The successful elements of the Gazelles - A case-study of Gary Hamel’s Business Model applied to rapid-growing companies in the region of Gothenburg

Abstract

Background: Business strategies in order to succeed must be adapted to the rapid changes of an industry in order to achieve sustainable competitive advantages. Gary Hamel, Igor Ansoff and Michael E. Porter present strategic choices for the growth and expansion of a company. Jim Collins is a management educator and has created a concept for how a good company can become great. Research Questions: Our main research question is: Can Gary Hamel’s Business Model provide an explanation for the success of the Gazelle companies? Further research questions are: Is it possible to find any common features of the Gazelles that can explain the success based on Gary Hamel’s Business Model? Can Igor Ansoff’s “Product/Market expansion grid” or Michael E. Porter’s “The Five Forces” be complementary in giving a concise picture of the Gazelles’ success? How can Jim Collins Concept for growth bring a new angle to explain the Gazelles’ successful elements? Objective: We have chosen an explanatory objective. The aim of our study is to examine whether we can give an explanation to the success of Gazelle companies and to find out whether they have any common features by applying different models to them. Delimitations: In this study we have only included medium-sized enterprises with 50 to 300 employees, from the list of fast growing companies – known as “Gaseller” in the Swedish newspaper “Dagens Industri”. The research site is limited to the region of Gothenburg. The number of companies included in the study is delimited to seven. Methodology: We have chosen to bring out a qualitative investigation in the form of a case-study and with an abductive approach. The primary sources that we have used consist of seven qualitative interviews. Our secondary sources consist of literature, articles and information from the Internet. In this study we have used a semi-structured interview form. We organized our data arrangement at the same time as the interviews took place, one of us making notes on the computer during the interview. The companies examined are presented anonymously. Results and Conclusions: Our conclusion is that Gary Hamel’s Business Model gives a clear picture for the success of the Gazelles. We have also discovered common features of the Gazelles that can explain their success. Furthermore we have concluded that Michael E. Porter’s “The Five Forces” can be beneficial in giving a concise picture of the Gazelles’ success while Ansoff’s “Product/Market expansion grid” cannot give an explanation to the same extent. Finally we found that Jim Collins’ Concept for growth could give a new angle to explain their success, even though we could not apply all of the selected principals to the examined companies. Suggestions for Further Research: We suggest a similar study in a few years to see if the companies still are successful and have made any changes of their strategies. Another interesting angle for further research is to find out if the Gazelle companies’ success can be explained by other theories, such as, for example, strategic market management or organisational management.