Planning for Growth: Business Plan and Succession Strategy for Softwire

This report discusses the planning for growth of Softwire, a leading SME in the UK. It covers the business plan, financial information, and evaluation of exit or succession options for the company. The report also includes the use of Ansoff matrix for growth strategies.

PLANNING
for
GROWTH

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1 &TASK 2...........................................................................................................................2
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................7
P4 & M3 Business plan for the growth and evaluation .........................................................7
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................10
P5: Exit or succession strategy for Softwire with benefits and drawbacks..........................10
M4- Evaluation of exit or succession option for the SME by comparing and contrasting it with
recommendation...................................................................................................................11
D4- Critical evaluation of succession option for the SME with appropriate course of action11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Planning is the process of deciding in advance the course of action to be achieved in a
particular period of a time (Sweeney, 2019). Softwire company is one of the leading SME in UK
which deals with software designs, digital solutions and advisory services to some of the UK's
popular brands. The aim is to serve the clients in a best possible manner by providing high level
software designs.
The report covers key aspects of growth using Ans off matrix in the context of Softwire.
There are different sources of finance through which firm can meet the financial requirement.
The report provides a detailed structure of business plan of Softwire firm in UK and its
objectives, financial plan and the complete overview of a company. This report comprises of
comparative evaluation of exit or succession methods of a concerned firm.
TASK 1 &TASK 2
1

