Business growth research

The Centre’s research is focused on understanding how and why small and medium businesses grow, and what factors contribute to their successful growth.

In-depth longitudinal research uniquely focused on business growth

We use a combination of qualitative and quantitative research techniques to study the small and medium sized companies and the CEOs, MDs and executive team members that participate in our programs. Our research results and reports are designed to provide actionable insights for CEOs, MDs, and service providers, as well as policy makers. Our research focuses on areas such as:

  • The characteristics of small (5 – 19 employees) and medium (20 – 199 employees) companies in Australia
  • Why companies are or are not growing, and typical problems CEO’s experience as they try to scale their companies
  • Review and analysis of the performance improvements in the companies attending our programs in terms of revenue, profit, jobs, exports, and leadership

We are the only Centre in the world focused on business growth, with our unique access to diagnostics and longitudinal database of companies allowing us to draw detailed conclusions from our results. In 2017, the European Foundation for Management Development recognised us with an international award for Excellence in Practice and noted the positive impact of our programs on the business owners, CEO’s and MD’s, their executive team members and their companies.

FY23 AUCBG company profile

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Growth tracker survey

In August of every year, we collect information from the CEOs of companies who have participated in an Assessment Clinic, Growth Ramp and Growth Modules. This growth tracker survey data means we can follow companies over time, charting their growth and tracking the impact of our programs on each company as they continue on their growth journey.

We analyse both the quantitative and qualitative data that we collect and use what we learn to adapt our programs to better support businesses in their ever changing environment. We also publish articles to help more CEOs learn how to identify the blockers to growth and make necessary changes to overcome them. All data in these articles is aggregated and no data is attributed to individual companies.

Program subsidies to support research

The Centre receives funding from various state agencies and sponsors, which underwrites the full cost of delivering our Assessment Clinics, Growth Ramp and partial cost of delivering our Growth Modules to eligible companies. In return, our program sponsors require us to track and report on the increases or decreases in their funded companies’ revenue, profit, employment, and exports. This helps them better measure the economic benefits generated by companies that have completed our programs and see the return on their investment.

All participants receive an email every August with a link to complete the growth tracker data collection survey. We greatly appreciate our participants’ involvement in this process, and rely on them to provide their data, lessons learned, and answers to our questions about growth strategies. These insights are highly valuable and are used to help other business owners, CEOs/MDs and their executive teams learn to recognise their growth inhibitors, develop appropriate strategies, and accelerate their growth.

FY23 Growth Tracker company results

Learn more about business growth

Access our learnings and insights via our business growth blog.

Ryan Williams, Director of the Australian Centre for Business Growth and Growth Expert