Friday's Growth
Inspiration

Some time back, we spoke about how growth has become a difficult term around the executive table. One feels somewhat out of place to propose that in the midst of so much uncertainty and pain, we should be focusing on growth. However, this is changing.

We have come to realise that growth is essential to becoming sustainable. Growth that is conscious and purpose-led can help build resilience. Developing a platform for growth in an organisation can help challenge in-grained paradigms and long-held practices. It helps us develop both an outward aspiration e.g. markets we would like to grow into, and an inward aspiration e.g. what do we want to transform, to become.

A growth orientation is also helpful to executing our aspirations at greater speed. It can help bring together parties who often compete or may be wary of one another, to collaborate and contribute. Done well, it provides us an opportunity to build forward, with a clear picture of how we could grow and prosper differently.

In instances where growth seems to have disappeared for an organisation, we found that it has simply shifted to new places. These are often uncomfortable places, challenging our business model and may even threaten relationships that we have built over a long period of time. This is a phenomenon we see not only in consumer markets but in B2B settings too.

Putting growth back onto the executive agenda simply means we have chosen a different lens to test our assumptions and capabilities, we have chosen to challenge how our organisations work and what outcomes we strive towards. We have chosen to venture into uncomfortable spaces.

Feeling challenged? That is truly a good thing…