Where next for Grant Garden Centres Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Where next for Grant Garden Centres - Essay Example primarily located in the Farmoor village in South East London. The company is headed by John Grant. Jane and Malcolm daughter and son of John are also a part of the family business. The study looks to analyze and find out the key pain points of the business with respect to core business areas such as marketing, HR, finance and operations and provide a probable solution to overcome the hindrance caused by the pain points. During the course of the study various strategic and analytical frame works such as PEST analysis, SWOT analysis, etc has been used to get the desired outcome (Henry, 2008, p.89). External environment Analysis External or Macro environmental factors include factors that cannot be controlled by the organization and yet those factors tend to have a major impact on the business operations. Hence, an organization should keep a close eye on the developments of those factors and develop or modify business operations accordingly. The external environmental factors include P olitical, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal and Environmental factors of (PESTEL). In the context of the present study two key factors in the form of Environmental and Technological has been chosen. Environmental With the rising threat of global warming people, government as well as corporate entities have become a lot more environment conscious. Keeping in mind the product is being produced by the company it provides a great opportunity to the company. This can help the company to grow business by targeting both B2B and B2C customer segment. Technological Technological changes have affected the business operations of companies round globe. Now days most of divisions in a company are IT enabled. Also rise of digital media has made sure that a website of a company becomes the face of the business. If a company does not have a website then it is equivalent to business suicide. Therefore, it is very important for Grant Garden Centres to become familiar with the technological facto r and use them to the fullest advantage. SWOT Analysis Strengths John’s passion for gardening Expansion of business to two different locations Revenue growth in 2005 to 2009 was 20% which indicates sustainable growth. Weaknesses Autocratic Attitude of the business head Lack of formal recruitment and selections process High Employee turn over Marketing and communications activity are not up to the mark. Lack of appropriate job delegation Lack of customer service and product training Lack of IT enablement Absence of company website Profitability and liquidity position are poor. Opportunity Customers as well as the governments have become a lot more conscious about environment There lies scope to use IT facilities to make the business operations a lot more robust in nature The company can achieve economies of scale if it reduces the operating cost and liquidate stock faster. Customers will prefer cash purchase if the company increase the promotion in effective way. Threats Recen t opening of a DIY store is a major threat considering the unstructured business operations. Losses of customers as there are very little customers that are repeating to the centres. 40% of the customers are over 55; i.e. the company is positioned as a youth oriented brand due to the traditional business outfit. Product diversification by other chains Under utilization of the land available. Recommended Action Plan From the above analysis it is quite clear that Grant Garden Centres needs to work upon each of the key business areas including Marketing, HR, Operations and finance. Therefore while delivering the recommended action plans each of the areas have