Scaling-up from start-up to big business: a case study of Zoomlion Ghana Limited and Daben Cleansing Services Limited
Date
2013-04
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Abstract
Small businesses form about 92% of businesses in Ghana. There is a
lack of understanding as to why most firms stay stagnated in business
several years after inception. This paper presents the results of a case
study conducted on two waste management companies in Ghana; Daben
Cleansing Services Limited and Zoomlion Ghana Limited.
The purpose of the case study was to identify and analyse the major
challenges that prevent most start-ups in Ghana from scaling-up to large
businesses. The research also proposes ideas that can facilitate the up
scaling of small businesses to large businesses and finally makes some
policy recommendations.
The result of the research indicated that the reason why some
businesses are unable to scale-up could be attributed to the fact that
decisions are often personalised by the owners instead of involving
experts to take decisions and run the business in a manner that will be in
the best interest of the business. Also, most businesses focus too much on
the external challenges and fail to identify the internal challenges that
could be worked on to improve the business.
Lessons from the case study are that owners of businesses should
learn to commit the management of the business to experts, see
challenges as opportunities to improve the company, make use of
partnerships, must be innovative and invest in research and development.
Better implementation of policies by authorities must also be ensured.
Description
Thesis submitted to the Department of Business Administration, Ashesi University College, in partial fulfillment of Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration, April 2013
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Keywords
Ghana, Zoomlion, small businesses, scaling-up, large businesses, waste management, challenges