INTRODUCTION
lanning is a critical process that involves strategic thinking and making informed decisions to guide various operations aimed at achieving organizational goals and objectives. In the context of growth, planning becomes even more crucial as it involves developing effective strategies to ensure a company can expand successfully in a competitive environment. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) typically refer to businesses that employ a small number of people and generate modest revenue. The organization chosen for this report is Rowlinson Knitwear Ltd, a UK-based company established in 1972 that specializes in manufacturing knitwear and school uniforms for students, operating within the apparel and textile industry.
This report will explore the growth opportunities available to Rowlinson Knitwear Ltd, examining various financing options and their respective advantages and disadvantages. Additionally, a comprehensive business plan will be developed, outlining the company's objectives, strategies, financial plans, and a situational analysis. Finally, the report will discuss exit or succession strategies, evaluating their potential benefits and drawbacks for the company.
TASK 1
P1: Analysis and justification of key considerations for evaluating growth opportunities.
In order to analyse the growth opportunities companies can use different range of strategies and tool which helps in increasing the market share and customer base. Some of these strategies are discussed as follows:
Porter’s generic strategy: This kind of strategy refers to the several ways with which a firm can achieve the competitive advantages over their competitors within an open marketplace (Hawkey, 2017). It is related to the mainly four approaches that can be adopted by the company for the purpose of gaining leading positions and moves towards the adequate growth and success.
- Costleadership: It is related to the supply of better quality of products to their customers at low prices which is affordable by all classes of people. For instance, by adopting this, the company Rowlinson can lead high market shares and low operational as well as production cost which will help in talking competitive advantages over their rivals (McKenzie, 2015).
- Differentiation: It is related to the supply of unique as well as innovative offerings that are not exist in the market. For example, by implementing this strategy, a company Rowlinson can achieve their mission of facilitating durable garments and improve customer base with the market shares.
- Costfocus: It is associated with the current industry and facilitates their offerings at low prices in order to get competitive edge in the market. For instance, Rowlinson can adopt this strategy in order to attract and gain more interest of their customers by supplying durable garments at low amount.
- Differentiationfocus: It is closely associated with the unique range of their products which is to be sold to the clients with the purpose of differentiation from their competitors. For instance, the company Rowlinson can use this approach for getting huge shares and high brand recognition in the mind of its customers who are loyal.
The company Rowlinson Knitwear can emphasise on cost leadership strategy in order to attain desired success and growth by minimising overall cost (Kumar, 2015). This will help in reducing the products prices and increase the profitability which will result in the attracting more customers for accomplishing the competitive advantages and market position.
PESTLE analysis: This is a most effective tool that can be adopted by Rowlinson knitwear in order to ascertained the external environmental factors that can impacts on the organisational growth and success in the economy of UK. It can be considered as follows:
- Politicalfactors: The country UK is politically stable which has a clear legal structure that is advantageous for the company Rowlinson. As because of the political stability, probability of growth and success is high for the business.
- Economicfactor: UK’s economy is highly stable after the Brexit deal and the growth rate of economic conditions in UK is also high that facilitates the more opportunities for the Rowlinson in order to grow and expand. This will also lead in raising the company’s revenue.
- Socialfactor: UK’s population are well educated and more aware about the quality of products and they want more durability in the company’s offerings related to the garments (Omsa, 2017). So the Rowlinson’s revenue and the brand value as well will strong in the United Kingdom’s marketplace.
- Technologicalfactor: The company Rowlinson Knitwear is using new and latest technologies while manufacturing garments or clothes as well as adopt digital techniques for promoting their offerings to their potential customers that will help in expanding the business operations.
- Environmental factor: The company Rowlinson producing durable garments without polluting environment or nature. They also run company’s operations by considering the environmental laws that is useful for the business to grow and expand their company in United Kingdom.
- Legal factor: As the government of UK supports many small and medium businesses in order to grow and expand their business with which Rowlinson can able to expand their operations for manufacturing durable products if the company will comply the legal regulations of country.
P2: Evaluation of growth opportunities using Ansoff's growth matrix.
Ansoff Growth Matrix: The Ansoff Growth Matrix is considered one of the most effective tools for strategic planning, providing businesses with a structured approach to adopting appropriate growth strategies for the future. It primarily focuses on current and future customers, helping to identify growth opportunities available in the open market (Dawes, 2018). For Rowlinson Knitwear, this analysis can be used to improve sales and profitability. If you're looking to understand how to apply this tool to your business case, and need help, you can consider services that offer to do my assignment for detailed guidance. These aspects are discussed as follows:
- Market penetration: It is associated with the raising market shares of company in order to sell their existing goods and services within the current market area. For instance, the market penetration strategy can be helpful for the Rowlinson Ltd as it has clear understanding about their customers demands and they can supply their present products at low prices in order to increase the market shares.
