Published on

Nov 2024

Scaling RealIPM: Turning a Vision for Sustainable Agriculture into a Clear, Executable Growth Strategy

Use Case

63% increase in net profit. 23% revenue growth. A 10-day family holiday with no laptops for the first time in 13 years.

Just six months after completing Metavolve’s Scaling Masterplan Programme, RealIPM isn’t just growing - it’s thriving.

These aren’t just numbers - they’re the tangible results of a business that has transformed how it operates, makes decisions, and scales.

RealIPM, a leader in biopesticides and sustainable agriculture, had built a strong reputation for non-toxic solutions that enhance soil health and crop yields. But as demand surged, founders Jean and Paul Kuiper found themselves stretched thin, caught between running daily operations and trying to grow the business sustainably. They needed a structured strategy, clear leadership alignment, and a roadmap for growth - one that would allow them to scale across South Africa and beyond without sacrificing their mission or personal well-being.

The challenge

Breaking the Bottleneck & Structuring for Scalable Growth

With a rapidly growing market and increasing demand for biopesticides, RealIPM had scaled up their team significantly, reaching 72 employees when we started working with them. However, their organisational structure wasn’t keeping pace with growth, creating a bottleneck that limited decision-making speed and strategic focus.

This was especially evident for Paul, the CEO, who had 12 direct reports, making it nearly impossible to focus on strategic priorities. Instead of driving long-term growth, he was caught in daily problem-solving and decision-making, leaving little room for leadership development or sustainable scaling.

This led to:

Founder Overload – Jean and Paul were still involved in too many day-to-day decisions, preventing them from focusing on long-term growth.
Lack of Organisational Structure – Without clear leadership accountability, the team relied on the founders for guidance.
Difficulty Translating Vision into Action – RealIPM had a strong mission but lacked a structured plan to turn their vision into measurable goals.

Paul Kuiper

Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer

What I wanted was understanding the critical next steps needed, not just for growth, but for sustainable business in every aspect. This includes having the right people in place to execute all necessary functions, not just for the next project. But before diving into this head first, we needed help from someone that could guide us.

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Jean Kuiper

Co-Founder & Chief Commercial Officer

We needed a roadmap to see if, without us, the business would continue or collapse. We're used to think some actions were obvious for our team, but they were not and we'd get frustrated. So Metavolve forcing us to take the time to reflect on that, to mature, hire the right people, and clearly set and communicate those roles was crucial.

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The Approach

Building a Scalable Strategy & Leadership Structure

To help Jean and Paul structure their growth, Metavolve guided them through the Scaling Masterplan Programme, focusing on clarity, leadership alignment, and execution.

1. Clarifying Market Positioning – Strengthening Their Competitive Edge

We worked with RealIPM to clearly define their ideal market segments, focusing on South Africa and surrounding countries. By refining their value proposition and aligning it with customer needs, they positioned themselves for targeted, sustainable expansion.

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2. Understanding the Competitive Environment – Gaining Market & Industry Insights

Using Porter’s Five Forces, we analysed not just competitors, but the entire agricultural value chain. This helped Jean and Paul gain deeper industry insights and identify clear differentiation strategies to maintain their competitive advantage.

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3. Defining the Growth Strategy – Turning Vision into a Clear, Actionable Plan

We mapped out a structured growth strategy, focusing on:

- Expanding the product range‍

- Strengthening technical advisory services‍

- Optimising the supply chain‍

- Building internal leadership capacity to scale beyond the founders

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4. Translating Strategy into Execution – Creating Measurable Goals & Priorities

We helped break down their vision into quarterly priorities to ensure the entire team was aligned and executing against clear, measurable objectives.

The Outcomes

From Founder Dependency to a Scalable, High-Growth Business

Just six months after completing the programme, RealIPM has restructured their business, aligned their team, and exceeded financial targets. The founders now have the space to focus on strategic growth, rather than being caught in daily operations.

More importantly, they have shifted their mindset - growth no longer feels like a burden. Instead, they have the clarity and confidence to scale sustainably and strategically.

✅ Clear Strategic Vision & Focused Execution

‍"I really enjoyed the journey of verbalising our thoughts, discussing what's happening in the business, where we need to direct our attention, prioritising, and making sense of it all. It's quite clear now that with a few small changes, we're onto something really cool. This passion project has the real capability of becoming much more. I think we've got the right things to drive this; we just need a bit of direction to ensure we're taking the most direct route to achieve our goals."

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✅ Stronger Leadership & Team Alignment

‍"We are making significant progress in aligning our team with the company's vision and mission. We've had discussions with the team to ensure everyone understands how they fit into the vision, and we've restructured our leadership roles to create more accountability."

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✅ Sustainable Growth with Measurable Results‍

"Over the last six months, we have seen impressive financial results, with a 23% increase in revenue and a 63% increase in net profit compared to the previous year - and our forecasts are looking even more exciting!"

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✅ More Freedom for the Founders

‍"I was able to take a 10-day family holiday with no laptops - something I haven’t done in 13 years. That alone speaks volumes about how much has changed."

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✅ Confidence in Long-Term Success

"Now it's about prioritising our goals against our capacity and hiring accordingly. We have all the potential to succeed - it's about making the right moves to ensure we build something truly sustainable and solid."

Jean Kuiper

Co-Founder & Chief Commercial Officer

The impact is massive. We were growing so quickly that some balls were dropped. It was actually all a little bit out of control, and we were just trying to do everything - constantly fire-fighting. So to actually slow down and say, 'where are the critical things that can calm this thing down and make it run?' That’s where you guys added enormous value to us. It was bloody irritating talking to you guys every week for two hours because where’s the time? But forcing us to stop, look, think, and make a plan completely changed the game for us.

Paul Kuiper

Co-Founder & CEO

A lot of the stuff we did, we knew we had to do. But the time taken to stop and really think about things - not just making decisions at a whim because you know you need to go there, but to think it through, strategise, and decide how this should look going forward - you facilitated that incredibly well. It forced us to take the time to talk it through with you and get someone else's perspective. I think one or two more years of this, and our business will be really solid.

In Short

By working with Metavolve, RealIPM transitioned from a founder-dependent, high-pressure business to a structured, scalable organisation with a clear growth roadmap, an empowered leadership team, and measurable financial success. With a 63% increase in net profit, 23% revenue growth, and the ability for the founders to take time away from daily operations, they are scaling strategically - without sacrificing their mission, sustainability or sanity.

📅 Ready to define your path to sustainable growth? Book a 30-Minute Curiosity Call now.