In this episode of Made to Grow, Rich Dale is joined by Stephen Ottaway, Managing Director of Korvus Technology, for an honest conversation about what it actually takes to grow a small manufacturer from a standing start into a scaling business.
Korvus has grown from half a million pounds in revenue and a team of four to nearly four million pounds and eighteen people in just a couple of years. Stephen shares the decisions behind that journey – the bold early investment in sales and marketing, the challenge of building process and culture as headcount grows, and why getting the right people in the right roles makes the difference between a business that flourishes and one that stutters.
Watch this episode now:
About Our Guest
Stephen Ottaway is Managing Director of Korvus Technology, a UK-based scientific instruments manufacturer specialising in physical vapour deposition tools for research and development applications across academia, semiconductor research, medical devices and green energy technology.
Stephen joined Korvus in late 2022 when the business had fewer than four employees and was operating at a loss. Drawing on a background in technical sales, operations and an executive MBA from Henley Business School, he has led the business through a period of significant growth — building out the team, the product range and the processes needed to support it.
Key Topics in This Episode
- Why Stephen committed 20% of revenue to sales and marketing in year one — and what it taught him about where the real opportunities were
- The inflection point when inbound orders started growing faster than the business could fulfil them
- How bringing in the right specialist at the right time unlocked a new phase of growth
- The challenge of maintaining culture and values as a team grows from five people to eighteen
- Why SOPs and documentation — however unglamorous — become critical as you scale
- The shift from generalists to specialists, and how to manage that transition without blowing your overhead
- How Korvus built a 2030 product roadmap and why making it visible to the whole team matters
- The relationship-first approach to business: customers, suppliers and staff
What’s Next?
If you’re running a growing manufacturing business and feeling the pressure of that startup-to-scale-up transition – in your team, your processes or your product range, this episode is worth a listen from start to finish.
For more conversations like this one, subscribe to Made to Grow on your podcast platform of choice and share this episode with anyone in your network who’s navigating a similar growth journey.
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