Eco Guardian Analysis

Canadian Business magazine has just ranked Eco- Guardian as the 45th fastest growing company in Greater Toronto Area.

In light of such rapid growth, what do you suggest Eco-Guardian should do about their dealing with Wal-Mart? That is to say, should they just discontinue their "problematic" relationship with the giant retailer and focus on small businesses in Canada? Based on your understanding of fast growth businesses, what should they watch out for in the next 2 to 5 years?

In the case of Eco-Guardian, one can argue that it would fall in the Question Mark’s Quadrant in the BCG Matrix, meaning it has high growth but low market share. Eco-Guardian should continue their dealings with Walmart for the time being and work on improving their business on the side. This means they should “add and subtract”: make some sort of a business innovation or a high-potential potential product and once their product receives some type of notoriety or is coming to fruition, they can leave, cut ties with Walmart and focus on their own brand from there. (https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/242980). All this should be done while allowing Walmart to sell their products which gives them exposure. Their current situation is not problematic but can be improved upon. Eco-Guardian should remain patient in this situation and wait to get more exposure and accept the opportunity cost of not getting as much profit to gain exposure because Walmart has a large amount of customers buying from them in comparison to other big box stores. Having their product on their shelves at a reduced cost can lead to people looking into and doing their research on Eco-Guardian and those who have their values aligned with Eco-Guardian’s would like to see and buy this product more often.

In the next 2 to 5 years, Eco-Guardian can work on their internal business by making sure that there will be no losses other than Walmart buying their products at cost. They should make sure that management operations and logistics are moving in the right direction and there are not any major hiccups in the business. The idea of minimizing losses is being done because there is very little room to lose finances because Walmart is not paying a sizable amount so in this case, every penny counts.