2

3

4

5

6

7

TASK 3
P4 & M3 Business plan for the growth and evaluation
A great business plan comprises of all the major factors which effects its operations from
launching a product to its post sale services (Holz-Rau and Scheiner, 2019). Such elements
include researches, analyses, and practising management models.
Overview of company: Softwire is the renowned software developing company in UK. It
is a fastest growing SME, that is famous for its new innovations in the software market. This
company will follow product development strategy, wherein it is soon introducing its new
software, under the name of Data+.
Mission: To provide the best and efficient software systems to clients and engaging with
more and more of potential market segment.
Vision: The long term vision of company is to become the leading software providing
industry in the nation. As also to expand the business on a global level.
Objectives: The organisation has set up targets and goals in respect of its new product. It
will achieve those objectives by following the product development strategy in the exciting
market as its specific objectives are:
 Increment in sales by 10 percent after the launch of new product.
 Promotion of the brand and product in overseas market
 Minimizing the cost by 5 percent on each unit
A vast scope of market segregation is there which can be used by the company for the
new products positioning. It will be analysed by performing the STP strategy for the product
which is discussed in brief as follows:-
STP: It is achieved by identifying the market place and segmenting it into a respective
share of new and potential customer (Herbert, 2019). As for the Data+ Softwire will have to
segregate the market and identify the professionals and other small firms as their potentials
customer. After segmenting the market demographically, it is necessary for marketing managers
to target the customer segment with effective product introduction. Targeting the occupational
group would be much difficult as they don't have enough time to look out for other options and
do not try to shift from other product. Management should also consider the behavioural basis
audience while targeting. The last stage in STP is the positioning in which the product is placed
into the targeted market place.. For the launch of Data+ it would involve the direct approach of
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company towards its customer. Positioning will be done by doing promotion and effective
marketing regarding the new product introduction .
Another important factor for the business plan of Softwire is to place its new product
Data+ by evaluating its marketing mix. It consists of the major 4 Ps of a company which are
described hereby:
 Product- Established in the tech market as a start up in 2000, Softwire has become a fast
growing company. It provides various types of product and services in various sectors
such as AI, governmental systems, mobile applications etc. but the Data+ will acquire the
new share of company's product line.
 Price- The pricing policy of Softwire differ according to market conditions, which is
quite effective for the business. For the new product Data+ the firm will introduce this at
the minimum price possible to acquire more of customer segment. It helps in creating the
cost standards flexible, which makes the company a well profit earner as well as a quality
service provider. Place- Being a service sector enterprise all the goods and services of Softwire are only
available at their authorized places, sale of Data+ will be performed on their official
website, social media and offices. Promotion- As it is a commodity providing company, a huge proportion of sales is
depends on its promotion. The promotional policies for Data+ will be limited but quite
effective in terms of enhancing the business.
Financial information In order to execute the overall plan there is a strict need of
money, to spend on the tasks and operations efficiently (Mishra and et. al., 2019). Here it is an
financial estimate to cover all the expenses of the new business plan:-
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Evaluation. It is done to ensure the level of success, and to monitor the tasks and outputs
for making a comparison among the actual performance and predetermined organisational
objectives.
D3- A Coherent and in depth business plan to acknowledge the formulation and planning of
business to achieve its objectives:-
The planning of the overall process with mention of each and every step is done to
understand the marketing formulation of a product in the market. It also includes the formation
of working flow and increasing the chances attaining the organisational goals, objectives,
Mission and vision of the company, its smart objectives the marketing mix of company’s
financial information (Werlang and et. al., 2019). Various analyses for the marketing is also
important which could be performed by using STP strategy and overall process evaluation.
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TASK 4
P5: Exit or succession strategy for Softwire with benefits and drawbacks
As an SME, Softwire is working in the great flow of achieving the organisational goals
and objectives. It would not be favourable by the company to plan for the exit strategies..
Succession strategies are those guidelines for an organisation which helps it to expand its
workings positively in the near future. There are various succession options for the Softwire with
which it can attain the successful growth and they are defined as hereby:
Integration
Integration is the directive approach for the organisation which means as the interlinking
of one different company with another under a single brand name. Integration of companies can
be performed in either horizontal or vertical segment (Freire Trigo, 2019)..
Benefits-Integration allows to work more broadly, it gives the bigger market share for
innovations and promoting the business. A larger area of customer is introduced to the
organisation which helps into targeting and positioning for the particular products.
Drawbacks- A decremental flow in the work flexibility and activeness can be seen in the
integration. It takes time to understand the marketing and selling concepts of other company. It is
a heavy money consuming process
Merger
It is done to increase the scale of reach among the market audience and grabbing more of
the targeted market share by combining of two or more organisations (Maloney and et. al.,
2019). It is quite different from acquisition as it is the voluntarily agreement from both the
companies to form a separate legal entity. As per the growth structure of Softwire it is not in the
state of acquiring other business body, instead of that it can choose the merger process for
expanding the company into a much more developed and varied market.
Benefits- New SMEs can benefit themselves by application of new management
practices. as it also helps in gathering more information regarding the customer's taste and
preferences and enhance the research and development department of firm.
Drawbacks- Two similar companies always indulge the management with inner conflicts.
As the companies share the same working nature it sometimes leads to over production and lack
of coordination with each other (Pan and et. al., 2019). It also results in high price of the end
product among the market due to sales standards of a larger market share.
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M4- Evaluation of exit or succession option for the SME by comparing and contrasting it with
recommendation
The succession theory will be approached by the business as it is afresh and having a
constant growth and expansion in the market place. Integration and merging are almost different
from each other on the basis of ownership and the formation process. SME Softwire can opt for
the integration process, which is performed by taking over of other company respectively in an
order of horizontal or vertical business nature. The basic advantage of applying the integration
process will be the more grip of the organisation into the market share. (Landis, 2019).
D4- Critical evaluation of succession option for the SME with appropriate course of action
There are two major succession options merger and integration accordingly for Softwire
Pvt. Ltd. As a choice among these two, organisation should follow the integrating course of
action. It would turn up itself as a beneficial strategy. There are some pros and cons of
integration in reference to the Softwire. As it is a small size industry, performing of integration
will affect its financial resources in a negative way. Also there will be a number of facilities and
opportunities that will be encountered by the firm for increment of growth and development of
Softwire Pvt. Ltd. Overall it will be considered as an effective investment decision by the
company for its expansion and achievement of its goals
CONCLUSION
From the above information it can be summarised that planning is important aspect for
any organization. There are different models of Ans off matrix which provide growth prospects
to a firm. Choosing the best funds at an appropriate time is the key challenge of a finance
manager. As there are different sources of finance like bank loan, venture capital, retained
earnings and so on that are provided to an enterprise. Also, business plan is presented in a formal
manner in order to achieve the objectives successfully and there are various exit or succession
methods which is implemented in a business.
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