Tweet

What is "sustainable growth"?

Written by: John Niland

Article Overview: Everyone wants growth. Even if individual approaches vary - in strategy, style, culture or speed - few directors really want to see a reduction in revenue, and fewer want a reduction in profit. We all want more: even when our aspirations have evolved to include a "triple bottom-line" of "people, planet and profit". There are certainly some independents who want to work fewer days per year. Even they however still want to achieve more in those days that they do work, and wish to secure their future pipeline of customers. Before exploring the benefits of sustainable growth, let's begin by understanding what "sustainable business growth" actually means in practice. We can summarise this in nine key characteristics:

What is "sustainable growth"?

From:

To Sustainable Growth

a) Strategy



Reaching the limits of current structure

Expanding beyond

the visible horizon

Fragile infrastructure

Robust, reliable, systems capable of growth and expansion

Future pipeline not clear, dependence on a few "rainmakers", feast & famine, high promotion costs or poor results

Systematic generation of five key sources, with resulting reservoir of warm leads for the future

b) Culture

Single point of authority, isolation, high staff turnover, high recruitment costs

Strong, healthy advocacy from within, driven by a common vision

Reliance on extrinsic "motivators"

Wholehearted interest and enjoyment in the work

c) Behaviour

Communicating as expert and problem-solver, cynical, critical

Value-consciousness in practice,

all engaged in business-growth

Hurry, overwhelm, busyness, unplanned, reactive

Healthy, controlled, working practices

d) Individual Belief

Risk-averse, self-consciousness, fearful of change, dread of increased work

Confidence and courage

Protecting the image

Active in leaning and development






Background / Context


Most professionals already know a lot about growing a business. Indeed many consultants themselves specialise in areas like strategy, PR, event planning, web optimisation, sales techniques, customer advocacy ... the full list of specialisms can probably run into the hundreds.



It follows that none of us are short of ideas. But most of us have finite time ... perhaps all-too-finite when it comes to developing business. If we had another three days every week - with no interruption from clients, team or emails - we would already have enough ideas to be getting on with.



What are the constraints?



So if ideas are not the constraint, what is? Development-time is certainly an issue for many, though not for everyone. Here's just a few of the issues we keep hearing about. We sometimes find it useful to summarise these onto our favourite "Wilbur Grid". (Feel free to sketch your own version - this is solely illustrative).



Interior Exterior
Individual Confidence to take initiative,

Genuine belief in the USP,

Protectionism
Dealing with problems,

Overwhelmed by ideas,

Swamped by client issues

Team Cultural aversion to sales,

Isolation from others,

Resignation: why bother?
Strategy unclear,

Reliance on rainmakers

or a few lead-sources,

Need to reorganise,

Lack of support systems




Quadrant 4 - Sustainable Strategy



We find that most organisations (and independents) are hungry to start with the strategy, so we begin there. Nevertheless, let's make the point now that we need to consider the cultural, belief and behavioural aspects, or no strategy will ever take off, no matter how sustainable it might be in theory.


Here's the one-diagram summary. Clearly, it's an overview and there is much to be said about each box. But this picture generally suffices to show the key elements of a sustainable strategy, and the relationship between them:


Notes / Key Points

The Niche (or target), Value-Proposition and Resources of Value are all fundamental. But they are not the panacea for all ills: we need to get the value-proposition "out there", or it will be Europe's best-kept secret!
Without a Niche and Value-Proposition, it is very hard for others to identify our ideal client. So we are probably condemned to forever doing our own prospecting.
We need the Resources of Value as a basis for our showcase, alliances, and keep in-touch-system. These provide evidence of our competency, become the basis by which others can introduce us, provide a reason to contact people, and to stay in contact. Without them, it can be hard (for some of the team) to pick the phone up.
Our Showcase can take many forms: exhibiting, speaking, writing, networking, web-site, hosting events, research etc. A word of warning on networking: it is effective but is among the least sustainable when we get busy. There are also geographical constraints.
Alliances and Ambassadors are often neglected in the quest for clients. More commonly, there is a sense if "tried it and it didn't work". There are reasons for this - see separate article.
Our Keep in Touch system must be genuinely valuable, which is where most newsletters fail. We can of course keep in touch one-to-one, but is this sustainable?
Proposals here include presentations and interviews.Client Management is not just about asking them what they think about us! It means exploring value with them, and seeing where else we might be of value. This is both an art and a science, and when skilfully done actually enhances the customer experience ... as opposed to leaving them believing they are the subjects of another account-management initiative. Five Sustainable Lead-Sources



A sustainable lead is defined here as one where we don't have to be present to generate it. Many businesses find they are relying on just one or two sources.

