Is Retrenchment Strategy the Best Strategy for a Business to Adopt

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Is retrenchment the best strategy for a business that has lost its position as market leader? Retrenchment is the decision made by managers to reduce the size of the business by withdrawing from markets, closing some divisions of the business or making employees redundant. Companies may use retrenchment if there is increased competition in the market, the business is having financial difficulties or economic conditions such as the 2008-2009 recession caused demand for products to fall. These all show a clear need for strategic change. A retrenchment strategy will depend on the type of business and the reasons why it has lost its position as market leader. A reason why retrenchment can be the best strategy for a business that has lost its position as market leader is that the business can withdraw from a certain market that isn’t profitable or withdraw a product that has lost demand and focus on their strengths. A number of businesses generally have a few ‘core’ products that they began their business with and then they expand and create a range of products within a certain market, this is to try and offer a large number of products that will appeal to a wider audience and hopefully improve sales and increase their market share. However, if the demand and sales for some of these products is low, which can be as a result of external factors such as a recession or decline of a market, a retrenchment strategy can help a business to realise that they have a number of products that aren’t performing well as these products are not the strong point of the business and these products can be withdrawn. This will leave a few ‘core’ products that the business feel are their strengths, allowing them to focus on improving products for these strengths as they will already have knowledge and reputation of these products and will be able to put more time and invest more into

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