Growth made simple : How to grow a small company into a large corporation

Abstract:

This study is about rapid growth in SMEs from an entrepreneur’s or manager’s perspective and it aim to find practices in order to enable and drive rapid growth. The purpose of this thesis is to understand how owner-led small businesses can be managed in order to maximize the profitable long term growth of the company. In order to understand this we have had a pragmatic perspective and have attempted to find practices that drive and enable fast growth. The study consists of an extensive literature study on the subject and five case studies of Swedish rapid growth companies. Each case study consisted of gathering secondary data and conducting 1-4 interviews at each company with Entrepreneurs, CEOs, CFOs and Sales managers.

The result from the literature study and the case studies is a model for growth that is shown below. The model consists of eight different areas that are important to drive or enable growth in companies.  Each area in the model was identified as a driver, enabler or blocker of growth for each case study.

The conclusions from this thesis are five propositions regarding rapid growth that is listed below.

ü  Proposition 1: All the areas in our analysis model can either be a blocker, an enabler or a driver of growth.

ü  Proposition 2: It is possible to deliberately transform an area from a blocker, or enabler, into a driver of growth.

ü  Proposition 3: It is important to make the business scalable so no area becomes a blocker of growth.

ü  Proposition 4: The three areas, time monopoly, sales, and leadership could be considered as primary drivers for growth.

ü  Proposition 5: The two areas culture and expansion could be considered as primary enablers of growth.

The findings from this study are highly valuable for managers or entrepreneurs that want to increase growth of their companies.