- Product development: This is to be associated with the introducing new products in their present market place as they mainly focus on increasing the quality of products. For example, through this strategy a company Rowlinson can able to develop their offerings by adding some innovative features as per the customers expectations which will help in increasing the company’s market share (Sammut"Bonnici, 2015).
- Market development: Through this strategy, a company can focus on facilitating current offerings into a new market in order to capture new customers. This kind of strategy require huge investment and riskiest as compared to the penetration. For instance, the company Rowlinson can develop their goods by considering the choice of customers in new marketplace. Through which they can able to increase their brand value in the market by adopting appropriate strategies related to the pricing and promotional aspects.
- Diversification: It emphasise on the introducing new products within the new marketplace for the purpose of expansion their operation. For instance, Rowlinson can adopt this strategy for raising their market share but the company need to be understood that diversification strategy is risky and need huge investment as well as it requires highly desired and skilled manager at marketing and operational department.
In respect of Rowlinson Knitwear Ltd, the market development strategy is most effective among all as they have several offerings within one market like UK so they focused on diversify their locations for expands entire business operations. In this, the company has many opportunities in order to provides their offerings in various markets as well as it helps in accomplishing the desired growth as well as success of company.
TASK 2
P3: Assessment of sources of funding along with advantages and disadvantages.
Financing refers to the procedure of generating funds that are needed by a company in order to run their daily operations and activities and accomplish organisational objectives for adequate growth (Perera, 2017). The company Rowlinson has an issue regarding the shortage of funds for expanding their operations in other countries so they use several internal as well as external sources of funds generation. This can be considered as follows:
- Internalsources: It is associated with the selling assets, minimising the working capital and so on that is considered as internal sources because this can be managed by company itself.
- External sources: It is related to those options which are available outside the company for financing purpose which includes crowdfunding, bank loan, overdraft facility, angel financing and so on.
Some of these external sources can be used by the Rowlinson Knitwear are as follows:
Bank loan: It is the common and foremost source of funding which is to be provided by the banks in order to carry out daily operations of company (Schmitt, 2018). For this a bank charge specific or fixed amount of interest over the specified period of time. In context of Rowlinson Knitwear, bank loan is more suitable for arranging funds as it is termed as a profitable source for the company.
Advantage: In this sources company knows about the actual amount that requires to be repay at certain time with the interest rates.
Disadvantage: In this, a firm requires to give their assets as a security against the loan amount which is to be taken from the bank.
Crowdfunding: It is commonly used by the new businesses in order to gather funds from the large group of people and small amount of money. This can be done through the online portals like websites, social media and so on (Bi, 2017).
Advantage: It is supportive for improving the brand value of the company and also helps to gain the huge attention of people as well as media.
Disadvantage: It is a complex procedure in nature because it includes several legal formalities as well as there is a huge chance of stealing their business ideas.
From the above sources the bank loan is more appropriate for the Rowlinson Knitwear in order to generate funds for managing their daily operations and expansion strategy because it helps in ascertaining the payments in advance along with the specified period of time which will required for managing the money.
TASK 3
P4: Business plan for growth including financial information and strategic objectives.
Business plan is defined as a written document that outlines specific strategies and policies essential for achieving organizational objectives effectively and efficiently. It includes necessary information and details related to organizational activities and procedures, which are crucial for business operations. Within the context of Rowlinson Knitwear Ltd, a business plan is an important aspect of their growth strategy. It encompasses various elements such as mission, vision, objectives, strategies, budget, and financial planning (Rakićević, 2016). This document is highly valuable for the company as it helps in performing business activities systematically and making effective decisions for the betterment of the business.
The business plan enables a firm to develop appropriate strategies and practices for the near future and aids in making sound investment decisions. The main aim of designing a business plan is to attract the attention of investors and assure them that their investment will yield significant returns in the future. As Rowlinson is a small business organization dealing in apparel manufacturing in the United Kingdom, they are planning to expand their operations to other regions of the UK and globally, potentially transforming from a small firm into a large business organization. Before expanding operations elsewhere, Rowlinson needs to formulate appropriate plans and decisions to implement an effective business plan. For those seeking help in drafting such comprehensive plans, an essay typer tool can be a useful resource. This process can be discussed in detail as follows:
Executive Summary: Rowlinson knitwear is a manufacturer of UK who produce apparels for different people like for men, women, students etc. that headquartered is in England, United Kingdom. As company has a revenue of $11.8M and approx. 30 employees as well. It operates in UK only so company thinks to plan some strategies for expanding their businesses in other countries as well.
