Venture Scale-Up

Overview

Venture Scale-Up equips learners with the knowledge, skills, and reflective capacities necessary to navigate the unique challenges and opportunities associated with scaling new ventures (<10 years old). After successfully starting a new venture, many entrepreneurs find that the activities that worked well during an early start-up stage, for example, highly generalised roles, close and frequent interactions with customers or beneficiaries, and tightly centralised decision making, are no longer practical or suitable. Taking ventures to the next level requires a new set of abilities, ethical reflections, and strategic approaches to meet the particular challenges of scaling ventures.

The module considers important differences between starting and scaling a venture. Key types of scaling (e.g., scaling-up, scaling deep, scaling across), modes of scaling (e.g., organic, acquisitive, ecosystem), and units of scaling (e.g., business model, product/service, capability, etc.) are discussed. How to scale social impact for social enterprises and non-profit ventures is also considered alongside traditional ‘for-profit’ ventures. The module helps students to evaluate a venture’s readiness to scale and put in place a financially viable strategic scaling plan that is attuned to the people, culture, and processes necessary to achieve successful scaling. Ethical challenges associated with scaling ventures and arguments against scaling are also discussed.

Venture Scale-Up is specifically designed for students who are eager to learn what goes into growing successful and high impact ventures, and how to mitigate some of the practical and ethical challenges of doing so. In addition to learning from the rigorous base of research that underlies the module, learners will frequently receive insights from Queen’s University Belfast alumni who have gone on to scale their social or commercial ventures.

Learning Objectives

(1) Appreciate the unique challenges and opportunities associated with scaling a young commercial or social venture
(2) Understand different types and modes of scaling, such as scaling up, scaling deep, scaling across, and scaling down
(3) Critically evaluate and assess the scalability of business models, products, services, resources/capabilities, and technologies
(4) Design and evaluate a financially viable, scalable strategic plan, considering the people, culture, and processes necessary to achieve successful strategy execution
(5) Understand how to identify and measure key performance indicators (KPIs) for scaling
(6) Grasp various ethical challenges linked to scaling ventures and consider counterarguments against scaling

Skills

(1) Project management: Applying project management skills to conduct a plan to scale, put in place key performance indicators (KPIs), and consider different scenarios for scaling ventures
(2) Ethical decision-making: Understanding ethical principles and practicing ethical reasoning within the context of scaling ventures
(3) Critical thinking: Ability to analyse information, assess its reliability, weigh-up evidence, escape formulaic thinking, and make informed decisions
(4) Written communication skills: Conveying ideas, information, and strategies through written mediums
(5) Time management and organisation: Learning to manage time effectively, prioritise tasks, and balance different responsibilities

Assessment

Students must achieve an overall mark of 40% in the module to pass.