A Comprehensive Analysis of Thirdway Group

Introduction and Overview of the Thirdway group

Small businesses are the organisations that are privately-owned or are developed in partnership and have few employees with less annual revenue in comparison to a regular-sized business. In the UK, it is seen that a major contribution to the economy comes from the small business enterprises and they are seen to play an effective part in reducing unemployment issues by recruiting increased number of staffs. In this report, the aim is to analyse the business operations of Thirdway group to identify their nature of management operations, influence of internal and external environmental factors, challenges faced by them and government support for their business. Further, recommendations are provided to resolve the identified issues and challenges for the company. In order to develop information regarding the report, primary data collection method is to be applied where the business reports and the entrepreneur of the company are to be surveyed and interviewed. For individuals who are seeking business dissertation help, understanding the intricacies of small business operations along with their impact on the economy is critical.

Nature of the entrepreneur behind the venture

The nature of the entrepreneurs who are Fraser Munro, Mason Booth and Ben Gillam involved with Thirdway Group is to create innovation in the field of office designing so that the design look effortlessly functional. The nature of these entrepreneurs involved with the company was to take inspiration from existing and current technology so that they can develop new designed office spaces that are wished by the consumers. This is offer delight to the consumers so that they avail their services (www.thirdwayinteriors.com, 2018). (Refer to Appendix 1)

SME start-up processes

The start-up process of an SME is to execute keen market research to identify the nature of services and products they are to offer so that the target consumers who are still buying from the giants in the industry avail services and goods from them (Marks et al. 2017). Thirdway Group initially performed effective market research to identify the products they are to offer so that they can achieve success which acted in a positive way for them to properly establish the business (www.thirdwayinteriors.com, 2018). The next process in SME involves planning and choosing the exact business structure (Kunday and Şengüler, 2015). Thirdway Group developed proper plan what they wished to include in their business and choose the business structure where all are free to share ideas without designation to work collaboratively to achieve success for the business. The next process followed by Thirdway Group is licensing their business and buy a property to set their business. Later, they through job advertisement prepared the team and employees required for the company and finally used social media to promote their business to form an effective working SME at the industry (www.thirdwayinteriors.com, 2018).

Business concept and sources of competitive advantage

The business concept of Thirdway Group is offer innovative design for arranging office spaces so that the consumers are delighted in such a way that they offer references of them to others to avail services for the company. This is because they believed referrals in business are best way to get increased number of client and customers (www.thirdwayinteriors.com, 2018). The referrals help SME to grow effectively as it reaffirms reason for others why it is beneficial to do business with the company as well as need minimum cost for promotion (Thompson et al. 2018). Thus, Thirdway develop referral concept to get business as it would led them to promote business more effectively within time and less cost. The source of competitive advantage for Thirdway Group way is that they maintain diverse culture at work where each employee irrespective of their position is allowed to share ideas at work. The diverse management of culture at work avoid discrimination and offer each employees the power to speak and share ideas makes them feel valued and engaged at work which make employees to prefer working for the company creating a positive name for it in the industry in turn offering competitive advantage over others (Kwon et al. 2016). This is because the company stand out in market from the perspective of employees as they offer best value for work. The other source of competitive advantage for Thirdway Group is that they develop products and services by keeping clients needs at the heart of the business and performs tasks through co-creativity (www.thirdwayinteriors.com, 2018).

Current Level of demand and competitive environment

In the Sunday Times Awards, Thirdway Group is ranked 10th best small company preferred being worked by employees (www.thirdwayinteriors.com, 2018). This indicates that the company is in demand among individuals to work for as a result of their awesome business management. The client and customers informs that they feel in the driving seat while availing services from Thirdway Group and delighted all their demands are fulfilled (www.thirdwayinteriors.com, 2018). This indicates that they have high demand among the consumers due to their satisfactory services. In relation to competitive environment, Thirdway Group is going to face competition from Ikea and others who are ruling the industry. Moreover, they would high threat from new entrants as they are still a SME coping to establish in the market. However, the bargaining power of buyers and suppliers would be low for Thirdway Group in the competitive market as they offer cost-effective services and have increased availability of suppliers for resources needed to operate in the target market of their business (www.thirdwayinteriors.com, 2018).

Growth and Development of the Thirdway Group

In 2017, Thirdway Group is seen to have reached their ninth year of establishment and at the present, their forecasted turnover is £65 million which is significant growth of over £50 m in the previous three years. At present, Thirdway Group has launched its new website with assistance from Collective London to build its brand identity in the market. However, they still have not been able to execute all the services and use resources required to represent them as a unique brand in the industry (www.thirdwayinteriors.com, 2018). In 2016, the total assets of the Thirdway Group were £11 m whereas in 2017 it is now £17m and the current liabilities of the company in 2017 is £11m whereas in 2016 it was £9m (companycheck.co.uk, 2018). This informs that though the asset for the business has increased so as the liabilities which means the organisation has failed to properly use the gained assets to lower the liabilities.

