Selecting Strategies that Scale

Growth is essential for any business that wants to remain competitive and successful. ?However, with so many different growth strategies available, it can be difficult to decide which one is right for your business.

Here are some key factors to consider when making business growth decisions:

• Your current business situation.? What are your strengths and weaknesses? What are your opportunities and threats?? What are your current resources and capabilities?
• Your target market.?Who are your ideal customers?? What are their needs and wants?? What are their pain points?
• Your industry.?What are the trends in your industry?? What are the competitive forces?
• Your growth goals.? What do you want to achieve with your growth strategy?? Do you want to increase revenue, market share, or brand awareness?

Once you have considered these factors, you can start to develop a growth strategy. ?Strategy is as much about figuring out what not to do as it is making choices on what to major upon.? Here are some of the more common generic growth strategies:

• Market penetration.? This strategy focuses on increasing your market share in your existing market. ?You can do this by increasing brand awareness, offering new products or services, or expanding into new distribution channels.
• Product development.? This strategy involves developing new products or services to meet the needs of your existing customers or to appeal to new customers.
• Market development.? This strategy involves expanding into new markets. You can do this by entering new geographic markets or selling your products or services via new distribution channels e.g., online.
• Diversification.? This strategy involves expanding into new products, services, or markets that are unrelated to your current business.

it is important to consider the risks and rewards involved when choosing a growth strategy.? Some growth strategies are riskier than others e.g., diversification, but they also have the potential to generate higher rewards.

It is also important to make sure that your growth strategy is aligned with your overall business goals. ?If your goal is to increase brand awareness, you may want to focus on a market penetration strategy. If your goal is to quickly build revenue, you may want to focus on a market development strategy.

No matter which growth strategy you choose, it is important to have a clear plan in place.? All too often this is where plans to scale up stumble due to:

• Over optimism on what can be quickly achieved
• Inadequate preparation on standardising processes and systems
• Spreading “bets” by backing more than one growth strategy at a time and failing on all
• Overestimating what is possible with current resources and capabilities and underestimating competition
• The growth plan must integrate the strategy to create and satisfy demand – this means engaging multi-functional teams earlier in the planning process
• Delegation of strategy execution too early with the result that the strategy gets lost in somebody else’s activity list

The plan should include your goals, objectives, strategies, and tactics and be structured so that you can track your progress and adjust as needed.

Here are some additional tips for making business growth decisions:

• Base your decisions on data and research.?Don't just make decisions based on gut instinct. Gather as much data as you can about your market, your customers, and your competitors. Use this data to inform your growth strategy.
• Get feedback from others.?Talk to staff, customers, and advisors about your growth plans. Listen hard for their feedback and suggestions.
• Be flexible and adaptable.?Things change so flex as needed.? Success does not arrive in a straight line – expect to navigate many bumps on the road and adapt accordingly.

All said and done, there is one growth strategy that is “head and shoulders” above all others – work hard and don’t stop!

About the Author

Les is a coach, consultant, and facilitator who works with growth-oriented MDs and CEOs of businesses in “scale-up”.? He is also a director of 20-20 Management which is a performance improvement company that specialises in leadership development and growth.?

Les has a proven track record of helping clients deliver successful results by addressing vision and strategy, organisation structure, culture, and performance, and managing change to create more accountable, affordable, and agile businesses.

Contact Les to share an experience, thought, or idea or if you have questions about how to improve leadership and business performance.