Managing Growth

New entrepreneurial ventures, once successfully past the formation stage (incubators and accelerators), often encounter problems caused by their very rapid growth. The activities of the entrepreneur have to change, from innovation to delegation, communication, and organization as different functional and technical skills are needed, new external relationships such as bankers, lawyers and investors are formed and new company employees have to be integrated into the goals and operations of the enterprise. This is a very basic change that many entrepreneurs never make. The purpose of the subject is to recognise that managing growth is the biggest challenge for entrepreneurs, to consider and evaluate the alternative pathways to growth and to consider processes for identifying a preferred approach. The subject identifies methods for assessing customer and market opportunities, the need for revised business models, marketing strategies, the development or acquisition of appropriate skills and resources and the adoption of management control systems that should be used to monitor and analyse growth, with the additional challenge of international growth also considered. Participants in the subject will use case studies and meetings with entrepreneurs to develop a pragmatic understanding of the challenges of growth, as well as the obstacles that need to be overcome. At the conclusion of the subject, students should be able to identify the different pathways to market including commercialisation.