$3.3 million in funding will support Alberta entrepreneurs to scale-up and grow

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Mount Royal University’s Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship has received $3.3 million in funding to support the expansion of their Growth Catalyst program plus additional initiatives that will trigger the creation of hundreds of new jobs and deliver millions in economic impact to Alberta over the next few years.

An initial donation of $500,000 from TD Bank Group (TD) set the foundation for complementary funding from both the provincial and federal governments. $1.4 million has been provided through the Alberta Innovates Ecosystem Development Partnerships Program, an amount matched through Regional Innovation Ecosystem (RIE) in the Prairie provinces.

Growth Catalyst is a scale-up program targeting established Alberta businesses with ambitions to become world leading. Through extensive research on the drivers of small- and medium-sized (SME) business growth, Dr. Simon Raby, PhD, associate professor of innovation and entrepreneurship and academic director of Growth Catalyst, has uncovered seven strategies that business leaders can deploy to achieve scale. Using these globally proven methodologies and tools, Growth Catalyst enables strategic growth teams to catalyze and sustain new episodes of growth.

During the program, cross-functional leadership teams embark on a six-month cohort-based integrative journey to reimagine, rediscover and realize big strategic growth opportunities.

“TD, and the provincial and federal governments have recognized the inherent value within the business owners and leaders across the province and that we can really support their organizations to grow and develop,” says Raby. “We know there are strategies that entrepreneurs can deploy to improve their probability of catalyzing and sustaining their positive growth trajectories.”

While half of all business startups survive up to five years, only 0.1 per cent of established small companies become medium-sized and only two per cent of established medium-sized companies become large. Established companies grow in episodes, which last from three to six years, on average. Only a few companies experience more than one growth episode.

In addition to Growth Catalyst, the Institute’s business growth initiatives also include:

• The Innovation Accelerator program, which trains teams on a repeatable and scalable innovation process to capture new value and revenue streams
• The Growth and Resiliency Speaker Series, which will be expanded and geared towards sharing the latest best practices on company growth and scaling up

Raby’s work also breaks down barriers between students and business. Participants in the Growth Catalyst and Innovation Accelerator programs will be supported by Alberta undergraduate university students, with the pilot cohort of the Growth Catalyst connecting MRU and SAIT students to participant companies to help analyze their growth constraints, technology and capital requirements. These partnerships also lead to employment opportunities.

Brian Rosentreter is president of Calgary’s Global Analyzer Systems, an environmental services and equipment fabrication company based in Calgary. One full fiscal year after Rosentreter and members of his team participated in the Growth Catalyst program, they reported business growth of approximately 40 per cent, and only a half a year after that they are on track to achieve an additional 35 per cent revenue growth. They have also doubled their staff size.

“Our team now has far greater clarity on how to plan for and scale the operation in support of growth initiatives,” says Rosentreter.

Lines of communication are more open and transparent, they have a better understanding of Global Analyzer Systems’ purpose, vision and core values, and all members of the company now understand, identify with and are involved in developing the strategic plan.

The Innovation Accelerator program benefits from running in parallel to undergraduate courses such as corporate innovation and entrepreneurship at Mount Royal.

“Smaller firms do not have the resources to invest in dedicated research and development departments,” says Raby. Undergraduate students can essentially play the role of an outsourced research and development function, helping uncover new intelligence and insights to the product development and launch process. This highly innovative pedagogy allows innovation teams to rapidly test new offers.”

Jennifer Massig, CEO of Magna Engineering Services, and members of her team recently participated in the Innovation Accelerator.

“I was looking for an opportunity for my team to better understand the journey of a new product and technology from inception to commercialization,” says Massig. “We graduated as a fully integrated team with a renewed innovation and entrepreneurial mindset.”

To contribute to the broader conversation on scaling up and growth, the Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship will share regular insights on the impacts of their growth programming. Email thrive@growthcatalyst.ca to learn more.

This story was provided by Mount Royal University for commercial purposes.