The democratisation of growth - It's a state of mind.

Taken from the section 'It's a state of mind' from my book 'Raising the Odds: How businesses achieve long-term success through scalable strength.'

Before we delve deeper into each pillar of scalable strength, it's crucial to establish a few fundamental principles that are central to it.

To best bring these to life, let's consider the achievement of long-term success in business as akin to running a race. But rather than a race where individuals or teams compete to win, it’s a race where everyone needs to reach the finish line together.? If they don’t, they all lose, as does the business.

This metaphor for business brings into focus what is probably the most influential differentiator between businesses that see growth and on (or above) target outcomes as a norm, and those that oscillate between success and failure - the ability to scale a team of diverse people to consistently and indefinitely achieve the standards and outcomes required.

Many businesses founders and leaders underestimate the challenge of growing their teams, not to mention the external partnerships they need as they scale.? While small start-ups can efficiently deliver outcomes as a result of being lean, bigger businesses rely heavily on collaboration and communication.? The growing dependence on these, when left uncontrolled, easily starts to negatively impact pace and productivity, while tensions can arise between different people and teams that do nothing but weaken the foundational pillars.

The use of organisation structure, while going some way towards countering this threat, can often result in decision makers becoming detached from the customers, and silos rising between teams that are targeting different things – damaging standards and efficiency further.? The race, again, might be lost.? (We will explore the impact of organisation structure in more detail later).

If a business aims to pursue a trajectory of consistent success, there is little point in development teams advancing products at a pace where the supply chain can’t guarantee consistent quality.? There’s absolutely no point in chasing sales to maximise growth if operations teams are not able to scale at the same pace without compromising standards.? No matter how capable founders and leaders are, they will fail if they don’t help their people to keep pace with them.

When the race to long-term success is pursued in a way which allows for mixed pace and standards, customers end up unhappy, as they became with Jawbone.? Financial health and culture can suffer as a consequence.? The race to long-term success must be run together.

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Democratising Growth.

Scalable strength relies on the democratisation of growth.? That is not to say it demands a decentralised organisational structure – this should instead be developed to suit the business need and culture.

Democratisation of growth recognises that, to achieve long-term success and strength, each and every employee, no matter their role or level, needs to be viewed as equally important.? They each have the potential to make or break the business – to strengthen or weaken the three foundational pillars.? Their role transcends specific activities – it’s the result and impact of those activities that matters most.?

Democratisation of growth requires a much greater understanding of what it takes to successfully scale a business among everyone.? How products and services are commercialised.? How customers think and make decisions on where they’ll spend their money.? How each function depends on and impacts others across the business.? How efficiency and pace are vital in achieving long-term security and sustainability.? How positive impact can only be achieved from a platform of stability.?

Founders and Business Leaders alone cannot achieve long-term success.? They need to put their energy less into the activities and focus more on the outcomes, diligently and methodically building strength into every facet of their business – and their team.

The Guiding Principles of Scalable Strength.

For the democratisation of growth to be successful – growth that builds and builds because of the consistent actions and growth of teams - a set of core principles have to be embraced.? These principles do not replace or act as the values of a business. Instead, they set the bar for what it means to be part of a business seeking long-term sustainable success.? They are the conscious and continual reminder of how everyone, no matter their role or level, needs to think, act and evolve to ensure strength is iteratively built.? They are the identity of enduring companies.

The five guiding principles of Scalable Strength are:

1. It starts and ends with you.
2. Play the long game.
3. Favour facts over emotion.
4. Be conscious and disciplined.
5. Use the power of negativity.

You can find out more about the principles and elements of scalable strength in the book 'Raising the Odds'.

'Raising the Odds' is a recently released book which focuses on the lessons that can be learned from businesses that have failed and succeeded before, and how those lessons can improve the probability of both start ups and existing businesses achieving long-term success themselves via a framework called 'Scalable Strength'.

The book is not designed to be a single read - more of a constant reference which helps to trigger reflections, questions, and constructive challenge to businesses and their people, as the journey towards sustained success is navigated.

You can order a copy at scalablestrength.com or from Amazon (below):

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Raising-Odds-Martin-Shelford/dp/1399978667/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&dib_tag=se&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.oYaJObMGkKtIJQ53BHznpCMOhSduVWCH2TFQtOGDa3B7LlOz4ZfazcknCDFkNil5xyj0NwUEBWXCVs5NsThGriMxJvFxFGoY5LEW2boS8tmiQu1mzBnVF47mZ8TzSHzv_7aGaA0WgjVNe_twuizIgaSBo6efISP9aIXZgxcho8DlQaq9w0kMMiiq5Ov-LkdtO-BVRi1CozUUsezrvJMjk2JLVcfKChd4lRqGi9cTM6I.N2dnChdN3J10ccdrOGCGvEDYvMX0_ne8ho98qkKi6O8&qid=1713950748&sr=8-1