business.
Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 22 of 49
Medusa Scientific would like to increase their effectiveness and reach with an online presence
to serve both their external and internal clients as well as to meet the organizational mission.
The following components would improve their viability online:
 Medusa Scientific organizational benefits;
 A list of their current services and products;
 Client benefits; and
 Target demographics.
Products and Services
Most of their products are all Intellectual Property (IP) in the areas of Communication,
Sensing, Energy, Imaging and Electronics.
Target Customers and Demographics
Some of their communication technology customers include Sprint, T-Mobile and Echo-Star.
Some of their underwater communication customers include: US Navy, Bluetronix, and
Bluewater. Some of their sensing technology customers include Intelligence agency groups
and U.S. Military Divisions. Their nuclear energy and particle physics research customers can
not be identified, as that requires a Top Secret clearance.
Medusa Scientific Organizational Benefits
Improving the website for Medusa Scientific could produce the following benefits:
 Improving the reach and efficiency of their client base;
 Expanding their client base;
 Communicate with Suppliers;
 Communicate with employees and prospective candidates for employment; and
 Website could be utilized for communication purposes should Medusa Scientific need
to activate their Risk Management Plan.
Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 23 of 49
B. ONLINE COMPETITORS
Here we will compare Medusa Scientific's competitors’ websites. Their top competitors were
chosen based upon the recommendation of their Chief Scientist, Rick Gerdes, for similar
products and services offered.
 Development process improvements: Using file sharing, blogs, chat boards and other
social media will improve Medusa's communication efforts with their clients; and
 Collaboration Improvements: with other scientists to improve on their innovation
efforts.
WEBSITE REVIEW OF POTENTIAL COMPETITORS
Name of Company Website Year Business
Established
Rincon Research Corporation http://www.rincon.com 2006
SAIC Engineering Solutions http://saic.com 1969
L-3 http://www.l-3com.com 1977
The elements considered in ranking the top competitors to Medusa Scientific include:
1. Navigation;
2. Site Map;
3. Photos;
4. Logo Consistency; and
5. Website Features.
Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 24 of 49
ASSESSMENT OF COMPETITOR WEBSITES
Name of Company
NAVIGATION SITE MAP PHOTOS LOGOS WEBSITE
FEATURES
Rincon Research
Corporation
2 3 1 3 2
SAIC Engineering
Solutions
2 0 3 3 2
L-3 3 3 3 2 2
Rating System: 0 = Poor
1 = Below Average
2 = Average
3 = Above Average
WEBSITE FEATURES
NAME
CAREERS SUPPLIERS PRODUCTS
& SERVICES
SOCIAL
MEDIA
SCIENTIFIC
PAPERS
EMAIL
Rincon Research
Corporation
 
SAIC Engineering
Solutions
    
L-3    
Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 25 of 49
C. WEBSITE STRATEGIES AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Marketing successes for small businesses should utilize a combination of cutting edge
strategies with time-tested marketing techniques in the marketplace. This can become a
difficult struggle for profit-oriented businesses to find the right marketing mix.
Effective marketing programs appear to share one component: The best approach
permits smaller businesses to scale their visibility with their patrons. Where these
enterprises lack in resources, could be made up for in marketing expertise and
intelligence.
PR Strategies
Although PR can be more subtle, it is no less adroit than full-blown marketing thrusts. If
Medusa Scientific desires to relay to their target patrons, unlimited marketing messages,
buying mailing lists from the top three credit reporting agencies and executing direct
mail campaigns could be a potential solution. However, if the strategy demands poise
and refinement, thought leadership and media buy-in, Medusa Scientific could consider
hiring a professional Public Relations advisor. Since public relations leverages most
social mediums, it may cost very little to amass advertisements that accentuate
intriguing themes about their brand and products. The key is to learn how to pitch these
intriguing themes to your audience without appearing to be sales-aggressive.
Begetting the Buzz
The value of viral marketing should not be underestimated. There can be great gains
by generating word-of-mouth advertising about Medusa Scientific. This is a critical
component for the marketing mix, especially for a technology and innovation
business. In the promotion of these marketplace conversations, Medusa Scientific
should provide their patrons with the necessary tools for the creation of concise
brand dialogues. With little effort, they can fuel conversations through popular
social mediums.
Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 26 of 49
Community Branding
Social mediums have risen in popularity because it promotes participation by patrons,
thus constructing a community of interested customers. Technology and innovation
enterprises could take advantage of marketing strategies which tap into these networks
and communities. Again, buying mailing lists from the top three credit reporting
agencies and executing direct mail campaigns could promote social medium drives with
client base expansion, and notifying these clients of your social medium presence.
Sponsorships
Team and event sponsorships have proven successful for enhancement of public
profiles. Oftentimes successful sponsorships happen over a longer time period as
opposed to a one-time event. Strategic sponsorships will target other technology and
innovation clients, employees, and suppliers. To reduce expenses and multiply benefits,
Medusa Scientific might consider co-sponsoring with a complementary business. For
example, they may check to see if local schools have science or engineering programs
for which need sponsorship.
Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 27 of 49
D. SEARCH ENGINES
A crucial component to ensure that patrons (existing and new) access their website is
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) utilization. Mr. Smith wrote: “more than 50% of
the time clients visit One of the highest 4 ranked search results for key-phrases – top
spot alone is visited more than 40% of the time. Although it might not be researched as
frequently, the whole “tail,” which could relate to service, location, entity or brand,
composes more than 68% of search results (Smith, 2011).
For some enterprises, geographical region is perceived as an elementary component for
successes. However, websites are deemed successful by search engine rankings (Bing,
Yahoo, and Google). To build and elevate SEO for Medusa Scientific, we would suggest
including keywords into their website's title, body content, sub-headings and headings.
Basic keywords incorporated into their online presence and meta tags might include:
science Technology Innovation sensors science jobs
technology jobs Research Engineering design prototypes
laboratory Internships Ultrasound e-field mass spectrometry
chemical Nuclear Particle harvesting imaging
light Silicon night vision RF florescence
careers Spectrometry
color night
vision
system level
design
DC to beyond
light
To foster advanced SEO, RSS feed utilization is also suggested. Integration of blogs
would also promote the sharing, expansion and development that would be meaningful
to Medusa Scientific's clients. Infusion of the keywords suggested above into blogs for
the purpose of site traffic promotion and utilization of web analytics for assessing site
traffic is suggested. Web analytics could be used as a marketing and industry research
and for measuring and improving online presence effectiveness (Wikipedia).
Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 28 of 49
E. SOCIAL MEDIUM INTEGRATION
Medusa Scientific should integrate social media into their online presence. The Nielsen Company
has reported that Internet users in the United States spend about 23% of their time on social
network sites (Nielsen Company, 2010) and that over 200 million Americans are utilize the
Internet (Nielsen Company, 2012) . Integrating social media would profit Medusa Scientific
with business promotion and improved site traffic, by dispersing their brands and services, and by
rendering immediate feedback on what patrons want and don't want with regard to services and
products. Additionally, site functionality improvements through client feedback analysis on social
media could also be competently transmitted. Therefore, Medusa Scientific should implement
blogging, LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook to their online presence.
Medusa Scientific would benefit with the utilization of social mediums due to the fact that they
could use these services for free marketing of their services and products. In return, patrons
would benefit due to the fact that they have the opportunity for interaction with Medusa
Scientific and provide them with beneficial feedback.
F. ONLINE CLIENT RELATIONSHIP
Customer relationship management (CRM) is a customarily implemented method to manage an
entity's communications with patrons and demand projections. This would include utilizing
technology for the purpose of classifying, automating, and synchronizing corporate operations
including tech support, customer service, marketing and demand, (Shaw, 1991). The benefit is to
reduce marketing and consumer expenses, detect, allure, and retain potential patrons, cultivate and
retain the patrons they already have, and to attract loyal clients (Gartner, 2009). It illustrates an
entity-wide strategy to include consumer-interface divisions. Measurement is essential to
implement this plan.
Social networks including LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Google augment consumer voices in
the marketplace and endure profound effects on the manner patrons make purchasing decisions:
today they conduct online business research as well as seek input from family and friends for
recommendations. For example, we just had a Facebook friend post that they were looking for a
good neurosurgeon and they received numerous responses from their friends and family members.
Consumers are utilizing social mediums for sharing of experiences and opinions about companies,
services and brands. Without censorship, these consumers are free to express opinions without
limitations. For start-up or small businesses, primary consumer services could be accomplished
with an integrated solution that permits entities and others to record and track interactions
productively, including scheduling, employment activity, email and file- sharing. There are also
opportunities to track sales pipelines and service and marketing functions. As with large
corporations, small businesses might find value in online resolutions (Wikipedia).
Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 29 of 49
Organizational advantages include elevations in profits, consumer satisfaction increases,
and prosperous expense reductions to operational costs. Advocates stress that technology
should be implemented only with well -thought out strategic planning. By using CRM,
Medusa Scientific would improve be in a position to improve the client experience.
Analytical CRM – Medusa Scientific's plan should be designed to use consumer data for
the purpose of:
1. suggesting services and brands;
2. creation and refinement of consumer service methods;
3. identification marketing methods for services for new and loyal patrons; and
4. SWOT analysis for threats, opportunities and trends for the decision-making
improvements with regard to market expansion. They could use Google Analytics
freeware which would allow them to track site visitors through social networks,
email campaigns, search engines and Pay-Per-Click advertisements.
G. INTERNATIONAL CONSIDERATIONS
Strategic planning that focuses and develops markets outside of the United States has become
Medusa Scientific's objective. To capitalize on this venture, Medusa Scientific has considered:
 Cultural Differences;
 International policies and procedures;
 Differences with time zones;
 Regulations regarding shipping;
 Barriers for languages;
 Graphical color and images;
 Currency Exchange; and
 International ethical business practices.
We suggest that Medusa Scientific hires TransPerfect for the translation of data from their website
into many languages for a flat fee of $500. This demonstrated a reduction of expenses as opposed
to the development of several other websites and country domains.
Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 30 of 49
H. ASSOCIATED COSTS FOR WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT
Medusa Scientific has developed a budget for their online presence. This budget
includes costs for website development and ongoing monthly maintenance costs.
Yearly and monthly costs were allotted for a Webmaster to work the site full-time,
to render tech assistance and to ensure that site content remains relevant.
WEBSITE EXPENSES
ITEM
NON-
RECURRING PER MONTH PER YEAR
Webmaster $2,800.00 $450.00 $5,400.00
Domain Purchase 175.00 - - - -
Hosting Fees - - $18.00 $216.00
Interactive Chat
Feature - - $22.00 $264.00
Project - - $22.00 $264.00
Management
Feature
Shopping Cart - - $14.00 168.00
TransPerfect $500.00 - - - -
Language
Translation
Features
Affiliate $455.00 $80.00 $960.00
Advertising
TOTALS $3,930.00 $606.00 $7,272.00
Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 31 of 49
Summary
Internet marketing is an extremely important tool for corporations today due to the fact
that it aligns with the way in which consumers make purchasing decisions. Studies have
indicated significant elevations in the number of consumers utilizing social media and
Internet research for preliminary product and price information prior to making their
final purchasing decisions. Use of the Internet as a marketing tool can promote
relationship building with consumers and prospective clients through regular, low-cost
personalized communications.
Internet marketing also provides a convenience value for Medusa Scientific as well as
clients or prospective clients. It expands the hours of operations without having to pay
employees over time, increasing company information and availability from 8 working
hours per day to 24 hours per day, 365 days per year. By Medusa Scientific offering
their product line across the Internet, this would allow clients to browse and place
orders at their convenience.
Internet marketing also overcomes distance barriers. Medusa Scientific can sell their
products and services in any country of the world without the necessity of setting up
shop locally. These are just a few examples of the value and positive impact Internet
marketing would have on Medusa Scientific's future financial performance.
Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 32 of 49
3. RISK MANAGEMENT
Catastrophic events can happen without warning. In the event of an emergency, it is important for
Medusa Scientific to reduce their risks by taking reasonable measure for the proper protection of
their property and human capital.
Emergency situations demand a certain amount of recovery before normal business activities may
resume. The extent of their recovery efforts is dependent on the type of emergency involved. Recovery
plans should begin as soon as the situation is stabilized. The purpose of this proposed Plan is to define
recovery actions, continuity processes, and emergency management development for the restoration of
Medusa Scientific's business activities. Plan components shall detail response procedures that affect
Medusa Scientific' ability to restore business activities and services for staff and address regulatory and
legal mandates.
Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 33 of 49
A. RISK RESPONSE
Working with Medusa Scientific, we have identified three levels of emergency
events, which relate to the magnitude of the emergency:
Level One ― this low level event associates isolated departments or buildings that
might promptly be solved with internal resources. At this level, there is little or no
impact on the entity operations for Medusa Scientific. Impacted employees would
coordinate appropriate resolutions with the Risk Manager.
Level Two ― this medium-level event could disrupt larger areas of Medusa Scientific
for which cannot be controlled or managed by utilizing normal procedures. This type of
event may call for external assistance such as ambulatory services or fire rescue. These
events may escalate quickly, and may have greater consequences for the safety of
human capital and/or operational activities.
Level Three ― this high-level cataclysmic event could greatly impact Medusa
Scientific facilities, and as well as the surrounding community. This type of event
would probably halt business activities and have far- reaching and complicated impacts
and demand prompt resolutions. Additionally, it could also require considerable
coordination and expansive cooperative efforts. The HR Director and Risk Manager
should coordinate efforts for appropriate resolutions.
Risk Number One: Attacks from Terrorists (Risk = High)
Terrorism has been defined as the use of violence and intimidation in an effort to secure
political goals (Wikipedia). If terrorists were to target Medusa Scientific headquarters,
they could incur severe property damage as well as loss of lives. This is not likely to
happen due to the fact that terrorists usually target skyscrapers, financial institutions and
utilities, to name a few. In the unlikely event that this situation should transpire, the first
priority would be the safe removal of workers and to address their medical needs. The
Human Resource Director and the Risk Manager should work together, accounting for all
employees and which remain missing. The Risk Manager should promptly notify
emergency services, which will probably arrive very quickly. Should terrorists take a
Medusa Scientific hostage, the Federal Bureau of Investigation should be promptly notified
by the Risk Manager and comply with their directions.
Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 34 of 49
Terrorists tend to target public buildings they deem vulnerable. Medusa Scientific
should contemplate allocation of their limited resources for risk reduction since
becoming a “hard target” tends to deter terrorists. Some measures for physical security
include fencing, closed-circuit or dummy cameras, limit public access entrances, use of
I.D. badge systems, security sign-ins for visitors (and check identification), controlled
parking, mail room package inspections and training employees how to properly
inspect suspect packages, outdoor lighting, and using security guards around the
property.
Finally, the Risk Manager should also notify the insurance provider regarding
damage claims and ensure building stability.
Risk Number Two: Fire (Risk = High)
A fire in Medusa Scientific's buildings would likely halt operations. If a fire starts, First
Responders should promptly attempt to contain it. Prompt activation of the emergency
alarm system and location announcement via the intercom system should occur when a
worker notices a fire. The Human Resources should then begin evacuation procedures
for all persons in the building. On a yearly basis, every worker needs to complete fire
extinguisher training. The potential destruction caused by fire could become minimal by
training workers on the proper procedures for fire response. Also, planned and regular
fire drills will help workers become familiar with evacuation procedures. The Human
Resource Director should plan the fire drills.
Risk Number Three: Data Compromises (Risk = Medium)
Access that is not authorized and/or the illegal use of client or employee data could
create legal liability for Medusa Scientific. In the event that this were to happen,
Medusa Scientific should reach a prompt determination of what data was compromised,
send notices to those that are affected, and provide Identity Theft Monitoring for the
victims. Additionally, Medusa Scientific should assist the police in the investigation and
apprehension of the perpetrators. The computer security systems will also need to be
reviewed and/or modified to prevent future crisis events of this nature.
Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 35 of 49
Risk Number Four: Disruptions: Communications and
Technology (Risk = Medium)
Communication and/or technology outages, including service provider blackouts, could
result in economic losses and substantial disruptions. They generally occur without
warning so Medusa Scientific will need to have a contingency plan in place in an effort
to minimize these disruptions. Alternate Internet providers and cell phones are
important to assure continuation of operations. Accommodating key workers with these
additional services could minimize the economic impact associated with not being able
to reach suppliers, employees and patrons.
Risk Number Five: Exchange Rates (Risk = Low)
Medusa Scientific plans to provide a range of products and services to international
clients. Fluctuations with currency and exchange rates can create small risks for
Medusa Scientific. To reduce the risks, Medusa Scientific will need to rely upon their
CFO to monitor these fluctuations, and provide advice in an effort to reduce these
risks. In addition, contracts should be written so that it is clear that the currency
exchange will be in U.S. dollars.
Risk Number Six: Loss of Key Employees (Risk = Low)
Losses of key workers could also develop disruptions because employee
substitutions might not handle those responsibilities effectively. Thus, Medusa
Scientific could incorporate an employee development and succession planning
program to address the potential future losses of key workers and to successfully
transition skilled workers to the positions that have suddenly been vacated.
Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 36 of 49
Risk Number Seven: Theft (Risk = Low)
Medusa Scientific has a desire to preserve all assets. Inventories should be completed
of all electronics, including televisions, software, hardware, computers, printers and
copiers or other similar equipment. The Risk Manager should assume responsibility
for this task, continually updating the inventory every 90 days. Inventory lists should
be made available off-site and on-site.
To deter theft, security cameras should be installed at every exit within Medusa
Scientific buildings and security should be employed for night monitoring.
Risk Number Eight: Natural Disaster (Risk = High)
Tornadoes
Medusa Scientific comprehends that Mother Nature could disrupt the operations of their
business. During a tornado, Medusa Scientific visitors, suppliers, clients and personnel,
should remain peaceful and quickly progress to the lowest floor, using the staircase,
avoiding all windows, and assume a fetal position. Keep all doors closed. When the
weather has calmed, promptly exit the building, checking for fire, hazardous materials
and damage to electrical wiring. Employees need to report all hazards promptly to the
Risk Manager.
Earthquakes
During an earthquake, Medusa Scientific workers, visitors, suppliers and clients should
again, remain calm and quickly take cover under furniture (table or desk). Stay there
until the earthquake has ceased. Keep away from all windows and heavy furniture. If a
worker is outside, they should run to an open area, stay clear of damaged power lines
and architecture and remain watchful for flying debris. Stay inside your vehicle and,
away from traffic, and clear of tunnels, overpasses and bridges.
Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 37 of 49
BUSINESS CONTINGENCY PLAN
There are numerous strategic changes that Medusa Scientific could incorporate to
continue services. It is important for the restoration of services to transpire as soon as
possible following a disruption to business operations. Due to the fact that a portion of the
business operations for Medusa Scientific has already experienced some success with
running at-home computers, this would make for an effective back up plan. Each division
manager will be responsible for assuring that all of their business-related functions could
continue online at home, if the need should arise.
Medusa Scientific should also incorporate a succession planning program to replace the
loss of key personnel. This will minimize the impact of business disruptions. Succession
planning is also a part of talent management due to the fact that it mandates identifying
and developing employees with significant potential. Employee skills, education, and
talents would be documented and could be readily available when a vacancy opens for a
key position.
A. Protecting Sensitive Data
The protection and ethical use of sensitive client data is a high priority for Medusa
Scientific. This would not only include client and worker data but proprietary processes
and supplier information as well. Worker and client data includes, among other things,
SSN, banking and other contact information. Mobile data can be secured in locked file
cabinets, accessed only by authorized employees.
The Medusa Scientific network could use intrusion detection protocols, firewalls, and
readily available anti-virus protection tools. Firewalls are developed to prevent
unauthorized access. Intrusion protocols would alert IT professionals when a breach has
transpired. Anti- virus tools prevent malicious programs from sabotaging computers and
networks. These types of tools help to assure that access customer data and other sensitive
information remains safe and secure. Medusa Scientific will need to disable USB ports to
prevent employees from accessing this data and copying it to portable drives. Medusa
Scientific will need to utilize a facility off-site for the purpose of backing up this data.
Taking this measure permits access should the primary copy be destroyed (What is Offsite
Backup?).
Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 38 of 49
Additionally, Medusa Scientific should implement an employee ethics training
program. While a written code of ethics would normally include information regarding
potential conflicts, a training program provides opportunities for the examination of
best ways to handle unethical situations. It would be wise for Medusa Scientific to
incorporate an anonymous reporting system for perceived ethics violations and to
demonstrate their commitment for an ethical business culture. By implementing these
recommendations, Medusa Scientific can reduce the risk that their sensitive information
will be compromised.
B. Communication Plans
1. Email
2. Website
3. Employee Meetings
4. Phone List
A communication plan is not just for crisis events, but also after business disruptions.
Implementing a communication plan would help Medusa Scientific to relay information
to clients and workers. If a crisis were to unfold, it would be a method for workers to
check-in and confirm their safety. Medusa should provide workers with an emergency
to communicate their evacuation status, and how they could be reached in case of an
emergency. The plan should include a check -in time, for example, 72 hours following a
crisis event. When this time is up, and there has been no contact with certain
employees, Medusa Scientific could report those workers as “missing”. In addition,
Medusa Scientific can use their (new) website to share updates, such as when normal
business operations can be expected to resume. Medusa Scientific can also use an email
system for sharing updates with clients and employees.
Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 39 of 49
C. Restoring Operations
Depending on how severe the disruption becomes, restoration might be completed
promptly. The objective is to return to normal operations as safely and promptly as
possible in an effort to reduce the financial impacts to Medusa Scientific. Medusa
Scientific Risk Manager may need to contact an insurance adjuster to notify them of the
crisis. This allows them to get the claim in for payment promptly. Medusa Scientific may
need the CFO to contact their financial institution for the establishment of new credit lines
or perhaps for withdraws from other funding sources to replace equipment.
Medusa Scientific holds a high regard for the safety of their clientele and employees.
Should a building become severely damaged, it should be secured so that other workers
aren't injured by entering it until the building has been stabilized. The Risk Manager will
need to consider contacting OSHA to obtain approvals and permits for any construction
that may become necessary.
The three main parts of a business contingency plan include: documentation of the plan,
employee training and employee awareness. Medusa Scientific should explain to their
employees the importance for the identification of possible threats to business operations.
A well-planned and executed training program can successfully raise the level of employee
awareness as well as teach them the necessary skills to carry it out. The training should
include: emergency communication methods, how to access data from outside the office
and press releases (Implementing a Business Continuity Plan, 2009). In addition,
workers need to participate in emergency evaluation drills, as well as learn how to protect
office equipment during a crisis (if time and conditions permit). It is critical to identify and
document all potential threats and solutions to those threats and to have that documentation
readily available in case of a crisis. Uploading the BCP to their website for easy access for
all employees is highly recommended.
Continuous evaluation and testing of the BCP is very important as it reveals the plan's
effectiveness and whether the objectives can be achieved.
The elements involved with testing the BCP plan include: creating goals, implementing a
testing schedule, and the development and execution of a crisis scenario. For scheduling,
decisions will need to be made parts or the whole plan will be tested. Testing the complete
BCP plan will usually take many days or even weeks (in 3-4 hour increments).
Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 40 of 49
Prior to testing, set clear goals, which will provide workers with a specific set of
outcomes. The testing should approximate a real crisis scenario, or be “life-like” (for
example, an unexpected terrorist shooter or a blazing fire). During the test period,
employees should go through each part of the plan as though the crisis was real. This
will provide employees the opportunity to step into their role assignment and respond
as if it were truly a crisis. Evaluations of responses and outcomes should take place
immediately following the testing period. Sharing the results with personnel and brain-
storming for plan improvements will increase participation efforts and help workers
know what is expected if a true crisis were to occur.
Upon completion of the BCP testing period, Medusa Scientific should evaluate the
results and make any necessary modifications. Continuous testing provides insight into
the plan effectiveness and whether workers can promptly restore operations after a
crisis. The BCP plan should be tested and evaluated on an annual basis.
D. Summary
The purpose of risk management is the identification of potential issues before they
happen so that risk-handling activities may be planned and invoked as needed across the
life of products, projects or human capital in an effort to mitigate adverse impacts on
achieving objectives. Having a Risk Management Plan in place for Medusa Scientific
will help their financial position so that protections are put into place to prevent further
financial losses. For example, loss of a key executive could have Medusa Scientific
suffer financial losses due to the fact that person would no longer be available to
continue job responsibilities. Implementation of a succession plan, would better prepare
Medusa Scientific for key executive transitions.
Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 41 of 49
IMPLEMENTATION
TIME LINE
1. HUMAN RESOURCE SOLUTIONS
Solution Cost Time Notes
College Internships Paper and Postage
$25.00
Letter to Universities
could be written within
1 month. Program
could be implemented
within 6 months.
Could get part-time
temporary help for free.
Work Study Programs Paper and Postage
$25.00
Letter to Universities
could be written within
1 month. Program
could be implemented
within 6 months.
Could get part-time
temporary help for
reduced wages.
