Key Considerations For Growth Options Over Ford

About Ford Way Solutions

It is a leading IT consultancy company which has experience of 25 years in providing solution to other firms from various marketing sector. They provide effective software services which are completely robust, future proof, secure as well as cost effective. Apart from this, they have an experience in many sectors such as Central Government, NHS, Universities as well as Higher Education, etc.

TASK 1

P1. Key factors for growth

Every firm has certain features that provide them an advantage of growing their business for many benefits. Management of Ford Way Solution should work upon these factors which can be very fruitful for them. Some of the key factors are discussed as below:

Competitive Advantage- It is necessary for every organisation to survive in the market. For this, competitive advantage is an essential factor which can provide them a position which is much higher than other competitors. It can be gained through creating an impactful positioning through their various features in the mind set of potential customers. Being an IT consultancy, for them it is very mandatory to provide quality as well as secure services which can meet the expectations of their clients through various ways. The management must focus on developing several strategies which can provide them to formulate effective tactics for sustaining the leading position in market. Company should focus on all their strengths in order to maximise their competitiveness in market (Fleming and Hawes, 2017). Ford Way Solution can conduct internal as well as external analysis that can provide them a base for formulating strategies.

SWOT Analysis for company can be used as an advantage over other competitors.

Strengths Leading Position Effective solution providers Impactful positioning in customers Innovative and secure solutions High customer base	Weaknesses Specific clients from limited sectors
Opportunities Demand for technological solutions in market Preference for artificial intelligence in business	Threats New Entrants with innovative solutions Dynamic demands of clients security threats related to software solutions

 

Apart from this, external analysis is done for understanding and formulating strategies for influencing them which is created by these factors:

Political- It is related to the political stability which affects the expansion of any business. With stable political scenario, company can flourish their business in several ways and vice versa.

Economical- These are the factors which are associated with economy such as inflation rate, recession of succession and many others. Therefore, financial status of deals as well as company can be dependent on these aspects.

Social- This factor determines the issue with societal factors which can influence their working in many ways.

Technological- Ford Way is prone to all changes which are related to technological surroundings. Being an IT firm, it has to cope up with this aspect.

Legal- Every organisation has to keep themselves legally updated by availing every legal document as well as permission.

Environmental- Company can get impacted through climatic changes, location of the office and several other factors.

Core Competencies

It is the combination of all resources which are required for making company distinguishable from other existing firms. It is very important for the management of Ford Way Solution to focus and improve core competencies of their organisation. The major core competency is their technically skilled employees who emphasises on providing innovative solutions for the problem. It is crucial to improve the skills of their employees as well as training can be provided to them on timely basis.

Resources

It is the most essential requirement of every company because all services which are provided to clients are dependent on this aspect. There is a need to utilise all inventories in an optimal manner which focuses on less wastage and complete usage of resources (Grover, Bokalo and Greenway, 2014). Company must adopt the concept of sustainable development which involves fulfilling present needs and reserving resources for future demand also.

P2. Strategies for growth opportunities

There can be various strategies which can be adopted by Ford Way Solutions for effective growth. As it is very necessary for company to expand their business to sustain the leading position in market by providing excellent services and a secure solution for client's problem. There are many strategies which can be adopted by the firm for greater expansion such as market penetration, development of product and market as well as diversification. Strategies which can be the most suitable to this organisation are discussed as below:

Market Development- Being a leading IT solution provider company, Ford Way Solution has successfully penetrated the market. But now, there is the requirement of building up new market in order to make it operating at global level (The Importance of Business Planning, 2018). After successful positioning in local market, every company needs to enter in various other new markets with existing solutions which can lead to increase the base of customers at international level providing them many benefits, one of which can be huge profit. There are various goals of this strategy such as creating focus on new geographical markets through establishing several new branches across the world. Apart from this, new features or facilities can be introduced along with the promotional offer which can lead to attract more potential customers of new market. Selection of new distribution channel can be conducted which will lead to provide fast delivery of services to new clients which can make an impactful image among them. Pricing policy can vary according to the economy of market which influences financial aspect of organisation.

