To sustain growth in turbulent environments SMEs face major challenges due to their limited human, organizational and financial resources and capabilities. How to reconcile learning and growth to sustain competitive advantage of SMEs in turbulent environments is a vital but widely unsolved question in theory and practice. Based on a three year action research project with 124 SMEs in Germany drivers and obstacles of growth have been identified and the methodology “Learning to grow” has been developed and successfully applied in further learning networks of SMEs in Germany, Spain , Argentina, Brazil and Peru. This methodology puts in evidence the effectiveness of project based learning to sustain and develop growth capabilities of SMEs. Aligning learning of teams with business challenges creates measurable short or mid-term results as well enhances organizational capabilities to sustain growth. Evaluations carried-out demonstrate that the learning projects let to significant business results (for example conquering new markets, adding new services to products, improving processes, productivity and quality) as well as enhancing organisational capabilities amongst which are improved team work, better problem solving, enhanced communication , freeing of owners or managers from daily routine tasks, development of leadership capabilities of middle managers, entrepreneurial thinking of employees.
Keywords – SMEs, growth, turbulent environment, project learning, dynamic capabilities