Independent
Contractors
Depends upon position,
set hourly rate.
Independent
Contractors could be
secured in a relatively
short period of time,
perhaps 1 month.
Cheaper than hiring
employees, easier to
terminate employment,
reduce legal expenses.
Contract Recruiter
Services
$50,000/year Contractor Recruiter
Services could be
secured in a relatively
short period of time,
perhaps 1 month.
Medusa could negotiate
a commission contract.
Social Media FREE All suggested social
mediums could be up
and running within 1
month.
If Medusa Scientific began by June 1, 2013, these recommendations could be fully implemented by
July 1, 2013.
Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 42 of 49
2. MARKETING SOLUTIONS
ITEM NON-
RECURRING
PER
MONTH
PER
YEAR
TIME
Webmaster
2800 450 5400 3 months
Domain Purchase
175 – – 3 months
Hosting Fees
– 18 216 3 months
Project
Management
Feature
– 22 264 3 months
Interactive Chat
Feature
– 22 264 3 months
Shopping Cart
– 22 168 3 months
TransPerfect
500 14 – 3 months
Affiliate
Advertising
455 – 960 3 months
TOTALS 3930 606 7272 3 months
If Medusa Scientific began by June 1, 2013, these recommendations could be
fully implemented by September 1, 2013.
Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 43 of 49
3. RISK MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS
Cost Per Year Time Notes
Risk Management Training
Classes
$4,000.00
per person
Discounts available
for enrollment of
5 people
90 Days
Stanford
University
Certificate
http://tinyurl.com/bc4f2xb
Online Training with
Stanford University
Fire Extinguisher Classes
$75.00
per person
½ day
http://risk.arizona.edu/training#figHtingfires
Advanced Computer
Security
Included with
Stanford University
Certificate
90 days
http://tinyurl.com/pavzfj
Online training with
Stanford University
Identity Theft Monitoring
for Victims
$10.00
per month
per person
12 months
Only if crisis occurs
http://www.lifelock.com
Succession Planning
Programs
$795.00 1 month
http://tinyurl.com/ahrxxyw
Continuous record keeping and
documentation
Inventory of Company
Equipment
FREE 1 month
Medusa Scientific Headquarters
Virus/Firewall Protection
FREE 5 minutes
to download http://www.zonealarm.com
Offsite Data Backup
$229.00
Year
Instant http://tinyurl.com/bxj5t7g
Ethics Training Program
$500.00
for up to 500 employees
1 month http://tinyurl.com/avnl7sv
TOTALS $9,674.00 Less than 12
months.
Total includes 2 people enrolled in Stanford
University Risk Management Program and
2 people enrolled in Fire Extinguisher
Program; and excludes Identity Theft
Protection because that number is unknown.
If Medusa Scientific began by June 1, 2013, these recommendations could be fully implemented by
June 1, 2014.
Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 44 of 49
IMPACT
Financial Impact
We expect Medusa Scientific to benefit from the financial impacts for the
recommendations as outlined above. These would include increased revenues, reduced
expenses and increased financial stability.
1. Human Resources
The Human Resource Solutions will be difficult to estimate. For the first year, the costs
will be minimal for sending letters to Universities, paying for the paper and postage.
However, Medusa Scientific will likely still incur HR costs for hiring either workers
through the Federal Work Study Program, Independent Contractors, or Contract
Recruiter Services. Those amounts are not known and may require negotiation.
2. Marketing
The Marketing Solutions will cost Medusa Scientific approximately $11,202 for the
first year. Thereafter the costs are approximately $7202 per year or $606 per month.
In his February 2013 Forbes article, How Marketing Impacts Sales Performance, Scott
Gillum shares that he discovered 3 very important elements on marketing its impact
on corporate success: (Gillum, 2013).
1. Increased Opportunity – Without marketing support, sales can't elevate rates for
consideration. Awareness for the corporate product was 62% compared to 88%
for the leading market-share holder. The rate for consideration was even worse at
nearly 50% compared to 86% held by the leading market share holder.
Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 45 of 49
The company maintained a culture for strong sales. Thus, to show the need for increased
marketing activities, we included “relationship with the sales team” as a key consideration,
along with typical drivers such as service, price and brand (Gillum, 2013).
This research demonstrated that the sales team relationship wasn't an important
consideration. The results revealed, however, that the representatives could do very little to
influence the perceptions of the buyers’ as it related to service and products and that a new
buyer wasn't being reached by the sales team (Gillum, 2013).
The company then elevated the budget for marketing and reallocated funds from events to
digital marketing. They also ramped up videos, webcast, and built a microsite specifically to
attract this new buyer. As a result, awareness rose 17 points to nearly 80%, and the
consideration rate, formerly at 46%, increased to 62%. The model predicted an incremental
1% change in consideration rates and yielded 20 new opportunities and almost four new
wins, with a value of nearly $2M (Gillum, 2013).
2. Sales Coverage – Increases in marketing activity could create elevated sales
coverage perceptions. Buyers were questioned with regard to the frequency they encountered
a sales rep within a 90-day period. They responded that they were interacting with the sales
person an average of 0.8 times, or once per quarter, while reporting rep visits from the
leading competitor at 2.5 times, nearly once per month. Two years later, buyers responded
that they were interacting with the sales department 2.4 times per quarter, putting them on
par with competitors. As a result of these increases to marketing, buyers perceived an
increase in visits even though that number remained steady over the two year period
(Gillum, 2013).
Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 46 of 49
3. Sales Enablement – Marketing can identify purchasing behaviors shifts. The
company’s performance had increased in all stages of the funnel except for one —their
current accounts. Representatives had discussed that clients had become more “price
sensitive” and competitors were undercutting them, stealing their market share. The
company was the product leader within the industry, and the senior management team
still believed that technology innovation was the key consideration factor (Gillum, 2013).
The continued research discovered that the sales force was correct in their assessment.
Buyers' priorities had shifted. With modifications to reimbursement, healthcare reform
and an effective competitor campaign in opposition to overbuying technology, buyers had
indeed changed, much quicker than anticipated (Gillum, 2013).
An outcome was that value proposition and sales material had to be updated promptly.
Rather than espousing innovation virtues, the materials now needed to help buyers justify
investments, leading to a shift from “bells and whistles” to “ROI models and product
configurators” (Gillum, 2013).
So, how do you communicate the impact marketing has on sales performance?
Inform the sales representatives that marketing can identify new influencers as well as
buyers, elevate the number of opportunities the sales people visit, improve a buyer’s
perception of sales coverage, and enable the sales force with the right value proposition at
the right time to win the deal. Of course, you’ll need the data to support it. In this case, the
increases to marketing activities and investments yielded $50M in new sales over the two-
year period . . . just as the model predicted (Gillum, 2013).
Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 47 of 49
3. Risk Management
The Risk Management Solutions will cost Medusa Scientific approximately $9674 for
the first year. In addition, there may be annual costs for continuing with the drills and/or
further training for other employees. This cost is minimal given the cost for loss of
human capital and/or data necessary for Medusa Scientific to continue business
operations.
Organizational Impact
If Medusa Scientific elects to implement the recommendations as outlined above,
the organizational impacts would include:
 Realized increases to customer base;
 Increases to work productivity and efficiency;
 Increased customer awareness;
 Attracting high-caliber workers/employees; and
 Significant savings in expenses.
Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 48 of 49
1. Corporate Growth
One critical component impacting organizational structure is corporate growth. As
Medusa Scientific continues to flourish, the impact on their organizational structure will
significantly increase. This will especially ring true as Medusa Scientific expands within
the global marketplace. As they endure this transitional growth, they will likely hire
permanent full-time employees and will also need departmental managers to supervise the
growing staff. At this point Medusa Scientific will need to create a managerial structure.
2. Customer Needs
Customer service is also a critical component for success. Medusa Scientific may, at some
future point, dedicate an entire department to customer service and retention. Should an
important client award a substantial contract to Medusa Scientific, they might need to
restructure their company in an effort to accommodate the new contract. For example,
Medusa Scientific might need to implement a sales division just for that customer and
manufacturing might need to create a sub-process to build specialized products. As the
needs of Medusa's customers shift, so too will their organizational structure.
3. Technology
Technology can also impact organizational structure and work flow. The Reference for
Business has shared that when computer networks grew in popularity, it increased the ease
with which work could be completed in groups (Organizational Structure), thereby
increasing efficiency. New advances in technology could potentially create or even
eliminate positions within the corporate structure. For example, in the legal field, when the
Federal Courts began to except electronic filings, there was a vast reduction in file clerk
positions.
Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 49 of 49
REFERENCES
Gartner, Inc. (June 6, 2009). What's 'Hot' in CRM Applications in 2009. Retrieved
April 2, 2013: http://tinyurl.com/a7pz5qs
Gillum, Scott. (February 25, 2013). How Marketing Impacts Sales Performance.
Retrieved April 2, 2013: http://tinyurl.com/cu4vrpm
Implementing a Business Continuity Plan. (2009).
Retrieved April 2, 2013: http://tinyurl.com/agbupp2
Linkedin, “About Us”. Retrieved April 2, 2013: http://tinyurl.com/aq676d
Nielsen Company. (August 2, 2010). What Americans do online: social media and
games dominate activity. Retrieved April 2, 2013: http://tinyurl.com/cusrfx7
Nielsen Company. (January 6, 2012). Report: Consumer Media Usage Across TV,
Online, Mobile, and Social. Retrieved April 2, 2013: http://tinyurl.com/7qcc3fd
Organizational Structure. (n.d.) Reference for Business, Encyclopedia of Business, 2
nd
Edition. Retrieved April 2, 2013: http://tinyurl.com/d68r7h9
Shaw, Robert. (1991). Computer Aided Marketing and Selling, Butterworth
Heinemann. ISBN 978-0-7506-1707-9.
What is Offsite Backup? (n.d.). Retrieved April 2, 2013: http://tinyurl.com/cgpfbkk
Wikipedia, “Customer Relationship Management”.
Retrieved April 2, 2013: http://tinyurl.com/8mvkn
Wikipedia, “Web Analytics Software”.
Retrieved April 2, 2013: http://tinyurl.com/am6xoc

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JANUARY 28, 2015 MASTER CUSTOMER ASSISTANCE
 

STRATEGIC PLANNING FOR GROWTH & EXPANSION 2013

  • 2. Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 2 of 49 TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ..........................................................................................................4 The Medusa Family of Companies and Organizational Structure..............................5 MEDUSA SCIENTIFIC: COMMUNICATION .............................................................................................5 ULTRASOUND.....................................................................................................6 SENSING...............................................................................................................7 ENERGY SOURCES.............................................................................................8 IMAGING..............................................................................................................9 ELECTRONICS................................................................................................... 10 SCIENCE ............................................................................................................. 11 ENGINEERING................................................................................................... 12 TECHNOLOGIES ............................................................................................... 13 RECOMMENDATION................................................................................................................ 16 PROBLEM OR BUSINESS NEEDS................................................................................. 16 FUNCTIONAL AREAS ......................................................................................................... 17 SOLUTIONS........................................................................................................................... 18 1. Human Resources........................................................................................................... 18 College Internships ............................................................................................... 18 Work-Study Programs .......................................................................................... 19 Hiring Independent Contractors............................................................................ 19 Contract Recruiter Services .................................................................................. 20 Social Media ......................................................................................................... 21 2. MARKETING (Online Presence).......................................................................... 21 A. BRAND/SERVICE VIABILITY ................................................................... 21 Products and Services........................................................................................... 22 Target Customers and Demographics .................................................................. 22 Medusa Scientific Organizational Benefits.......................................................... 22 B. ONLINE COMPETITORS................................................................................. 23 C. WEBSITE STRATEGIES AND RECOMMENDATIONS.................. 25 PR Strategies ........................................................................................................ 25 Begetting the Buzz ............................................................................................... 25 Community Branding........................................................................................... 26 Sponsorships......................................................................................................... 26 D. SEARCH ENGINES............................................................................................. 27 E. SOCIAL MEDIUM INTEGRATION............................................................ 28 F. ONLINE CLIENT RELATIONSHIP............................................................. 28
  • 3. Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 3 of 49 G. INTERNATIONAL CONSIDERATIONS................................................... 29 H. ASSOCIATED COSTS FOR WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT................ 30 Summary............................................................................................................................... 31 3. RISK MANAGEMENT............................................................................................. 32 Risk Register.............................................................................................................. 32 A. RISK RESPONSE...................................................................................... 33 Risk Number One: Attacks from Terrorists...................................................33 Risk Number Two: Fire.........................................................................................34 Risk Number Three: Data Compromises........................................................34 Risk Number Four: Disruptions: Communications and Technology....... 35 Risk Number Five: Exchange Rates.................................................................35 Risk Number Six: Loss of Key Employees....................................................35 Risk Number Seven: Theft...................................................................................36 Risk Number Eight: Natural Disaster...............................................................36 Earthquakes ...............................................................................................................36 Business Contingency Plan....................................................................................... 37 A. Protecting Sensitive Data ....................................................................... 37 B. Communication Plans.............................................................................. 38 C. Restoring Operations................................................................................ 39 D. Summary...................................................................................................... 40 IMPLEMENTATION .......................................................................................................... 41 TIME LINE .............................................................................................................................. 41 1. HUMAN RESOURCE SOLUTIONS .................................................................. 41 2. MARKETING SOLUTIONS .................................................................................. 42 3. RISK MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS................................................................ 43 IMPACT .................................................................................................................................... 44 Financial Impact................................................................................................................. 44 Organizational Impact...................................................................................................... 47 REFERENCES............................................................................................................................ 49
  • 4. Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 4 of 49 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Medusa Scientific boasts a creative work environment and state of the art laboratory and test equipment for their scientists and engineers. Their goal is to innovate, develop and design exotic and unique technologies for specific applications that solve the challenges presented to by their customer base. Prototypes are built and tested that have proven solutions. As a group they foster the same atmosphere like that of most highly innovative periods in world history – the post WWII institutional research grouping and think tanks of major aerospace and governmental labs. They have a passion for their technologies and are inspired to solve real-world requirements from their sister Medusa divisions as well as customers who rely on them for unique and efficient solutions to real problems. Medusa Scientific takes projects from a Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of 1 and develops them to a TRL of 9. Intellectual Property – Medusa Scientific has developed a number of technologies and their patent portfolio of intellectual property includes, but is not limited to: 1. Cyclops – Full color night vision designed for incorporation in helmets or as stand-alone goggles. The goggles contain the sensors and a full color display image superimposed over direct vision. 2. IsoToPower – The photonic conversion of the energy released by an elemental isotope to electron potential. The generator has a safe, useful and finite, but long- lived lifetime ending as safely disposable. 3. TM (Transpositional Modulation) – A fundamentally new carrier signal modulation that is mutually transparent to conventional modulation methods, thus, when added doubles or more the information capacity within a fixed bandwidth, while possessing encryption capabilities. 4. SeaLINK – The combination of two technologies. Proprietary broadband modulation of ultrasound as the communication linkage of a mesh network providing tether-free underwater matrix communication of voice, video and sensory data.
