Business Growth Strategies Transcription
Hi, I am Town Planner Adeleke Akinpelu, principal partner at SMC Professional Services and also the director of SMC Institute. I am sharing my thoughts on options available for a business to grow in a competitive business environment. There are three broad platforms for a business to grow:
1. Intensive growth option
2. Integrative growth option
3. Diversification growth option
I am focusing on the intensive growth options for a business to grow in a competitive business environment like what is currently obtainable in Nigeria. In using the intensive disruption, a business could use three platforms:
a. Market penetration platform
b. Market development platform
c. Product development platform
In using the market penetration platform to grow a business, the firm focuses on expanding its operations in its existing market where it currently operates its products or services delivery. This involves selling more to the old customers and also sourcing more for new customers. In this, the business will be able to expand its operational base. It also involves taking advantage of the cost competence, its experience and its knowledge of the existing market. With this knowledge, the business is able to push more the frontier of the market.
The second platform in the intensive disruption, the market development option, means that a business is reaching to a new market. For example, a business that is evolving confectionaries and has its operational base in the southwest geopolitical zone in Nigeria, using the market development option, entails that the business intends to expand out of its present operational business pathways. For example, going as far as the southeast, going as far as the south-south, and also the north-west means the firm is going outwards from its present operational business. In this instance, the firm is developing new markets, reaching to a geographical area outside its present operational base. For example, a firm that had a retail business in one geopolitical zone in the city reaching out to another city to open another store, to open another place, has grown by developing a new market entirely.
The third option is product development. A firm is growing using intensive growth options, engaging in new product development or new service development entirely that is different from the existing product or service life it presently exists. Product development will also mean an enhancement of the existing product or service life. This could involve designing or packaging for an existing product or service. If a firm engages in product development or service development, it could be new development or an enhancement of an existing product or service line. This means that the firm is growing, developing a new market entirely.
However, it is important to note that the first two options that are highlighted under the intensive growth option: market penetration and market development. The last one, the product development, is a bit more intensive than the first two options because it involves changing a lot of processes beyond what is obtainable in the market penetration and market development.
Posted to YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/@smcwebtv), July 19, 2020
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