Creating an Organic Growth Machine

Ken FavaroDavid MeerSamrat Sharma from HBR, May 2012 issue.

“Organic growth is not the inevitable result of a successful business model. All companies can become more skilled at growing organically with the business models they already have. But that requires active, engaged corporate leadership.”

New Orleans, Louisiana

That is a start. leadership allocates effort and capital against things needed to grow. Uninformed capitol allocates poorly. Capitol that has a technology core to help it find and allocate toward “where the puck will be” is smart leadership and money.

“Organic growth is not the inevitable result of a successful business model. All companies can become more skilled at growing organically with the business models they already have. But that requires active, engaged corporate leadership. The CEO and other senior executives don’t need to impose a lot of new processes or exercise a heavy hand.”

More skilled?…… If that includes a technology core to help inform decisions, eventually those decisions are more robust, sure.

“They just need to help the operating units keep an eye on the big picture, lead the fight against the business cycle, resist typecasting, and establish a common, rigorous language for organic growth. Respect those rules, and you will transform your company’s internal growth engine.”

In my opinion, organizations need technology that understands customers at a very deep level, independent of sales, marketing, and media. Especially data models of the past, building a true total addressable market based on ‘why people buy’ sets all the rest. It defines leadership choices, budget allocation based on a deep understanding of people.

When people are aligned, we have speed — and growth.

When people Inside of an organization understand the deep meaning of why people select them to fulfill a job to be done, they get the big picture. Things get concrete fast, it’s not consulting anymore. You’re removing the bias of why people make decisions, thus transforming the organization into a true growth engine based upon elements of a growth operating system.

Clayton Christianson teaches us that disruption needs a technology core. Having a technology that understands people that can be used across multiple departments as a source of truth is what is needed to fulfill the vision of a growth machine that David Meers and team describe.