  • 5. Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 5 of 49 The Medusa Family of Companies and Organizational Structure Medusa International is the parent company of Medusa Scientific. Medusa Aero owns military aircraft and provides Contractor Air Services (“CAS”) for air components of the U.S. Armed Services. Medusa Space is focused on the business of space developing advanced technologies for commercialization specializing in uniquely valuable organic and inorganic materials and structures. The Protolab is an extreme precision machining and fabrication facility for prototype design and limited run production. With EDM machines, multi-axis CNC machines, mills and lathes, plasma cutting/welding and laser machining. Medusa supports their own needs along with those of their strategic partners and customers. Medusa LLC is a company using advanced technology and experienced personnel to provide security solutions for corporate and governmental clientele. Wraith possesses both manned aircraft and UAVs for differing mission sets including support of local, county and state law enforcement agencies as well as available for forest and cropland overflight sensing, search and rescue and other unique solutions. The sensor applications include Electro-Optical, Infrared, Multi & Hyper Spectral imaging, SIGINT and more. Wraith doesn't sell UAVs, it sells capabilities. MEDUSA SCIENTIFIC: COMMUNICATION Medusa Scientific personnel have years of experience and expertise developing improvements and new methods of communications in two different media: 1. RF – Electromagnetic communication using a fundamentally new method of carrier signal modulation, Transpositional Modulation or TM for short. Adding TM to an existing conventionally modulated transmitter is accomplished by one of two methods. The carrier signal internal to the existing transmitter is intercepted in order to add TM prior to the power output amplifier. This is not as practical as it was once. Transmitters that are single chip designs render this method impossible unless TM is incorporated in the design of a single monolithic integrated circuit transmitter.
  • 6. Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 6 of 49 2. The second method of adding TM is to include a transmitter that is slaved to the frequency of the existing conventionally modulated transmitter. The slave operation produces both a frequency and a phase lock so that the slave transmitter and existing transmitter outputs can be combined and sent to the existing antenna. There is no frequency or power limits to producing a TM slave transmitter. ULTRASOUND Communication by moving the molecules of the transmission medium. Gas media such as air at sea- level has the greatest amount of loss due to absorption and scatter and therefore air has the shortest distance of communication range for a given frequency and power. Liquid media such as water has about a 200 times greater communication range due to reduced loss for the same frequency and power level. Solids such as steel have the least amount of loss and several hundred times lower loss than water. Communication depends on producing a change in a carrier signal. Medusa Scientific has developed a breakthrough in broadband modulation of ultrasonic energy for underwater use, referred to as USM. The modulation conveys information by “pushing” and “pulling” water molecules in a longitudinal direction. When there are other particles in the water, the ultrasound is scattered. Ultrasound will also reflect off the upper surface of the water as well as the bottom bed of the river, lake or ocean. These realities produce the challenges for receiving and demodulating the ultrasonic energy.
  • 7. Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 7 of 49 In a practical communication system, intelligence is added to the modulation information to ensure accurate reception. Forward error correction and hand-shaking are key elements to a successful communication system. Another key ingredient is management of the communication link or links in a multiple node network. This is implemented as a mesh network and the entire system is known as SeaLINK. Each diver, submersible, surface vessel, buoy and/or shore installation has multiple and independent links with each other, thus maintaining communication as movement of one node may cause blockage of individual links behind obstacles. SENSING Medusa Scientific has experience and knowledge of developing, designing and using sensors of various parameters utilized in a variety of applications: Hyper-Spectral – Sensing energy over a wide range of wavelengths. Examples include cameras sensitive to short wavelengths such as 200 nm for ultra-violet through visible wavelengths and into the long wavelengths such as 1000 nm (1 micron) for infrared. Longer wavelengths are also of interest for detecting and measuring specific molecules. Crop health evaluation is an example of how hyper- spectral imaging is used. Detection of oil pipeline leakage is another use. Color Night Vision – New very low light level image sensors capable of operating in narrow bandwidths for full color imaging. The ability to see normal colors at night greatly aids in the identification of objects and people at night. This product is for both military and civilian uses. E-field – Sensing the change in the electric field as small as a single electron. Sensing the E-field has numerous applications including the movement of objects for intrusion detection, imaging to visualize static charge fields and detecting an increasing static charge buildup as a dangerous condition in chemical, nuclear, medical and biological laboratories. Florescence – Sensing the florescent response of molecules when stimulated by specific wavelengths of energy. This behavior of molecules is the basis for remote sensing of dangerous material such as toxins, gases and explosives. Mass Spectrometry – Detecting specific molecules based on their ratio of mass to charge. An applied E-field causes molecules to move in specific paths depending on their mass, thus acting as a sorting function. Counting the molecules at a specific location will be the means of detection and measurement. Quadrupole Mass Spectrometry – Preceding the Mass Spectrometer with a quadrupole acting as a filter of molecules enhancing the sensitivity of mass spectrometry. As the illustration shows, there are four poles that set up the E-field which directs the molecules as they pass through the quadrupole. There is a combination of a static electric field and a high frequency dynamic field. The result is an oscillatory motion as the molecules pass through the quadrupole. This behavior produces a filtering or tuning function allowing the mass spectrometer to be more sensitive.
  • 8. Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 8 of 49 ENERGY SOURCES Medusa Scientific has several ongoing research and development projects in the fields of energy conversion, energy harvesting and energy storage: Chemical – Studying and evaluating various chemical systems and reactions for primary cells and for secondary cells used for energy storage. This includes chemical systems that improve the energy density capability of various lithium based systems as illustrated. Energy storage is another application of improved chemical systems that achieve higher energy storage with low inductance for high pulse load requirements. Other configurations include closed systems having several process steps that are able to be packaged in small forms such as AA battery size. Nuclear – Medusa Scientific has a nuclear battery technology known as IsoToPower. There are a number of elements that emit energy in the form of particles and waves. Energetic elements produce high energy alpha particles that are easy to contain and produce high energy output with a short life. Beta emitters do not produce as much energy for the same amount of material but have longer lifetimes. Beta particles require more shielding. Beta cells have been implanted in people to power pacemakers and those having the implant more than 3 decades ago have lived with no ill effects. Particle – In addition to the beta-based nuclear battery program at Medusa Scientific, alpha particle emission is being researched in a direct conversion configuration. Higher efficiency and higher power capability with ease of containment (paper stops alpha particles) with shorter life for safe disposal of spent batteries. Harvesting – Energy harvesting is not a new concept but has a new sense of importance and urgency. Harvesting is making use of existing sources of energy as the graphic illustrates. Examples of energy sources include sunlight, temperature difference, physical vibration, acoustic noise, radio signals, as well as wind and ocean waves. The focus of ongoing research and development lies in the means of converting non- electrical energy into electricity. The effort to improve energy storage is an important part of energy harvesting in how the energy harvested is stored in the smallest size possible.
  • 9. Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 9 of 49 IMAGING Medusa Scientific has the experience and expertise to develop imaging systems using the following technologies: E-field – Sensing the E-field in an area or space as defined by the sensing antennas and presenting the level of charge and their spatial position. The image at the right shows the capability of Medusa Scientific in this area. The image is of a strong charged spiral-shaped object sensed two-dimensionally and displayed three dimensionally. The vertical axis is related to charge level. The horizontal and depth axes describe the two dimensional area of sensing. In reality, the presentation can be made using glasses as a single image. Another option is to present the left and right images individually to the eyes. Rotation and other manipulations of the image greatly enhance the realism of the image. To provide quantitative data, the use of 3-dimensional cursors and automated measurements of charge level and XY positional data is available. Single axis and triple axis sensing are also capabilities as appropriate for specific applications. Ultrasound – For decades, ultrasound has been used for medical imaging of internal structures as viewed from outside the body. Ultrasound is also used for non-destructive testing of metallic assembly faults and cracks. Medusa Scientific has proprietary technology for broadband modulation of ultrasound. By applying specific modulation patterns, ultrasonic scanning of objects, underwater or in air, produces much improved target surface feature resolution. With ultrasound, measuring the delay between emitted sound and the reflection yields the distance to the reflecting objects. Physically moving the ultrasonic transducer or using a phased array, vertical and horizontal scanning takes place. Together with depth, a three-dimensional ultrasonic view is readily available using Medusa Scientific imaging technology. Color Night Vision – Very low light level imaging has historically used an image intensifier device producing a monochromatic image that is converted to video or a standard still image format. The human eye operates differently at night than in daylight. We see a lack of color outside at night. Conventional night vision systems have been valuable in that they can image objects not seen by the human eye.
  • 10. Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 10 of 49 Low light levels do not eliminate the wavelengths of light we see during daylight. Medusa Scientific has developed and designed a very low light level image sensor system that produces quality images with very low light levels. The image is filtered into fundamental wavelengths to ultimately produce a full color image. The Cyclops technology contains this proprietary technology in a helmet or goggles with image presentation to the eye. ELECTRONICS Medusa Scientific is equipped and staffed to design electronic circuitry using the following substrates: Silicon Level Design – Monolithic single chip designs using standard CMOS, BiCMOS and other configurations of transistors plus passive components such as resistors, capacitors and diodes. These components make up electronic circuits that perform functions dictated by the requirements they are designed to meet. Silicon chips offer smallest size, low cost and low power for production runs, extremely small and light weight products, lowest power needs and increased security of design. Medusa Scientific has over 3 decades of experience in designing chip solutions. Analog, RF, digital and mixed-signal submicron designs may be the right method to meet client requirements. System Level Designs – This is a critical distinction of the design process since this is the overall or global design that is a top-level design looking at the whole picture. This is a design discipline that defines the sub-functions of the system to meet the requirements. Symbolic or block design is usually the first phase using behavioral simulation followed by precise component level design of each sub-function at the schematic level and simulated using precise component models. Simulation at this level is very accurate. Implementation of the system level design is at the circuit board level of assembly and may include one or more integrated circuits as designed with this process. Digital functions can be performed by a micro-controller or microprocessor, depending on the speed of execution required. Fast execution is performed by an FPGA. High performance analog and power circuitry may be separate.
