126
Success stories
Strategic Growth Services A startup proven in supporting ambitious growth strategies How is Strategic Growth Services thriving? Albeit a new entrant in the energy market, Strategic Growth Services (SGS) has already developed a renowned reputation among several repeat clients. Leveraging a 20-person strong global expert network and EIC’s DataStream to create bespoke, best-fit project portfolios for customers, the firm has a proven track record in accelerating the growth, diversification and exporting ambitions of energy players globally. The challenge Launched in 2020, SGS is a new figure within the energy industry, the company founded with the vision of supporting sector players in sustaining and growing their business in key markets. Now two years in the making, SGS’s startup journey reinforces Henry Mintzberg’s statement that “all strategy making walks on two feet, one deliberate, one emergent”. SGS was originally launched in the midst of a pandemic to help businesses (particularly SME’s) grow into new regions and/or sectors using a systematic process based on reliable project intelligence. Setting up a business during a pandemic reinforces the need to be nimble and flexible while delivering customer value at all times. While the initial focus was on smaller SME’s who lack the internal strategic resource, there has been a more recent focus on larger businesses as well. With a clear vision on delivering tangible business growth, the SGS team has remained unwavering in its ambitions of helping its customers in expanding their horizons. The solution At the outset SGS relied upon the reputation of its
126
EIC Survive and Thrive
founders including CEO John Young, the firm coming to secure its first business through word-of-mouth referrals and recommendations. Yet equally it ensured that a new similarly positive company-centric reputation was established thereafter. The company invests significant time and effort in understanding the core skillsets of its clients – their success criteria, the core projects that they focus on, contracts they have won and why, alongside unique selling points and other areas of significance. Through this analysis, SGS is able to develop a bespoke ‘best-fit project template’ for each of its customers that are visualised through pivot charts and broken down by sector. Once this has been achieved, the firm begins to look for suitable project candidates. Here, it leverages the EIC DataStream as a project tracking database – a resource which equally helped SGS to identify suitable customers itself. Engagement plans are subsequently built for projects that are deemed suitable, the firm leveraging the varied experience of its 20-strong global team of experts in doing so. Underpinned by remote workers in disparate locations, this network has benefitted from the more flexible ways in which people want to work because of the pandemic. Resultantly, SGS has been able to assemble a team of industry leaders that support its needs as and when required. Indeed, between COVID-19 acting as a catalyst in this way and a proven ability to adapt the SGS focus and offering as needed, the company has already reached several impressive milestones. Having won seven clients in its inaugural year, this number then jumped to double figures by April 2022, with all customers engaging with the company for repeat consultations and business thanks to high satisfaction rates.
2022