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THE 4 DIMENSIONS FOR  
EFFICIENT GROWTH

PEOPLE.png

A company is built by its people. It is therefore essential to start a growth journey by securing a high-performing team– with growth leadership and core competences.

 

There are many dimensions relevant when establishing an outstanding team: 

  • A leadership with scaleup experience, and the right fit for the phase the company is in.

  • Balance between structure and giving the team members the power of self-leadership

  • The right attitude and culture to drive growth

  • Comprehensive communication to spread the company purpose and goals

  • A dynamic approach to developing the organization, roles and responsibilities and ways of co-operation

  • Strategic recruiting and on-boarding programs to quickly get new employees up to speed, while simultaneously maintaining company culture and core purpose

  • Foster a culture of constant learning and creating an innovative environment

STRATEGY.png

A clear strategy, vision and purpose is the foundation for a successful growth platform. Such clarity supports forward momentum and encourages initiatives within the organization. It also secures alignment among owners, the board, and management on how to scale up the company, timelines and resources needed.

 

There are several dimensions when creating a strategy, and we suggest that such work is a continuous process where details and clarity are developed over time:

  • Creating a clear big picture to guide the growth journey

  • Forming a framework for the management team to support the work of connecting the strategy to everyday operations allowing for fast and agile decision making

  • Securing a strong product-market fit

  • Developing a scaleable business model

  • Truly understanding the needs and behavior of customers

  • Maintaining long- and short-term goals, measured by meaningful metrics

  • Secure future innovations by encouraging a broad external influence, identification of new opportunities, riding waves, and exploring new innovations and technologies.

  • Comprehensive communication of the strategy to employees, owners, the board – again, and again, and again.

EXECUTION.png

Speed is all about focused execution.The ability to execute is highly connected to the maturity of the company. Disorder and frustration are common, when a company is speeding into its next growth phase, without stabilizing the former.

When a company´s growth is dependent upon external capital it has to prioritize market penetration to prove its right to exist. One can postpone development of structures and processes for a while, but eventually it will hold the company back. Stabilizing a growth phase is all about running a company efficiently, in a context where people interactions and complexity increases. Areas to consider:

  • Creating tools for steering everyday work in line with the strategy

  • Developing efficient routines for meetings and forums for decision making. It is all about communication and clarity

  • Prioritizing and securing resources in line with the strategic goals

  • Consolidating work and experiences into structured tools and processes - using established best practices as guidance

  • Digitalizing and automating business processes, step by step, to ensure effectiveness, efficiency and quality

  • Maintaining focus on customer satisfaction and quality during accelerated growth

  • Actively secure inflow of feedback from customer, partners, and industry influencers to feed the companies decision making and to give you real time performance data

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FINANCE.png

All companies must keep their finances in order, but for a growing company this is even more critical. To consider:

  • Securing long term funding, while at the same time securing long-term owner fit for the company. Owners´ alignment around strategy, and business planning is essential. It is disruptive, and can be highly costly, to remedy a non-functional owner constellation

  • Evaluating the best form of financing over time – private equity, venture capital, or public listing. Keep the long-term perspective

  • Analyzing consequences on future funding, when making important strategic decisions – patent applications, partnership agreements, exclusivity rights etc

  • Securing compliance with legal and regulatory requirements.

  • Securing a controlling function that provides relevant material for decision making – customer and product profitability, complete costs for projects, analysis of effects on common costs due to changes in volumes, product mix, etc

  • Maintaining a company risk analysis and plans for handling critical situations

  • Keeping meticulous control of cashflow. It is not unheard of that profitable growth companies default due to liquidity problems. Make cash controlling an everyday focus for the whole company – fast invoicing routines, inventory level control, refine forecasting for production planning, negotiate payment terms with suppliers, etc

The art of balancing.png

TO GROW SUCCESSFULLY YOU NEED TO

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  • See the big picture and focus ahead

  • Understand that efficient growth is phase-dependent

  • Stabilize each phase, to keep up speed in the next phase

  • Utilize the scarce resources in the best possible way

  • Be great at communicating, keeping everyone aligned – team members, owners, board members, customers

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