The Business Growth Dilemma......

I have consulted with a number of companies over the past few years and have noticed a pattern of problems they face in trying to grow. They develop a recipe for success which enables them to grow to a level. Their recipe gets embedded into their culture and they enjoy a period of success.....

Then they want to kick on and go to the next level and try to achieve that by doing more of the same. The dilemma is they have created a way of doing things which usually needs to change but their culture is so fixed it cannot change. What made them successful now holds them back. This can be seen particularly when they are trying to enter new markets or develop new products.

A solution that works is to introduce new processes that enables them to behave differently as a business. These include:

Conducting a customer perception survey in order to identify strengths and weaknesses that can be leveraged or addressed.

Building a new business generating system including networking, intelligence gathering and being entrepreneurial in winning work.

The concept of working on the business as a team in order to challenge and change it.

Finding and empowering their entrepreneur within.

Changing the strategy and culture, particularly values.

The key is that the leaders of the business must act as role models and champion the new desired processes and behaviours.

When businesses take these issues seriously they can grow successfully.