Growth Strategy Development

Setting A Path To Ongoing Growth Requires Developing A Strategic Plan

Planned growth requires a pathway for change. When new opportunities present, they’ll be lost unless there is a path for immediate consideration and, as warranted, action. Once you develop a process to surface and analyze growth opportunities, they can become operational. Long-term growth happens when well-chosen growth opportunities make it to operating plans and budgets.

To grow predictably and profitably, you need an integrated long-term plan. Developing the plan means you examine all known opportunities (and issues) that can potentially drive (and limit) prospects for growth. Once you’ve selected specific opportunities, you put together a comprehensive, cross-functional plan. Long-term goals for growth become the priorities that are implemented throughout the organization.

Now That You Have Chosen Which Growth Opportunities to Pursue…

…It’s Time To Design The Strategic Plan To Capture Those Opportunities

Once we’re clear on where you want to take the company, it’s time to refine the final details. There are still a lot of items to consider, and additional research to conduct. We’re still in the stage of determining exactly what is going to work and when and how to do it. These are the issues this program has been designed to solve.

• You won’t succeed in growing your company without a detailed plan to get there. When you want growth with profitability, it’s time to get real about exactly WHAT you’re going to do. You must know exactly WHO is going to do what. Of course, it’s critical to know exactly WHEN each piece of the puzzle is going to be laid in place. You have to decide on additional resources, hiring, purchases and their timing.
• Your business is so complex that getting a strategic plan on paper is no easy task. There are so many moving parts that must coordinate and mesh. All the extra complexities of “market intermediaries” (distributors, wholesalers, dealers, independent agents, and value-added processors) make strategic growth planning especially challenging. Multiple layers of interaction in operations and supply chain require near-perfect planning.
• A strategic plan is one thing; a strategic growth plan is a whole different process. Your education and experience makes strategic planning an easy process. What you want though is strategic growth. Strategic growth isn’t really taught even in the best B schools. It’s learned on the job. When your company hasn’t been working to grow, you probably need a little help.
• You don’t have the in-house expertise to create a strategic growth plan. Strategic growth planning isn’t really something you can just go buy off the shelf. It’s so specific to your business that you really require an expert. You need someone who can almost instantly grasp the complexities of your operations. You recognize that you need someone with cross-functional capability. This is a process that can only be entrusted to someone with specific expertise.
• You want the extra assurance of working with an expert to ensure that nothing is overlooked. With a company as complex as yours, you want that extra pair of eyes looking out for you. There’s already a lot of expertise in your company, but you know there are gaps. It’s those gaps and the threats they represent that keep you awake at night. You want growth for your company, but you want extra “insurance” that everything’s been considered in advance.

The Growth-On-Track℠ PLAN Program Delivers A Path To Predictable Growth

When We’re Finished, You Know Exactly How Your Company Will Grow In The Upcoming Years

When considering programs to help you plan company growth, you want to know expected outcomes. These are the results you can expect to get from this program.

• You have a Strategic Growth Plan down on paper with buy-in from all parties. You know exactly how you’re going to pull it off. You’ve decided exactly WHAT you’re going to do and exactly WHO is going to do what. The WHEN is down in writing for each piece of the strategic plan. Additional resources, hiring, purchases and their timing are all detailed in the plan.
• Even with all the complexities of your business, you now have a detailed strategic plan on paper. Now you can envision how all the moving parts are going to coordinate and mesh. The extra complexities of “market intermediaries” (distributors, wholesalers, dealers, independent agents, and value-added processors) have been discussed. You have a clear plan going forward. You feel like you’ve done near-perfect planning for the multiple layers of interaction in operations and the supply chain.
• You’re satisfied that you have a robust Strategic Growth Plan that’s going to grow your business. It made a huge difference to augment your education and experience with specific expertise. You’ve learned a lot about strategic growth and how to continue the process into the future. Now you know how to grow your business and feel secure in your strategic growth plan.
• You’ve brought strategic growth expertise in-house temporarily to create a strategic growth plan. You’ve been amazed at the ability of our Strategic Growth Consultant to quickly grasp the complexities of your operations. Adding in that cross-functional capability made a huge difference in the planning process. You’re pleased and gratified that you trusted someone with specific expertise. You got the specificity that your business needed while getting decades of experience to go along with it.
• You’ve appreciated the extra assurance of working with an expert to ensure that nothing is overlooked. That extra pair of eyes looking out for you has been priceless. You’ve felt confident enough that gaps and the threats they represent haven’t kept you awake at night. You’ve had that extra “insurance” that everything’s considered in advance. When it comes to growing the company, you feel that nothing’s been missed!

There Are Many Benefits To This Program

When We’re Finished, These Are The Benefits You Can Expect

Planning for strategic growth should be a very beneficial process. When you’re considering hiring a consultant, you want to know what to expect. These are the benefits you can expect from the PLAN program of Growth-On-Track℠.

