Growth As A Process
Unleashing exponential growth through a structured and repeatable process.
One of the most critical challenges faced by entrepreneurs and small business owners is to achieve
Consistent Growth and Scalability. Statistics show that about 80% of newly established businesses in
the USA fail within five years. This huge failure percentage of companies is always a matter of concern.
Just imagine if this is the general scenario during healthy business cycles, how worst can it get it can get
during a recession or down economic cycles.
But why do so many businesses fail?
There could be many possible answers to this question. But the fundamental reason businesses fail to
scale up is their inability to adapt and pivot quickly to the changing market demands and their inability
to identify their ideal client. Furthermore, most entrepreneurs have a narrow view of growth. For them,
growth manifests in achieving a few numbers and metrics they set for a particular year. But real and
sustainable growth is much more than achieving numbers. It’s about nurturing your business internally
in terms of Strategy, People, and Processes.
There is a fundamental rule for a small business, i.e., ‘If it is not growing, it is dying.’ The business
environment is always changing and growing, and that’s the harsh reality most businesses face. Hence,
growth becomes a critical element for a business to survive. The only way for entrepreneurs to achieve
sustainable business growth is by making ‘Growth As A Process (GAAP).’
You must be wondering how growth can be a process! Yes, it can be designed as a process. But not from
an operational or tactical point of view but from a strategic perspective. GAAP is a business growth
strategy consisting of a set of timebound activities and frameworks that are highly effective and
repeatable. It works best for entrepreneur-led small and medium-sized businesses. GAAP can deliver
exceptional business growth year-on-year if implemented rigorously under the right guidance.
At its core, GAAP is a set of structured activities for the company’s leadership team to achieve
organizational objectives. But the critical factor for its success is execution and implementation with
agility while maintaining the time frames throughout the year. The process will help you learn and
understand your organization’s anchors deeply, discover your core competencies, and identify the right
people for the right jobs. Below is the sample activity calendar that is carried out under the Growth As A
Process strategy:
- Strategy Development : The first step is brainstorming and developing short-term(one-year) and long-term(three to five years) strategic plans. Strategic planning is the most fundamental leadership exercise to keep the organization and activities focused and eliminate wasting resources and time.
- The next steps are Strategy Execution Review (SER) and Strategy Performance Review (SPR). These activities aim to make a deep-dive analysis of the past 12-month performance efficiency and corresponding results. The process helps identify the best practices for your business (what worked) and the scope for improvement (something that didn’t work). The analysis will also help the leadership team to identify the potential roadblocks to future goal achievement. The SER activity will identify risks in executing current year goals and coming up with mitigants and projects to help reach current year goals.
- Insight Sharing : One of the most important steps in the process is where the functional leads share their findings. This exercise will help different teams to learn from each other and collaborate effectively.
- Creating Project Charters : Growth is always futuristic. But preparation for the future always starts today. Project charter development and execution is a critical activity under the GAAP strategy. It is carried out to ensure the viability of the business by looking at the short-term challenges and long-term goals. In this step, the leadership team comes up with transformative initiatives (projects) considering the changing market dynamics and potential changes in customer demands in the future. It is also time to relook at the organizational structure and identify people who can contribute and be developed to deal with future business challenges.
- Conducting Due Diligence : After developing a few ambitious growth projects, the next phase is to evaluate them for feasibility and viability. Based on the growth objectives and resource availability, a business needs to prioritize, create execution plans or defer the suggested projects.
- The Grand Plan : This phase covers the financial planning, resource allocation, and execution plans for the next year. All teams are communicated with their respective roles and responsibilities, including goals and metrics to be reached.