Daring to Compete Accelerate Your Business to Market Leadership with EY's 7 Drivers of Growth

The successful entrepreneur?s guide to accelerating growth

Daring to Compete offers real-world strategies to accelerate the growth of your business and secure your place as a market leader. This expert guide is the result of years of comprehensive research and experience from global professional services organization EY, originator of the celebrated ?Entrepreneur Of The Year? program. Employing its worldwide reach and extensive network of successful entrepreneurs, EY has developed a model of sustainable business development??The 7 Drivers of Growth^TM.? This innovative and highly effective approach to strategic growth is an invaluable resource for high-growth businesses, entrepreneurs, and start-ups. Favoring practical strategies over abstract theories, this book provides clear guidance on the Customer; Funding and Finance; Transactions and Alliances; Risk; People, Behaviors, and Culture; Digital Technology and Analytics; and Operations. This book brings the application of these drivers to life by featuring insights from Entrepreneur Of The Year award-winning entrepreneurs from a wide range of industries and geographic locations. These entrepreneurs share how each driver functions in actual business situations and present first-hand advice on their application and implementation.

Planned and sustainable growth is a challenge faced by businesses every day, from developing ventures to leading enterprises. Effective entrepreneurs embrace the drivers of growth and recognize what areas require sharper focus. This book allows you to identify and apply these elements in your own business?facilitating optimal outcomes and accelerating growth. This indispensable guide enables you to:

• Implement a proven business model to compete more effectively and achieve market leadership
• Gain the knowledge and confidence to face challenges, anticipate, and overcome obstacles
• Access research, tools, and services to accelerate growth and compete on a global scale
• Learn invaluable market leadership strategies from a team of highly successful entrepreneurs

Developed from the real-life stories of EY Entrepreneur Of The Year winners, this book is an inspirational and informative must-read guide to business growth and market leadership. Daring to Compete is an invaluable resourcefor both aspiring and experienced entrepreneurs and established business leaders seeking to become more entrepreneurial.

Acknowledgments xi

Preface xiii

Part 1 Daring to compete – understanding the DNA of entrepreneurs 1

Chapter 1 What is the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year? 5

Chapter 2 What are the EY 7 Drivers of Growth^TM? 9

Chapter 3 Do you have the E-gene? 15

Part 2 What success looks like: 15 stories from the “Winner’s Circle” 35

Chapter 4 Entrepreneurs based in the Americas 39

Chapter 5 Entrepreneurs based in Asia Pacific 71

Chapter 6 Entrepreneurs based in the

United Kingdom, Europe 101

Part 3 Understanding EY’s 7 Drivers of Growth 119

Chapter 7 Driver #1: Customer – “No customers, no business” 125

Chapter 8 Driver #2: People, Behaviors, and Culture – “Cutting stone or building a cathedral?” 137

Chapter 9 Driver #3: Digital Technology and Analytics – “The new industrial revolution” 149

Chapter 10 Driver #4: Operations – “From surviving to thriving” 159

Chapter 11 Driver #5: Funding and Finance – “Failing to plan is planning to fail” 173

Chapter 12 Driver #6: Transactions and Alliances – “Right transaction, right price, right time” 187

Chapter 13 Driver #7: Risk – “Threat or opportunity” 203

Part 4 Traits, skills, and the importance of intuition 213

Chapter 14 World-class Entrepreneurs and building sustainable market-leading companies 217

Appendix 233

About the Authors 235

About EY 239

Index 241

DIANE FOREMAN is the Chairman of Chelsea Group Ltd. She is one of New Zealand???s most successful businesswomen, was named the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year New Zealand in 2009, and served as an EY World Entrepreneur Of The Year^™ judge. Forbes Asia named Diane "one of Asia's most powerful women."

BRYAN PEARCE is a partner of Ernst & Young LLP (US) based in Boston, Massachusetts and the EY Global Leader – Entrepreneurship with responsibility for the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year Program^™. He is an in-demand speaker on topics of entrepreneurship, start-ups and venture financing.

GEOFFREY GODDING is a partner of Ernst & Young LLP (US) based in London. He has extensive experience advising high-growth businesses globally. He is EY's Global Leader of Digital & Innovations for Growth Markets and led the development of the EY 7 Drivers of Growth^™.