Sustained growth is what every company wants. It’s the holy grail of business, but for most businesses, it remains an elusive and fleeting goal. Why? Because sustained growth doesn’t happen by chance. It’s the result of a deliberate and carefully planned strategy for expansion. The same can be said about profitability, which is also the result of deliberate strategic thinking rather than an accident or happy accident.
What is sustained growth?
Sustained growth is defined as a steady increase in the rate of sales over the long term. The rate of sales increase may not be dramatic, but it is consistent, and it usually results in a higher level of profits and expanded business opportunities. Companies that are in the growth stage of their life cycle are almost always in a state of sustained growth. There are many kinds of growth, but the kind we’re focused on here is the kind that leads to sustained growth. Sustained growth is the long-term growth rate of a company’s sales. It refers to a steady, long-term increase in the rate of sales, not short-term spikes in the sales rate.
How to achieve and maintain sustained growth
The good news is that sustained growth is not something that only lucky entrepreneurs get to experience. Here are the four steps you can take to steer yourself toward sustained growth. Choose your customers wisely – Let’s start with the end in mind. The first step in achieving sustained growth is recognising that sustained growth begins with the customers you choose as partners in your business. You need to choose wisely. You need to choose customers who are a good match for your business and are likely to remain with you for the long haul. Find your sweet spot – Once you’ve chosen your customers, it’s time to find your sweet spot. In other words, it’s time to find the intersection between customers who are a good match for your business and who are likely to remain with you for the long haul. The sweet spot is the place where these two intersect. Focus on the fundamentals – A big mistake that many companies make is that they get distracted by shiny new objects like new products, new markets, and new channels. The fundamentals of your business need to be strong before you start to diversify. Focus on the four Ps of marketing and the five keys to sustainable growth. Then, when you’re ready to start diversifying, you’ll be in a good position to do so. – Keep the long term in mind – Sustained growth doesn’t happen by chance. It doesn’t happen overnight, It takes time patience, strategic thinking and careful planning.
Continual improvement and growth strategies
There are many strategies you can use to achieve sustained growth, but only if you have the right culture and mindset in your organisation. Fortunately, it’s not that hard to change your culture and mindset to one that supports growth and improvement. Here are a few strategies you can use to foster a culture of growth and improvement: – Hire for fit – The first thing you need to do to change your culture is to make sure you have the right people on the team. Hire for fit, not for skill. You want to hire people who are skilled at doing what you need them to do in the future. Build on strengths – Once you have the right people on the team, you need to make sure that you’re building on their strengths, not trying to eliminate their weaknesses. When you build on strengths, you get better results. When you try to fix weaknesses, you get marginal results. Start an innovation initiative – You can’t expect innovation to happen on its own. You have to encourage it and facilitate it, this can be done by starting an innovation initiative. Setting up a separate department or company is not required in order to do this. You can simply make innovation a part of everyone’s job.
Culture change for sustainable growth
Culture change is hard, but it’s necessary for sustainable growth. It’s necessary for long-term success. There are three things you can do to make sure your culture changes for the better. Communicate honestly – Your culture starts with your leaders, and it starts with the example they set. If your leaders are honest and open with the rest of the organisation, then the company culture will reflect that. If your leaders communicate in a secretive or misleading manner, then your culture will reflect that too. Offer incentives for excellence. Another way you can change your culture for the better is by offering incentives for excellence. You might think that excellence should be its own reward, but it’s not, at least not in the business world. Businesses reward results, not effort. Offer incentives for excellence and you’ll see a positive change in your culture. Hire the right people – You can’t change a culture overnight, but you can start the process by hiring the right people. You can’t change a culture if you keep hiring people who don’t fit into the culture you want to create. So, do your best to hire the right people.
Key Takeaway
The good news is that sustained growth doesn’t happen by chance. It doesn’t happen overnight, It takes time, patience, strategic thinking and careful planning. Also, it takes the ability to resist the urge to get distracted. Sustained growth is a result of a deliberate and carefully planned strategy for expansion.
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