The deadline for the next Growth Advantage programme is approaching: running for the third time in September, the programme has had proven results for the companies who have taken part so far.
Targeted at companies wishing to scale up, the Growth Advantage Programme - or GAP - was developed by Strathclyde Business School with support from Santander in 2014 with the first cohort of 20 SMEs starting in May 2015. A second group started in September 2016 and the business school has now opened up a third programme to companies which starts at the end of September.
The 10-month programme run by the Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship at SBS allows business leaders of growth-oriented SMEs to take a step back from the day-to-day running of their organisations to develop their growth plans. It is designed to deliver relevant, accessible and practical learning for the leaders of ambitious businesses and combines world-class executive education with the power of peer learning.
GAP played a significant part in SBS winning UK Business School of the Year for 2016 at the Times Higher Education awards last November and it's a programme that gets results for participants. Collectively, previous participants have seen a 19% growth in employment and an uptick in sales of 22% since taking part.
Before starting, participants were asked to state their current annual employment and sales before the programme began, at the end of the programme, and projections for three years from the end of the programme. Coming into the programme companies averaged almost £2 million in sales with 20 people.
By the end of the programme, total employment was 598, up 19% for cohort 2 and 434, up 10% for cohort 1. Total turnover was £41.9 million (up 22%) for cohort 2 and £47.3m (up 13%) for cohort 1. Projected total employment in three years from the end of the programme was 975 (up 63%) for cohort 2; 876 (up 102%) for cohort 1; and projected total turnover in three years was £99.6m (up 138%) for cohort 2 from the end of the programme and £100.6m (up 113%) for cohort 1.
This represents an average annualised growth in sales of 33.5% (28.5%) and employment of 17.7% (26.5%) - both cohorts exceeding the OECD growth threshold for a high growth firm of 20% annualised growth in sales or turnover.
One of GAP's recent graduates, GAP 2016 participant Alistair Cameron is the Managing Director of Scotmas the Kelso-based world-leading designers and manufacturers of chlorine dioxide water purification systems said: "A key differentiator of this programme is sustainability. By delivering the inputs over a nine-month period, the Hunter Centre has facilitated 'bite-sized' learning and an element of peer support/pressure that ensures that the cohort is able to apply the learning in their businesses immediately and feedback on progress to the group at the next session. Where problems are encountered, they are shared and worked through as a group."
GAP is structured around five intensive sessions between September and May comprising a one-day orientation session, followed by four two-day workshops covering the advantages that successful growth companies are known to have - market, operations, resourcing and leadership. Participants contribute £4,500 each to the cost of the course, with the rest provided by Santander.
John Anderson is Director of the Growth Advantage Programme and former Chief Executive of the Entrepreneurial Exchange. For further information on GAP click here or email sbs.growthadvantage@strath.ac.uk.