Choose a growth strategy your business can deliver
Growth choices compete for the same management attention, cash and delivery capacity. Selling more to existing customers, entering a new market and launching another offer can each be sensible. The useful decision is which opportunity fits your business now and what evidence should come before a larger commitment.
Editorial responsibility: Nardus Oelofse, Chief Consultant.
By Chase & Marshal
Define the kind of growth you need
Be specific about the outcome. A business seeking stronger contribution from its existing capacity faces a different choice from one trying to reduce dependence on a few accounts. Revenue alone does not describe the strategic need.
Agree the conditions that make growth attractive, including the customers you want, the work you can deliver well and the resources available. This gives leaders a common basis for comparing opportunities and helps prevent the most exciting idea from automatically becoming the priority.
Compare the whole commercial picture
Examine customer demand, likely buying behaviour, delivery effort, acquisition costs and the effect on working capital. Identify assumptions separately from evidence. Ask how the option affects the rest of the business, including service to existing customers.
In an illustrative supplier, a new national account might add substantial sales but require additional stock, bespoke reporting and extended payment terms. A smaller expansion within established accounts could make better use of current capacity. Compare the complete commitments before choosing between them.
Test the weakest important assumption
Find the uncertainty most likely to change the decision. It might be customer willingness to switch, the cost of delivery or the ability to secure a distribution partner. Design a practical way to learn about that assumption before committing to a full rollout.
Use customer conversations, a limited offer, a prototype or a bounded commercial trial as appropriate. Decide in advance what would support proceeding, adapting or stopping. A trial should reduce a specific uncertainty rather than become a smaller version of an already approved launch.
Make delivery part of the strategy
Name the person responsible for the opportunity and identify the changes required in sales, operations, systems and capability. Establish what will be paused or deprioritised to create capacity. A strategy that assumes everyone can absorb more work may fail despite a sound market opportunity.
Create a short decision brief with the opportunity, evidence, assumptions, resources and next decision point. Review it as the work progresses. Growth becomes more manageable when the business knows both why it is pursuing an opportunity and what must be true for it to succeed.
Questions answered
Should we focus on existing customers or new markets?
Compare the demand, contribution, concentration risk and capability required in each case. Existing relationships can make an opportunity easier to test, while a new market may better address a strategic need. The evidence should determine the choice.
Related
Sources
Sources supporting the factual statements in this article. Findings should be read within their stated dates, geography and scope.
- Grow your business strategically - Business.govt.nz. www.business.govt.nz. Publication date not supplied.
- Business strategy - Business.govt.nz. www.business.govt.nz. Publication date not supplied.
Compare the growth choices in front of you
If several growth options are competing for attention, we can help compare their commercial merit and build a delivery plan around the strongest opportunity.
