An introduction to Bdaily's Scaleup Focus Week

This article has been written by Roy Stanley, chairman of Bdaily.

Small firms that experience rapid growth (or scaleups, as they are now termed) are of increasing interest to regional policy makers.

Why? Because they create more jobs and have a more significant economic impact than large or static firms.

According to an Octopus report Scaleups represent less than one per cent of all firms in the UK, yet account for one in three of every new job created.

This small number of high growth firms contributed over 20 per cent of growth to the UK economy.

A group of North East academics and a local entrepreneur have published research investigating the events that trigger rapid growth in scaleups, and how these high growth firms respond to these occurrences to maximise the opportunities presented to them.

The research concluded that the events that trigger high growth are essentially unpredictable and were termed ‘Black Swan Trigger Events’.

However, the researchers found that the scaleups made common responses and decisions following the Black Swan Trigger Events and that these responses and decisions can be categorised into six clear domains.

Case study evidence was gathered from a number of representative North East scaleup firms.

The actions and decisions post the trigger event, identified from this evidence, were categorised into six distinguishable absorptive capacity domains:

• People; Recruitment and Development
• Market; Customers and Sales
• Strategy and Entrepreneurial Orientation
• Operations and Formal Systems
• Innovation; Product and Process
• Networking and Mentoring

Importantly for the North East, the research provides insights into the process of growth experienced by scaleups as well as recommended policy support for these firms.

The work develops actions that static firms can take to improve their prospects of becoming a scaleup business and suggests a framework for identifying nascent scaleups.

Keep up with Bdaily’s Scaleup Focus Week starting next Monday (November 25). Follow us on Twitter @Bdaily and sign up to our bulletins to keep up to date with the latest articles discussing all things scaleup.