Expert Insight
The third module of the Help to Grow: Management Course is about accessing new markets and internationalisation. For any business to grow, its products or services need to create value for the customer, deliver that value and capture the value it generates (i.e., get paid).
Often small businesses and enterprises (SME) focus on what they have done in the past without looking at the opportunities that exist further afield, or in new markets.
Why aren’t SMEs exploring new markets?
The reason for this lack of expansion is often fear of the unknown, lack of understanding of the market environment, or missing the skills and resources to deliver the necessary actions to penetrate new markets. However, there is plenty of support available to help businesses grow especially via business schools which are a great resource for the local business community.
Business schools are full of industry experts in business as well as research that is pushing the boundaries of new knowledge. The academics delivering the Help to Grow: Management Course are often part-time lecturers who are also consultants in their field of expertise; they bring a vast wealth of knowledge and expertise in helping businesses grow.
The module
One of the fastest ways to grow a business is to avoid making mistakes. Module 3 of Help to Grow: Management is the first time the participants are together face- to- face. This encourages networking and sharing experiences – especially successes and mistakes that they can learn from.
When delivering the module, we use a case study on Micro Fresh and analyse how the participant’s businesses could develop strategies for targeting new markets and opportunities. A few tools on ways to analyse market opportunities are leveraged such as the Business Model Canvas, the Ansoff Matrix, and Creating Competition in new markets (Porter’s Five Forces Model). The tools are very visual and can be used to test out new ideas to evaluate a whole business.
There are numerous opportunities to talk with each other whether in the breaks or as part of the discussions linked with the module. The academics will often introduce other examples of businesses that have faced similar challenges, often local SMEs, to re-enforce the possibilities and benefits of expanding into new markets.
The benefit of the module is the learning and using of tools to evaluate new markets and opportunities, and expanding networks which often leads to collaborations either with other SMEs or with the business school. Several past participants have gone on to develop Knowledge Transfer Partnerships accessing funding from Innovate UK to embed new knowledge into the SME to help them grow.
For many businesses, developing new markets and opportunities is partly down to 'you don’t know what you don’t know,' and the first step is asking a business school about the support available and the Help to Grow: Management Course.
Written by Dr David Andrews, Senior Lecturer of Marketing at Leeds Beckett University.
