Analysis of Silver Birch Florist's Strategy and Innovation - BSS029-2

This report provides a comprehensive strategic analysis of Silver Birch Florist, a flower shop in the UK. It begins with an overview of the company, detailing its business operations, competitors, and market position. The main body of the report identifies and analyzes the strategic risks and issues face...Read More

Strategy and
Innovation - BSS029-2

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Overview of the company...........................................................................................................3
Detailed analysis that identifies the strategic risks and issues faced by the company................3
How key trends and developments are likely to affect the industry segment and the company’s
current strategy............................................................................................................................4
Ansoff theory..............................................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Innovation can be termed as the new idea which is made useful either by any means and
strategy is the attempt to give shape to the future. The main aim of innovation is to make the new
ideas useful so that leaning can be made fast rather than the failure. Innovation plays an
important role in the businesses as it tells how products are to be created and the strategy for
innovation can be termed as plan which is used by the organisations in order to encourage the
technological advancements mainly by investing money in the activities of research (Aleksandr
and et. al., 2017). The organisation chosen for this report is Silver Birch Florist, a flower shop
situated in Lutan, United Kingdom. This report shall deal with the risk and issues faced by the
company, key trends and development which affect the organisation and the current strategy of
the company. Further it will cover a theory for supporting the arguments present in the report.
MAIN BODY
Overview of the company.
The Silver Birch Florist is a flower shop which was opened in 2009 in Luton, UK. It
creates bouquets, floral arrangement and also deals in gifts, cards and the delivery service. It is a
local florist shop which has a small business in flowers with unique varieties of flowers and
décor. It is a family run business whose main aim is to fulfil the demands of the customers in
terms of floral needs. It caters for every occasion and stock a great collection of gift, candles,
balloons and greeting cards. They provide deliver service in local, national and international
area.
The main competitors of the company includes Fleurette Lutons Leading Florist which
has the same business as of the Silver Birch Florist. It is the business established in 1991, 20
years before Silver Birch and is leading company in the UK market in terms of flower business
(Brenes and et. al., 2016). Another competitor which has better business image in the market
than Silver Birch is the Flower Girl which was established in 2000. It has better brand image and
value in UK.
Detailed analysis that identifies the strategic risks and issues faced by the company.
The strategic issues and risk are those which affect the working of the company and
impacts the organisation's ability to execute its plan. The Silver Birch Florist faces many risk and
issues which affect the operations and working of the business as it is deals in perishable

commodity which requires major care and caution. The risk and issues faced by the Silver Birch
Florist are- Environmental and hazardous risk- It is one of the major risk which is faced by the
company. Maintaining the flowers requires use of hazardous chemicals like insecticide
sprays which are sprayed on the plant and flowers which is dangerous for employees as
well as the customers. These environmental risk includes chemical handling and
structural inconsistencies which is faced by the customers and employees so the company
must ensure that it uses such insecticides which are less harmful. The Silver Birch Florist
must ensure that it has listed its chemicals in its material safety data in order avoid any
legal compliance. Financial risk- It is the major concern for the small businesses like Silver Birch Florist.
As flowers are perishable commodity so there is risk of spoilage which may affect the
company's finance as it involves financial risk if the flowers are not sell quickly. Another
risk includes the festivals or celebrations like mother's day, valentine's day, birthdays etc.
which involves large business and profit but other times the company faces risk of
finance as the influx of customers is low (Choi, 2016). The company must keep the
spoilage insurance in order to avoid loss of money in case of spoilage of flowers.
 Delivery risk- It involves major risk to the employees who are engaged in delivering the
product. The Silver Birch Florist faces this risk as it is engaged in local, national and
international delivery. In case of any road accident of the employee, the company can be
made liable for the damages. The owner must keep the worker's compensation insurance
and the commercial auto insurance in order to avoid this risk. Another risk includes in
case any flower of customer spoils in a big event due to uncertainty, the owner can be
made liable for the same. The Silver Birch Florist must keep the liability insurance for the
same.
How key trends and developments are likely to affect the industry segment and the company’s
current strategy.
The key trends and development
These are the change or the development which helps in bringing something new or
different in the market. The Silver Birch Florist is likely to get affect from the key trends and
developments which are prevailing in the market. These are discussed below-

