Planning For Growth

This report discusses the importance of planning for growth in business organizations and provides insights into the strategies and tools used for growth planning. It explores the BCG and GE/McKinsey matrix, Ansoff's growth vector matrix, and different sources of finance. The report also highlights the benefits and drawbacks of each source of finance.

Planning For Growth

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
PART 1............................................................................................................................................1
A) History of Boston Consultancy Group matrix and GE/McKinsey matrix........................1
B) Difference between BCG and GE/McKinsey matrix........................................................2
C) Recommendations based on the evaluation of two matrix................................................4
D) Ansoff's growth vector matrix...........................................................................................5
E) Benefits and drawbacks of sources of finance...................................................................6
PART 2............................................................................................................................................8
Business plan..........................................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
All business organisations operates as an economy strives in order to achieve high growth
in near future through formulating and adopting adequate strategies and objectives. This helps in
gaining competitive advantages in the marketplace over other players. With the help of this,
company is capable to sustain for a longer period of time in the competitive marketplace.
Basically for the SME'S, planning for growth is necessary as it helps in enhancing their
operations as well as inflate a scope to become a large scale organisation. As it is termed as a
strategic activity that allows businesses in tracking their growth so that they can make effective
plans which will assist in increasing profitability as well as business expansion. This report based
on the analysis of growth planning which is done by the Brainlabs which is a small scale digital
marketing agency that means by high-velocity change and it engaged in test & learn approach to
help businesses in their growth. It is headquartered in Old Street Yard, London, United
Kingdom. The report incudes the key requirements during the analysis of growth opportunities,
assessment of growth options and opportunities which are available to the company. Also, it
contains sources of finance as well as exit strategies in a systematic business plan.
PART 1
A) History of Boston Consultancy Group matrix and GE/McKinsey matrix.
BCG Matrix:
This matrix was developed by Bruce D. Henderson for Boston consultancy group in 1970
to provides the marketing analysis and it is is a planning technique that is used by Brainlabs to
portray the brand's portfolio and potential in terms of relative market share and speed of market
growth (Rothaermel, 2017). Brainlabs uses this because it provides the complete analysis of that
in which brand the company should invest and which one to disinvest.
McKinsey/GE Matrix:
McKinsey and company developed the nine-CELL portfolio matrix in consulting with
General electric in 1970, for screening GE's large portfolio of strategic business unit, and that is
used by Brainlabs because it a structure that analyse business portfolio and provides the
strategical feedback that help at the time of investment by comparing industry attractiveness and
Business unit strength (Wakkee, 2015).

B) Difference between BCG and GE/McKinsey matrix.
Brainlabs is affected by Brexit, it is a withdrawal of United Kingdom with European
union that have a large impact on the SMEs thus, Brainlabs uses different tools and technique to
overcome with this lightly negative impact of Brexit that is defines below as:
Boston consulting group matrix: This matrix defines the portfolio of product and
services of Brainlabs, by defining the market share and market growth and assign some quadrant
to each product and services and plot them on the matrix that contain four quadrant that is as:
[ Source: The BCG matrix/ Boston matrix, 2018] Stars: These are those product and services of Brainlabs that generate a lot of cash and
maintains the growing position of the business and the star shifted to cash cow if market
slow downs. Cash cow: It generate a lot of cash in the business even if the market growth slows down
because it reduced the market pressure, thus extract minimum cash with less investment
(Rakićević, 2016). Dogs: It defines that some cash cows become dogs, provides some cash to the business
and potential as well. These are cheap resources that is kicked off by the Brainlabs.
 Question mark: It defines that product and service that allows little cash in the Brainlabs,
defines in which product the company must invest and turns to star.

McKinsey matrix: It defines the nine-block matrix, that refer the systematic approach of
Brainlabs to where to invest and where to disinvest by analysing market attractiveness and
business unit strength (Mohajan, 2017). There are three main strategies that define in this matrix
is defines below as:
[Source: GE McKinsey matrix, 2018] Grow: If business unit is strong compare to market attractiveness, Brainlabs grows the
business and they are ready to invest and measured success. Hold: If both market attractiveness and business unit is average, then Brainlabs holds the
business it shows the down value of market or the market competition is high by which
Brainlabs put hard work to get the success in the market (Milne, 2016).
 Harvest: This is the condition where both market attractiveness and business unit is
unattractive by which either Brainlabs sells the business or hold the business for future
prospects. Thus Brainlabs reinvest in the weak business and earned money for growth.
Basis for comparison Boston consulting matrix McKinsey matrix
Definition BCG matrix also known as growth
share matrix, which represent the
market share of Brainlabs and growth
business.
It is a portfolio that consist
multiple factor, that help the
Brainlabs in term of making
strategy for their product and