There are many advantages of this strategy as it can lead them to become the global identity. The customer base will get maximised and the financial status can become more powerful. Some of the risks which can be associated with them are strategies for promotion that might get failed due to lack of knowledge regarding new market (Hawkey, 2017). Apart from this, local companies might not be willing to collaborate for providing them an easy entrance in market. Varied political and legal scenarios can affect the expansion and functioning of the company in different areas.

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Product development- With this strategy, Ford Way Solutions can concentrate on development of their existing services by introducing several features as well as by making it more advanced in terms of accuracy and cyber secure software which can be efficient for handling all the problems which require a software as a remedy. It focuses on providing many services in more advanced and innovative manner. It leads to improve their image mango existing client as well as potential customers get attracted towards them . This strategy provides differentiation to the present services which provides them an opportunity for making their position in market to be more stronger. Under this, the company focuses on the research and development of all the offerings with some innovative concepts. Target customer are investigated in order to analyse their needs and demands.

There are various risk which are associated with this strategies such as brand name can get damaged due to many reason as client might not like new advanced features of existing services. This can lead to decrease their number of clients in future (Keough, 2015). Apart from this, there can be a huge operational stress which can lead to affect the potential of every employee who is working to provide quality output or the organisation.

TASK 2

P3. Sources Related to funding for Ford way Solution

Many sources are available from where company can acquire their funds which are required for various purposes. Financial stability is very important for successful implementation of strategies in practical scenario. Every operation requires cost for investing which provide the accomplishment of goals and objectives of organisation. There are various sources from where any enterprise can avail their financial amount in order to provide effective services that fulfils the need and requirement of customers.

There are two type of sources which are available . Those can be internal as well as external Internal sources of funding is used when the requirement of amount is not so high and can be avail from the internal aspects of company. It does not involve high capital cost but there is a need of collateral for availing this fund. On the other side, external sourcing can involve acquiring the fund from outside the company (Li, Mobin and Keyser, 2016). It is required when there is a need of huge financial cost for big project and might not require any collateral but involve a high capital cost. Following are the sources which Ford way Solutions can opt for getting their funds for their project.

Bank Loan- It is known to be traditional external source from where firm can avail their funds. It can be regarded as the best solution because it can be availed for taking huge loans which are required by the company for bigger project. For acquiring funds company has to take care for two aspects which are principle amount and interest payment which debtor should have to provide for the funds.

There are various advantages which are associated with it such as it is known to be the cheapest source among all the available sources for availing fund. Most of the bank provide loans at lower interest rate which can be boon for company.. Along with this, there are various schemes which government has introduced for supporting SMEs for expanding their business market.

Apart from thee there are several other disadvantages such as the process for availing the fund can be very complex and time consuming as it requires time for fulfilling all verification and pre procedures of loan. Also, bank does not provide loan to every enterprise, it has some criteria which are needed to be fulfilled for gaining eligibility for taking loan.

Equity- It is regarded as very effective and reliable source from where firm can acquire their financial amount for several purposes. There are no charge that are associated with it. It is denoted as the capital stock of the firm. The share of company has some market value that is used by the business owner for raising funds by making it available to public (Mayo, 2015). Value of each share is dependent upon economic position of market in coming time period. It can be the right choice for those who are running small scale business.

There are various advantages which are associated with this source as it does not provide any kind of obligations such a repayment of any amount in further future or etc. There is no time consuming processes in comparison to other sources. Most of the issues that are associated with credit is completely gone. If a company does not stand for a suitable creditworthiness, this can be the best option. It provide a great opportunity to get connected with other in a particular market which is provided for increasing the amount through making their sources public.

Also, there various disadvantages which can be present with these such as there is a loss in right for controlling the organisation as there is sharing in the shareholder which provides them equal opportunity for decision making as well as profit earning. There can be rise in many conflict that can impact functioning of company.

TASK 3

P4. Business plan

Overview of business plan

Being a leader in IT service provider industry Ford way Solution has formulated new service such a Big data analytics which will provide facilities to the client for handling big data in an efficient manner through many software which will be beneficial for them.