Repeat-business from CLIENTS. One sometimes wonders if this happens despite rather than because of the business-generation acumen of the supplier! Nevertheless, it is the best source of leads for most professional firms, and sometimes even lulls the firm into a false sense of security.


Introductions and referrals to others, from the CLIENTS that we are / have worked with. Again, sometimes this happens without any intervention or prompting from us. With even a small amount of systematic review on our part, this can be dramatically increased.


From our KEEP-IN-TOUCH SYSTEM. Perhaps all of the above happened a year ago, but the client was not ready yet. They are now, and they turn to us as a recognised port-of-call.


From our ALLIANCE PARTNERS. Perhaps we have even embedded an item of value in their services, so that we are routinely contacted when their client reaches a certain step in their client-journey. Perhaps we have a feature in their newsletter. Perhaps we do some research together.


From the SHOWCASE (online or offline). Perhaps someone notes down the website at the back of the hall, sees our article on a partner website, or finds us online. Then they visit our website and examine our resources of value. Then they email us.


(The showcase is often the founder of the business or a few selected "rainmakers", whose networking skills weave the necessary magic. For true sustainability, this magic represents a constraint that may need to be tackled - see the quadrant 3. about CULTURE.)

Quadrant 1 - Sustainable Belief



So far, we have been preoccupied with the "exterior" world of strategy. Let's now turn to the interior world of individual people who have to implement the strategy, and consider what might be going on in that realm. For this purpose, we will use the traditional three roles of:

the "finders", who prospect for new clients, often appearing to conjure them up with some special kind of conversational magic

the "minders" who look after the clients and teams so as to deliver the promises of the "finders"

the "grinders" who do (most of) the work.
Consider the effect of the following "belief shifts" at each level. There are many other shifts - these are meant solely to illustrate the impact of a shift towards sustainability.



From

To

a) FINDERS

Insecurity about next month's target

Courage to think bigger

Sense of hurry

Sense of control

Competing for recognition

Wholehearted pursuit of value

b) MINDERS

Preoccupied with "service"

Focused on "value"

Managing the team

Leading the team

Reactive to client-agenda

Proactive, driving client agenda

c) GRINDERS

Seeing themselves as problem-solvers

Seeing themselves as experts

Solving problem for the client

Solving problems with the client

Career-path is into management

Possible career-path as expert

Don't believe the marketing message

Actively exploring its application





Quadrant 2 - Sustainable Behaviour



We now move back to the exterior world, but this time to the world of individual behaviour. This is the day-to-day world in which everything meets: the strategy with the culture, the human with the solution.



This is also the world where strategy may fail, where culture-change is never practiced, and where people move-on rather than deal with their own issues.



Many failures in sustainability are failures of behaviour, not strategy.



Here are just some of the ways in which day-to-day behaviour may be sabotaging the sustainability of the business ... even in the actions of the business-owner. Note that most of these can apply even when the strategy is defined and clear.

swamped with emails, driven by the inbox
not listening, showing how clever one is
procrastinating, not dealing with certain issues or people or processes
allowing development-time to be flooded by client-delivery
verbose in communication, allowing meetings to overrun
difficulty saying No
not consulting with others, ploughing ahead without consensus
discouraging team-members by criticism, paternalism, lack of respect
gossip
always knowing the answer, not making space for the unknown
Most of these boil down to two areas: habits of time-management and habits of communication. Again, there are other shifts needed for genuine sustainability, these are listed as illustrative.



Quadrant 3 - Sustainable Culture



Culture is the cement that binds all the other building-blocks ... or not! It may be expressed in behaviour, or suppressed in unspoken mood.



Many of the problems that professionals experience commercially are problems of culture rather than problems of strategy. Take pricing, for example: there may be cultural discourses, or "stories" that ...

"money is a dangerous subject, best not discussed"
"what's in this for me?"
When it comes to marketing and selling, we have similar cultural discourses, perhaps unspoken, but always powerful. The following examples are real-life ones that had to be addressed in order to implement the above strategy.

"selling is a distasteful activity"
"we don't have permission to explore opportunities"
"everything is evaluated, so don't take risks"
"what's the point?" (Resignation)
Addressing such factors is too complex to address here, some useful articles may be found on the "Leadership" section of this library. One key distinction may help to point the way: sustainable leadership is about building culture with, rather than for, the team. So it's best not to start with "the solution"!



There is one huge, compelling reason to improve culture: every time a key professional walks out the door, they take clients (and perhaps colleagues) with them.



Yet culture-improvement is a bit like happiness: it's best achieved when we are enjoying doing something else (like implementing strategy) rather than pursuing it as a topic in its own right. Culture is the "how" we do things, rather than the "what" that we do.