services based on the position in
grid.
Scope The business and product are
measured according to their
performance i.e. high or low depends
upon the market share and growth.
It helps the Brainlabs to evaluate
the strength of overall business
unit (Melvin, 2017).
Objective To Help the Brainlabs by analysing
their resources with different business
unit.
To provides the prioritize
investment among different
business of Brainlabs.
Purpose Is to consider growth opportunities by
measuring the portfolio of product and
services of Brainlabs.
To access the strength of the
Brainlabs and analyse all the
factor that leads the growth.
C) Recommendations based on the evaluation of two matrix.
From the two Boston consulting group matrix and McKinsey matrix there are some
recommendation from the manager on the basis of evaluation to the Brainlabs to measure the
growth opportunities these are describes as follows:
Boston consulting group matrix
It is suggested from the above analysis that Brainlabs get to know about the market share
and growth share from this matrix and that directly shows impact on the growth of the company
which is affected by Brexit, as due to this there is a decrement in the opportunities in the market
that creates a downfall of market competition (Weber, 2015). Thus this matrix helps the
Brainlabs to retain the growth and grab the market opportunities by analysing all the different
factor like question mark, cash, cash cow, dogs. These factor helps to retain the product and
services that provides benefit to the company and also help the Brainlabs in investment by
providing the knowledge about the market growth and relative market share. Market growth
defines the different areas that provides the growth of product and services of Brainlabs.
Whereas, Relative market share defines the market share of Brainlabs as compare to other
competitors and set the benchmark of company's share as compare to their competitor that
provides the competitive strength the company (Madsen, 2015). The manager suggest to analyse

the different conditions of the market by this as it provides the complete market analysis and help
the Brainlabs for growth by analysing all the opportunities of the market.
McKinsey matrix
It is suggested from the above discussion as Brainlabs faces some different and
complex conditions which is rises by Brexit. Thus McKinsey matrix help to retain the market by
analysing different factor as where to invest and where to not that all is managed by the nine-
blocks of the matrix. The matrix contain three factor like grow, hold, harvest that is decided by
the market attractiveness and business unit strength and shows the clear way by which Brainlabs
sustain their growth by measuring the opportunities. The manager of Brainlabs also get a brief of
either the they invest or disinvest in some product or hold the product that all helps the Brainlabs
to choose the product and services according to the time (Whitehead, 2015). As per the Brexit
condition it is important for the Brainlabs to get to know about the different factor by which
company can handle their ongoing situations and thus McKinsey matrix helps them to measure
the growth.
D) Ansoff's growth vector matrix.
This matrix is defined as a strategic planning tool that is used by the manager of
Brainlabs in order to formulate proper strategies which will assist a future growth of company
(Lee, 2015). It was created by the Igor Ansoff so that they can select best strategies among all for
develop and grow in the market. The management of Brainlabs has used this matrix in following
manner: Market penetration: This kind of growth strategy of a matrix is used to ensures that
business attain certain growth through supplying their current products and services in the
present market area. Implementation of market penetration by the Brainlabs would show
an improvement in their customer base as the digital marketing agency has goodwill in
the local marketplace. This would also raise the market shares of company in a local
market (Kumar, 2016). Product development: It is associated with the organisation growth as this kind of
strategy related to the increment in their range of products which offers in the existing
market. Implementation of product development by the Brainlabs would express the
condition of unique as well as innovative services related to the digital marketing for their
existing customers or markets which will help in sustainable growth for large duration of