Vision: The vision statement of Rowlinson Knitwear Ltd, is “To become a great place in order to work for and with as well as to capture huge market share all over the entire world”.
Mission: The mission statement of Rowlinson is “To produce durable and affordable garments which is suitable for personalisation for clubs or schools as well as corporate branding along with the fair prices”.
Objectives: Strategic objectives of Rowlinson is to increase market share by 15% and customer base with 20% along with the overall growth and success of company.
Strategies: In order to formulate strategies a company can use STP framework that are discussed below:
- Segmentation: Rowlinson’s manager can segment their business on the basis of geographical and demographical locations such as company can choose other countries excluding UK for selling durable garments across the worldwide in order to expand business (Foroudi, 2017).
- Targeting: After segmenting the manager of company target their market on the basis of age group in which they target different age for different variety of products as 5-15 years for school wear garments and 20-40 for knitwear garments.
- Positioning: In order to positioned their products in the marketplace a company’s manager can use promotional activities and discount or offers for positively positioned their products within the marketplace.
Budgetestimation: For expanding their businesses a company can use effective budgetary plan that helps in calculating cost for different activities. It can be considered as follows:
Particular |
2020 ($) |
2021 ($) |
2022 ($) |
Production cost |
5000 |
- |
- |
Promotion cost |
1000 |
700 |
500 |
Advertisements cost |
500 |
550 |
600 |
Technology cost |
1500 |
1700 |
1900 |
Catalogues |
250 |
200 |
150 |
Total |
8250 |
3150 |
315 |
It has been viewed that the company’s management pays huge attention on the production cost and they require to invest in the promotional products in order to target and positioned their products and markets. Also, need to invest some more money in the catalogues as it will help in facilitating detailed information towards products that are supplied by the company.
Cashflowstatement:
It has been considered from the above CFS that company has sufficient money for the payment of all debts. Rowlinson Knitwear Ltd, requires to pay taxes that are changing with years as the cash in hand for 2015, 2016 & 2017 as $102203, $200354, $238503 respectively and the average estimated income is $72001 for the 3 years.
Monitoringandcontrolling: All the business plan can be monitored effectively in order to implement successfully as the management of company use benchmarking and key performance indicator as effective techniques (Wakkee, 2015). This will help in increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of organisational activities.
TASK 4
P5: Succession and exit plan for small business with its advantages and disadvantages.
Every business operates within a unique environment influenced by various complex factors such as social, political, economic, and technological elements. These factors pose significant challenges for Rowlinson Knitwear and can negatively impact the company's profitability and productivity, creating threats for the management. To address these challenges, the company's management has developed exit or succession strategies aimed at ensuring future success and growth (Kumar, 2016). For students looking to understand how these strategies are formulated, seeking assignment help can provide valuable insights. Some of these exit strategies are as follows:
Liquidation: It is termed as an event in which a firm is going to be insolvent or decided to be end their operations by selling their assets to their stakeholders like creditors, shareholders etc. as per the priority of claims.
Advantages:
In this legal requirement are fulfilled that protects owner from the risk as well as penalties and it will reduce the owner pressure in order to repay debts which are not free for starts as new venture.
Disadvantages:
In this the skilled and desired employees will be lost that is difficult for company in order to get this benefit in future.
Sell business in open marketplace: If business owner does not need to end their businesses then there is an option to sell their businesses to the third party that can be a business workers and managers.
Advantages:
In this the organisational stakeholders are familiar with that so it makes easy to remain for future for a loner period of time duration as well as it increases the loyalty and employee’s motivation to work hard for getting high success (Lambert, 2017).
Disadvantages:
If managers or stakeholders are not highly qualified then they may affect business success and growth as well as clients are fails to trust on new management of businesses.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it has been viewed that planning is an essential element in an organisation that is required to get huge success and growth within the marketplace. The organisations require to analyse several external environmental factors by using PESTLE and Ansoff Matrix in order to determine the future growth opportunities for a company. Along with this there are numerous sources like bank loans, crowdfunding and so on with which a firm can able to arrange funds for their business operations which is essential for performing several activities. Lastly, prepare a business plan which is effective in order to expand and diversify their operational functions as it will help in attracting investors by giving clear vision, mission, objectives and goals of planning. Also, many ways are introduced for the exit as well as succession strategies that has been studied in detail.