  • 11. Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 11 of 49 DC to Beyond Light – Often work with very wide bandwidths in a facility are referred to as “DC to Daylight”. At Medusa Scientific we literally deal at DC with their E-field sensing which, for intrusion detection, has a bandwidth of DC to <1 Hz. Medusa deals with ultrasonic and RF frequencies for communication and their imaging work occurs at infrared, visible and ultra-violet frequencies. Sensing sub-atomic emissions of their particle physics work pushes their “bandwidth” to literally beyond daylight. They have multiple labs for this very reason. Many disciplines are required throughout the “DC to beyond daylight” and different scientists and engineers will be involved with projects depending on the nature of the application. It is not unusual for a requirement to deal with a variety of frequencies, many times involving different disciplines of science and engineering. SCIENCE Medusa Scientific is active in both research and development. Basic research takes place in their labs as well as other facilities throughout the country. Development is frequently associated with engineering design to be most efficient. Development mostly takes place in their labs and results in a way that can be implemented in physical form. Research – Fundamental research takes place in their laboratories in the broad areas of electric fields, magnetic fields, sensing, energy and communication. In other labs we continue with basic research into the understanding of atomic and sub-atomic particles for applications in energy generation, energy storage and other uses. Research takes place both in intellectual thought, group discussions, advanced capability of modeling and simulation and actual lab experiments. Development – Research establishes a set of understanding that provides the direction for physical implementation. Actual lab experiments adds and refines research knowledge and begins an understanding of how to ultimately describe the physicality of the technology in order to pass the knowledge on to engineering for actual design implementation. Development also provides the information necessary to describe the technology to others in order to foster further research and to commercialize the technology.
  • 12. Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 12 of 49 Mathematics – The base of understanding and the language of communication of any new research is mathematics. Math also is a fundamental means of understanding and the foundation of any work furthering the understanding of a technology. Medusa Scientific math is rooted in MatLab which is global math software used by most governmental and educational labs and groups working in science. Medusa Scientific modeling and simulations use Maple Sim and COMSOL. Both are also universally used. COMSOL gives Medusa a research and development tool key to most of their R&D efforts. Maple Sim also provides a powerful development and design tool for modeling and simulation. ENGINEERING Medusa Scientific actively designs many electronic and mechanical devices and assembles them in prototype quantities for field evaluation and demonstrations. Electronics – Designs frequently are based on the Research and Development work of the scientists at Medusa Scientific. Customer specific applications also set the direction of design efforts. Designs frequently start with symbolic models, block or system level schematic diagrams and behavioral simulations to establish a design concept. Detailed schematic diagrams with exact circuit components and precise models are then used for accurate Berkeley Spice simulations whether the design is a printed circuit level assembly or a silicon chip. Physical design then proceeds with a layout that is an actual design process depending on the production technology. Printed Circuit Boards are designed with several different software tools depending on the frequencies involved. Altium and AWR are used for high frequency designs while Altium or Multisim/Ultiboard is used for low frequency designs. Tanner Design or AWR are used for monolithic layout designs in a silicon environment, depending on the frequencies and wafer foundries chosen. Medusa Scientific designs at the system or block diagram level with software including SystemVue or AWR.
  • 13. Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 13 of 49 Mechanical – Design of housings, fixtures and enclosures for communication, sensing and energy devices developed and designed by Medusa Scientific and outside customers. Most design is done in software such as SolidWorks and may be ported to MasterCAM for ultimate programming of edm or multi-axis machines in their sister company, The ProtoLab (www.medprotolab.com) to produce prototype parts or produce short production runs. Materials include any electrically conductive material for edm machining or non-conductive materials for multi-axis machining by The ProtoLab. TECHNOLOGIES Medusa Scientific has expertise and decades of experience among the scientists and engineers in a variety of fields. In some cases, papers are available on these subjects for downloading. A brief description of the technologies includes: Sensors – Airborne, ground-based and portable, hand-held sensing using a number of methods such as ultra-violet, visible, infra-red and lower frequency electromagnetic radiation such as radar and goniometers. E-field and ultrasonic based sensing are other sets of disciplines in development and design. Cyclops – Seeing in darkness is facilitated with electronic devices such as image- intensifiers, electron multipliers and other devices that amplify a very low light level and present an image visible to the eye. What has been missing is the technology to present a true full color image at night level illumination. Medusa Scientific has developed and designed such a system, now covered by U.S. Patents. E-field – Sensing the ambient electrical field by sensing electrical charge with a sensitivity of less than one electron at the input of the Medusa Scientific electronics module. Using multiple element antenna structures and input modules allow for the visual presentation of the location of those charges in one, two and three dimensional displays plus charge magnitude measurement data.
  • 14. Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 14 of 49 Communications – RF and ultrasonic wireless communication systems. TM – RF communication work is centered on TM, Transpositional Modulation. TM is a fundamentally new method of modulating a carrier signal that will double or more the information bandwidth within a defined and in-use communication channel. TM is a modulation that is mutually transparent to conventional modulations. TM is a Medusa Scientific patented technology. Ultrasonic communication is an acoustic or physical particle based technology as opposed to RF which is an electromagnetic wave method of communication. Acoustic energy limits the transmission to a non-vacuum medium. Air can be used but gasses are much less efficient than liquids. Of course, solids are an even better medium for ultrasound propagation. Water is the focus of Medusa Scientific's efforts in untethered underwater communication. USM – Historically, modulating ultrasound has been limited to having less than desirable modulation bandwidth. Methods of modulating piezo-electric ultrasonic transducers with wide bandwidth and linearity have been designed and are now covered by Medusa Scientific owned U.S. Patents. SeaLINK – Utilizing USM modulation technology, a network of multiple nodes can be assembled using mesh-network technology that conveys various types of data throughout the network. Data such as voice, physiological information, sensory data and even video can be sent throughout the network using untethered communication. Encryption of several levels is used for external and internal privacy. SeaLINK is covered by U.S. Patents of Medusa Scientific. Energy – Chemical, nuclear and physical means of converting, generating, harvesting and storing energy. IsoToPower is an environmentally-safe source of energy using the conversation of radiation from an isotopic material into a current flow that is a nuclear battery. Material is chosen for long life, low level energy to short life, high level energy for high power, short duration applications. Both cases are completely environmentally safe and conventionally disposable. Medusa Scientific has a number of patents covering various design aspects of the IsoToPower battery. Work on this is conducted under contract at nuclear laboratories outside of Medusa Scientific including the University of Arizona.
  • 15. Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 15 of 49 Photo-Kinetic Generation – Is a closed loop chemical system capable of producing significant amounts of energy in relatively small enclosures resulting in high energy density. Harvesting – Is a means of converting one form of existing unused energy into a useful form of energy – in their case an electrical output. Other chemical systems and mechanical designs are in research and development as sources of energy to power modern electronic devices and systems.
  • 16. Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 16 of 49 RECOMMENDATIONS PROBLEM OR BUSINESS NEED Our client is Medusa Scientific, an Arizona LLC and a wholly owned subsidiary of Medusa International, a Nevada corporation. Medusa is an R&D organization possessing important and valuable Intellectual Property (IP) that has been (a) used in government contracts as well as (b) applied to numerous proposals to government and major government contractors such as L3, Boeing, Elbit, Lockheed-Martin (LockMart), Northrop-Grumman, etc. and (c) submitted proposals to agencies including DIA, CIA, NSA of the U.S. government. The parent company has other divisions dealing with branches of the Department of Defense for training and other purposes. The U.S. Government has drastically cut back on funding of new Research and Development contracts and delaying payments on existing contracts to private businesses, not just Medusa Scientific. The financial foundation of the organization has been changed. No longer can they rely on government funding of R&D projects or any other government income for the other divisions within the parent company. Awareness of this problem began to increase in 2011 but became a factual issue by summer 2012. Since then the emphasis on funding projects has shifted to the private sector. Medusa does not want outside corporate ownership of its technology, thus, the terms have shifted with the IP to isolate the IP by various structures on investment. This has resulted in a number of failed negotiations where the initial aspects were of a benign – almost angel -like funding – nature only to reveal a hostile aspect of an investment. To mitigate the problem, Medusa has pursued private financing through several types of corporate structure changes. They are re- structuring the entities as public companies encompassing each Intellectual Property as a stand-alone public company all owned (for now) under the parent company. This actually has the advantage of being able to sell off a specific Intellectual Property independently and with no effect on any of the other IPs. The broad problem is financing on-going operations. The path of financing the owned Intellectual Property strengthens negotiations with potential users of IP because of the work performed and ability to support claims of the IP. In addition, MEDUSA Scientific has no Risk Management Plan in place.
  • 17. Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 17 of 49 FUNCTIONAL AREAS Due to the cash flow issues, hiring personnel (HR) is a huge problem for the company, as is marketing (for example, no online presence). This impacts Human Resources because their financial issues prevent them from securing qualified personnel. Medusa Scientific is unable to offer competitive wages and benefits to prospective employees. Because of these financial hardships, Medusa Scientific has had to scale back the number of technologies they are currently developing. They don't have the labor force to assist them with projects because they are not able to afford full-time workers. They are currently without a marketing budget, so they are also without an online presence. This creates more problems for Medusa Scientific because without an online presence, it becomes an obstacle for new customers to find them, pay for products and services, thereby increasing Medusa's profits. Executive members of Medusa Scientific have had to spend valuable time finding and securing clients themselves. Having an online presence would help tremendously with their marketing and could become an additional source for communication with distant employees as well as aid in a Risk Management Plan. A Risk Management Plan is necessary because without it, Medusa Scientific would be risking the loss to data, products and human capital which they clearly cannot afford to be without. Much of the work that Medusa Scientific has done in the past has required Top Secret, High Security Clearances. In conversations with Mr. Gerdes, we have learned that they do not have a Risk Management plan in place. Mr. Gerdes has shared that they endured a significant losses to theft which, due to the fact that they are a high security clearance facility, mandated investigation by the FBI. Implementation of a Risk Management Plan can, potentially, reduce the amount of risk for theft and other risk factors. Reducing these types of losses with a Risk Management Plan would thus improve Medusa Scientific's future financial performance. Therefore, the Functional Areas planned to examine for Medusa will include: 1. Human Resources; 2. Marketing; and 3. Risk Management.
  • 18. Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 18 of 49 SOLUTIONS 1. Human Resources Due to lack of funding, Medusa Scientific struggles with paying permanent employees wages and benefits. We believe that there are a number of outsourcing solutions that Medusa Scientific could benefit from including college internships, work-study programs, hiring independent contractors and utilizing Contract Recruiter services. College Internships Many colleges encourage their students to participate in internships in an effort to strengthen their awareness in their selected field of study as well as gain business experience. Generally, internships consist of short -term work relationships up to about 200 hours whereby an employer provides students training, supervision, business experience and feedback. Internships can be completed for school credit, work experience, and wages, or a combination of any of these. Medusa Scientific could solicit the universities in their area offering short- term internships in the various areas for which they have business needs: Accounting, Engineering, Human Resources, Marketing, etc. This would require little effort on the part of Medusa Scientific and minimal costs. It would entail gathering the names and addresses of the Universities they want to solicit and write a letter regarding their offer of Internship. While it is possible to reduce costs by contacting the various Universities via email, even with paper and postage, the costs would be minimal. Utilizing interns would be a way for Medusa Scientific to take advantage of cheap yet skilled labor and intelligent labor, thus improving upon their future financial performance.
  • 19. Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 19 of 49 Work-Study Programs The Federal Work Study Program provides funding for part-time work to assist students with their educational expenses. Students can receive this funding from over 3300 Universities. Hourly wages must meet the federal minimum wage standards. Medusa Scientific again, could inquire with local Universities offering a Work Study Program. In many instances, the college or the Business Partner must pay up to 50% of the student’s pay. This would require little effort on the part of Medusa Scientific and could help to reduce wages by up to 50%. Again, Medusa would need to gather the names and addresses of the Universities they want to solicit and write a letter regarding their offer of a Work Study Program. While it is possible to reduce costs by contacting the various Universities via email, even with paper and postage, the costs would be minimal. With this type of program, if Medusa needed a receptionist, for example, they could solicit a local business college about a work study program, and pay about half what they might normally incur for this expense. Medusa Scientific could also work with the University of Arizona's Work Study Program to secure graduate students in the fields of engineering and physics. This would help Medusa Scientific to secure assistance at significantly reduced wage rates, thus improving upon their future financial performance. Hiring Independent Contractors There are numerous benefits for hiring Independent Contractors rather than permanent employees. Despite the fact that most business entities pay more wages per hour for contractors, as opposed to permanent workers, in the long run, it drastically reduces the costs. With independent contractors, you would not have to pay benefits, Medicare or Social Security taxes, workers' compensation insurance nor state unemployment insurance. This could be a 20-30% savings for Medusa for each position they fill using independent contractors. Hiring contractors increases flexibility. Medusa could hire a contractor for a specific project, with the understanding that the worker will be gone once the task has been completed. The employer will not need to bear the expense, trauma, and/or potential legal trouble that often accompany layoffs and terminations.