time. This would aid company to attract more customers as well as raise company's sales
by facilitating hi tech digital marketing services. Market development: Through this strategy, a business grows by selling their existing
products and services within the new market which can be done for the purpose of
catering different segments. Within the context of Brainlabs digital marketing agency, it
can be viewed that the implementation of market development would result in the
increasing international market shares of company with the development of brand image
among global customers (Jordan, 2016).
 Diversification: In this strategy, company increases their sales and grow in the market by
choosing new or unique range of their offerings along with the new potential and
attractive market or locations. Through the execution of this strategy Brainlabs would
imply risky business as the chances of success and failure is equal. Thus, company should
use diversification strategy if they has the strong portfolio of their services which can
appeal to customers in new marketplace. The successful implications of this strategy will
result in global expansion as well as enable to expand their market and products with the
high volume of sales.
On the basis of above discussion, the market penetration strategy is more appropriate for
the Brainlabs because this would help company in gaining and attracting the new customers by
offering their existing products or services (Zinovchuk, 2016). Due to the Brixit deal or
uncertainties, company suffers more so through the market development they can able to
increase their goodwill, sales, customers as well as profitability.
E) Benefits and drawbacks of sources of finance.
It is necessary for all business organisations to identified the sources of finance which are
available to it so that they can easily rise funds for the growth of their businesses (DeTienne,
2015). Being a small scale business, the management of Brainlabs looks for attaining growth,
thereby increasing the scope of converting their business in large scale. For this, management of
company is looking for several sources of finance such as follows:
Crowdfunding: It is related to the practice of rising funds from a large number of persons
who contribute a small amount of money through the internet (Burns, 2016). Within the context
of Brainlabs, crowdfunding helps in finding the scope of growth and development.
Benefits Drawbacks

 Through the crowdfunding business
can be a valuable form of marketing.
 Business can get customer feedbacks
towards business idea and they get to
know that how to improve them.
 The result of crowdfunding the
audience becomes their loyal
customers.
 If estimated amount is not reached then
the potential investors gets money back
which results that company goes away
the empty handed.
 This also has a risk of spoiling
company's reputation as well as fear of
copying their ideas by others.
Peer to peer lending: It is associated with the form of debt financing in which money is
lending to the individual or businesses with the help of online services for the purpose of
matching lenders with the borrowers (Bridge, 2018).
Benefits Drawbacks
 It is easy to set up and adopt because it
takes less time to implement this
source.
 It is not require a dedicated server as all
nodes are act as a client and server.
 It is less expensive form to use for fund
generation.
 There is no or little security besides the
permissions as users do not require to
log onto the workstation.
 Files can not be backed up and
organised into a centra place.
 Computers might be access by others so
it can slow down the users
performance.
Venture finance: It is the most effective kind of financing that is given to the small
businesses in order to provide high growth potentials to them (Bi, 2017). It is mainly comes from
the investment banks, financial institutions as well as well-off investors.
Benefits Drawbacks
 It facilitates company with more
opportunities to expand their operations
 For this a company needs to make a
detailed business plan so it is
considered as a complicated and

as compared to other sources.
 It is termed as a source of valuable
expertise, consultation as well as
guidance.
 There is no obligation to repay venture
capitalist investors if the company shut
down or fail.
lengthy process.
 Venture funding includes high capital
so company may not release all money
at a same time.
 More investment opportunities by
uninvited mails overburden the firm.
With respect of Brainlabs as a small business it can be analysed that the venture funding
is most suitable source of finance as it provides opportunity to expand business operations
(Belleflamme, 2015). It has also been viewed that investors willingly invest in a company as a
capital but if the operations of business shut down then there is no obligations to repay their
capitalist investors.
PART 2
Business plan.
Business plan defined as a written document that shows the objectives, strategies,
methods, techniques will be implemented in an organisation in order to accomplish their goals in
a specified period of time. Along with this, it also includes company's overview, financial
strategies and plans which will apply to grow a business in a marketplace. Within the context of
Brainlabs, the detailed business plan is prepared in order to grow and develop within a market
and take sustainable growth advantages over competitors. Due to the Brixit deal, future
expansion termed as a threat for Brainlabs so business plan can be prepared that could help in
providing alternative means of entering into a new market in order to explore growth
opportunities.
Company Overview: As Brainlabs is a small scale digital marketing agency which has
been operating in UK for many years as it was founded in 2012 by Daniel Gilbert. The company
engaged in the provisions of paid search, conversion rate optimisation solutions, AdWords
integration etc. for businesses. The headquartered of Brainlabs is located in London, England,
UK and the primary investor of company is Livingbridge. Due to this, company has a big
goodwill with the local nation that is UK and has approximated employees are 157.

