For a company to be considered hypergrowth, it must meet two conditions: sales in excess of 3 million euros, and annual growth of 15% or more over a minimum period of 3 years.

Today, there are 3 types of company that qualify for hyper-growth status:

• Start-ups (sales < 10M€) represent 63.78%;
• Scale-ups (sales between €10 and €50 million) represent 28.97%;
• ETIs (sales > 50M€) account for 7.26%.

The vast majority of these companies specialize in the service sector. 14% of them double their average annual growth.

In a situation of hyper-growth, the company is faced with serious transformations: 71% of managers say they have already had at least one difficulty to overcome; 57% say they have had recruitment problems, due to the absence of an HR department within the company. The second biggest problem (37%) is cash management, which in 10% of cases puts the company in very serious financial difficulties. The third most cited problem is internal governance (at 22%), with the most favored solution being the use of external experts.

The levers for growth are numerous, and sometimes require skills that the company does not necessarily master. The arrival of an interim manager (CEO, HR manager, CFO) can be a beneficial contribution to the growth of a start-up, scale-up or ETI. Stimulating growth can lead to new needs in all areas of the company, whether in accounting, human resources or logistics, for example. All these needs can be met by an interim manager in charge of harmonizing all the procedures to be upgraded.

In a situation of hyper-growth and rapid change, a company can quickly become inadequate or underdeveloped. To cope with this phenomenon, more than half of managers call on external experts to help them through these changes.