“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new.” – Socrates
It is a safe bet that almost any leader you ask will say they want to grow their business.
That makes sense, right? Of course it does. Everyone wants to have a role in a thriving and growing business.
However, once you get past the desire for growth, I have noticed things tend to get a lot more challenging.
Not every leader is prepared for the hard work of developing a growth strategy, and not every organization is ready or equipped to execute. While there are a number of detailed tactical questions one could ask to help diagnose an organization’s readiness for growth, I have found it useful to start with some big picture, strategic questions first.
Change is the Only Constant
We can summarize the underlying challenge in this discussion with one word: change. High-end management consultants would use two words to describe the process: business transformation!
No matter your word choice, accelerating business growth inevitably requires change. This is the crux of the problem for many organizations. Not every leader, or organization, is prepared to disrupt themselves. To drive new growth they will have to change their old approach to the market. They cannot continue doing only what they have always done. They have to change their activities. Sometimes they may even have to change people, process, structure, or systems. This kind of change can be painful.
Change is the only constant in our disrupted VUCA world. Despite that fact, embracing change is hard work. The natural state of most people is to resist difficult or uncertain things. Many will choose to dig in and resist change, or run from it instead of running towards it.
Yet, business history teaches us that the only way to survive and thrive is to adapt. In fact, adaptability is a key ingredient for effectively dealing with change. The willingness and ability to pivot as new circumstances present themselves and embrace something different is vital for creating business growth and success. We also know that great teams are the ones that will show up and do the hard work required to adapt.
Fundamental Growth Strategy Questions
Once leaders have embraced change, they can begin to ask fundamental questions to assess the readiness of their organization for growth. Here are a few that I have been using:
- Is the value proposition of the organization’s product/service sound? In other words, is your product or service any good, or is it crap? If it needs work (and it is okay to admit that it does) then do that before you invest in growth. Your customers, and your team, will thank you!
- Is the leadership team, the board, and ownership aligned around the desire and need to grow the business? If not, then clearly this needs to be a priority conversation.
- Are you prepared to invest time and money in growth?
- Is there a growth leader who is able to rally the team and prepared lead the charge?
- Is there a cultural willingness and ability to confront reality? In strategic planning exercises, it is a requirement to put everything on the table: the good…the bad…and the ugly. This can sometimes get very personal for leaders and their teams who take great pride in the business they have built. Are you willing to call your baby ugly?
- Related to the questions around confronting reality – is there a willingness to challenge all assumptions? Are you willing to admit the old ways of doing things may be outdated? Are you willing to consider new approaches? To challenge sacred cows?
- Asking questions like these can often quickly lead to difficult discussions around making structural changes to the business. Are you prepared to revisit and possibly make changes to the people, process, and technology that will help drive business growth?
Where Do You Go From Here?
Business growth is great to have, but never easy to deliver. It requires leadership, change, investment, and a lot of hard work. The questions in this article should provide some insight to the readiness of your organization for growth.
Now the hard work begins…
Strategic leaders who decide to proceed with a growth initiative should first focus on getting situational awareness about their marketplace. They will gain valuable insights by getting out of the building and making sure their teams do this important learning exercise. Some of these insights might lead to developing alternative strategies or plans to address other scenarios.
Casting a wide net of inquiry, asking questions, listening, challenging, and learning provides great perspective and becomes a critical foundation for creating a VUCA Strategic Plan for growth.
With growth strategy and plan in hand, it is time to execute. The most successful leaders will inspire their teams with a bias to action. In the growth mode, leaders need to quickly triage issues, make aligned decisions, and push forward.
Being a leader in times of transformation is challenging and difficult, but driving growth for the organization is a great reward.
-Onward