Business in Practice: Stone Point Ltd Challenges and Solutions

This report provides an analysis of Stone Point Ltd, a construction and refurbishment company based in the UK, and the challenges it faces, primarily due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The report identifies the lack of new work as a critical issue, stemming from the pandemic's impact on the retail banking, education, and retail sectors, where Stone Point Ltd primarily operates. The analysis explores the implications of these challenges, including reduced profitability and potential employee turnover. To address these issues, the report recommends a SWOT analysis, suggesting strategies such as partnering with third parties, targeting new businesses, maintaining marketing efforts, reducing service costs, motivating employees, expanding online, and conducting risk assessments. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of proactive measures to maintain competitiveness and ensure the company's long-term success in a challenging business environment.

Business in Practice

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
About the organization................................................................................................................3
Issues that the company is currently dealing with......................................................................3
Analysis.......................................................................................................................................4
Recommendations using appropriate frameworks......................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
A business can be defined as organizations whose primary aim is to generate profits by
providing goods and services to the customers thereby satisfying their needs. Businesses
significantly contribute to the overall development of an economy. But the recent outbreak of
COVID-19 has impacted the various industries up to a high extent (Bratton and Gold, 2017).
This report is based on Stone Point Ltd., an organisation that specialises in refurbishment and
construction projects across the United Kingdom. The company has project teams that deliver a
wide range of services in different industries that range from small businesses to new builds. The
report identifies the issues that the respective company is dealing with and an analysis of the
impact. Recommendations for the company regarding how to address these issues are also
included in the report.
MAIN BODY
About the organization
Stone Point Ltd is a construction and refurbishment company that is based in the United
Kingdom. The company provides a wide range of services to both new businesses as well as
small businesses (ABOUT US, 2019). The company has been delivering services for various
industries in the United Kingdom, including education, commercial and retail. The company has
a skilled and diverse workforce, due to which it is able to deliver flexible solutions. The
company's work ranges from a complete gutting out a premises, taking down walls,
reconfiguring lighting systems etc.
Issues that the company is currently dealing with
The company provides various services for different industries and thus, is a successful
business. But, with the recent outbreak of COVID-19, the company is dealing with various
challenges. This is primarily because the company trades with other businesses, rather than
trading directly with members of the public (Buppert, 2020). The services are provided mainly in
three areas, retail banking, education and retail. some of the organizations in the banking sector
that the company has traded with previously include Barclays Bank, HSBC, Royal Bank of
Scotland etc. In the retail industry, there are a number of high end retailers based in London that
the respective company has provided its services to. Lastly, in the education industry, the
company has worked with the University of Kent, University of Beds for a number of years.

There are eight to nine employees that are employed by the organization which include
project manager, operational manager, employees for quantity surveying, delivery managers and
so on. The effect of corona virus has had an intense impact on various businesses across different
sectors including the respective company. The businesses are waiting to see how things unfold so
that they can make decisions about where they can spend their money. The main issue that Stone
Point Ltd is dealing with is that there is no new work (Foss and Saebi, 2017). The reason behind
this is that different organisations operating across various sectors have seen a massive impact on
their day to day business activities. For example, retail banking is gradually shifting from high
street. Although, banks will always exist in the city centres, but the market on the whole is
gradually diminishing.
The company is mainly dealing with this issue because people have started conducting
most of the activities online. These include trading online and due to this, there is a reduction in
the number of people going to the bank premises. As a result, it can be said that the retail
banking market is on the diminishing side. As far as education is concerned, the universities
across the nation are in a state flux, which means that there is no surety as to whether the
students will come back to the premises where they can work remotely. Thus, this has caused
uncertainty for Stone Point Ltd. In context to the case, uncertainty means that the people do not
make decisions and do not go ahead with things (Foss and Saebi, 2018). As far as the retail
industry is concerned, people are increasingly moving towards online purchasing. So, all the
three sectors that the company operates in are being challenged at the moment.
As a business, Stone Point Ltd has always secured work through existing relationships
and they remain good and strong. But the outbreak of the virus has not only impacted the
different sectors, but the operations of the respected company to a massive extent. So, new work
is a potential challenge that the company is facing moving forward. Although the relationships
that the company has with other organizations are still good, the rate of work coming from them
has reduced which was not the case in the past. Due to this, there has been an impact on the
overall profitability of the company. Therefore, it is important for the company to adopt
measures so that these issues can be addressed.
Analysis
On analysing the scenarios of the company above, it has been analysed that the main
issue it is dealing with is lack of new work. With this issue, the company is not able to conduct

its business operations effectively. With low profitability, the respective company's overall
capability to utilize the available opportunities that will come up will become limited. Due to
this, the overall possibility of growth of the company will also get affected. A decline in the
overall profits of the company mean that it will be difficult for the company to cover the
operating costs (Grover and et. al., 2018). This will include expenses related to marketing as well
as administration. Besides this, Stone Point Ltd will not be able to spend as much amount on
marketing as done by the competitors. As a result, the company's growth in the market will
become slow.
It has also been analysed that with no new work, there is a high risk of the company
losing its experienced and talented employees. And if the rate of turnover within the company
will become high, it will lead to severe impacts on the company. This can include loss of
valuable knowledge as well as experience, loss of overall competence and morale for those who
are left. As a result, the overall performance as well as productivity of the company will get
impacted (Kato and Charoenrat, 2018). The existing employees will lose their motivation to
work with a decline in their ability to perform. Also, since the company's overall profitability
will get affected, it will not be able to pay salaries to its employees. Thus, the level of motivation
among the employees will go down and this will be visible in their performance. Besides this,
their level of engagement with their work will also get impacted in a negative way.
When an organization is not able to generate profits due to lack of work, its overall brand
image in the market gets affected in a negative manner. With this, the respective company will
gradually start losing its potential as well as existing customers. There will also be an impact on
the overall sales of the company and the company will be forced to invest heavy amounts of
money on additional advertising as well as campaigns to rebuild its brand image. The level of
investment from the potential investors will become low (Lahti, Wincent and Parida, 2018). If
the company will receive no new work, the different departments within the workplace will face
issues in coordinating with each other and sharing innovative ideas. The managers will find it
difficult to make important decisions and as a result, there will be conflicts due to differences in
perceptions.
Lastly, it also has been analysed that all the three sectors that primarily generate work
opportunities for Stone Point Ltd, have been affected massively due to the outbreak of COVID-
19. And the company works on existing relationships with its clients, but although the

