The Irish private businesses that achieve sustained scale build the infrastructure for growth before they need it.
KPMG’s Head of Private Enterprise’s Niall Savage explains what that looks like in practice.
At a glance
Ambition is not the limiting factor for most Irish private businesses. The founders and senior leaders who run large companies are people who have demonstrated the drive and capability to build something substantial.
What separates the businesses that continue to scale from those that stall or exit earlier than intended is rarely a question of intent.
What separates businesses that scale from those that stall?
Niall Savage, Head of Private Enterprise at KPMG, advises founder-led, private and family businesses across the full spectrum of growth challenges. Across all of them he sees the same pattern. “The businesses that grow are those that have built the foundation to do so deliberately,” he says.
When should Irish businesses expand internationally?
For many Irish founders, international expansion is something that happens after the domestic market has been secured.
“The main misconception Irish companies have is that they need to be at a certain scale before they look abroad,” he says. “Ireland doesn’t have a large market and to really scale you will need to go beyond it. Don’t wait, because you will be constrained by your market size very quickly.”
Choosing priority markets
What distinguishes a deliberate internationalisation strategy from an opportunistic one is the quality of the decisions made in advance. Which new markets offer the most realistic opportunities? What will you not pursue, however large the market?
Choosing an operating model
Do you need a local partner, boots on the ground, or a platform-based distribution model? And, critically, is internationalisation driven at board and leadership level or is it still a peripheral conversation?
KPMG’s Strategy team advises businesses on markets, channels and operating models for growth.
How does governance support business growth?
In Savage’s assessment, the most consistent growth blocker he encounters is the failure to build leadership and governance infrastructure in advance of growth.
“I’m talking about boards, leadership groups, and management teams that can actually cope with growth and are hungry for it. If you have a plan to grow, you need the capability to execute on it. Put the governance in ahead of time, not after the fact.”
What a strong board delivers
A well-constructed board serves two functions. The first is the independent advisory challenge to management. The second is the ability to plug expertise gaps. A director who has navigated institutional capital raises and successful exits brings a dimension of practical insight that no amount of external advice can fully replicate.
The Board Leadership Centre shares practical perspectives on governance and board effectiveness for directors and business leaders.
The stakes of getting this wrong are high. “When a CEO and CFO are on their own they can start to see only the constraints and blockers,” Savage observes. “A board alongside them may see opportunity where they see obstacles and may challenge them to keep going rather than sell.”
Building a professionally structured business
The broader ambition Savage returns to is the transition from founder-led to professionally structured. “The businesses that will define the next generation are those whose founders make that transition. The foundations are not complicated but they have to be built with intention and they have to be built in advance.”
OECD research on SME scale-up describes scaling as a transformative process that can involve changes in managerial structure or ownership and new activities such as exporting.
How should founders approach funding relationships?
In Savage’s view, the funding dimension that matters most to founders is flexibility: the confidence that when an opportunity arises a lender will support it, and that during a difficult trading period they will provide the breathing room to navigate it.
Alternative funding options
The range of funding options available to private businesses has expanded considerably. Alternative lenders and private capital providers offer structures including working capital financing that traditional banks may not provide.
Private equity, including minority stakes, offers founders the ability to take capital off the table and de-risk personally without a full exit.
Working with a private equity shareholder
That option comes with a significant adjustment. “What you are dealing with, regardless of the PE house, is a very professional class of shareholder,” Savage notes.
“Taking their money comes with oversight and accountability. Some require significant levels of reporting, want it delivered quickly, and are active contributors at board level. That can be a difficult adjustment for entrepreneurs who value their freedom.”
What should businesses do before investing in AI?
Every private business of scale is navigating the AI question. Niall Savage advises that before asking what AI can do for your business, assess your business’s AI readiness.
“The real value AI brings to a business is the speed with which it can leverage your existing data, knowledge, and skills. The better your data the more value you can extract. If you’re not capturing data, or you’re capturing poor-quality data, leveraging it becomes very difficult.”
An OECD survey on SME digitalisation found that 72 percent of surveyed businesses use data to support decision-making and that almost one in five reported using generative AI less than a year after the services became publicly available.
Building clean, accessible data
To maximise the value from AI investment, data has to be clean and accessible. KPMG’s current engagements with private business clients include this groundwork of understanding where data sits, what state it is in, and what needs to change before AI tooling can deliver meaningful value.
“Simply rolling out Copilot is not the answer,” Savage says. “The real power comes from being able to take the information you hold and analyse it in seconds.”
Future-ready checklist
Contact KPMG Private Enterprise about growth
KPMG Private Enterprise advises founder-led, private and family businesses across growth strategy, capital, governance, and internationalisation.
To discuss how KPMG can support your business, contact Niall Savage, Head of Private Enterprise.
Niall Savage
Partner, Head of Private Enterprise, National Chairperson of Audit Committee Institute
KPMG in Ireland
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