Wednesday, January 20, 2010

CEO: Is Flat the new Growth?

Is ‘flat’ the new ‘growth’? Let’s face it, 2009 was a year of holding the line and hiding a bit. The fear of bankruptcy, acquisition or dramatic sales decline may have left many leaders in a state of corporate rigamortis; a stalling of growth. So it’s 2010, a new year and new decade, what can you do to reboot your growth?

There are three
growth horizons for leaders. Deciding how much to invest and when is your key challenge. Here are some screens you can use as a way to stage and gauge your growth:

1)
Extend and Defend your Core Business
· If you are in a highly competitive market you need to align the organization to defend your core business and ‘stop the bleeding’. If you are looking to extend your core business clearly define who your customer is, what they need and how you can meet those needs. Here we look at growing sales incrementally, 1-3%
2)
Build or Acquire Emerging Business
· This growth phase can take significant capital. If executed properly a strategic acquisition can elevate your growth in a way competitors can not match. Insure you have an integration strategy for this acquisition so the cultures can merge with ease. Building a new business is more closely related to innovation growth.
3)
Fill Tomorrow’s Pipeline through Innovation
· The best way to decide if you should undertake an innovation effort is to ask yourself, “Are we meeting or exceeding the needs of our customers today?” If the answer is ‘no’, assign someone in your firm to look into emerging trends that can bring you more growth by being a more relevant company.

Developing the right strategic plan and meaningful growth platforms can help you achieve your growth goals successful. Crafting a new brand story can help.

Airlift helps leaders create a sustainable culture of growth through inspiring brand story telling. Contact us to find out how:
srosen@airliftideas.com or (1) 312.492.7772.



Source: The Alchemy of Growth

2 comments:

jaipsang said...

Wow, I am just now tuning into your blog. This is great.

So I have to ask, comparing innovation with something mainstream like the iPad and Apples previous innovation disaster, the Newton, what do you think worked and didn't work?

If that is a weak example what other case studies might correlate?

Airlift Brand Story Telling said...

Jaipsang,
Thanks for your comment. My belief is that innovation is an overused word. Trying is never a disaster as long as innovators take the crumbs and find new ways to use these insights. It;s evolutionary. Technology firms must innovate because the second their product is out, it becomes obsolete.
Innovation can be incremental but to change a firm one must look at game changing ideas that change sales forever. Ford just re-invented itself, with hundreds of new strategic changes. Best of luck.