INTRODUCTION
Figure Clothing is family-owned fashion house based in Manchester. Established over thirty years ago, the company currently employs fewer than 15 people. Figure Clothing origins were as a retail wholesaler selling and buying stock. The company transformed itself into a fashion house 4 years ago, with a vision to become a fashion house producing high quality women‟s fashion.
The UK fashion industry is a multi-million pound industry with Manchester considered the main hub of UK fashion houses after London. Figure Clothing is a relatively small player in the industry with just over £4m turnover, with its core business in designing and manufacturing high fashion ladies‟ clothing and supply to most of the high street retailers and mail order companies in UK. All the designs are designed in their Manchester office and are produced in factories in India and China. Last year figure clothing vertically integrated and launched its new brand “frock & frill” to cater the needs of fashion minded/trendy women. Though Figure Clothing haven‟t invested any money for the marketing and advertising, the brand managed to get attention from major retailers, in itself a major achievement.
A good business strategy should determine the core customer target (who), the product or service offering (what) and the effective execution of the strategy (how). Successful strategy requires effective strategy implementation, without which a good strategy can be rendered unproductive (Grant 2010, Bossidy 2002).
This assignment will provide the rationale for adopting a differential strategy in order for Figure Clothing to achieve competitive advantage. The assignment will further define the company‟s strategic objectives and the plan to achieve this through use of critical success factors, strategic staircase and McKinsey‟s 7S model.

The opportunities and risks will be explored in