Developing your small business

ÉPREUVE TYPE 1 – Compréhension écrite

Document support écrit n°1

Developing your small business

If you’re running a small business that’s making waves across the UK, you may well be more than

happy with the way things are. But for many British business owners, the ultimate goal is to export

their goods and services around the world. This is particularly the case in the knowledge-economy

sector, where innovative SMEs have the potential to change lives and benefit communities far and wide

if they can gain access to markets overseas.

Among the many SMEs actively pursuing international opportunities are medical imaging business

Imago and indoor farming experts FarmIn – united by a shared vision to make a difference working

with customers around the world.

Based in Nottingham, Imago is pioneering technology that turns 2D MRI and CT scans into highly

precise 3D images that can be used by surgeons worldwide. These images are then used to plan

complex neuro, cardio, orthopaedic and cancer surgeries, and for creating patient-specific implants.

“For many complex surgeries, 2D imaging can be difficult to interpret, so surgeons often go into, say,

a cardiac operation with multiple plans in their head, to cover the different scenarios they might find,”

says Imago’s CEO Paul Stevenson. “But if I turn that 2D image into an incredibly precise 3D one, the

surgeon can usually plan on just one scenario. We’ve found that 56% change their surgery plan when

they see our image, that surgery time is cut on average by 66 minutes, and that patients leave hospital

18% faster.

“Our imaging has helped an amazing range of operations, such as separating conjoined twins,

removing tumours and performing complex heart surgery on babies, so we’re making a real difference

to patients every day.

“We can also provide these perfect 3D images at a price anyone who can access 2D imaging can afford.

We’re changing healthcare – and that’s what gets us out of bed in the morning. However, in global

terms, the UK is a relatively small market. There are huge opportunities for our product across the

world and it is now used in more than 300 hospitals in 30 countries, ranging from the Middle East, to

South America, the US, and even Nepal.”

The company has based much of its expansion on international marketing expertise from the

Department for International Trade (DIT). “We’ve already doubled the size of our marketing activities”,

Stevenson says. “We now sell over 75% of our models outside the UK, and our business has grown at

an average of 280% per year for each of the last three years.”

This kind of high-growth potential is part of the vision at FarmIn, which was founded in 2018 by two

schoolfriends, Tim Newton and Chris Tickell. They have ambitious plans for their indoor farming

technology, which enables food to be grown faster and more sustainably.

The business came about from us looking at some of the issues in food production,” says Newton, the

company’s CEO. “These ranged from food waste in our supply chains, through to the fact that we have

to import a huge amount of fresh produce into the UK. Over the years, we’ve developed technology to

create vertical farms, which can bring resilience to food-supply networks and will be key to the future

of sustainable farming. In these farms, instead of plants growing in soil or in a hydroponic solution, the

roots are exposed to a very fine mist that feeds them a specific, optimised set of nutrients and water

and enables them to grow much faster.

CNED – BTS GESTION DE LA PME – 1re année – ANGLAIS – ÉVALUATION 1 – ÉCRIT 2

“Our very first product, a small aeroponic grow-at-home kit, has now transformed into a 40ft container

farm. We can provide growing systems that function 365 days a year in any geographic or climatic

conditions.” The technology has huge potential in the UK but there are even more opportunities abroad,

especially in places such as Scandinavia, where there’s very little natural light in winter, or the Middle

East, where water is at a premium.

To build the business’s export arm, FarmIn has been exploring potentially lucrative markets including

China, South Korea, Singapore and the US, as well as Europe, looking at which new territories are best

suited to its technology.

“We’ve proved the technology here in the UK, and now the exciting thing for us is taking it to the world,”

says Newton. “DIT’s support has enabled us to make a detailed assessment of different markets, and

that means we’re now working on substantial projects with partners in other countries, some of which

dwarf any of the projects we’ve delivered in the UK.

“Everyone who works for FarmIn wants to make a positive change to the environment, but that

...