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Case Study

Covalys: Managing the company’s growth and development strategy

By Ralf W. Seifert and Rebecca Meadows

15 pages

December 2006

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Reference: IMD-3-1719

In July 2002 a diverse group of men with varying scientific and industry and business backgrounds founded Covalys. Covalys was a biotechnology start-up that aimed to develop, manufacture and market research kits for use by industrial and academic biomolecular labs in drug development and life sciences research. However, Christoph Bieri, CEO, knew that the company was facing a key developmental balance point. The company needed to increase sales significantly by changing the distribution from exclusive distributors to building its own sales team. The company also needed more resources to focus on broadening the company’s technology portfolio, while some key investors had indicated that they would like to see an exit shortly. Would it be possible for them to do all of these tasks simultaneously, or would they have to concentrate on one above the others. If so, which one?

Learning Objective

Start-ups, like many other companies, face strategic challenges that impact the future and potential survival of the company. Resources are often limited and allocation across different areas is required – sometimes at a cost that may not at first appear to be significant. The challenge is how to successfully shape a company’s growth and development strategy, utilising limited resources in the most effective way possible.

Keywords

Biotechnology, Growth

Settings

Switzerland
August 2006

Type

Field Research

Available Languages

English

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