Growth is good. Failing to pursue it leads to stagnation and often demise. But what defines growth for your company? Is it revenue growth? Profit growth? Growth in headcount?
The choice comes down to understanding what ultimate result you want from your growth. Why do you want to grow?
Companies measure growth in numerous ways. In addition to the metrics mentioned above, there is growth in products or services, market share growth, growth in number of customers served, etc.
Sometimes growth is more about focusing than expanding. By concentrating on serving fewer markets and increasing your business with existing customers, revenue and profit can increase.
Before you determine how you want to grow, decide why you want to grow.
What benefits do you expect to gain from your growth?
Answering the “why” question often comes back to realizing the true purpose of your business – what difference does your business make? How do you produce quantifiable value for your customers? Without a clear purpose and a simplified growth strategy, you can lose focus and spread your resources too thin. Growing too quickly is as dangerous as no growth – preserving focus is essential.
As an example of “focus,” successful sports franchises typically concentrate on the consistency of their performance rather than on winning to grow the value of their franchise. They know that consistency creates wins. They refine their resources to strengthen consistency.
Similarly in business, consistently strong performance in serving customers builds reputations and profitable companies. Consistency propels growth; inconsistency destroys companies. Consistency is grounded in your purpose, goals and behavior. But first, it requires that you know why you want to grow.
What growth rate enables the achievement of your goals with your available resources?
How can improved consistency contribute to meeting your growth target?
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