A business growth platform provides opportunities for a company to scale, mapped out and itemized over a certain period of time.
If sustainable business growth is the name of the game, then having a strategic plan for it is the batting practice. You can’t grow what you don’t cultivate, so meeting long-term performance goals requires planning and building in a sustainable, profitable way.
Growth: The Holy Grail
Business growth platforms, by their very nature, connect related opportunities and in doing so drive internal collaboration.
Growth is not only a sign of a company’s success in the market, it’s also the holy grail to its persistent survival. Staying relevant and competitive requires a business growth platform to follow — one designed to build up insight and scale investment over time as one opportunity leads to another. In every platform company, small and medium bets provide multiple pathways to sustainable business growth.
Part of that growth is about revenue consistency and diversity to form a healthy mix across products, segments, verticals and channels. This control panel should be used to hit targets in the most strategic ways possible. Growing at the right cadence, with some measure of sophistication, and knowing where to loosen up or double down investments, is what makes good companies great.
Business Growth Platforms Maximize Potential
Startup companies have unlimited potential. But they do not have unlimited resources. To maximize that potential they need to set goals, but not just revenue goals. We’re talking goals around brand, culture and product. This can be hard for startups because they are so fluid. But if you bet on anything, bet that they won’t be the same company six months from now.
While it’s true that some of the specifics may change, creating a business growth plan place that is future-proofed, even for a year, will help. Even setting really large goals like “Becoming the leader in [insert space]” will get you on the right track, because you can establish indicators (micro goals) that will show you whether you’re on pace to hitting your larger goal.
But scaling is hard work. There’s a “grow or die” mentality with tech startups. It’s important that leadership in a growing startup drives business performance beyond current market expectations.
The Business Growth Blueprint
It doesn’t come as a surprise that growth remains a top priority for business leaders of mid to large-sized companies in 2021, according to Gartner’s 2020 CEO and Senior Executive Survey. Let’s face it, if you’re not growing, you’re giving away the lion’s share of the market to more venturous competitors.
A business growth platform is the blueprint for sustainable scaling. Here are three key success factors:
1. Set your operating model up for growth.
Develop clear charters for growth platforms that combine the financial and business model objectives with key operating model requirements.
2. Maintain momentum and measure progress.
You can’t change what you don’t track. Implement regular reviews and involvement to ensure investment and focus is maintained.
3. Ensure growth platforms are attractive propositions for your star talent.
Your people are the ones leading their initiatives. Recognize the skill sets needed for success.
Put a few stakes in the ground to align focus and ensure all of the collective activity is focused on achieving those goals. Instead of your efforts being scattered, a business growth platform approach helps those efforts to build off of themselves, ultimately creating more momentum and accelerating your progress to those end goals.
When building your company, what’s your vision and motivation for strategic business growth? Are you thinking five years out? Are you planning your growth platforms with sustainability as a focus? Tell us your story @YorkGrowth!
