Making Rocket Fuel

Scaling a business isn't for everyone; it takes a particular type of human to upgrade the plane's engines whilst in-flight. But, facing an economic downturn, it's vitally important that we support Scaleups.

A recent Oxford Economics study shows scaleups are vital for the economy. In fact, during a recent interview, Sir Tom Hunter, Scottish billionaire, entrepreneur and philanthropist, described Scaleups as 'Rocket Fuel' - "they are the ones who employ the people, pay the taxes and really move the economic dial."

Last week we held our first in-person gathering of the Scaleup Leaders Network. It was a huge privilege to host an intimate quorum with the deliberate intent to share and grow. The curated event was facilitated by thought leaders with deep expertise and designed for all to discuss the challenges of scaling a business in the face of an economic downturn.

We are on the right track.

When asked how to help scaleups, Sir Tom offered, "First, we can bring them together and provide peer-to-peer support and learning. They learn so much from each other and support each other. Second, we'll get seasoned entrepreneurs who've been through recessions, know how to grow their business, know about internationalisation."

Boom! Nailed-it!

If you are in an active scaleup community, you may be enriched by the connections you have whilst receiving and giving value from the conversations you continuously hold.

The connections and depth of conversations in our scaleup community span the following:

Internationalisation:

- In an economic downturn, launching in another market outside of the home market can make sense, particularly if the regulatory environment and market readiness are more suited. Question the best place to launch and do market testing to validate the strategy.
- It is ok to be ambitiously seeking to be the globally dominant player. In Australia, where the tall poppy syndrome exists, it can be hard to openly find the space and support to aim for and achieve this level of aspiration.
- When considering doing business with a new market; to expand, secure investment, find partners, etc., it is valuable to build a strategic network of people before you need to leverage them.
- Money can be lost, in significant sums, from poorly executed internationalisation plans. The safest bet is to focus on validating the problem you are solving rather than being driven to get the tech, or locally validated business model, out into the world.

Technology:

- Tech strategy is often overlooked or confused with operations/execution. Strategy is about exploring and solving for tomorrow's problems. Solving purely for what is in front of us does not enable growth, only the status quo.

- In scaleups, the product teams, designers and engineers developing your product are too often distracted by solving internal issues rather than client problems. A hyper-focus on product and market will yield faster growth, but this requires someone else to look at scaling business processes and tools.

- Too often, we stick with what we know and what is comfortable. That could be the process we built in the early days or an email marketing tool we used on our old corporate job. So turning things off is often more important than turning new stuff on.

Leadership:

- The team who gets you going won't necessarily be the team who takes you to scale. If you have an employee you believe isn't going to be able to do what's needed, it becomes critical to have the difficult conversation early.

- Diversity in teams adds immense value to a business, but it's often challenging for everyone involved. How overt can you be with hiring policy or calling out past bias?

- Attracting and retaining talent in a competitive market is a challenge for scaleups that sit between the allure of a startup and the revenue to compete on salaries with the unicorns. There are other mechanisms that can be used to attract talent in scaleups, but good incentive plans come down to a value proposition that works for both parties.

If these themes resonate with you, are you contributing to the conversation or missing out?

If you seek more of these strategic conversations, then let's have a chat. Our next in-person event is not far away and, for now, we are in scaleup mode.