The West Midlands Combined Authority has appointed Gateley Global, part of Birmingham Headquartered Gateley Plc, as its partner to launch and deliver its High Growth Accelerator Programme.
A High Growth Company is defined as: any business with an average annualised growth in employees or turnover greater than 20% per year over a two-year period and with a turnover of greater than £1,000,000 per year in their most recent accounts. Companies who have raised more than £500,000 in equity from external investors will also be considered to be in this category.
This programme will provide intensive and tailored support for 50 of the West Midlands high growth SMEs to not only unlock barriers to growth but to manage growth in a sustainable way. Between July 2024 – March 2025, these 50 businesses will be provided with a dedicated Key Account Manager (KAM). KAMs will work with each company to agree a growth ambition and identify a current baseline position and key challenges. Each company will get a tailored account plan that will detail activities, KPIs and interventions needed to achieve the desired growth target by the end of the programme.
The support provided as part of this programme could include, but is not limited to:
- Development of a roadmap towards continued and sustainable growth
- Exploring and developing new strategies and/or business models
- Functional support such as Governance, Tax, Legal, Human Resources
- Risk analysis, mitigation, prevention and planning
- Collecting and using data to inform strategy and operations
- Enhancing the capacity and/or capability of the management team and board of directors
- Marketing strategy development and execution (including overseas markets)
- Intellectual Property support
- Accessing research and development facilities and support via universities and catapult centres.
WMCA expect that by the end of this programme, participating businesses will have achieved demonstrable growth which could be measured through a variety of indices such as increased turnover and employment.