Present challenges faced by the Thirdway Group

Thirdway Group is facing many challenges in the industry of their operation out of which creation of effective user experience and brand identity in the market is one of the challenges. As asserted by Eniola and Entebang (2015), small enterprise faces shortage of finances and skills to implement higher technology and innovation that are costly in nature to improve their service and products. This leads them to compromise in providing services which makes the small companies unable to meet all the needs and demands of the users. Thirdway Group is facing similar situation as being a small enterprise they lack increased amount of finances and investment to deliver effective services to the consumers to lead them have better experience while availing services from them in comparison to other companies. The lack of proper finances has also led them to face challenges in creating improved brand identity in the industry of their operation. This is because they are unable to arrange proper resources at the earliest required for representing them as a unique organisation in the market to establish effective brand identity among the consumers (Sallem et al. 2017).

The clients in the interior designing and office reimbursement sector are seen to have sky-high expectations and often fail to inform in details the nature of design and architecture that is going to satisfy their needs (Smith, 2015). In this respect, Thirdway Group is also facing challenges in meeting the expectation of the clients as to them proper explanation regarding the exact demands of the client is not always known. Moreover, few of the clients and customers of Thirdway Group are asking for services with sky-high expectations which are posing challenges for the company to meet. Thirdway Group is also facing challenges to work with fast turnarounds as there are issues of time management within the organisation. However, still they have not missed any major deadlines but they are still not sure how in the future they are to manage time to resolve the raised challenge (www.thirdwayinteriors.com, 2018).

Environmental factors influencing the business of Thirdway group

The business environment of a company is influenced both by the external and internal factors. In order to analyse the way, these factors influence the Thirdway Group, the PESTEL and SWOT analysis is being undertaken. The PESTEL analysis is referred to the framework used by the marketers for monitoring and analysing the external business environment of the organisation (Lamas Leite et al. 2017).

Analysis:

The political condition in the UK as a result of Brexit is going to negatively impact on the Thirdway Group as they have to increase their expenditure in managing their business as they have to pay VAT for managing their operations in the market. It is seen that small business usually has less investment and face financial constraints with any sudden increase in their business management expenditure (www.theguardian.com, 2018; www.telegraph.co.uk, 2018). This is because in such condition they do not have adequate amount of money to be spent that may lead to their downfall. Further, Brexit is going to create constraints for the flow of investment from overseas due to increased legal constraints (www.bbc.com, 2018). This would lead Thirdway Group top face issues with attracting potential investors to achieve finances in further expansion and development of their business. In the UK, the economic condition of the interior design industry is seen to be at a flourishing state (www.gov.uk, 2019). This is going to contribute to the growth of the Thirdway Group as economic growth means that there is an increased demand for the services. Thus, it is going to create opportunity for the company to increase services to achieve better revenue. The increased demand for office spaces in the UK with innovative furniture and interior designing is going to help Thirdway Group to face increased demand for services. This, in turn, is going to help them have extensive demands of their services making them be able to expand their business. In the UK, there is increased use of innovative technology in developing interior design and architecture. Thirdway Group is seen to use innovative and new technology is developing their design and thus it is effective for their business to offer improved and innovative services to the customers as per their demands. In relation to environmental factors, it is seen that in the UK the companies who are involved in interior designing and office refurbishment services are trying to reduce carbon footprint by using recycled materials (www.forbes.com, 2017). In the case of Thirdway Group, there is still no valid information about any of their initiative in reducing carbon footprint by designing recycled materials in delivering services. The individuals in the UK are concerned about pollution and they prefer to buy from companies who have active participation in lowering carbon footprint (www.forbes.com, 2017). Thus, in this case, Thirdway Group may lose to attract potential customers due to their lack of initiative towards reducing carbon footprint through their service delivery and business operation. (Refer to Appendix 2)

Analysis:

The leading companies in any sector are preferred by new customers for availing services and products (Tukker and Tischner, 2017). This is because the leading position of the companies makes the new customers belief and perceives that the companies are efficient to deliver proper services as a result of which they are presently at the position. Thus, the leading position of Thirdway Group in the industry among the small business is going to act as strength for their business operation in attracting new customers towards them. As mentioned by Xia et al. (2016), innovative designing of products and services helps to attract more customers. This is because innovation in services and products helps to deliver the existing services and products in a new way that fulfils the long demands of the consumers. Thus, the innovative design and architecture in offering services by the Thirdway Group are going to help them attract more customers due to fulfilment of their demands.

