Part 1 of 7: Augmenting intelligence. Amplifying brands. Accelerating business growth.

In this seven-part series, we'll share three frameworks/foundations for igniting customer-led growth. But first, an overview.

Customer-led growth happens through the customer journey – and the journey we take together as a team. A journey starts with a destination and deep understanding of the terrain to map the journey. Any journey worth taking will be challenging and requires resilience, flexibility, and adaptability. It requires a strategy and plan, the right team, with clear roles, and the right instruments to guide the journey and tell us whether we’re on track. Any journey worth taking also shouldn’t be undertaken without a plan, training, and practice.

The purpose of these particular frameworks/foundations is to equip us for our journey – to refresh what we already know, hopefully also teach us some things we don’t, and perhaps apply our knowledge in innovative new ways so that we can lead our teams on the journey of customer-led growth. In the coming days and weeks, we’ll go deep on three key diagnostic growth/marketing fitness frameworks:

• 7As: Audience. Awesomeness. Amplification. Acquisition. Activation. Adoption. Advocacy.
• SPARC: Strategy. People. Alignment. Routines. Culture.
• PST: Preserve. Strengthen. Transform.

Some are taught at the Stanford Business School. All have been perfected and proven to be highly effective at both public and private companies, small and large organizations, diverse B2C and B2B customers, and even digital and physical products. They are deployed to audit everything, assess with everyone, and action collectively and cross-functionally to amplify the brand and accelerate business growth.?

The purpose of these frameworks is to help leaders and teams:

• Turn customer-centric talk into action by focusing every insight, investment/innovation, product, person, cross-functional team, meeting, and metric on the customer
• Reveal and spotlight what matters to the customer and their journey – and what does not, which in turn sparks innovation and reduction in wasted work
• Identify and align on team-identified, prioritized challenges and opportunities faster, with more focus and fewer frustrations
• Communicate and create a common language and shared understanding to enable faster insights to implementation
• Empower and extract the best practices and ideas teams have already learned and proved work here and elsewhere
• Innovate and discover new ideas and solutions, while still allowing for executive oversight, experience, and expertise
• Break down silos and territorial thinking by identifying customer-driven requirements, handoffs, and teamwork
• Assess, evaluate, and identify data/analytics and platforms/tools/tech you have and need for today and tomorrow
• Deliver an empowering employee experience with space for ToMo, innovation, impact, and teamwork
• Create and build deep customer IQ and EQ to create long-term impact and thrive
• And ultimately amplify the brand and accelerate business growth

Next up, Part 2 will provide an overview of the 7As audit/assessment/action framework, breaking down the customer journey into its logical components.