  • 20. Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 20 of 49 Medusa might also benefit from increased efficiency by hiring independent contractors because most of them have specialized expertise and can become productive promptly, eliminating training costs, and benefiting from the ability to expand and contract their workforce as needed. Hiring independent contractors is also a way to reduce their legal liabilities. Workers have many rights under state and federal laws. Impinging upon those rights could land an employer in a lawsuit for violation of those rights. Contractors, on the other hand, do not share those legal protections, including:  the right to 1 ½ times their regular wages for overtime;  protections from age, race, gender, ethnic, color and religion discrimination;  the right to form a union, and  Family Medical Leave Act protections. Medusa would still need to offer competitive wages to attract skilled independent contractors but this method could drastically reduce their labor costs, thus improving upon their future financial performance. Contract Recruiter Services As with the options listed above, Contract Recruiter Services also has many benefits. Medusa would save a great deal of cash by hiring a Contract Recruiter over a staffing agency. A Contract Recruiter is skilled for handling all hiring needs and they work much like the independent contractor discussed above. This means that Medusa would not be responsible for providing regular worker benefits/protections. In fact, Medusa could hire a Contract Recruiter on a commission basis. Hiring workers from a staffing agency puts the business entity at their mercy and time constraints. Staffing agencies tend to have numerous clients and often cannot fill your job vacancy as promptly as Medusa might desire. However, a Contract Recruiter would get started searching for employees right away. They would be more likely to get the job completed more promptly if they are motivated by commissions rather than hourly wages.
  • 21. Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 21 of 49 Another advantage is an intimate knowledge of Medusa's organizational culture. They would become intimately familiar with Medusa's mission and vision, and make hiring decisions in alignment with Medusa's goals. For instance, if Medusa was searching for workers with strong progressive instincts and who could work well without supervision, a Contract Recruiter would add those qualities to their repertoire of screening criteria, in essence, developing their ideal staff! Unfortunately, it can be difficult to reach a representative at a staffing agency or HR firm, and this could prevent Medusa from communicating time-sensitive information. With a Contract Recruiter, they would be doing most of the work in-house, which makes them easily accessible. If they had questions, comments or new information to disclose, the communication would be easy to share. Not only does hiring a Contract Recruiter simplify communication, but it would allow Medusa to collaborate with their Recruiter on hiring decisions. Just because Medusa is not able to handle the hiring, interviewing and training themselves does not mean that they hold a desire to be completely closed off from the process; Medusa could drop in on their Contract Recruiter whenever necessary to meet new hires or to assist with interviewing. Social Media Medusa could also create profiles with the popular online social mediums such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook at no charge. This would be an opportunity to recruit skilled workers from around the world, without incurring additional expenses. By creating a Facebook business page, for example, Medusa could connect with Universities in their area, continuing to promote work study programs and/or internships. Thus the use of social media could help Medusa Scientific improve upon their future financial performance. 2. MARKETING (Online Presence) A. BRAND/SERVICE VIABILITY Medusa Scientific was formed in 2010. Medusa Scientific's mission is to develop unique and owned intellectual properties (IP) to the point where they are useful technologies for targeted markets. Medusa Scientific has experienced some measure of success. Medusa Scientific took down their website because it ultimately proved unsuccessful, but they did keep the domain name. However, they never had a SEO strategy in place. Medusa Scientific hasn't used any social media for the promotion of their business.
  • 22. Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 22 of 49 Medusa Scientific would like to increase their effectiveness and reach with an online presence to serve both their external and internal clients as well as to meet the organizational mission. The following components would improve their viability online:  Medusa Scientific organizational benefits;  A list of their current services and products;  Client benefits; and  Target demographics. Products and Services Most of their products are all Intellectual Property (IP) in the areas of Communication, Sensing, Energy, Imaging and Electronics. Target Customers and Demographics Some of their communication technology customers include Sprint, T-Mobile and Echo-Star. Some of their underwater communication customers include: US Navy, Bluetronix, and Bluewater. Some of their sensing technology customers include Intelligence agency groups and U.S. Military Divisions. Their nuclear energy and particle physics research customers can not be identified, as that requires a Top Secret clearance. Medusa Scientific Organizational Benefits Improving the website for Medusa Scientific could produce the following benefits:  Improving the reach and efficiency of their client base;  Expanding their client base;  Communicate with Suppliers;  Communicate with employees and prospective candidates for employment; and  Website could be utilized for communication purposes should Medusa Scientific need to activate their Risk Management Plan.
  • 23. Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 23 of 49 B. ONLINE COMPETITORS Here we will compare Medusa Scientific's competitors’ websites. Their top competitors were chosen based upon the recommendation of their Chief Scientist, Rick Gerdes, for similar products and services offered.  Development process improvements: Using file sharing, blogs, chat boards and other social media will improve Medusa's communication efforts with their clients; and  Collaboration Improvements: with other scientists to improve on their innovation efforts. WEBSITE REVIEW OF POTENTIAL COMPETITORS Name of Company Website Year Business Established Rincon Research Corporation http://www.rincon.com 2006 SAIC Engineering Solutions http://saic.com 1969 L-3 http://www.l-3com.com 1977 The elements considered in ranking the top competitors to Medusa Scientific include: 1. Navigation; 2. Site Map; 3. Photos; 4. Logo Consistency; and 5. Website Features.
  • 24. Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 24 of 49 ASSESSMENT OF COMPETITOR WEBSITES Name of Company NAVIGATION SITE MAP PHOTOS LOGOS WEBSITE FEATURES Rincon Research Corporation 2 3 1 3 2 SAIC Engineering Solutions 2 0 3 3 2 L-3 3 3 3 2 2 Rating System: 0 = Poor 1 = Below Average 2 = Average 3 = Above Average WEBSITE FEATURES NAME CAREERS SUPPLIERS PRODUCTS & SERVICES SOCIAL MEDIA SCIENTIFIC PAPERS EMAIL Rincon Research Corporation   SAIC Engineering Solutions      L-3    
  • 25. Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 25 of 49 C. WEBSITE STRATEGIES AND RECOMMENDATIONS Marketing successes for small businesses should utilize a combination of cutting edge strategies with time-tested marketing techniques in the marketplace. This can become a difficult struggle for profit-oriented businesses to find the right marketing mix. Effective marketing programs appear to share one component: The best approach permits smaller businesses to scale their visibility with their patrons. Where these enterprises lack in resources, could be made up for in marketing expertise and intelligence. PR Strategies Although PR can be more subtle, it is no less adroit than full-blown marketing thrusts. If Medusa Scientific desires to relay to their target patrons, unlimited marketing messages, buying mailing lists from the top three credit reporting agencies and executing direct mail campaigns could be a potential solution. However, if the strategy demands poise and refinement, thought leadership and media buy-in, Medusa Scientific could consider hiring a professional Public Relations advisor. Since public relations leverages most social mediums, it may cost very little to amass advertisements that accentuate intriguing themes about their brand and products. The key is to learn how to pitch these intriguing themes to your audience without appearing to be sales-aggressive. Begetting the Buzz The value of viral marketing should not be underestimated. There can be great gains by generating word-of-mouth advertising about Medusa Scientific. This is a critical component for the marketing mix, especially for a technology and innovation business. In the promotion of these marketplace conversations, Medusa Scientific should provide their patrons with the necessary tools for the creation of concise brand dialogues. With little effort, they can fuel conversations through popular social mediums.
  • 26. Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 26 of 49 Community Branding Social mediums have risen in popularity because it promotes participation by patrons, thus constructing a community of interested customers. Technology and innovation enterprises could take advantage of marketing strategies which tap into these networks and communities. Again, buying mailing lists from the top three credit reporting agencies and executing direct mail campaigns could promote social medium drives with client base expansion, and notifying these clients of your social medium presence. Sponsorships Team and event sponsorships have proven successful for enhancement of public profiles. Oftentimes successful sponsorships happen over a longer time period as opposed to a one-time event. Strategic sponsorships will target other technology and innovation clients, employees, and suppliers. To reduce expenses and multiply benefits, Medusa Scientific might consider co-sponsoring with a complementary business. For example, they may check to see if local schools have science or engineering programs for which need sponsorship.
  • 27. Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 27 of 49 D. SEARCH ENGINES A crucial component to ensure that patrons (existing and new) access their website is Search Engine Optimization (SEO) utilization. Mr. Smith wrote: “more than 50% of the time clients visit One of the highest 4 ranked search results for key-phrases – top spot alone is visited more than 40% of the time. Although it might not be researched as frequently, the whole “tail,” which could relate to service, location, entity or brand, composes more than 68% of search results (Smith, 2011). For some enterprises, geographical region is perceived as an elementary component for successes. However, websites are deemed successful by search engine rankings (Bing, Yahoo, and Google). To build and elevate SEO for Medusa Scientific, we would suggest including keywords into their website's title, body content, sub-headings and headings. Basic keywords incorporated into their online presence and meta tags might include: science Technology Innovation sensors science jobs technology jobs Research Engineering design prototypes laboratory Internships Ultrasound e-field mass spectrometry chemical Nuclear Particle harvesting imaging light Silicon night vision RF florescence careers Spectrometry color night vision system level design DC to beyond light To foster advanced SEO, RSS feed utilization is also suggested. Integration of blogs would also promote the sharing, expansion and development that would be meaningful to Medusa Scientific's clients. Infusion of the keywords suggested above into blogs for the purpose of site traffic promotion and utilization of web analytics for assessing site traffic is suggested. Web analytics could be used as a marketing and industry research and for measuring and improving online presence effectiveness (Wikipedia).
  • 28. Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 28 of 49 E. SOCIAL MEDIUM INTEGRATION Medusa Scientific should integrate social media into their online presence. The Nielsen Company has reported that Internet users in the United States spend about 23% of their time on social network sites (Nielsen Company, 2010) and that over 200 million Americans are utilize the Internet (Nielsen Company, 2012) . Integrating social media would profit Medusa Scientific with business promotion and improved site traffic, by dispersing their brands and services, and by rendering immediate feedback on what patrons want and don't want with regard to services and products. Additionally, site functionality improvements through client feedback analysis on social media could also be competently transmitted. Therefore, Medusa Scientific should implement blogging, LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook to their online presence. Medusa Scientific would benefit with the utilization of social mediums due to the fact that they could use these services for free marketing of their services and products. In return, patrons would benefit due to the fact that they have the opportunity for interaction with Medusa Scientific and provide them with beneficial feedback. F. ONLINE CLIENT RELATIONSHIP Customer relationship management (CRM) is a customarily implemented method to manage an entity's communications with patrons and demand projections. This would include utilizing technology for the purpose of classifying, automating, and synchronizing corporate operations including tech support, customer service, marketing and demand, (Shaw, 1991). The benefit is to reduce marketing and consumer expenses, detect, allure, and retain potential patrons, cultivate and retain the patrons they already have, and to attract loyal clients (Gartner, 2009). It illustrates an entity-wide strategy to include consumer-interface divisions. Measurement is essential to implement this plan. Social networks including LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Google augment consumer voices in the marketplace and endure profound effects on the manner patrons make purchasing decisions: today they conduct online business research as well as seek input from family and friends for recommendations. For example, we just had a Facebook friend post that they were looking for a good neurosurgeon and they received numerous responses from their friends and family members. Consumers are utilizing social mediums for sharing of experiences and opinions about companies, services and brands. Without censorship, these consumers are free to express opinions without limitations. For start-up or small businesses, primary consumer services could be accomplished with an integrated solution that permits entities and others to record and track interactions productively, including scheduling, employment activity, email and file- sharing. There are also opportunities to track sales pipelines and service and marketing functions. As with large corporations, small businesses might find value in online resolutions (Wikipedia).