A single area of business operation makes the company have less scope in delivering their services and products to wider customers (Mendling et al. 2018). Thus, Thirdway Group’s single office in the Morelands area is going to create issues for them to operate in wider areas in an around England and the UK. In the current situation, it is seen that proper online presence of the companies is vital in expanding their business. This is because online platform allows the companies to interact with their clients and customer and attract increased number of customers to buy their products and avail their services from various places resolving any geographical barriers (Zaglia et al. 2015). In case of Thirdway Group, it is seen that though they have a uniquely designed website but still, they do not have effective online presence in promoting and managing their business which is going to pose problems for their expansion in the industry. This is because they may not be able to reach wider customers and attract potential clients for their business. (refer to Appendix 3)

Current growth and Development Strategy of Thirdway Group

The current growth and development strategy developed by Thirdway Group is to present them in a unique way in the market. This is done to ensure that the clients and customers understand their strong cultural identity as well as non-formalic approach towards finding, designing and fitting commercial property as per their needs in a new and innovative way (www.thirdwayinteriors.com, 2018). This an effective way to promote their new growth because often it is found that in case of small business the informal approach works better than formal approach. In formal approach, the company already has a highly established aim which may not always to be effective for the smaller firms to accomplish. This is because continuous and uncertain changes in their business operation as well as in the industry may lead them to face difficulty in managing proper resources to work as per the formalised approach. Thus, informal approach towards managing business by the small enterprises offers them better success in managing business as the approaches set are flexible in nature as they are made as per the present business condition (Taneja et al. 2016). Thus, the non-formal approach to develop business by the Thirdway Group being a small business is going to be effective in nature. The unique way of presenting a business is essential for the smaller firms to let the consumers and clients understand and clearly identify the reason they are to avail them instead of the big companies to meet their demands and needs (Dansoh et al. 2017). This is because without unique ability the customers or clients do not understand the reason why they need to change their perception to avail services from a new company without whom they have never dealt with. Thus, the uniqueness approach in development strategy of Thirdway Group is going to help them attract more potential clients and customers to improve their growth (www.thirdwayinteriors.com, 2018).

Governmental support scheme to help the Thirdway group

There are various government support schemes available for Thirdway Group in developing their business. One of the schemes is Business Cash Advance in which the small business owners who have 10 to 249 employees are able to get £2500 to £300,000 as finances to improve their business condition. It is able to be accessed by any small enterprise those have been operating for more than 4 months in the UK and has takeover of 2500 per month in credit or debit card payments. The regions where the scheme operates are London, Wales, East Midlands and others (www.gov.uk, 2018). There are total of 140 employees in Thirdway Group and the takeover of the company is more than the amount and so they are able to avail the scheme. Moreover, they operate in London where the scheme is available. The Building Legacies scheme is an enterprise growth and procures program that is offered to business based in London. The scheme is offered to firms who have employees from 10 to 249. In this scheme, the businesses are offered access to direct buyers at large and are provided opportunity to take contracts. Moreover, the scheme offers information through procurement workshops about the present trends and opportunities in the industry in the field of the company’s business operation (www.gov.uk, 2018). This scheme is going to help Thirdway Group to understand and identify the potential opportunities and trends they are to follow to improve their business operations. Moreover, through the scheme, they are able to get contracts and direct buyers of their services, in turn, increasing their expansion. The Small Business Rate Relief scheme is available for the organisations that have property with rateable value less than £15,000. It is also available for business those uses a single property in managing their business even though the rateable value is more (www.gov.uk, 2018). In case of Thirdway Group, it is seen that they use a single property to manage their business and thus they are eligible for the scheme. This scheme is going to reduce some of their business expenditure by offering them financial relief on the property’s rateable value from where the business is being operated.

Conclusion

The above discussion informs that Thirdway Group is a London-based small enterprise who develops designs and architecture as well as operates in making office refurbishment. Thirdway Group current growth and development strategy is to showcase them as unique organisation in the market and develop plan to execute their business operation through non-formal approach. They face challenges with establishing proper brand identity, time management and others. The external environment factors of the organisation inform that the economic condition of the industry in which they operate is favourable for them to execute their business operation. Moreover, there is increased demand for office spaces and their refurbishment which makes it a potential business platform for Thirdway Group to operate to earn finances. The internal environment of the Thirdway Group informs that the company have weakness of lack of proper online presence, lower finances availability for business and few areas of business operation. However, the issues and challenges can be managed with the help of proper development strategies and use of government schemes available for small business in the UK.

Recommendations

The Thirdway Group is recommended to use online and internet facility presently to develop better strategies for expanding and promoting their business. This is because it is going to offer them the opportunity to attract and reach wider number of customer in places other than London, in turn, helping them to expand their business to new areas. In order to cope with increased expenses that may be faced due to Brexit, Thirdway Group require to attract more investors by portraying uniqueness of their services and assuring the investors in true way that they are going to get good returns. Moreover, it is recommended Thirdway Group need to incur finances for their business through crowdfunding and availing various government scheme provided by the government of the UK. Thirdway Group is also recommended to analyse the industry of their operation more minutely so that they can identify in better way the exact needs to be fulfilled for the clients. Further, they are recommended to create better time management so that in future they do not face tension to meet the deadline of the contracts.

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