“Help! My business is growing too fast. I know growth is a good thing, but I’m finding it hard to manage. How do I scale up? I’m worried about getting it wrong.”

Strategy is not a silver bullet. It is not that thing that you find and can use forever without ever changing it. It is not a mathematical solution where there can only be one answer. The context is always shifting, meaning that what led you to success yesterday, may not lead you to success today.

How can an ambitious SME go about balancing agility and responsiveness to their market with a solid long-term business growth strategy? Here are five key areas for consideration:

You might ask, ‘What has leadership got to do with numbers?’. In most business schools around the world, the two are totally distinct subjects. In our experience, however, knowing your numbers is part of understanding the context in which you are operating, and it is only by knowing your numbers that you can have the proper perspective in which to make important strategic decisions that will influence whether or not you can reach your goals. The best leaders therefore have to have a strong...