Project

Strategic alignment and predictive insight

Evaluating GrowthMapper as a tool for enhancing SME productivity

This project investigates how a widely-used diagnostic tool, GrowthMapper, can support strategic productivity improvements in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by aligning leadership teams and informing targeted business support. Through a mixed-methods approach combining large-scale quantitative analysis and qualitative interviews, we aim to understand how GrowthMapper facilitates strategic alignment, predicts business growth, and supports more effective programme delivery.

This project involves three strands of work. The first is to investigate how GrowthMapper facilitates strategic alignment within SME leadership teams. This is being done through in-depth interviews with business advisers with experience of applying GrowthMapper, to explore how the tool shapes advisory conversations, supports strategic alignment, and influences the productivity agenda within firms.

Secondly, we are examining the role of alignment within leadership teams in business growth. This involves combining GrowthMapper data collected from thousands of businesses between 2012 and 2016 with official data on business performance in subsequent years.

The final strand of the project involves compiling comparative case studies of firms with function-based management teams who have used GrowthMapper. Through interviews with management team members, we will seek to understand whether and how the tool contributed to aligning the leadership of the business across different business functions.