High Growth
2.1 Habitual Growth
If you think about business growth, what comes to mind? Well, growth is good; in fact, businesses either grow or die. Yes, and growth is a nice linear function that depends in large part upon a business’s strategy. And growing bigger is always better.
Those beliefs are common. What do we know about them? We know that there is no basis in any science for those beliefs and that, in fact, they are not always true in the business world. At best, they are half-truths. At worst, they are pure fiction
2.2 The Myths of Growth
Growth can be good, and growth can be bad. It depends. Growth can create value, but, if not properly managed, growth can destroy value. Growth can destroy value when the amount of or pace of growth exceeds managerial capacity, stresses quality controls, stresses financial
controls, dilutes one’s customer value proposition, and propels a business into a different competitive space where it will compete against better capitalized, more efficient competition.
Growing bigger is not always better. In fact, in growing bigger, businesses increase their complexity, requiring more bureaucracy, rules, administrative and managerial people, and information systems, all of which can destroy the “small company entrepreneurial soul.” And, with increased size comes not only complexity, but also the need for more professional management. A business can outgrow its existing management capabilities.
Growth will stress existing people, processes and controls. Furthermore, growth requires the entrepreneur to fundamentally change from being just an entrepreneur to becoming an entrepreneur and manager, and ultimately to becoming a manager and leader. Growth fundamentally changes what an entrepreneur does every day and how he or she does it. Most first-time entrepreneurs find those changes difficult. Some find them unpalatable. Many entrepreneurs think that growth is just more of the same. Not so. Growth transforms almost everything in a business.
2.3 The Four Ways to Grow
There are only four ways to grow a business: improvements, innovations, scaling and strategic acquisitions.
Improvements mean getting better, faster and/or cheaper. Improvements are the “blocking and tackling” of business and include improving your products and services, your business processes and the customer experience. In fact, you can improve what you do in every functional area of your business.
Innovation is doing something that’s new for your business. Innovations do not have to be unique. In fact, uniqueness is unlikely. Innovation means doing something that is really new or different for your business.
The third way to grow by scaling. Most businesses enter high growth phases when they are ready to scale—to do lots more of what works well. Scaling is how businesses grow quickly. Getting to that point is hard. This occurs successfully if and only if the entrepreneur has built the foundation—has established the right people, processes and controls that permit scaling to occur without sacrificing quality or financial stability. Many entrepreneurs reported being consumed during the scaling phase because scaling created significant turbulence
The fourth way to grow is by making small strategic acquisitions. Strategic acquisitions are acquisitions of new geographic markets, customer segments, products, services or capabilities that you can either scale through your existing customer base or scale your existing products through. The purpose of strategic acquisitions should be to increase the scaling possibilities for your business.
Soft Skills for Entrepreneurship
To be successful now and in the future, young entrepreneurs need not only to strengthen their existing soft skills but to develop new ones. Soft skills are therefore interpersonal skills such as:
Skill Group | Today’s Skills | Future Skills |
Intra- and interpersonal skills | · Positive self-concept
· Communication skills · Social and interpersonal skills |
· Mindfulness (new) Self-awareness and self-realization (amplified)
· Business Storytelling (new) Negotiating networks, crowds and movements (amplified) · Working with networks, crowds and movements (new) Empathy and compassion (amplified) Emotional/social intelligence and influence (amplified) |
Create and solve skills | · Planning, organizing, executing and management
· Higher-order thinking skills · Creativity and innovation |
· Adaptive planning and management (new) Time management (amplified)
· Systems thinking (new) Complex problem-solving (amplified) · Co-design (new) Co-creativity and innovation (amplified) |
Information, opportunity and risk management skills | · Opportunity seeking, recognition and assessment
· Information seeking and management · Coping with ambiguity, uncertainty and risk |
· Building and managing online reputation (new)
· Complex information management (amplified) · Wellness management (new) VUCA coping skills (amplified) |
Growth mindset skills | · Persistence, tenacity and resilience
· Flexibility and adaptability · Future orientation |
· Grit (new)
· Agility (new) · Agility (new) |
Pre-Training Assessment (PTA)
After having this brief theoretical introduction, High Growth Enterprise Coaches can conduct a pre – training survey which will measure and evaluate the current level of people’s soft skills and competencies. The goal of the PTA is to assess what level the users are at as a group, as well as individually. This survey will contribute to the final assessment and track the results before and after the training. The second survey (PTE) will be conducted after the training and should be regarded as a genuine feedback which is essential for the trainer. It will bring to light any pain points that learners might have faced. By being strategic, coach can gather information on these problematic areas, and possible solutions.
PTA
Pre-Training Self-Assessment Form
High Growth Enterprise Coach – Developing People for Growth |
Please complete this form prior to High Growth Enterprise Coach – Developing People for Growth training
Name: ……………………………………………………………………………………………
Job Title: …………………………………………………………………………………………
Organization/Institute/SME/Other: ………………………………………………………………
Please assess the following questionnaire by ticking an option from 1-5 on the rating scale (5 being strongly agree/1 being strongly disagree) in response to the statements below:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
1. I feel confident in managing time effectively | |||||
2. I feel confident in setting goals correctly | |||||
3. I understand the process and stages of team building | |||||
4. I have experience in leadership | |||||
5. I understand what essential things in organizational leadership are | |||||
6. I am confident in understanding the self-realization methods | |||||
7. I am confident in understanding the self – actualization methods | |||||
8. I have knowledge about guidelines for creating trust and commitment among the team | |||||
9. I have knowledge about success factors for the ability to adapt easily to the external changes and factors |
*The same survey can be used as a PTA (Post Training Assessment) to evaluate level of skills after training session(s).