Business growth is a point at which a company reaches a point where it expands and requires more ways to generate profits. All companies strive to reduce business costs, whether by making inefficient use of cash flow or spending less on employees' lunches. To identify market opportunities and take advantage of them, there are eight types of analysis that can be used. The first step is consumer segmentation.
This involves creating a short list of competitors and conducting market research to gain insight into their sales by country and category. This will help to determine if they operate in similar markets or if there are growth opportunities that have been overlooked. Increasing market penetration is the least risky approach to growth. This strategy seeks to address known factors, such as current products and current markets.
However, if changes in the environment are not monitored, such as new products and services being developed by competitors, it can lead to losing market penetration.
Market development
involves selling existing products to new markets. This approach carries more risk than market penetration, as it may involve some investment in market expansion without any guarantee of profitability. However, since existing products are used, there are no associated product development costs.Researching the State of the Industry
Researching the state of the industry is the best way to determine if desired growth is necessary and feasible.This could include conducting surveys and focus groups with current and potential customers or deepening existing research on the sector. Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen, who teaches the Disruptive Strategy online course, can provide valuable lessons for recognizing and taking advantage of business and market opportunities.
