Blueground expansion in Amsterdam
We as a team were assigned to become a member of the growth Blueground’s team. The assignment is consisted of two sections, the first one is to choose the city that we want to expand in and the second one is about the innovation challenge. Eleni Aktypi the communication’s manager of Blueground gave us the option to choose between 8 cities. After the research we made for each of these cities we decided that the best option for the expansion is Amsterdam, Holland’s capital city.
The economy of the Netherlands is the 17th largest in the world in 2019 with GDP $902.355 billion. Amsterdam is ranked fifth best of European cities in which to locate an international business, surpassed by London, Paris, Frankfurt and Barcelona. Companies choose Amsterdam because of its connectivity, the competitive price, the international business world and the liveability.
In addition, this city combines high quality of life with competitive cost of living. Significant role for our choice played the cost of running a business in Amsterdam. Based on KPMG 2016, Amsterdam is ranked third in the list of the countries worldwide with the lowest cost of running a business while in Europe the cost is about 4,38 million per year for a medium size company’s headquarters (Source: EY benchmark 2015).
There are more than 3900 foreign companies there while the city is home to over 465 multinational headquarters.
Also, we made a research for the business locations in Amsterdam. We thought Haarlem and Heemstede as the best location for the offices for various reasons. This location belongs to the Amsterdam’s Metropolitan Area and to the top 5 of the European economically strong regions and is attractive not only to young and creative businesses, but also to professionals and entrepreneurs. This becomes obvious from the corporations that are nearby. Afterwards, we looked for the best areas in order the apartments to be placed, such us South Oud — Zuid and Jordaan. Oud — Zuid is located in a wealthy part of the city and it is home to some of the world’s best art museums, like Van Gogh Museum. When it comes to Jordaan, has become one of the most expensive locations in the Netherlands, too and makes someone feel like he is in a village, because of the much green, the canals and the stunning bridges.
As for the competitors of Blueground, they are divided by the factors full control of the experience — incomplete service of the experience and short-term stays — long term stays. The main competitors of Blueground are “Serviced apartments”, “Citybase”, and “Corporate housing factory”. The last one is the most important competitor as it is focusing on our target group, businesspeople that are traveling for work.
Concerning the customer relationships, the client can either be self-served either come in contact or even come in touch with our specialized team which is always willing to seem useful. As for the channels, we provide our renewed website, we are trading in mostly all the social media such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram.
One of the best classifieds in Netherlands is the anunico.nl. Some of the top 10 media publications are the following. Access is a not-for-profit organisation run by volunteers and supporting the international community in the Netherlands. DutchNews.nl offers a daily summary of Dutch news, plus commentary and features. Expatica is a news and information source for expatriates living and/or working in the Netherlands or planning the big move. The main language of the website will be English because Netherlands is the second country in the world in terms of English proficiency.
Furthermore, we found out some of the top business influencers in Amsterdam that could help us with Blueground’s expansion. Thomas Vles, who is a leader in Dutch Startup Association, a Serial Entrepreneur, a business Consultant and start up Investor and Advisor and Tibor Olgers, who is a networking expert and has many years of experience in the business field.
As a last step after Blueground’s expansion to Amsterdam, it will be organised a business party. It is a safe and a low-cost choice, giving to Blueground the opportunity to become known both to businesspeople and potential clients who live in Amsterdam.
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