relationships are good, the rate of work has been decreased. Therefore, it is important for the
company to adopt measures and formulate new strategies so that it can generate new business
and maintain its competitiveness in the market. Otherwise, the consequences that it will have to
face will be negative. And as a result, the competitors will gain a stronger position within the
market and the company will be forces to stop its business operations.
Recommendations using appropriate frameworks
From the above analysis of Stone Point Ltd and the issues that it is dealing with it has
been found that there is a need for it to address this issues. A SWOT analysis can be used to
understand the company's position and provide recommendations. It is a framework that can be
used to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities as well as potential threats that can
affect the overall operations of a business significantly. The same for the respective company is
described below -
Strengths – One of the major strengths of the company is that it has worked with some
large companies like HSBC, Barclays Bank, the Royal Bank of Scotland etc. in the past. Also, it
shares positive and good relations with them.
Weaknesses – With the recent outbreak of COVID-19 and its impact on the various
industries that Stone Point works for have been largely impacted (Peric, Durkin and Vitezic,
2017). This has led to a lack of availability of new work. The company has not yet adopted any
measures to address this issue.
Opportunities – The company has the opportunity to partner with another businesses
that have similar operations and work closely with them. Besides this, the company can make
use of the internet and start offering services online to the members of the public rather than just
looking for businesses.
Threats – Competition can act as a major threat for the company as well as its overall
profitability. Due to this, the company's growth will be affected and it will be forced to invest in
additional advertising in order to restore its brand name in the market (Prasad, 2020). Also, there
is a threat of new entrants in the market which can impact the company's overall performance.
By analysing the above framework, the respective company, Stone Point Ltd is
recommended to generate new work with the help of third parties such as surveyors and
architects. This is because they will help the company in dealing with the issues and generating
some amount of profits. The company is also recommended to start offering its services to new

businesses for which it has not worked for previously. This will not only help it in building new
relationships but also generating new work. Also, although the company is not able to generate
new business currently, it is still recommended to continue it marketing processes so that
different businesses remain aware of it as well as the services that it provides. As a result, new
businesses will be interested in working with Stone Point and therefore, there will be an increase
in the profitability of the company.
The company is also recommended to reduce the costs of its services in the time of
pandemic so that more number of clients are interested in working with it (Vidgen, Shaw and
Grant, 2017). Also, the existing employees should be motivated so that they are engaged to their
respective jobs and do not look out for opportunities of working with the competitors. Besides
this, the company should develop strategies to expand into new markets online. This is because it
does not require any kind of investments and will enable the organisation to reach out to a
greater number of potential customers. Lastly, a research can be conducted to identify any
additional risks that can have an impact on the company.
CONCLUSION
From the above report, it can be concluded that the main aim of a business is to generate
profits. But with profits, there can be certain factors that can act as threats for the same.
Currently, the outbreak of COVID-19 has created a massive impacted on different industries like
retail, banking and education. People are increasingly shifting towards online trading as well as
purchasing. And as far as universities are concerned, there is no surety as to when they will start
operating again. Therefore, there is a need for businesses to adopt various strategies in order to
sustain in the market and conduct their business operations in an effective manner. This will help
in conducting the business activities in a smooth way.

REFERENCES
Books & Journals
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Buppert, C., 2020. Nurse practitioner's business practice and legal guide. Jones & Bartlett
Publishers.
Foss, N. J. and Saebi, T., 2017. Fifteen years of research on business model innovation: How far
have we come, and where should we go?. Journal of Management. 43(1). pp.200-227.
Foss, N. J. and Saebi, T., 2018. Business models and business model innovation: Between
wicked and paradigmatic problems. Long Range Planning. 51(1). pp.9-21.
Grover, V. and et. al., 2018. Creating strategic business value from big data analytics: A research
framework. Journal of Management Information Systems. 35(2). pp.388-423.
Kato, M. and Charoenrat, T., 2018. Business continuity management of small and medium sized
enterprises: Evidence from Thailand. International journal of disaster risk reduction.
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Lahti, T., Wincent, J. and Parida, V., 2018. A definition and theoretical review of the circular
economy, value creation, and sustainable business models: where are we now and
where should research move in the future?. Sustainability. 10(8). p.2799.
Peric, M., Durkin, J. and Vitezic, V., 2017. The constructs of a business model redefined: A half-
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Prasad, L. M., 2020. Principles and practice of management. Sultan Chand & Sons.
Vidgen, R., Shaw, S. and Grant, D. B., 2017. Management challenges in creating value from
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Online
ABOUT US. 2019. [Online]. Available
through:<https://www.stonepointconstruction.com/story>.