  • 29. Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 29 of 49 Organizational advantages include elevations in profits, consumer satisfaction increases, and prosperous expense reductions to operational costs. Advocates stress that technology should be implemented only with well -thought out strategic planning. By using CRM, Medusa Scientific would improve be in a position to improve the client experience. Analytical CRM – Medusa Scientific's plan should be designed to use consumer data for the purpose of: 1. suggesting services and brands; 2. creation and refinement of consumer service methods; 3. identification marketing methods for services for new and loyal patrons; and 4. SWOT analysis for threats, opportunities and trends for the decision-making improvements with regard to market expansion. They could use Google Analytics freeware which would allow them to track site visitors through social networks, email campaigns, search engines and Pay-Per-Click advertisements. G. INTERNATIONAL CONSIDERATIONS Strategic planning that focuses and develops markets outside of the United States has become Medusa Scientific's objective. To capitalize on this venture, Medusa Scientific has considered:  Cultural Differences;  International policies and procedures;  Differences with time zones;  Regulations regarding shipping;  Barriers for languages;  Graphical color and images;  Currency Exchange; and  International ethical business practices. We suggest that Medusa Scientific hires TransPerfect for the translation of data from their website into many languages for a flat fee of $500. This demonstrated a reduction of expenses as opposed to the development of several other websites and country domains.
  • 30. Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 30 of 49 H. ASSOCIATED COSTS FOR WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT Medusa Scientific has developed a budget for their online presence. This budget includes costs for website development and ongoing monthly maintenance costs. Yearly and monthly costs were allotted for a Webmaster to work the site full-time, to render tech assistance and to ensure that site content remains relevant. WEBSITE EXPENSES ITEM NON- RECURRING PER MONTH PER YEAR Webmaster $2,800.00 $450.00 $5,400.00 Domain Purchase 175.00 - - - - Hosting Fees - - $18.00 $216.00 Interactive Chat Feature - - $22.00 $264.00 Project - - $22.00 $264.00 Management Feature Shopping Cart - - $14.00 168.00 TransPerfect $500.00 - - - - Language Translation Features Affiliate $455.00 $80.00 $960.00 Advertising TOTALS $3,930.00 $606.00 $7,272.00
  • 31. Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 31 of 49 Summary Internet marketing is an extremely important tool for corporations today due to the fact that it aligns with the way in which consumers make purchasing decisions. Studies have indicated significant elevations in the number of consumers utilizing social media and Internet research for preliminary product and price information prior to making their final purchasing decisions. Use of the Internet as a marketing tool can promote relationship building with consumers and prospective clients through regular, low-cost personalized communications. Internet marketing also provides a convenience value for Medusa Scientific as well as clients or prospective clients. It expands the hours of operations without having to pay employees over time, increasing company information and availability from 8 working hours per day to 24 hours per day, 365 days per year. By Medusa Scientific offering their product line across the Internet, this would allow clients to browse and place orders at their convenience. Internet marketing also overcomes distance barriers. Medusa Scientific can sell their products and services in any country of the world without the necessity of setting up shop locally. These are just a few examples of the value and positive impact Internet marketing would have on Medusa Scientific's future financial performance.
  • 32. Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 32 of 49 3. RISK MANAGEMENT Catastrophic events can happen without warning. In the event of an emergency, it is important for Medusa Scientific to reduce their risks by taking reasonable measure for the proper protection of their property and human capital. Emergency situations demand a certain amount of recovery before normal business activities may resume. The extent of their recovery efforts is dependent on the type of emergency involved. Recovery plans should begin as soon as the situation is stabilized. The purpose of this proposed Plan is to define recovery actions, continuity processes, and emergency management development for the restoration of Medusa Scientific's business activities. Plan components shall detail response procedures that affect Medusa Scientific' ability to restore business activities and services for staff and address regulatory and legal mandates.
  • 33. Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 33 of 49 A. RISK RESPONSE Working with Medusa Scientific, we have identified three levels of emergency events, which relate to the magnitude of the emergency: Level One ― this low level event associates isolated departments or buildings that might promptly be solved with internal resources. At this level, there is little or no impact on the entity operations for Medusa Scientific. Impacted employees would coordinate appropriate resolutions with the Risk Manager. Level Two ― this medium-level event could disrupt larger areas of Medusa Scientific for which cannot be controlled or managed by utilizing normal procedures. This type of event may call for external assistance such as ambulatory services or fire rescue. These events may escalate quickly, and may have greater consequences for the safety of human capital and/or operational activities. Level Three ― this high-level cataclysmic event could greatly impact Medusa Scientific facilities, and as well as the surrounding community. This type of event would probably halt business activities and have far- reaching and complicated impacts and demand prompt resolutions. Additionally, it could also require considerable coordination and expansive cooperative efforts. The HR Director and Risk Manager should coordinate efforts for appropriate resolutions. Risk Number One: Attacks from Terrorists (Risk = High) Terrorism has been defined as the use of violence and intimidation in an effort to secure political goals (Wikipedia). If terrorists were to target Medusa Scientific headquarters, they could incur severe property damage as well as loss of lives. This is not likely to happen due to the fact that terrorists usually target skyscrapers, financial institutions and utilities, to name a few. In the unlikely event that this situation should transpire, the first priority would be the safe removal of workers and to address their medical needs. The Human Resource Director and the Risk Manager should work together, accounting for all employees and which remain missing. The Risk Manager should promptly notify emergency services, which will probably arrive very quickly. Should terrorists take a Medusa Scientific hostage, the Federal Bureau of Investigation should be promptly notified by the Risk Manager and comply with their directions.
  • 34. Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 34 of 49 Terrorists tend to target public buildings they deem vulnerable. Medusa Scientific should contemplate allocation of their limited resources for risk reduction since becoming a “hard target” tends to deter terrorists. Some measures for physical security include fencing, closed-circuit or dummy cameras, limit public access entrances, use of I.D. badge systems, security sign-ins for visitors (and check identification), controlled parking, mail room package inspections and training employees how to properly inspect suspect packages, outdoor lighting, and using security guards around the property. Finally, the Risk Manager should also notify the insurance provider regarding damage claims and ensure building stability. Risk Number Two: Fire (Risk = High) A fire in Medusa Scientific's buildings would likely halt operations. If a fire starts, First Responders should promptly attempt to contain it. Prompt activation of the emergency alarm system and location announcement via the intercom system should occur when a worker notices a fire. The Human Resources should then begin evacuation procedures for all persons in the building. On a yearly basis, every worker needs to complete fire extinguisher training. The potential destruction caused by fire could become minimal by training workers on the proper procedures for fire response. Also, planned and regular fire drills will help workers become familiar with evacuation procedures. The Human Resource Director should plan the fire drills. Risk Number Three: Data Compromises (Risk = Medium) Access that is not authorized and/or the illegal use of client or employee data could create legal liability for Medusa Scientific. In the event that this were to happen, Medusa Scientific should reach a prompt determination of what data was compromised, send notices to those that are affected, and provide Identity Theft Monitoring for the victims. Additionally, Medusa Scientific should assist the police in the investigation and apprehension of the perpetrators. The computer security systems will also need to be reviewed and/or modified to prevent future crisis events of this nature.
  • 35. Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 35 of 49 Risk Number Four: Disruptions: Communications and Technology (Risk = Medium) Communication and/or technology outages, including service provider blackouts, could result in economic losses and substantial disruptions. They generally occur without warning so Medusa Scientific will need to have a contingency plan in place in an effort to minimize these disruptions. Alternate Internet providers and cell phones are important to assure continuation of operations. Accommodating key workers with these additional services could minimize the economic impact associated with not being able to reach suppliers, employees and patrons. Risk Number Five: Exchange Rates (Risk = Low) Medusa Scientific plans to provide a range of products and services to international clients. Fluctuations with currency and exchange rates can create small risks for Medusa Scientific. To reduce the risks, Medusa Scientific will need to rely upon their CFO to monitor these fluctuations, and provide advice in an effort to reduce these risks. In addition, contracts should be written so that it is clear that the currency exchange will be in U.S. dollars. Risk Number Six: Loss of Key Employees (Risk = Low) Losses of key workers could also develop disruptions because employee substitutions might not handle those responsibilities effectively. Thus, Medusa Scientific could incorporate an employee development and succession planning program to address the potential future losses of key workers and to successfully transition skilled workers to the positions that have suddenly been vacated.
  • 36. Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 36 of 49 Risk Number Seven: Theft (Risk = Low) Medusa Scientific has a desire to preserve all assets. Inventories should be completed of all electronics, including televisions, software, hardware, computers, printers and copiers or other similar equipment. The Risk Manager should assume responsibility for this task, continually updating the inventory every 90 days. Inventory lists should be made available off-site and on-site. To deter theft, security cameras should be installed at every exit within Medusa Scientific buildings and security should be employed for night monitoring. Risk Number Eight: Natural Disaster (Risk = High) Tornadoes Medusa Scientific comprehends that Mother Nature could disrupt the operations of their business. During a tornado, Medusa Scientific visitors, suppliers, clients and personnel, should remain peaceful and quickly progress to the lowest floor, using the staircase, avoiding all windows, and assume a fetal position. Keep all doors closed. When the weather has calmed, promptly exit the building, checking for fire, hazardous materials and damage to electrical wiring. Employees need to report all hazards promptly to the Risk Manager. Earthquakes During an earthquake, Medusa Scientific workers, visitors, suppliers and clients should again, remain calm and quickly take cover under furniture (table or desk). Stay there until the earthquake has ceased. Keep away from all windows and heavy furniture. If a worker is outside, they should run to an open area, stay clear of damaged power lines and architecture and remain watchful for flying debris. Stay inside your vehicle and, away from traffic, and clear of tunnels, overpasses and bridges.
  • 37. Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 37 of 49 BUSINESS CONTINGENCY PLAN There are numerous strategic changes that Medusa Scientific could incorporate to continue services. It is important for the restoration of services to transpire as soon as possible following a disruption to business operations. Due to the fact that a portion of the business operations for Medusa Scientific has already experienced some success with running at-home computers, this would make for an effective back up plan. Each division manager will be responsible for assuring that all of their business-related functions could continue online at home, if the need should arise. Medusa Scientific should also incorporate a succession planning program to replace the loss of key personnel. This will minimize the impact of business disruptions. Succession planning is also a part of talent management due to the fact that it mandates identifying and developing employees with significant potential. Employee skills, education, and talents would be documented and could be readily available when a vacancy opens for a key position. A. Protecting Sensitive Data The protection and ethical use of sensitive client data is a high priority for Medusa Scientific. This would not only include client and worker data but proprietary processes and supplier information as well. Worker and client data includes, among other things, SSN, banking and other contact information. Mobile data can be secured in locked file cabinets, accessed only by authorized employees. The Medusa Scientific network could use intrusion detection protocols, firewalls, and readily available anti-virus protection tools. Firewalls are developed to prevent unauthorized access. Intrusion protocols would alert IT professionals when a breach has transpired. Anti- virus tools prevent malicious programs from sabotaging computers and networks. These types of tools help to assure that access customer data and other sensitive information remains safe and secure. Medusa Scientific will need to disable USB ports to prevent employees from accessing this data and copying it to portable drives. Medusa Scientific will need to utilize a facility off-site for the purpose of backing up this data. Taking this measure permits access should the primary copy be destroyed (What is Offsite Backup?).
  • 38. Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 38 of 49 Additionally, Medusa Scientific should implement an employee ethics training program. While a written code of ethics would normally include information regarding potential conflicts, a training program provides opportunities for the examination of best ways to handle unethical situations. It would be wise for Medusa Scientific to incorporate an anonymous reporting system for perceived ethics violations and to demonstrate their commitment for an ethical business culture. By implementing these recommendations, Medusa Scientific can reduce the risk that their sensitive information will be compromised. B. Communication Plans 1. Email 2. Website 3. Employee Meetings 4. Phone List A communication plan is not just for crisis events, but also after business disruptions. Implementing a communication plan would help Medusa Scientific to relay information to clients and workers. If a crisis were to unfold, it would be a method for workers to check-in and confirm their safety. Medusa should provide workers with an emergency to communicate their evacuation status, and how they could be reached in case of an emergency. The plan should include a check -in time, for example, 72 hours following a crisis event. When this time is up, and there has been no contact with certain employees, Medusa Scientific could report those workers as “missing”. In addition, Medusa Scientific can use their (new) website to share updates, such as when normal business operations can be expected to resume. Medusa Scientific can also use an email system for sharing updates with clients and employees.