• You have a clear and detailed strategic plan to produce the growth you desire. When we are finished, we’ll have looked at and discarded many potential growth initiatives. We settle on the select few that can deliver the growth you want—in the way you want it.
• Together, we’ve selected a complex of growth initiatives that will be profitable for your company. Growth for its own sake isn’t worth having. It’s profitable growth that we’re after for you. You can count on us at all times to keep the planning process focused on your bottom line. When it comes time to choose between low profitability and high, we’ll be inclined to go for more for you.
• Strategic planning sessions are facilitated by an expert and seasoned consultant. When you’ve facilitated as many strategic growth planning sessions as I have, you know how to get the most out of the team. It can be easy to go down a rabbit hole and get off track. You’ll always have my expertise bringing discussions back on point.
• We bring decades of experience to your planning process—eliminating many pitfalls. There are definite no no’s in strategic planning and I’ve seen them all. You can count on me to guide the process away from sub-par choices. Experience has shown me that some types of activities delay and derail the planning process. I gently offer my experience to keep the process moving forward.

The PLAN Program Creates A Serious Plan To Grow Your Business

Phase I: PLAN Determines The Answers To Unknowns And Relevant Questions

Now that we understand the growth environment, we start to plan your growth. There’s a lot involved in turning knowledge into actionable plans. That’s why so few companies actually have predictable growth. Here’s what happens in this phase.

• Inevitably, the SCAN has uncovered uncertainties that must be addressed. Some items require further research. This differs with the engagement, but could include areas such as customer perception of yours vs. competitor offerings or brands, or market segment size and/or channel trends. We get down and get your answers.
• We apply the collective intelligence of the team to select the final list of opportunities. The team, made up of subject matter experts, managers, and directors of major functions consider the findings of the SCAN, and additional research. Using judgment tools and collaboration toolkits, we get a sense of what the team members think independently. Then, the project team discusses and further analyzes the potential. We end up with a portfolio of 20 “finalist” growth opportunities.

Phase II: PLAN Winnows The Growth Possibilities Down To A Final List To Be Pursued

A lot of time has gone into compiling the list of potential growth possibilities. Now, it’s time to get down and get real. Some are easily discarded and others may take a little back and forth discussion.

• Further analysis produces a short list of the best growth opportunities. By this point in the process, we’ve come up with a wealth of information. We go through each opportunity and use the collective wisdom in the room.
• We need to dig into each of the opportunities to decide the best. We look at the projected bottom line of each opportunity. We examine the investments and changes required for each. We look at how they fit into our core capabilities. The process ends when we’ve mapped out the highest and best opportunities to pursue for growth.

Phase III: PLAN Creates The High Level Growth Plan

Now that we know HOW the company intends to grow, we need to plan how to get there. Without getting real and putting the details down in words, the plan never becomes reality.

• Creating the High Level Growth plan starts with setting goals and defining growth initiatives. If we want to grow this much in a product, market segment, or distribution channel, then we must state how we’re going to do it. What needs to happen so we can pursue this growth? We define the set of initiatives that will accomplish the goal. We clearly identify what’s missing. This could mean things like acquisitions, hiring, technology, or increasing the number or types of distributors.
• We identify any key unresolved issues and plan to answer them. Any loose ends that could affect the plan are identified. We track and resolve them as needed through research and further analysis. Research continues in the background as required.
• All the information is pulled into a High Level Plan. Everything about the plan to grow is summarized into either a PowerPoint or Word document. It starts with a recap of the findings of the SCAN. The plan has the goals and a way to achieve those goals over the long term. Specific initiatives are laid out. This is a high level plan, with some information still to be verified. The plan covers 1-2 years and includes milestones, deliverables, and financials (projected gains and costs).

Phase IV: PLAN Creates The Final Growth Plan

Finally we come to the point in the process that produces the final deliverable. We turn the high level plan into a fully actionable strategic plan.

• Starting with the high level plan, we verify all information and finalize the Growth Plan. We take the initiatives that will drive growth and scope out the requirements for success of each. In a template format, we develop standardized descriptions of each initiative. Topics covered include measures of success, resources required, milestones, who and how much of their time. We get cross-functional agreements for the needed support. We finalize budgets, investments, and research.

Invitation to a Conversation

If you’ve read this far, you might be interested in the program. I invite you to contact me for a complementary Growth-On-Track℠ Strategy Session. This is a no-obligation way to find out more about the program and whether it’s right for you.

During this session we explore the challenges you and your top team are facing. We look at what kind of results you’d like to have instead. If we seem to be a match, I’ll describe how the Growth-On-Track℠ program might help your company achieve desired growth. Whatever the outcome, I believe you’ll gain some fresh perspective about the issues you’re facing.

The session takes about an hour and can be done in person or by phone. Click here to book your Growth-On-Track℠ Strategy Session. I look forward to the opportunity to discuss your business growth.

Where To Next?

Now that you understand how this service works, you may want to review our DO Growth Strategy Implementation Program to see how we support you through the strategic implementation.