Summing Up



The purpose of this article has been to present a top-level, integrated, helicopter-view of sustainable business growth. It this field, many commentators are specialists in culture or strategy (or motivation or organisation or behaviour); which means that leaders are often left puzzled over the resulting Rubik's Cube. Or they may be disappointed at the results of a genuinely worthy initiative in one or other of the above quadrants; sadly impeded by issues in the other three quadrants.



Add to that the reality of limited development time, and it's no surprise that few organisations have the degree of sustainability that they would like. The benefits of doing so include:

less ongoing marketing and selling, once the initial components above are built
high retention of key people, for whom enjoyment and reward is both high and "deep", where employee-advocacy is also high in a collaborative culture
a sense of identity in the marketplace, where the value of what we do is evident, and is backed up with extensive customer-advocacy and alliance-relationships
more revenue in less time, due to less selling, higher revenue and outstanding productivity via wholehearted enjoyment of the job
These benefits apply equally to an independent business. The implementation of the culture-quadrant may be different, but the end-goal remains the same: a self-sustaining practice that earns more fees in less time.



Next Steps


If you have got this far, (in our attention-deficit society!), the chances are that "sustainable business growth" means something significant to you. You might want to ask yourself why this is important. If you are contemplating a specific way forward, you may also wish to explore a strategy "health-check", if only to make sure that the initial foundations are solid, that the essential building-blocks are in place.


© John Niland, Success 121, June 2008. May be reproduced on condition that the "Further Information" section above is included.

Related Articles
  Preparing For Sustainable Growth in Your Company or Organization
  Economic Growth, Sustainable Development, and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
  Sustainable Business Growth - It Is All About Team
  Moving Forward: International Financial Institutions
  What can business and governments do to promote SMEs?

Article Tags: background context, busyness, critical value, customer advocacy, developing business, development background, development time, finite time, growing a business, motivators, pr event, promotion costs, rainmakers, recruitment costs, reliable systems, self consciousness, staff turnover, visible horizon, web optimisation, working practices



Related Forum Posts
Growth? - when we say "Grow" are we talking about growth in scale or growth in their bottom line. I feel when business owners talk about money their main concern is to have their current customer buy in more frequency and thus improving their bottom line i.e through referrals, joint-ventures etc. growth in scale can be scary due to the amount of risk and effort required to undertake it. Not to mention the owners also being concerned about being in more than one place at once as they haven't in most cases systematized their businesses.
Re: Personal Mastery And Leadership - Hi John Interesting article I would agree that to gain self mastery one needs to spend time on personal development as this is the basis for any growth within a human being. Without personal growth we stagnate and that must be an awful way to live. MichelleJ
Re: Obama or McCain? - [quote="Evan":2ej407hf]For our international readers, who would you vote for if you could and why?[/quote:2ej407hf] Maybe it sounds cynical, but I don't know if it really matters who is in office or if people even vote. Politicians can promise economic growth, lower education fees, cheaper gas prices, change and growth... but the more important question is will either person deliver on those promises?
Growing ... or not - I've seen this done successful and I've seen disastrous results. From the expansions I've seen, a lot depends on the business owner and/or manager. Some people can run a business if it stays on an even keel, but many are simply not qualified to handle a business "explosion". Its wonderful to have the opportunity to grow your business in a hurry, but if the people or person in charge can't handle the growth, it can be really ugly and can cause huge problems within the business. Having the right people in place to deal with the growth is a key to making it work for you and not against you. Shri
you need passion/desire and sustainable persistance - sounds over simplified, but to me it has been very true. starting a business should be more about starting a big life change towards something that you have unwaivering passion and desire to do. the truth is you will never know all you need to know to start the business your a starting. the truth is there are many things that will test your resolve to starting your business. from simple things like making the time to do small tasks or making personal sacrifices like spending less time with your family. i've also come to learn that starting a business is about sustainable persistence. ensure that you can continue to sustain your current responsibilities while taking small steps towards your business everyday. most often, i'd say don't quit your job. assuming you have bills to pay. sustain your ability to take care of those bills while taking those baby steps towards the business you desire. in the end, nothing is overnight. it's more like being a farmer. planting seeds of thought, nurturing them, weathering storms, and working hard everyday with the risk that there may not be any fruit. here's where the passion and desire come in. because if you really are passionate and desire your business idea, you will have no problem re-planting those seeds and starting over again. here's where sustainable persistence comes in. if you disregard your responsibilities in pursuit of your dream business and it doesn't work out, you don't want to have to sell the farm. selling the farm or being put in position where you need to put all your focus on just surviving puts you further away from your dream. think long and hard about that passion/desire. make sure it is true and sincere with your own DNA. if it is true. you will succeed.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

The OLD Way of Advertising, May Not be so OLD

Anger Solutions at Work: Why Customers Get Angry

Adjusting Your World

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.