 Imports of the cut flowers- The imports of the plants and flowers have recently increased
in the European market where cut flowers are major contributors to the increase in the
imports. The volume of imports may be decling from the past years but the import value
have increased which means that higher valued flowers are majorly imported in the
country. This import may affect the demand of existing flowers or cheap flowers. The
high valued flowers are imported due to their increased demand which has affected the
businesses which deals in less costly flowers and plants (Knox, Crawford and Kelder,
2020). Trade surplus from exports- As imports have likely to increased, similarly exports have
also tend to increased in the past few years where flowers and ornamental plants are at
the top. This has resulted in trade surplus where demand of the premium quality flowers,
ornamental plants have increased in the European Union market and the other countries
which includes USA, China and Switzerland.
 Expansion of distribution channels in B2C and B2B spaces- In order to maximise the
product availability, the distribution channel plays a major role. The manufacturers are
focusing on building strong channels of distribution so that it can capture larger base of
customers. In order expand the business in B2B and B2C spaces, e commerce plays
important role where florist have expanded their business online to capture market
quickly (Zhou, Shan and Li, 2018).
Current strategy of the company
The Silver Birch Florist has adopted different strategies in order to accept the key trends
and developments which have affected its business. The company has expanded its business
online and utilised the e commerce very efficiently in order to build a strong distribution channel
for B2B and B2C spaces. It has started exports of the flowers in order to surplus its trade and
earn maximum profits so that it can expand its business (LI and YU, 2017). For the same, it has
started delivery of flowers internationally so that it can build a strong customer base in the
international market.
Ansoff theory
This is a marketing matrix used in the strategy management which was developed by Igor
Ansoff in the year 1965. The matrix gives the managers of the company four different scenarios

or the strategies for their future product and the market activities. The four possible scenarios
includes- Market penetration where existing product is sell in existing market. Product development where new product is sold in existing market. Market development where existing product is sold in new new market.
 Diversification where new product is sold in new product (Yang and et. al., 2017).
The company Silver Birch Florist can opt for market penetration where it can sell its
existing product in existing market as it involves less risk. Secondly, it is cost effective so the
company can utilise its funds in promotional activities in order to attract new customers and beat
the competitors.
CONCLUSION
It is concluded from the above report that strategic management is an important part of
the business which involves planning. The company dealing in flowers faces many risk and
issues which includes financial, environmental and delivery risk. Further the company faces
certain trends and developments which affect its working like increase in exports and imports,
expansion of distribution channel etc. so in order to cope up with it, the organisation adopted a
strategy to expand its operations internationally and used the e commerce forum for expanding
its distribution channel. Further the theory of Ansoff will help the Silver Birch Florist to battle its
competitors by adopting the scenario of market penetration.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Aleksandr and et. al., 2017. The formation of regional strategy of innovation-industrial
development. In Information Systems Architecture and Technology: Proceedings of
37th International Conference on Information Systems Architecture and Technology–
ISAT 2016–Part IV (pp. 115-126). Springer, Cham.
Brenes and et. al., 2016. Strategy and innovation in emerging economies after the end of the
commodity boom—Insights from Latin America. Journal of Business Research. 69(10).
pp.4363-4367.
Choi, S., 2016. An inside‐out marketing strategy for innovation among human service nonprofits
in South Korea. Nonprofit Management and Leadership. 26(3). pp.331-347.
Knox, M.W., Crawford, J. and Kelder, J.A., 2020. Developing authentic leadership and fostering
social entrepreneurial innovation. In Reshaping Entrepreneurship Education With
Strategy and Innovation (pp. 262-292). IGI Global.
LI, X. and YU, B., 2017. Simulation Research on Dynamic Evolution of Technology Innovation
Strategy and Technology Innovation Capability for Technology Leapfrogging. Science
of Science and Management of S. & T., (11),. p.8.
Yang and et. al., 2017. Technology policy, technology strategy and innovation performance:
evidence from Chinese aircraft and spacecraft manufacturing. Science and Public
Policy. 44(5). pp.620-630.
Zhou, X., Shan, M. and Li, J., 2018. R&D strategy and innovation performance: the role of
standardization. Technology Analysis & Strategic Management. 30(7). pp.778-792.