Choosing the right growth strategy

From a legal perspective, the more things change, the more they seem to stay the same. Owners of fast-track growing businesses continue to worry about some of the same issues that plagued them at the turn of the last century, such as OSHA health and safety standards, minimum wage standards, personal injury and workmen’s compensation claims, and product liability litigation. These issues may never be entirely resolved, but as our economy remains volatile, new legal, financial and organizational issues have begun to emerge involving protection of intellectual property, doing business in the global village, transacting business via the Internet and the renewed focus on satisfying (and keeping) the customer.

• These economic and organizational shifts are creating new legal challenges. Global competition and rapid technological advancements are creating new business management models, such as geographically-dispersed work forces, flattened organizational structures and strategic partnering among customers, vendors, suppliers, and even competitors. And companies of all sizes are developing work teams that communicate and collaborate electronically instead of around a conference table or by the water cooler. The virtual workplace where there is significantly less human interaction brings new challenges in the areas of protection of privacy, confidentiality and copyright laws.

  Given these rapidly-moving changes in our marketplace, the challenge is: how and when to grow? And this question leads to other key questions that can be difficult to answer. What strategies should be used to facilitate growth? How do you know whether these strategies are appropriate for your business? Are there problems with your business structure that need resolving before you can implement the growth strategy selected? How can you build on your strengths and compensate for your weaknesses? How might the growth strategy selected present new risks or make you vulnerable? To whom? Is this the right time to grow? That is, have you put a proper foundation for growth in place? Is capital available to fuel growth? Are market conditions ripe for growth opportunities?

  Setting the stage for growth

  Before you can prepare your company for additional growth, you need to analyze its strengths and weaknesses. Looking for what’s working well serves to concentrate your efforts where you have the best chance of success. And by looking for strengths, you’ll also spot the weaknesses. Start with these areas:

  Costs and revenues. Examine them for every part of your business. Are revenues rising or falling? How about profit margins? Which divisions or departments stand out? Why? Do you enjoy a strong positive cash flow?

  Personnel. Do certain employees show exceptional skills or produce outstanding results? Where in the company is the strongest management, organization and planning? Do you have the talent on staff to handle anticipated growth, or would you have to hire new personnel?

  Operations. Are these areas that seem to be trouble-free, functioning with little supervision but always delivering results? How do the managers in those areas achieve such consistent results?

  Philosophy or mission. Do you have a written statement describing your company’s philosophy or mission? Does it define the essence of your business exactly so that you know which kinds of activities fit your company’s goals and which don’t? Are you diluting your resources by engaging in any activities outside your mission? Have you developed a set of core values, and have they been embraced by your employees? After you’ve sized up your internal operations, take a long and careful look at your market, your competitors and the current economic climate. This external examination should reveal whether you are in a position to take advantage of current business trends and cycles.

  Your market. Is your market share- your company’s percentage of estimated total business available- increasing or decreasing? Is your marketing strategy based on careful research or on instinct and hunches? Is your customer or client base shrinking?

  Your competition. Do you know exactly who your competitors are, and where they pose the largest threat? Which part of your business is most vulnerable to competition and which is least vulnerable? Are some parts of your market becoming crowded with competitors?

  Economic climate. Are changes in economic conditions– interest rates, inflation, housing starts, industry earnings– likely to affect your company? Do you make efforts to stay on top of things so that you can anticipate changes in the marketplace, or are you often surprised by developments that affect your company?
  Your answers to those questions will give you an idea of where your company is strong and where it could improve as well as which type of growth strategy would be best for your company.

  Effective growth management involves: (1) understanding why the company wants or needs to grow; (2) clearly defining the objectives that growth will achieve or problems that growth will solve; (3) the management’s understanding of the challenges and risks that rapid growth will pose to the company, especially if the growth process is not well managed; (4) understanding the various phases of growth the company will experience as it evolves towards maturity; and (5) implementing a growth management process that is responsive to and reflective of your company’s current stage of growth.

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