SPECIAL REPORT
Expansion is the name of the game
With green shoots appearing, is it time to expand or diversify? Our marketing expert, PAUL CLAPHAM, mulls over the options for businesses looking to grow.
M
ervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England, is not noted for flights of fancy. So, when he says that we are starting to climb out of recession, ears tend to prick up and they did. Note that he has been accused of talking the economy down over the past few years and now heʼs talking it up.
Am I deafened by the popping of Champagne corks? Not yet, in truth, but here are the growth areas the quality papers are predicting.
Smaller companies get hit harder on the way down, but are beneficiaries on the way up. Listed small businesses (such as those on AIM) see investment as risk aversion reduces. Financial businesses, technology businesses and ʻconsumer discretionary brandsʼ are also being punted. However, I would suggest the latter might include most consumer products. Japanese companies are expected to do well.
The business that moves quickly in an upturn invariably gains most. But if opportunities are there, where exactly are they. What do you do to take advantage of the post-recession bounce? Margaret Thatcher made famous the phrase ʻsticking to your knittingʼ and a good one it was, too. In so many cases itʼs right. Aiming to be the best at what you do, focusing on it exclusively, creating excellence from expertise are, collectively, the sort of thing they teach at business schools. But how much is it a route to business growth? Yes itʼs virtuous but itʼs inclined to be slow. What can you do to speed the process?
Start with your technology: are you using those machines to their full capability? I have heard in a range of business sectors two diametrically opposed comments: ʻwe donʼt feel our suppliers have helped us get best advantage from investing in their kitʼ; ʻour biggest frustration is knowing that our customers use only 25% of the productsʼ potentialʼ. My response is, ʻdid you ask for/offer input?ʼ and the answer is often the verbal equivalent of shuffling feet. So that has to be the first expansion route – youʼve got the technological capability, using every aspect of it can offer very rapid growth, with little or no additional costs. It may mean stepping outside your comfort zone, but thatʼs good, too.
www.printwearandpromotion.co.uk
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