- reaching actualization -
From medium-sized enterprise to high growth
Businesses reach a point in their growth where they have a degree of self-sustainment, with a steady sales cycle and efficient business operations. This doesn’t come without a new set of growing pains related to higher stakes and bigger decisions.
Perfect Stitch has gained some international notoriety, creating new and exciting opportunities to scale, along with added complexity.
Perfect Stitch Business Profile
Trading: 12 years Revenue: $30M per annum Full-time employees: 100 Assets: Multiple warehouses spread across Europe and offices in each location
Gretta knows that financial flexibility will be more important than ever and having the right team in place will be critical for future business growth.
She needs to grow her C-suite in the coming months, so her overhead and revenue need to stay in lockstep to support these expensive hires. With the industry and the state of international business constantly changing, Gretta wants to sharpen her business literacy to be a stronger, more innovative leader for Perfect Stitch for many years to come. She’s done some speaking and teaching events to share the knowledge she’s gained over the years but looks to peers and experts for additional financial knowledge and more formal business education.
Fourty-one of high-growth firms find deficiencies in management and leadership competencies to be an obstacle to business growth.
—CIPD, "Hands-On or Hands-Off: Effective Leadership and Management in SMEs"
"Business owners working with a mentor had 14% faster growth than those without."
—"Empowering Entrepreneurs, Accelerating Growth," Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Report, November 2014
What the bank can do:
While the relationship between the bank and the SME has matured, they continue to learn and grow together. The business owner spends significantly less time in the weeds of their finances than they used to, but changes in the economy, markets, and industries mean that work is never done. There are many potential business outcomes in the SME’s future, but one constant is that they will look to their bank to provide sound business advice and an ever-expanding toolbox of SME solutions and services that expand far beyond the walls of the bank.
A bank can offer Gretta:
Access to a network of consultants, experts, relationship managers with AI insights, and investors
Business courses, workshops, and Q&As to expand her knowledge and connect her with mentors and peers that have followed similar journeys
Continued advisement on:
- Growth targets and KPIs
- Operational efficiency
- Organizational restructuring
"Rather than wanting to get straight into the business nitty gritty, the bank was interested in my brand, which for me, is really important — that personal relationship with my business bank. I want them to really love my business and get me and where I’m going."
—Founder, Design Company, Temenos SME Think Space Innovation Series 2020
Embracing the Digital Revolution for a Superior Customer Experience
Banco Credicoop Cooperativo Limitado (BCCL) is a member-owned bank headquartered in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where they provide a wide range of banking services to small and medium-sized enterprises, cooperatives, social enterprises, and individuals. To meet the requirements of increased complexity and regulation in the banking industry, they made the decision to digitally transform their business. This was no small commitment; it would mean taking a phase-by-phase approach in migrating 265 branches, 24 service centers, and 2.65 million customer accounts, with goals of keeping costs lean and the overall risk low. Delivering a superior experience was another top priority for BCCL because they wanted to see the real business impact of this change from an employee and customer perspective, ensuring that the benefits trickle down. After analyzing 53 different possible solutions, the bank partnered with Temenos for their core system, Transact, gaining the core foundations and agility to take advantage of the digital revolution happening throughout Latin America. With Temenos Transact, BCCL increased the number of members by 40,410 from 2016 to 2017. And they continue to propel their digital transformation and scalability with the implementation of Temenos Infinity to enhance the SME experience further. Throughout their digital transformation journey with Temenos, BCCL has been able to keep their goals intact, seeing reduced costs, increased productivity, and, most importantly, a growing ability to deliver a superior customer experience.