Sustained growth in small enterprises: a process management approach

This thesis illustrates that given the necessary resource and a structured BusinessGrowth Framework, Small and Medium Enterprises can lay the foundation for sustainedgrowth.The author investigated the essence of Small and Medium Enterprises, conducted aliterature review in SME growth, and asserted the importance of the application ofstructure to business processes in achieving sustainable business growth.The author introduced the SME business process structure deficit, assessed itsimplications on business growth, and elaborated that the business process structuredeficit can be addressed through the methodical application of six internationallyaccepted UK initiatives already available in the SME domain.The thesis establishes the characteristics of Business Growth for SMEs, leading to thedevelopment of a Business Growth Framework, based upon a defined set of businessprocesses. This framework supports business growth. The framework providesdiagnostic assessment of business process performance, process specific improvementsembracing better practice through the innovative application of, for example DTIpublications, and internal Benchmarking linking, if desired, to the UK BenchmarkingIndex.The resulting Business Growth Framework, along with the Business GrowthFramework Implementation Methodology have evolved during this research and are thekey tools for sustained business growth developed by the author and discussed in thisthesis. The benefits of close integration of financial and manufacturing systems, likeERP, with Business Processes is discussed.The author demonstrated that Business Growth could successfully occur amongst Smalland Medium Enterprises if approached through a structured methodology. Intentionallyno new and complex business models have been proposed. The research showed thatthere is sufficient literature available in this area already.