Why growth is hard to come by?

As a kid, I was "collecting" a lot of things - coins, stamps, …. You name it, I might have been collecting it sometime in my life. All those habits faded away over the time.

When I started my professional career, I started collecting business magazines (like HBR). The main junk I have at home now, is my magazine collection that I've accumulated from 1990 to till date. Had I expected the digitalization of contents that we see today, I might not have started it. Till date, I enjoy smelling, highlighting, and turning physical pages of hardcopy books and magazines, more than scrolling an online edition.? When I am totally down, picking up a magazine from the past and looking at my notes on the side to have a laugh (“how na?ve I have been?”) is relaxing.

I went to my magazine collection last month with a question - What have experts said about consistent growth? The world has seen many down economies in the past couple of decades such as Y2K, dot com burst, 2008 financial crisis, etc., hence my interest.

As you could imagine, numerous articles have come out on this subject with ways to 'get back to growth'. Surprisingly (?), all those write-ups are centered on the following five elements.

1. Do you have a compelling "customer value proposition"?
2. Do you have the right "capabilities”?
3. Do you have the right "operating model"?
4. Do you measure, derive "insights" and continuously adjust your operations?
5. Do you have a motivated "team"?

Every time a new trend, crisis, challenge, or an opportunity gets us off the track, going back to basics is the best way. The five key questions above, are not just basics, but the magic formula that proved well in the past, and again the needed one now.

Though these are simple steps, aligning our strategy and operations to the changing realities is tough to do. A methodical approach and disciplined operations will always lead to success. Good luck growing your business.