Mission & Vision: The mission statement of Brainlabs is “To change the future of digital
world and create best company to work for entire globe”. The vision statement is “To leverage
professional work in order to become market leader of digital marketing agency”.
Objectives: The strategic objectives of Brainlabs is “To speed up their revenue by 15%
by the end of 2020 by focusing on the cost leadership”.
Growth technique: As Brainlabs would adopt cost leadership in order to control over the
operational cost as well as attain high growth in future.
Situational market analysis:
This is being done by the Brainlabs in order to find out the areas of strengths as well as
identified opportunities of company. This provides the accomplishment of understandability of
capabilities, competencies as well as resources that can be leveraged by a business in order to
attain growth.
Areas of strength:
As the company has strong relationship with their customers as it facilitates them with best
services of digital marketing that enable them to enhance their customer base as well as
increase sales in the market.
It uses latest technologies in order to gain people interest and attention towards their services are
considered as a strong area of company.
It has skilled and professional employees who are highly engaged in the development of digital
marketing campaigns for their users or clients. This helps company in accomplishing huge
contentment from customers.
Identified opportunities:
 The company Brainlabs possesses their resources and capabilities in order to gain their
presence in a new or potential marketplace so that the company's market share can be
enhanced as well as they can be able to increase their loyal customers.
Values and ethics of Brainlabs.
The values of company Brainlabs includes integrity, inspiration as well as simplicity
through which the company performs their operations and provide services to their clients.
Whereas, the company is committed to high standards regarding perform activities in an ethical
manner with a aim of preventing criminal activities or conducts i.e. fraud, corruption. This helps

in avoiding the non-compliance along with the applicable laws and regulations as well as highly
supports to the company in accomplishing goals and objectives.
Strategies of Brainlabs:
In order to know about the target customers in a new market a company Brainlabs use
STP framework that aids in analysing the attractive market segments that is to be targeted by the
company where they can position their offerings and strategies in order to earn profits. Brainlabs
can adopt STP framework analysis so as they can examine the profitable market segments easily.
It can be discussed as follows:
Segmentation: At the initial stage a company divided their entire market into various
segments that have homogeneous characteristics as well as requirements so that they can be able
to meet their expectations in a cost effective way. Brainlabs can segments their market on the
geographical as well as behavioural basis so as they can analyse locations and people needs of
those particular segments where they operates.
Targeting: The company will be targeted their market strategies on local segments or
entire United Kingdom and will emphasise on those people who belongs to the age group of 25-
40 years who aware and demanded digital marketing services and technologies. Basically
company can targeted youngsters and teenagers also.
Positioning: As the company Brainlabs will positioned their offerings or services by
appointing some accessible agents which will help in providing these services and promote their
company or business.
Sources of finance:
There are various sources of finance that provides financing facility to a business
organisation as it helps in the company' growth and development. Some of the sources are as
follows:
Bank Loan: It is the form of credit which is provided by the banks to a company in
against they has to pay interest amount with security. It is considered as a secure source of
finance for those Brainlabs is credit worthy and they can facilitate security to the banks. In
addition, the interest rate is also nominal that can paid in instalments over a specific period of
time. Whereas, it is considered as a time consuming process and the documentation included in
processing is tedious in nature. Also, it is strict form of financing if company fails to repay
instalments along with the interest rates then bank can recover those amount from their security.

Angel investors: These are the persons who are willing to invest their money in
companies against of the company's shares. As they have thorough knowledge about the
company and shares knowledge-based with Brainlabs that obtain finance from them. It is
advantageous for the company because it is less riskiest as compared to debt financing. In
addition, the shares of Brainlabs are taken up by the angel investors, the owner control may be
diluted by this source.
According to the above information it can be analysed that generation of fund from bank
is a most suitable form of financing sources for Brainlabs as it is termed as a secured source of
finance. It has been viewed that goodwill of digital marketing agency within the market would
facilitate help to the company in getting bank loan of large amount of funds.
Budget formation: It is essential for the Brainlabs to produce an estimation of budget
that will assist in calculating the entire expenses which will be needed to perform all the
activities. Within the context of Brainlabs, budget estimation can be discussed below:
Particular For 2020 (£) For 2021 (£) For 2022 (£)
Implementing technology cost 18000 12000 10000
Promotional expense 9000 8000 6000
Installation of machines 19000 11000 7000
Training charges 8000 6500 5000
Total Cost 54000 37500 28000
Monitoring & Controlling: It is considered as a last step of business plan whereby
Brainlabs would adopts key performance indicator as well as benchmarking as techniques in
order to ascertained whether results obtained by a company is in accordance with the standard
targets which is setting at a time of beginning. In case of Brainlabs, the deviation is high so the
management of company would measures them by using techniques as with the help of these gap
can be minimised effectively and company can able to attain high growth in the market on the
basis of desired targets.
Exit strategy:

