Adopting growth plans in our company often involves sacrificing short-term profits and the difficulty of deviating from the current essence of the business. What should we do then?

Adopting growth plans in our company often involves sacrificing short-term profits and the difficulty of deviating from the current essence of the business. What should we do then?

 

A recent survey conducted by KPMG on 1300 directors of leading global companies reveals an interesting fact: 82% of them question whether their product and service offerings will be relevant in the next three years, and 72% think that these same three years will be more critical to their industry than the last 50.

 

The change is driven by the use of technology, the connection between consumers, and the convergence of the sector.

 

In this dynamic context, trying to scale the growth potential of our business means risking a few chips to refresh its value for owners and shareholders. It’s a bet for a win-win situation.

 

The truth is that many companies get stuck in doubt. They fear to take the next step because this is an investment, which in the short term means a lower profitability that might not seduce like the one they have now.

 

However, let’s remember that the growth of an organization is not only measured by its revenue but also by its performance in the timeline. That is to say, that living in the today does not mean one must ignore its evolution.

 

Thus, to identify these valuable opportunities, we suggest following four steps:

 

1. Evaluation of the environment: analyze situations based on the market where our company and its services participate, as well as the competitive position in its different categories, brands, channels, consumer segments, occasions, packaging and other relevant factors.

 

2. Analysis of internal competencies: measure our strengths and areas of opportunity with the infrastructure, financial position, skills of staff, tools and methods at present.

 

3. Generation of ideas: list a series of disruptive ideas that provoke substantial improvements to the usual results; talk about important growth rate; conduct brainstorming sessions; and even outsource to external help in the process.

 

4. The conception of initiatives: evaluate and prioritize ideas; evaluate them based on impact, results and value creation; identify and quantify the sources of growth; recognize the risks that these may not happen, as well as the resources needed for the initiatives; the goal is to prioritize and decide.

 

In order to put a good face on a growth phase, we will also have to prevent internal barriers from conditioning the already challenging situation. In order to control the damages in time and form in our organization, let’s identify some of them:

 

1. Operational bureaucracy: eliminate internal barriers; adopt new technologies for process efficiency.

 

2. Culture: levels of commitment, collaboration and communication; knowing the role of each person in the success of the initiative; considering their openness to accept change and their abilities to innovate.

 

3. Communication problems: measure whether people clearly appreciate the strategy and goals set, and whether they are convinced of the reasons behind them.

 

4. Alignment of incentives: encourage the team to work in the same direction as the partners.

 

Over the years, as growth strategies are adopted, an internal process can be created to polish the execution of the project. The key is to prioritize the most important initiatives and attend to them diligently, in a sustainable manner, and always taking care of generating value for our business.