Growth Strategy

A growth strategy is a key part of any growth programme setting goals and priorities for all other initiatives in the programme. To meet these challenges and make them their own business managers and owners need new skills and ways of thinking.

What drives deliverable growth strategy? The most attractive and compelling strategies are built on the businesses market opportunities, capabilities and management passions.

Market opportunities

These arise from three key sources:

• Regulatory change and technological breakthroughs.
• Major trends (including demographic shifts and changes in consumer tastes).
• Latent demand for products not currently offered.

Capabilities

These include the company's existing capabilities, as well as those it could reasonably build. This includes business-specific competencies:

• Product innovation.
• Operations or information management.
• Privileged assets, i.e. brand equity, distribution networks, sales forces, low-cost plants or proprietary technology.
• Special relationships, such as those which might help create access to an opportunity or those where a partner brings a complementary capability.
• Growth competencies. such as acquisition and merger skills, risk management, or capital productivity.

To be a source of advantage, the capability or bundle of capabilities must be distinctive, leveragable, and sustainable.

Management

Often forgotten but extremely important. Growth paths are uncertain by definition; almost all growth staircases experience bumps and disappointment along the way. Growth strategies supported and driven by inspired leaders who are passionately committed to the growth aspiration are far more likely to succeed than those managed as logical extensions. This means in addition to meeting analytical criteria, a growth strategy should be built on the passions of management and with an understanding of their beliefs and prejudices. Without this emotional commitment to critical business ideas, growth strategies are less likely to succeed.