This article will be of interest to you if you are running around without time to work on pushing your business to the next level.  The information herein will be relevant to your current business planning processes.  The simplicity of the knowledge that I am sharing could equip you with a powerful framework and set of questions to achieve the next level of profitable growth for your business.

This article is based on the chapter ‘Nothing Fails Like Success’ from a great book by a great management consultant called Stuart Cross. Stuart’s book, The CEO’s Strategy Handbook, can be purchased here.

There are a few general principles to selecting the best option for growth.  These are:

• Principle 1 – Your core business often has more potential for growth than you think.
• Principle 2 – You are likely to have organizational assets and capabilities that can help you access new, adjacent markets.
• Principle 3 – You don’t have to do it all on your own, e.g. alliances and acquisitions.

With the guiding principles set in place, there are seven ways for you to grow.  It’s my belief that every growth pathway can be a catalyst for a change in the ownership structure of the business.

Here are 9 questions to assist your growth planning:

1. What do customers value about your product or service?
2. What buying and using experience would the customers prefer to have?
3. How could you incentivize repeat use?
4. What is the performance improvement program for current products?
5. How could you extend the ways customers use your products?
6. What adjacent markets are your capabilities relevant to?
7. How could you reduce the risk of opening in a new region?
8. What competitors could you merge with to add capabilities?
9. How could an acquisition be used to re-imagine your business scope?

The key question you could ask yourself is, “Are you getting lost in business jargon at the expense of leaving money on the table?”