Want organic growth? 4 questions to ask.
Undoubtedly, accelerate organic growth is difficult for any organization. Especially if the plan is to unlock new market spaces using the potential of digitalization and changing customer dynamics. There’s no silver bullet, but there are questions that are more important now than before, but they are not always given the right attention.
All companies want organic growth and the traditional recipe for growth is a constant flow of new products and services that increases price and market value, supported by expansion of sales channels and brand awareness & recognition.
Most companies orchestrate this well through established processes and checkpoint. Repeatedly incremental innovation has served a lot of organizations well for many years as markets expands. But is it significant to help companies grow according to expectations in the future, as we enter an era where societies, markets and customer behavior is in rapid change?
Likely not. As external conditions change, organizations need to find ways to ensure new perspectives and new ideas. But how?
Frontloading activities for growth
Even within organizations with well-defined development process and checkpoints, the frontloading phase, i.e., the phase where big ideas and new to the world value propositions are defined, is not as well managed. Especially the activities before business cases are defined, the exploratory process, are often loosely kept within mature organizations.
For companies that seeks organic growth in mature markets with rapid change coming, this is not a good place to be in.
Frontloading, just like any development process, is an activity that needs well defined KPI’s, attention to details and endurance, because without the right focus and activities it will not generate concrete output. Within this environment there’s a slim chance that ideas of disruptive products, services and business models see the light of day.
So, what can organizations that want to grow their business but operate within mature markets undergoing drastically change, do? Here are some thought starters.
Think of growth input the same way you think of growth output
Organic growth is usually viewed as output and it comes with well-defined KPI’s such as shareholder value, market share, sales, and EBIT. But organic growth requires input, that often does not have the same level of attention by leader.
If growth input is not defined and measured, how will a leadership team understand that the right activities are happening, or if there are enough momentum in the organization for growth to happen?
This can be tricky of course, but as a leadership team we suggest you start by asking 4 simple questions, and finds the right way to measure them:
Is there is enough growth momentum at the critical elements of our organization?
Are we in dialog with customers & consumers that represent our future growth?
Are we trying to innovate in both mature and immature markets, respectively?
Do we listen for ideas on how to increase speed within all relevant areas of our organization?