  • 39. Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 39 of 49 C. Restoring Operations Depending on how severe the disruption becomes, restoration might be completed promptly. The objective is to return to normal operations as safely and promptly as possible in an effort to reduce the financial impacts to Medusa Scientific. Medusa Scientific Risk Manager may need to contact an insurance adjuster to notify them of the crisis. This allows them to get the claim in for payment promptly. Medusa Scientific may need the CFO to contact their financial institution for the establishment of new credit lines or perhaps for withdraws from other funding sources to replace equipment. Medusa Scientific holds a high regard for the safety of their clientele and employees. Should a building become severely damaged, it should be secured so that other workers aren't injured by entering it until the building has been stabilized. The Risk Manager will need to consider contacting OSHA to obtain approvals and permits for any construction that may become necessary. The three main parts of a business contingency plan include: documentation of the plan, employee training and employee awareness. Medusa Scientific should explain to their employees the importance for the identification of possible threats to business operations. A well-planned and executed training program can successfully raise the level of employee awareness as well as teach them the necessary skills to carry it out. The training should include: emergency communication methods, how to access data from outside the office and press releases (Implementing a Business Continuity Plan, 2009). In addition, workers need to participate in emergency evaluation drills, as well as learn how to protect office equipment during a crisis (if time and conditions permit). It is critical to identify and document all potential threats and solutions to those threats and to have that documentation readily available in case of a crisis. Uploading the BCP to their website for easy access for all employees is highly recommended. Continuous evaluation and testing of the BCP is very important as it reveals the plan's effectiveness and whether the objectives can be achieved. The elements involved with testing the BCP plan include: creating goals, implementing a testing schedule, and the development and execution of a crisis scenario. For scheduling, decisions will need to be made parts or the whole plan will be tested. Testing the complete BCP plan will usually take many days or even weeks (in 3-4 hour increments).
  • 40. Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 40 of 49 Prior to testing, set clear goals, which will provide workers with a specific set of outcomes. The testing should approximate a real crisis scenario, or be “life-like” (for example, an unexpected terrorist shooter or a blazing fire). During the test period, employees should go through each part of the plan as though the crisis was real. This will provide employees the opportunity to step into their role assignment and respond as if it were truly a crisis. Evaluations of responses and outcomes should take place immediately following the testing period. Sharing the results with personnel and brain- storming for plan improvements will increase participation efforts and help workers know what is expected if a true crisis were to occur. Upon completion of the BCP testing period, Medusa Scientific should evaluate the results and make any necessary modifications. Continuous testing provides insight into the plan effectiveness and whether workers can promptly restore operations after a crisis. The BCP plan should be tested and evaluated on an annual basis. D. Summary The purpose of risk management is the identification of potential issues before they happen so that risk-handling activities may be planned and invoked as needed across the life of products, projects or human capital in an effort to mitigate adverse impacts on achieving objectives. Having a Risk Management Plan in place for Medusa Scientific will help their financial position so that protections are put into place to prevent further financial losses. For example, loss of a key executive could have Medusa Scientific suffer financial losses due to the fact that person would no longer be available to continue job responsibilities. Implementation of a succession plan, would better prepare Medusa Scientific for key executive transitions.
  • 41. Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 41 of 49 IMPLEMENTATION TIME LINE 1. HUMAN RESOURCE SOLUTIONS Solution Cost Time Notes College Internships Paper and Postage $25.00 Letter to Universities could be written within 1 month. Program could be implemented within 6 months. Could get part-time temporary help for free. Work Study Programs Paper and Postage $25.00 Letter to Universities could be written within 1 month. Program could be implemented within 6 months. Could get part-time temporary help for reduced wages. Independent Contractors Depends upon position, set hourly rate. Independent Contractors could be secured in a relatively short period of time, perhaps 1 month. Cheaper than hiring employees, easier to terminate employment, reduce legal expenses. Contract Recruiter Services $50,000/year Contractor Recruiter Services could be secured in a relatively short period of time, perhaps 1 month. Medusa could negotiate a commission contract. Social Media FREE All suggested social mediums could be up and running within 1 month. If Medusa Scientific began by June 1, 2013, these recommendations could be fully implemented by July 1, 2013.
  • 42. Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 42 of 49 2. MARKETING SOLUTIONS ITEM NON- RECURRING PER MONTH PER YEAR TIME Webmaster 2800 450 5400 3 months Domain Purchase 175 – – 3 months Hosting Fees – 18 216 3 months Project Management Feature – 22 264 3 months Interactive Chat Feature – 22 264 3 months Shopping Cart – 22 168 3 months TransPerfect 500 14 – 3 months Affiliate Advertising 455 – 960 3 months TOTALS 3930 606 7272 3 months If Medusa Scientific began by June 1, 2013, these recommendations could be fully implemented by September 1, 2013.
  • 43. Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 43 of 49 3. RISK MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS Cost Per Year Time Notes Risk Management Training Classes $4,000.00 per person Discounts available for enrollment of 5 people 90 Days Stanford University Certificate http://tinyurl.com/bc4f2xb Online Training with Stanford University Fire Extinguisher Classes $75.00 per person ½ day http://risk.arizona.edu/training#figHtingfires Advanced Computer Security Included with Stanford University Certificate 90 days http://tinyurl.com/pavzfj Online training with Stanford University Identity Theft Monitoring for Victims $10.00 per month per person 12 months Only if crisis occurs http://www.lifelock.com Succession Planning Programs $795.00 1 month http://tinyurl.com/ahrxxyw Continuous record keeping and documentation Inventory of Company Equipment FREE 1 month Medusa Scientific Headquarters Virus/Firewall Protection FREE 5 minutes to download http://www.zonealarm.com Offsite Data Backup $229.00 Year Instant http://tinyurl.com/bxj5t7g Ethics Training Program $500.00 for up to 500 employees 1 month http://tinyurl.com/avnl7sv TOTALS $9,674.00 Less than 12 months. Total includes 2 people enrolled in Stanford University Risk Management Program and 2 people enrolled in Fire Extinguisher Program; and excludes Identity Theft Protection because that number is unknown. If Medusa Scientific began by June 1, 2013, these recommendations could be fully implemented by June 1, 2014.
  • 44. Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 44 of 49 IMPACT Financial Impact We expect Medusa Scientific to benefit from the financial impacts for the recommendations as outlined above. These would include increased revenues, reduced expenses and increased financial stability. 1. Human Resources The Human Resource Solutions will be difficult to estimate. For the first year, the costs will be minimal for sending letters to Universities, paying for the paper and postage. However, Medusa Scientific will likely still incur HR costs for hiring either workers through the Federal Work Study Program, Independent Contractors, or Contract Recruiter Services. Those amounts are not known and may require negotiation. 2. Marketing The Marketing Solutions will cost Medusa Scientific approximately $11,202 for the first year. Thereafter the costs are approximately $7202 per year or $606 per month. In his February 2013 Forbes article, How Marketing Impacts Sales Performance, Scott Gillum shares that he discovered 3 very important elements on marketing its impact on corporate success: (Gillum, 2013). 1. Increased Opportunity – Without marketing support, sales can't elevate rates for consideration. Awareness for the corporate product was 62% compared to 88% for the leading market-share holder. The rate for consideration was even worse at nearly 50% compared to 86% held by the leading market share holder.
  • 45. Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 45 of 49 The company maintained a culture for strong sales. Thus, to show the need for increased marketing activities, we included “relationship with the sales team” as a key consideration, along with typical drivers such as service, price and brand (Gillum, 2013). This research demonstrated that the sales team relationship wasn't an important consideration. The results revealed, however, that the representatives could do very little to influence the perceptions of the buyers’ as it related to service and products and that a new buyer wasn't being reached by the sales team (Gillum, 2013). The company then elevated the budget for marketing and reallocated funds from events to digital marketing. They also ramped up videos, webcast, and built a microsite specifically to attract this new buyer. As a result, awareness rose 17 points to nearly 80%, and the consideration rate, formerly at 46%, increased to 62%. The model predicted an incremental 1% change in consideration rates and yielded 20 new opportunities and almost four new wins, with a value of nearly $2M (Gillum, 2013). 2. Sales Coverage – Increases in marketing activity could create elevated sales coverage perceptions. Buyers were questioned with regard to the frequency they encountered a sales rep within a 90-day period. They responded that they were interacting with the sales person an average of 0.8 times, or once per quarter, while reporting rep visits from the leading competitor at 2.5 times, nearly once per month. Two years later, buyers responded that they were interacting with the sales department 2.4 times per quarter, putting them on par with competitors. As a result of these increases to marketing, buyers perceived an increase in visits even though that number remained steady over the two year period (Gillum, 2013).
  • 46. Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 46 of 49 3. Sales Enablement – Marketing can identify purchasing behaviors shifts. The company’s performance had increased in all stages of the funnel except for one —their current accounts. Representatives had discussed that clients had become more “price sensitive” and competitors were undercutting them, stealing their market share. The company was the product leader within the industry, and the senior management team still believed that technology innovation was the key consideration factor (Gillum, 2013). The continued research discovered that the sales force was correct in their assessment. Buyers' priorities had shifted. With modifications to reimbursement, healthcare reform and an effective competitor campaign in opposition to overbuying technology, buyers had indeed changed, much quicker than anticipated (Gillum, 2013). An outcome was that value proposition and sales material had to be updated promptly. Rather than espousing innovation virtues, the materials now needed to help buyers justify investments, leading to a shift from “bells and whistles” to “ROI models and product configurators” (Gillum, 2013). So, how do you communicate the impact marketing has on sales performance? Inform the sales representatives that marketing can identify new influencers as well as buyers, elevate the number of opportunities the sales people visit, improve a buyer’s perception of sales coverage, and enable the sales force with the right value proposition at the right time to win the deal. Of course, you’ll need the data to support it. In this case, the increases to marketing activities and investments yielded $50M in new sales over the two- year period . . . just as the model predicted (Gillum, 2013).
  • 47. Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 47 of 49 3. Risk Management The Risk Management Solutions will cost Medusa Scientific approximately $9674 for the first year. In addition, there may be annual costs for continuing with the drills and/or further training for other employees. This cost is minimal given the cost for loss of human capital and/or data necessary for Medusa Scientific to continue business operations. Organizational Impact If Medusa Scientific elects to implement the recommendations as outlined above, the organizational impacts would include:  Realized increases to customer base;  Increases to work productivity and efficiency;  Increased customer awareness;  Attracting high-caliber workers/employees; and  Significant savings in expenses.
  • 48. Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 48 of 49 1. Corporate Growth One critical component impacting organizational structure is corporate growth. As Medusa Scientific continues to flourish, the impact on their organizational structure will significantly increase. This will especially ring true as Medusa Scientific expands within the global marketplace. As they endure this transitional growth, they will likely hire permanent full-time employees and will also need departmental managers to supervise the growing staff. At this point Medusa Scientific will need to create a managerial structure. 2. Customer Needs Customer service is also a critical component for success. Medusa Scientific may, at some future point, dedicate an entire department to customer service and retention. Should an important client award a substantial contract to Medusa Scientific, they might need to restructure their company in an effort to accommodate the new contract. For example, Medusa Scientific might need to implement a sales division just for that customer and manufacturing might need to create a sub-process to build specialized products. As the needs of Medusa's customers shift, so too will their organizational structure. 3. Technology Technology can also impact organizational structure and work flow. The Reference for Business has shared that when computer networks grew in popularity, it increased the ease with which work could be completed in groups (Organizational Structure), thereby increasing efficiency. New advances in technology could potentially create or even eliminate positions within the corporate structure. For example, in the legal field, when the Federal Courts began to except electronic filings, there was a vast reduction in file clerk positions.
  • 49. Strategic Planning for Growth & Expansion, April 2013 Page 49 of 49 REFERENCES Gartner, Inc. (June 6, 2009). What's 'Hot' in CRM Applications in 2009. Retrieved April 2, 2013: http://tinyurl.com/a7pz5qs Gillum, Scott. (February 25, 2013). How Marketing Impacts Sales Performance. Retrieved April 2, 2013: http://tinyurl.com/cu4vrpm Implementing a Business Continuity Plan. (2009). Retrieved April 2, 2013: http://tinyurl.com/agbupp2 Linkedin, “About Us”. Retrieved April 2, 2013: http://tinyurl.com/aq676d Nielsen Company. (August 2, 2010). What Americans do online: social media and games dominate activity. Retrieved April 2, 2013: http://tinyurl.com/cusrfx7 Nielsen Company. (January 6, 2012). Report: Consumer Media Usage Across TV, Online, Mobile, and Social. Retrieved April 2, 2013: http://tinyurl.com/7qcc3fd Organizational Structure. (n.d.) Reference for Business, Encyclopedia of Business, 2 nd Edition. Retrieved April 2, 2013: http://tinyurl.com/d68r7h9 Shaw, Robert. (1991). Computer Aided Marketing and Selling, Butterworth Heinemann. ISBN 978-0-7506-1707-9. What is Offsite Backup? (n.d.). Retrieved April 2, 2013: http://tinyurl.com/cgpfbkk Wikipedia, “Customer Relationship Management”. Retrieved April 2, 2013: http://tinyurl.com/8mvkn Wikipedia, “Web Analytics Software”. Retrieved April 2, 2013: http://tinyurl.com/am6xoc