Planning for Growth: Strategies for Barker and Stonehouse

Planning for Growth

TABLE OF CONTENT
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
An explaining of the basis of competitive advantage for the business:.......................................3
Critically assessing of the opportunities available to the business:.............................................4
Applying the Ansoff Growth Matrix with assessment of the risk of each option-......................5
Options for financial growth and sources of funding:.................................................................7
Entrepreneurial strategies for securing the funding-....................................................................7
Exit and succession options available for the organisations-.......................................................8
Recommendation-........................................................................................................................9
Business Plan for Woodworks company-..................................................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
Every business organization want continuous growth in the market, they desire to explore
different area and try to focus on expansion. Every firm plan for growth, they try to scan the
market and try to find the best opportunities which help them to explore new market. Planning
for growth is one of the most challenging part, firm need to focus on strategic planning in which
they need to cover every element and risk that are associated with the expansion process. Growth
is continuous process, firm can not settle at one particular method of growth, they need
modification according to the market demand. This report is based on Barker and Stonehouse,
this is one of the most stable furniture manufacturing company in the UK with the finest quality
of wood work, Barker and Stonehouse examine the market to identify the best opportunity for
business growth. This report will discuss key considerations SME's should consider when
evaluating. Later this report various methods through which organization access funding with
source of funding. Later this report discuss various exist strategies to leave the market. At last
this report will discuss business plan with financial projection.
MAIN BODY
An explaining of the basis of competitive advantage for the business:
Every business want competitive advantage in the market which allow them to boost their
sales, it is very clear that getting competitive advantage is one of the most challenging task. Firm
who work on innovation have greater chance to become competitive or market leader because
their projects depend on innovation criteria where risk is high but have higher chance of gaining
surplus profit. Barker and Stonehouse is one of those companies who focus on adding such
things which provide competitive advantage to them, these are:
Innovation: Innovation is one strongest and finest basis of competitive advantage where firm
need to focus on bringing innovation to product and service process, firm either have to bring
new product or have to bring modification in existing product, both way are valid to get
competitive advantage (Ávila, 2022). Barker and Stonehouse need to bring innovation or
innovative product to get competitive advantage in the market, they either have to bring
customizable furniture which can attract customer with innovative design, or they can improve
design of existing product to become stable in the market.

Marketing: Marketing is one of the most common but effective process to make a company
competitive in the market, here firm have to focus on strategic marketing allowing them to
manage competition. Based on right keywords, it is important for business to introduce attract
product with effective marketing strategies, if all element are aligned in effective manner then
marketing become effective (Prasetyo and Rahman, 2018). Barker and Stonehouse need to
consider marketing process to make their company competitive, they can include strategic
direction to marketing by focusing on technological advancement in the process. Marketing is
key element which become basis of competitive advantage, Barker and Stonehouse can depend
on this element to gain leadership in retail market.
USP: This is effective element in which firm need to keep their product and service unique, here
innovation is completely different term because innovation simply means bringing new concept
to business or product. However, setting or keeping product unique is completely different
element. Barker and Stonehouse need keep their product unique which means they can not adopt
simple design to attract customer, it is high recommended for the firm to focus on making those
products which are unique in terms of feature, material, design and price range. Barker and
Stonehouse need to set price of the product according to the uniqueness, here they need to bring
change to existing product to become competitive in highly competitive market.
Cost leadership: This is important element in which company get competitive advantage in the
market, cost leadership simply means firm need to reduce cost of the product to get competitive
advantage in the market. This is simple and most common process in which firm reduce cost,
Barker and Stonehouse need to reduce cost of their product to get competitive advantage, if they
reduce price of furniture then their brand image will be impacted.
Critically assessing of the opportunities available to the business:
Every business organization seeks growth in the market, here firm need to focus on
finding those opportunities which become beneficial to get continuous growth. It is very clear
that there are certain growth opportunities available with business which help them to become
stable in new market or in existing market. Barker and Stonehouse need to find the best
opportunities for growth which help them to become stable in the market and even get
competitive advantage, there are certain growth opportunities available with the business, these
are:
GE McKinsey Matrix: