Dr. Tom McKaskill
Breakthrough Publication, 2010, (162 Pages, 1MB)
Proactively driving high growth is a mystery for the vast majority of entrepreneurs. They have no model of the driving forces of high growth to guide them and thus their efforts are often frustrated when they overlook basic principles that underpin growth strategies.
Entrepreneurs seek growth in their ventures but it eludes most because they don’t have a full understanding of the interdependence of the factors inside their business and their external environment that provide growth traction. High growth is certainly possible but it only happens when the entrepreneur correctly positions his business within his target market and implements strategies inside his business to activate the growth potential.
Growth occurs when there is a match between external and internal business conditions. It is not sufficient to be good in one area of business, such as a great product or an excellent management team. The lessons of history show us that there are many aspects of the business that have to come together in the right way at the right time for the business to have growth potential. If the business is weak in any one area, it will undermine the overall performance of the entire strategy – and this is why sustainable high growth is so difficult to achieve. However, the entrepreneur that has a good understanding of growth principles, has a much higher chance of driving both higher profitability and higher growth.
This book sets out a practical and structured treatment of the elements of business management and product/marketing positioning which facilitates high growth. It is based on well know growth theories, the author’s personal experience and the successes of venture capital sector.
The purpose of this book is to enable entrepreneurs to identify the critical business principles which drive high growth, to provide them with a means to measure their growth potential and to help them understand what they have to do to significantly improve their growth prospects.
In 16 pragmatic chapters Professor McKaskill sets out the 14 Principles which drive high growth.
The High Growth Wheel of Success
Avoid the major Flaws
Principle 1. Finding the right place, right time
Principle 2. Developing a clear vision
Principle 3. Innovation as the driver
Principle 4. Finding the compelling need to buy
Principle 5. Targeting the right customer
Principle 6. Achieving a clear competitive advantage
Principle 7. Building in sustainability
Principle 8. Developing channels to market
Principle 9. Creating robust margins
Principle 10. Engineering scalability
Principle 11. Assembling a capable management team
Principle 12. Working the numbers
Principle 13. Managing risk
Principle 14. Pulling it all together in a plan
Conclusion
Appendix 1: Growth Theory
Appendix 2: Growth Potential Index Table
Testimonials: (2010)
“Prof Tom McKaskill provides Australian entrepreneurs and business leaders proven international experience as a successful entrepreneur and researcher/academic. These unique perspectives are captured in an integrated blend of experience and thought leadership in Tom's new book targeted at building winning ventures. It's a must read about what really works to build a high growth business that demonstrates resilience and commitment to build stakeholder value.”
Greg Loudoun
Founder and CEO
Acumen International Pty Ltd
"Winning Ventures combines Toms personal experience with a succinct framework to deliver a practical guide to surviving high growth that is as applicable to large orporations as it is to start-up ventures. Valuable reading for any entrepreneur that doesn't wish to join the many that are a victim of their own success!"
Chris Gadsden,
Director, Generation Capital
Group
"This book fills an important gap - providing clear and helpful guidance to would-be entrepreneurs. It is written in an accessible style, and the key information is supplemented by illuminating examples and questions to keep the reader focused and interested. It offers an excellent overview and practical framework, and one that makes the size of the entrepreneurial challenge clear, and yet achievable."
Peter Sheldrake
Professor of Business Entrepreneurship
Graduate School of Business
RMIT University
“Do you want the excitement, challenge and rewards of a high growth business?
This book is an invaluable, insightful, practical and structured framework for the novice and experienced business owner. Not only will I be using it in my businesses, I actively encourage my clients use the book.”
Adam Hodgson
Phigit Consulting
“Winning Ventures provides a wealth of insight into high performance and high growth businesses. By providing a combination of research and practical experience, Tom McKaskill has created a step-by-step checklist for any business owner to prepare for high growth. The Growth Potential Index is a great self-assessment tool, to realistically measure the current position of your business.
As an owner of a Web design & development company that has grown an average of 50% p/a for the past five years, Winning Ventures has now given me ideas and strategies for continuing our companies growth into the future.”
Tim O’Neill,
Director and Co-Founder, Reactive Media