A scale-up is a business that has grown by at least 20% in either turnover or staff for three consecutive years. The 2017 Annual Scale-up Review form the Scale-up Institute identified 31,440 scale-ups in the UK (out of a total of 5.7 million businesses, 99% of which are SMEs) – so it’s a small and elite club. But why is being a member of the club important? The Scale-up Institute has quite rightly identified that nurturing scale-ups has the potential to make significant improvements to … [Read more...]
How to remain ahead of the game in a competitive market – The OODA Loop
Uncertainty is a fact of life in any competitive business environment, but the proactive business leader doesn’t fear uncertainty; he recognises it and deals with it better and faster than the competition. A business that doesn’t react to change and uncertainty can’t remain competitive for long; the often-quoted example is the demise of Kodak. Having invented the technology for digital photography they didn’t recognise the disruption this would cause to the market and their dogged focus on wet … [Read more...]
Bringing a hi-tech SME back to innovation and profitability
Case Study A medium-sized technology company with a strong reputation for specialist products combining bespoke hardware and software, was suffering from several years of under-investment; resulting in products that were no longer at the cutting edge of the industry. Barriers to entry for new competitors had protected the business from complete failure, but their generally loyal major clients were becoming dissatisfied and starting to look at other potential suppliers. But the ability to … [Read more...]
Is Outsourcing Always the Cost-Effective Option?
A specialist software company, providing enterprise level digital products and services to international clients, had enjoyed a period of steady and reliable growth in a highly specialised niche market. However, in a period of global financial decline new sales had stagnated and revenue from existing clients was static. With a planned new sales initiative on the horizon there was a need to increase capacity for both software development and datacentre hosting, but funds for organic growth were … [Read more...]
