Abstract

This case study is about new media entrepreneur Steve Leach (Leach) who won the ‘Entrepreneur of the Year Award’ at the European Business Awards in 2008. The case study focuses on how Leach built up Bigmouthmedia Limited (Bigmouthmedia) into a leader in the digital marketing industry. What initially started in 1997 in a basement in Edinburgh with just three employees had grown to become a more than £ 100 million annual turnover company in 2008 spread across three continents. According to some analysts, Leach was a true entrepreneur with a superb vision and sound business acumen. And this was what had helped him build Bigmouthmedia from the ground up into a leading full search company. Leach’s vision was to turn Bigmouthmedia into a £ 500 million revenue earning company by the end of 2009. This he planned to do through a combination of organic and inorganic growth. While the growth he envisioned was ambitious in itself, the economic downturn made it all the more challenging as marketers around the world cut back on their advertising expenditure. The challenge before Leach was to ensure growth in these tougher times.

Learning Objectives

The case is structured to achieve the following Learning Objectives:

• Understand the issues and challenges in managing growth and business continuity of an enterprise. Analyze the digital marketing industry. Analyze how Leach built Bigmouthmedia from the ground up into a leading digital marketing company. Understand issues

Keywords

Entrepreneurship, Growth, Business continuity, Business model, Organic growth, Inorganic growth, Internet marketing, Digital marketing, Search engine marketing, Search engine optimization, Bigmouthmedia