Any business requires three essential elements: a great product backed by a strong brand with a sound philosophy behind it, the right team and sufficient resources. In a small company, the founders tend to do everything such as creating the idea and the vision, provide funding and creating sales and brand awareness. The challenge in taking a business to the next level is to ensure each element continues to be present as the business expands. Perhaps the most difficult - and indispensable - is to bring the right people into the team at the right time, inspire them, and reward them. Expansion requires resources, and raising finances takes time, persistence, nerve and the ability to communicate the vision to the market and financiers. Timing is everything. A company's founders have to be open to the brand's evolution. But dedication to integrity and delivery will remain at the heart of our vision. Jamie Mitchell UK MD, Innocent Drinks At innocent our vision is 'to become Europe's favourite little juice company'. We want to grow and we've got big ambitions, but we know we want to retain that 'little' company attitude on our way. Our advice to companies is to keep doing the stuff that you've always believed in. Make great products, or offer good services, listen to what your consumers are telling you and don't suddenly change the way you do things just because you are big. Keep challenging the way things are done and be prepared to take risks. We're sometimes on TV with fancy advertising these days. But we're also still in Age Concern centres with lots of grannies knitting mini bobble hats. It is possible to have an interesting sales promotion that also raises money for charity. Big doesn't mean boring. It might even give you a chance to get more of the good stuff out there.

Topics