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ACCA Strategic Professional · Strategic Business Leader · Enabling success: organising

Zenova Ltd was founded by two engineers three years ago. It has 12 staff, all of whom report directly to the founders, who make nearly every decision informally and focus on getting the first products to market. Which stage of an organisational life cycle does Zenova best represent, and what is the main implication?

Zenova is at the birth or start-up stage. It has a small team, founder-controlled informal decisions and a focus on launching products and surviving. An informal entrepreneurial structure suits this stage, whereas divisional structures or harvest strategies would be premature or inappropriate.

  1. ABirth (start-up) stage: informal, entrepreneur-led structure is appropriate, but survival and finding customers dominateCorrect
  2. BMaturity stage: formal bureaucracy is needed to protect established market share
  3. CDecline stage: the founders should seek harvest or divestment strategies
  4. DGrowth stage: a divisional structure should be adopted immediately to cope with scale

Explanation

A small firm with direct founder control, informal decision-making and a focus on product launch and survival is at the birth stage. Maturity and decline imply established markets and formal structures that Zenova lacks. A divisional structure would be premature for 12 staff.

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