INNO9006 Scaling Up. From Fast Start to Steady Growth

2019

4.5

1 x 3-hour workshop weekly

None

Core in Master in Leading Innovation for Transformation

Coming up with a new product or service idea is often the easy part of innovation. Turning that into a viable business capable of delivering and executing requires the right combination of people, process and technology to enable and sustain scale. Every business goes through a number of distinct stages of growth, and each stage requires different skillsets. Being able to recognise these and obtain and deploy the resources that each needs often separates the successful companies from the majority that fail within the first five years. This topic focuses on the people, processes and technology that are essential to scaling a business successfully.

This topic aims to give students an understanding of what is involved in executing, or turning an idea into a viable business. Using a combination of theory and examples from practice, students will learn the five stages of business growth and will be able to identify the challenges that are typical at each stage. Students will learn the management style, organisational structure, processes and systems that will be most effective at each stage. Students will develop human resource requirements and process maps and will review several technology solutions that will be key to enabling their businesses to grow and thrive. They will learn how metrics and key performance indicators can chart each stage of a company’s success. Students will leave with an executional blueprint that can be applied to any project or business in the future.

On successful completion of this topic students should be able to:

• Articulate the lifecycle stages of growth and the pitfalls that come with each
• Describe the organisational structure, managerial requirements, processes and systems to be utilised in each stage of growth
• Create a human resource plan that includes hiring and performance management
• Map a process from end-to-end
• Create a KPI dashboard
• Design an executional blueprint