High-growth tech characteristics

Let’s debunk myths round high-growth tech businesses, says Audrey Yap at the High-growth Technology Business Initiative, a co-operation between the EPO and LESI

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Audrey Yap

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It is time to update our definitions of various types of business. We all understand the difference between corner shops and industry giants. We are less clear about what now characterises a high-growth technology business (HTB).

It is critical to debunk the myth that HTBs are only small enterprises that fall within the purview of public support structures offering pro bono legal advice because they are dependent on cost-free support. Instead, we are talking about high-growth start-ups where employment increases by at least 10 per cent for three years in a row.

This subset of companies engages in all forms of innovation and lives with risks that their larger counterparts may not or cannot consider. Rather than pigeonhole these businesses as just SMEs, spin-offs or start-ups (all of which are included), it is better to describe them by their features and characteristics. Regardless of size, these HTBs emphasise:

• Product expertise and focus

• Innovation and ideation in all forms

• Intellectual assets

• Research and development

• Leveraging intellectual property

• Human capital

• Operational excellence

• Experimentation

• International growth

• The ability to adapt fast

HTBs are agents of change. In his book, Start-up Science, Masayuki Tadokoro includes other features that fit the idea of HTBs:

• Having disruptive innovation

• Potential for exponential/explosive growth

• Willingness to target entry, even in uncertain markets

• Taking on unknown challenges without competition

• Having a product with a devoted following of customers

Finally, it should be noted that HTBs can also include large enterprises, particularly those that are committed to open innovation and collaborative R&D and/or those who use technologies developed by SMEs and research organisations.

• For further details of the High-growth Technology Business Initiative, see www.epo.org/high-technology-businesses  or follow at www.linkedin.com/company/htbcommunity.

• The full version of Audrey Yap’s chapter, ‘Recognizing high-growth technology businesses’, appeared in ‘Winning with IP: Managing intellectual property today’, second edition, Novaro Publishing, January 2022 and is available from the EPO.