Each business have a sole motive of accomplishing goals on time so the survivability of
businesses is high. As no business is established with the aim of operational liquidating after
lapse of time as each company has two options whether to continue or shut down their
operations. This kind of decisions are made by the company's management as per the current
business condition and organisational positioning against the competitors. Within the context of
Brainlabs, company's management has selected continue option so the operations of business
looking towards the company's growth. Some of these ways are as follows:
Merger & Acquisition: it is one of the most effective succession strategy through which
company can grow and expand their business operations in international market. Through the
uses of this strategy, Brainlabs may deal with their financial challenges which they faced and
attain extensive goodwill along with the increases in customer reach.
 Advantage: It helps in increasing the company's capital that results in enhancing their
profitability.
 Disadvantage: It includes some complexity that employees suffers difficulties at a time
of operating businesses with new members which may result in decreasing the entire
productivity.
Internet uses: Current market is based on the uses of internet as all the economic
activities is getting digitalised. This increases the operations of business within the UK's
marketplace in order to leverage market growth in near future. Due to the extensive use of
internet by UK's youth the management of Brainlabs may choose this option to promote their
offerings to their target customers of that nation.
 Advantages: It is useful for creating more awareness in the marketplace and attract or
reach towards the large number of people.
 Disadvantages: Excessive usage of internet may results in dampen company's privacy
which creates more risk of hacking.
CONCLUSION
It has been concluded from the above report that planning is essential for the growth and
development of company as it helps in better and sustainable growth. This can be performed by
analysing several opportunities for the potential growth that are available in the marketplace
which includes BCG matrix, McKinsey model, Ansoff matrix and so on. With the help of this
analysis company can design and plan some appropriate strategies in order to grab opportunities.

Also, company evaluate several sources of finance with their advantages and disadvantages so
that company can be choose appropriate source that will assist in getting required money or
credit for expansion. Lastly, make a business plan for providing direction to the company's
expansion and growth strategies. This will help in business success and growth and company can
easily expand their operations in target market.

REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Belleflamme, P., Omrani, N. and Peitz, M., 2015. The economics of crowdfunding platforms.
Information Economics and Policy. 33. pp.11-28.
Bi, R., Davison, R.M. and Smyrnios, K.X., 2017. E-business and fast growth SMEs. Small
Business Economics. 48(3). pp.559-576.
Bridge, J. and Dodds, J.C., 2018. Planning and the Growth of the Firm. Routledge.
Burns, P. and Dewhurst, J. eds., 2016. Small business and entrepreneurship. Macmillan
International Higher Education.
DeTienne, D.R. and et. al., 2015. Making sense of entrepreneurial exit strategies: A typology and
test. Journal of Business Venturing. 30(2). pp.255-272.
Jordan, B.D., Kim, S. and Liu, M.H., 2016. Growth opportunities, short-term market pressure,
and dual-class share structure. Journal of Corporate Finance. 41. pp.304-328.
Kumar, D., 2016. Enterprise growth strategy: vision, planning and execution. Routledge.
Lee, N., Sameen, H. and Cowling, M., 2015. Access to finance for innovative SMEs since the
financial crisis. Research policy. 44(2). pp.370-380.
Madsen, T.L. and Walker, G., 2015. Modern competitive strategy. McGraw Hill.
Melvin, M. and Norrbin, S., 2017. International money and finance. Academic Press.
Milne, A. and Parboteeah, P., 2016. The business models and economics of peer-to-peer lending.
Mohajan, H., 2017. An analysis on BCG Growth sharing matrix.
Rakićević, Z. and et. al., 2016. A model for effective planning of SME support services.
Evaluation and program planning. 54. pp.30-40.
Rothaermel, F.T., 2017. Strategic management. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.
Wakkee, I. and et. al., 2015. Effective growth paths for SMEs. The Journal of Entrepreneurship.
24(2). pp.169-185.
Weber, P., Geneste, L.A. and Connell, J., 2015. Small business growth: Strategic goals and
owner preparedness. Journal of Business Strategy.
Whitehead, J., 2015. BCG (Growth Share) Matrix. Wiley Encyclopedia of Management, pp.1-2.
Zinovchuk, V., 2016. The matrix methods and models in marketing analysis and planning.