Business growth often goes unquestioned and is premised around more revenue, more profit and getting bigger. But growth can and does come in many forms, shapes and sizes and should always be thought of strategically. Growth requires investment, and all investment should seek to compound upon what has gone before while also opening new doors.
Active Knowledge Question:
What is the framework that you use to picture how various growth options fit together?
What Is Growth?
Growth is typically thought of as an increase in size, but that imagery of size often leads us astray and limits our perspective of what growth is and can be in our business and even for us as leaders and individuals.
To step away from the traditional business concepts of growth, there are some basic questions that will allow you to reassess the way in which you think of growth:
- What actually is growth?
- What does it look like?
- How do I influence it?
And there is one more vital question, what outcome are you seeking from growth?
Growth can be targeted at:
- Sales
- Profit
- Capabilities
- Competitiveness
- Creativity
- Health
- Lifestyle
- Rest
- Exploration
- Relationships
And all these contexts apply to your business. We usually don’t think of our business in a human context, but our businesses are made up of people, and to think of growth through this lens can be powerful. It steps you back from outcomes to catalysts. It steps you back from sales and profit to what actually causes those sales and that profit.
When thinking about growth, think of catalysts to generate desired outcomes.
A Journey
A useful frame is to think of growth as a journey. From where you are, where are you going? Growth must always have a destination but also a pathway to that destination with a clear sense of the various steps that the journey will entail. Under this framework, your growth plan becomes a series of steps as you progress along this journey. The reality is that this journey is more akin to orienteering, where you have set a summit, and you are moving as rapidly as you can to that summit with a sense of the course (the steps) you will follow, but as you get into the terrain you can be sure you will find something you did not expect, and you will be adapting on the run so to say.
This journey of growth should build upon what has gone before, successes and failures, so nothing is wasted, and all knowledge and learnings are brought to bear. The impact of compounding is real, and you don’t want to be running in ten different directions at once and then coming back to the start and doing it all over again. This clear sense of direction is gained through purpose, which is premised in the customer need that you are seeking to meet as a business.
In business, we compete around the customer value we are able to deliver into a specific customer need. We will outcompete others if we are able to deliver more value today and, importantly, tomorrow. Growth is focused on the value we intend to deliver tomorrow and that tomorrow maybe years ahead as we are setting what that future value will be.
The other aspect which is vital as you frame growth as a journey, is change. In growth and on your journey, you must have an attention to change. Using the orienteering analogy again, as you are charging ‘through the bush,’ you must have your eyes attuned to what is changing and evolving in your environment and adapt your intended path to account for and take advantage of these changes.
When thinking about growth, frame it as a continuing journey building on the past but clearly moving towards a succinct future.
Living Or Dead
Only something that is living can grow, and the healthier the specimen, the faster and stronger it will grow. Think of the business you are growing as a living person. Again, businesses are not locations, brands, machines, domains, customer lists, IP and data etc. Businesses are, in essence, the people who work within and with it. And all the items in the sentence above are what they create, maintain and use.
Whatever amazing growth plans you have for your business they will only become real if the people working within and with your business commit to them.
Always remember that the competitive strength of your business rests in the combined talent and effort of every single person working within and with your business. And its strength lies in leadership’s ability to muster and focus that strength. This strength is measured in participation and contribution.
How alive is your business? Is it on life support or thriving?
A quick point on marks of death for a business. The following are indicators that your business’s health is rapidly deteriorating:
- The language in the business is all about yesterday. What great things were done in years past, what successes were achieved, and who achieved them. It’s about upholding the past often to secure and protect those who were around at that time.
- There is an absence of youth; not youth in terms of age, but youth in terms of vigour, energy, a passion to explore, to try things differently, to challenge the status quo, and to ask ‘why?’ at the most annoying of times. It is reflected through a lack of unbridled energy.
- There are always one of two answers for anyone who wants to try something new:
- ‘We tried that once and it didn’t work, so we’re not doing it again.’
- ‘We’ve never tried that, and look how successful we have been, so why would we want to do it now?’
- There is no enthusiasm for what is possible and what the business does and stands for. There is no one out in the market selling how amazing the business is, for what it does for its customers, employees, and the community. No one really cares.
- Leaders are only interested in themselves. It’s all about upholding their position, their glories, their rewards and their security. Everyone is kept in place to ensure they are lifted up.
When thinking about growth, breath life into your business, which is generated through the elements of the competitive engine in your business.
What Are You Growing?
The final aspect of growth that I will touch on today is being able to answer the question of, what are you building?
Can you articulate what you are seeking to build, and can you imagine what it will look like? Are you able to draw a picture of what it will look like?
If you can’t see what you are building, then you won’t be able to build it. And when thinking of this build, do not frame it in terms of sales, profit, reach etc., these are all outputs. Think in terms of catalyst, as these are what you must grow and build to achieve the outputs that you seek.
So, what defines what business you are building? Here is a short list:
- Purpose: for what reason does your business exist?
- Motive: why would someone contribute to the success of your business?
- Vision: where is your business going, what is its quest and is that worth joining in?
- Culture: what’s the personality of your business, and are they a person worth working with?
- Customer focus: whose needs are you seeking to meet?
- Capability: what skills are you building in the business to allow it to grow?
And whilst profit is vital to the continuing success of a business, it is not a reason for that business’s existence, nor is personal financial reward the compelling reason for someone to join that business. Profit and personal reward as motives only undermine competitiveness and growth.
When thinking about growth, ensure there is a shared, supported and rich image of what is being built.
Growth should always be viewed as real and sustainable. It is never fleeting but journeys towards a clear and compelling future. A future that everyone wants to be part of. And therefore, a future that will become real.
An entirely new level of performance.
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All the best in the success of your business,
Richard Shrapnel