Goals / objectives

• To provide Big data analytics services to multinational companies
• To formulate effective promotional techniques for the service
• To make the sale up to 60 percent within 6 months.

Marketing strategy

The strategy which will be used for promoting new service can be through personal selling where the representatives of the organisation will meet all their client for informing them regarding their new services and its related benefits. Apart from this, email marketing can be used which can provide advertisement through mails to all targeted customers.

Investment securing

The funds which will be collected from various external sources such as taking bank from loan for bigger project that will include installing advanced technologies for the process.

Competitor’s analysis

Gartner IT service provider is the major competitor of this firm as it provides advanced services for all multinational companies and has acquired a great amount of market share in this industry and has highly skilled employees.

TASK 4

P5. exit or succession options for a small business

There are various exit options which Ford way solutions can adopt are discussed as below:

Liquidation- It includes winding up of business due to suffering of huge financial losses. It comprises of selling up all the assets to claimant who want to avail it for their business purposes. It is a process which includes conversion of the infrastructure into liquid form which is cash. The amount which is derived from the selling up of all assets is used for paying creditors as well as for starting another business (Sandada, Pooe and Dhurup, 2014). It can be organised voluntarily or compulsorily also. It can also be called as dissolution.

There are many advantages which are associated with liquidation which can be relief from struggling as it tends to eliminate every responsibility and pressure from the owner of business which is getting sink in market. There is a low cost of implementation which is obtained from selling up of business. Apart from this, there can be option for settlement of liability. A debt can be deducted when all the assets are reduced. There is some amount which can be obtained and used for other beneficial decisions.

Some of the disadvantage can be, the chance for improving any business gets reduced as company is ended. Also, the amount which is obtained after selling up of business is less as compared to amount which is invested for business which might not be enough for paying all the debt.

Merger- It is one of the successful strategy which can be used. As it lead to provide an opportunity to expand by collaborating with other companies who are producing similar products. It provide a chance for the company who is gradually degrading in financial aspect to gain some profit by merging with other strong entity. Under this, both the companies work together and their individual identity is not lost.

There are various advantages which are associated with merging as it provides a greater base of customers as well as opportunities of earning profitability gets increased along with the successful strategies of other firm providing support from their aspect (Scarborough, 2016). There is a synergy effect which accumulates the functioning of both organisation into a single system which tends to provide effective results.

Apart from this, there are various disadvantages as the competition in market gets reduced there can hike in prices of commodities. Apart from this, the choices among seller gets minimised and customers are bounded to buy product from them without their will.

Acquisition- It can also be regarded as another effective strategy which can be implemented by the company for exit or succession. As in this, a stronger company buy maximum share of the firm in market and try to overtake it from the owner. It can be done with or without the will of owner. When there is no agreement for the acquisition it is regarded to be hostile takeover .

There are many advantages of this process as the business gets a new direction with the perspective of a new owner which can lead to provide success to the organisation in many ways. Apart from this, there is a chance for effective growth of the business which was earlier to fall due to poor market performance (Ward, 2016). Also, the investment will lead to provide employment to the employee which might get lost due to closing of the firm. Brand name will also not get affected due to poor performance as it will lead to make their performance much better due to many growth opportunities.

Some of the major disadvantages can be that if the individual employees of organisation does not cope up with other due to different working culture and strategies there can be many issue in the performances. Also, workers might get agreed upon working with other company (Wu, 2015). Other issue can be that it will lead to create many internal conflicts which can affect the performance of both the companies and can provide them many disadvantage which is not acceptable for the growth perspective.

CONCLUSION

From the above report, it has been concluded that planning is an essential part of growth for every business activity. There are many key factor which can use for an effective growing industry such as a competitive advantage that provided a position of superiority among available competitor that helps to increase its competitiveness in the market. Apart from this, core competitiveness can be known as one of the important reasons for which company can be distinguished from another rival. Highly technical skilled employees are the major core competencies that provide other client an effective solution for all the problems. Apart from this some of the strategies which can be implemented by this company for effective growth can be market and product development which will provide them an opportunity for growing their business effectively.

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