Expansion planning at a prominent Canadian investment management firm

• Main Author: Chung, Kelly Anne
• Language: English
• Published: 2009
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/14059

A prominent financial investment firm currently operates offices located in four major cities across Canada. In addition to their current markets, they are seeking to increase their market share of private investors in a number of Canadian cities over a 10-year planning horizon. Expanding their operations to service these new markets would mean either increasing the capacity of their current offices or acquiring additional offices located in new markets, both of which are costly. Thus, a critical decision must be made as to the most cost effective method of expanding their operations to service new markets. Though costs are expected to be greater for a new office location, it is believed that servicing clients from an office located within the prospective city will positively affect revenue growth for the firm. This assumption along with other factors believed to impact revenue growth, such as positive press coverage, are assessed to determine and quantify their potential impact. As advisors' compensation and support are a large component of the costs incurred to service new markets, a hiring strategy of advisors must also be developed for each new market entered. Results from both our scenario analysis tool as well as our analysis on factors affecting revenue growth have given management the information needed to convince shareholders to invest in expansion planning. Please note that all absolute numbers have been altered within this thesis to adhere to a confidentiality agreement with the financial management firm.