Lessons Regarding Scale: Findings from a Literature Review by the Aspen Institute/FIELD and the Association for Enterprise Opportunity

This paper presents key findings and lessons from a literature review on scale conducted by the Association for Enterprise Opportunity (AEO) and the FIELD program of the Aspen Institute. The literature review examined pre-existing work by AEO and FIELD as well as research by other organizations, including those that studied scale in varied settings such as community development finance, international microfinance and human service industries. Efforts to study and document findings have generated lessons that can help organizations achieve scale. Key factors include:

• Consistent focus on scale and cost recovery;
• Market knowledge and marketing;
• Diversified yet complementary set of products;
• Geographic expansion;
• Partnerships and mergers that help broaden geographic coverage and expand product lines;
• Replication and standardization;
• Investments in technology that help expand services, increase efficiency and cost savings;
• Investments in infrastructure;
• New staff capacities and management skills;
• Performance measurement to guide decision making;
• Investment of capital;
• Conducive regulatory and funding environments.

Finally, the paper presents individual program-level strategies as well as industry-level strategies for achieving greater scale.