In times of uncertainty, business leaders need to have a grasp of the models and approaches that are most appropriate for their own growth and success. JoJo Ramsden looks at some options
While completing my MBA at Lancaster University Management School I wrote a dissertation entitled: ‘The role of networking in business growth’, which was based on a report written for a positive mental attitude (PMA) training company which required assistance with targeting the key decision makers in FTSE100 companies effectively, in order to grow its business.
I applied several key business growth models including Churchill’s Model of Business Growth Stages, and analysed the company’s results, key messages, brand, and marketing materials, in order to transition the business from its current incarnation to the next stage of business growth.
Business growth models
There are over 30 business growth models, so how do you decide which business growth strategy is going to be the right one for you?
The most relevant for your organisation will depend on the business growth stage your business has reached and the next stage into which you wish to transition.
Although many of these models were established up to 100 years ago, in my experience, many of the strategic business and marketing plan models still apply, all these years later.
I consistently and regularly use SMART Goals, SWOT Analysis, and AIDA business growth, business plan, and marketing plan models in my daily working life as a freelance business consultant, both for my own business, and whenever I am giving mentoring advice and support to others to grow their own businesses.
I have also adapted many of these to fit the needs of my own business. For example, I personally feel that it is more positive to focus on both the strengths of your employees and the organisation, and have changed the term ‘weaknesses’, which is often viewed as a negative, to ‘areas for improvement’, and ‘threats’ to challenges, in order to identify possible areas for training, or changes to the business in order to continue to grow. As a result, my own CHAOS to Clarity Model uses the terms Challenges, Holistic Approach, Areas for Improvement, Opportunities, and Strengths to give me an overview about the most useful business growth models to assist with analysis and the resulting application of the relevant action plans for further growth.
Continuous improvement – plan, act, review
Plan, act and review are important elements of the Kaizen Continuous Improvement Business Growth Model, enabling managers to put the relevant action plans into place, having reviewed previous processes which have been successful, and including review as an ongoing and reiterative process.
Including some time for reflection in our daily activities is essential to ensure that our decision-making processes are based on informed decision-making through reflecting, engaging, discussing, and gaining the right advice and additional training from professionals, both for managers and employees, whenever required.
Business growth stages and management phases
Research carried out by JH Eggers, KT Leahy and NC Churchill, indicates that ‘business growth stages’ does not adequately describe the situation, and suggest the use of the term ‘management phases’ as being more suitable.
In the Harvard Business Review article ‘The Five Stages of Business Growth’, Neil C. Churchill and Virginia Lewis state that Larry E Greiner proposed a model of corporate evolution in which business organisations move through five phases of growth as they make the transition from small to large (in sales and employees), and from young to mature.
Each phase is distinguished by an evolution from the prior phase and then by a revolution or crisis, which precipitates a jump into the next phase.
Each evolutionary phase is also characterised by a particular managerial style and each revolutionary period by a dominant management problem faced by the company.
Key managerial skills
For example, Eggers, Leahy and Churchill point out that CEOs report key managerial skills, based on having undergone a particular stage during small business growth towards resource maturity, as follows: delegation, motivating others, planning and goal setting, employee development, financial management, sales and marketing, systems development, HR, vision direction and focus, and communication.
Increasing employee productivity
Employee development and engaging employees in the decision-making process, effective time management, and prioritisation, are also all key to successful business growth and transition from a prior phase to the next.
My own research for my company report and dissertation while studying at Lancaster University Management School provided evidence that one of the main activities which a manager of a company wishing to grow to the next stage had to put into place was the training of its own employees as their job roles changed. A focus on team, tools, and time, therefore, is essential.
The important role of networking
Employee development and engaging employees in the decision-making process, prioritisation, and the resulting effective time management, are also all key to successful business growth and transition from a prior phase to the next. Your team does not just include company employees, but can also include your outsourced companies, mentors, virtual assistants, and others who support your organisation, and take on and help you to deal with tasks from which you need to turn your main focus away as your own managerial role changes. The role of networking here is vital, as you bring your new and growing team of the most qualified and experienced team together around you.
Successful business growth strategies
Personally, I have developed my own business models based on my own years of experience working in all types of organisations, which applies the Three Tasks Business Growth Model to all situations. Whether related to finance, HR, sales, marketing, or strategic business growth which incorporates all of these and any other factors, I have proved that the Three Tasks Business Growth Model has genuinely helped me to manage my own business growth, enabling me to share these techniques, whenever mentoring and training, to effectively simplify and manage business complexity.
Businesses can, of course, contract as well as grow, at any moment in time. It is essential, therefore, to always anticipate potential changes, and to have a contingency plan in place to adapt accordingly, in order to continue to survive and thrive into the future. Whenever there is a crisis, the businesses which invest time and finances into short-term, medium-term and long-term activities, including ensuring solid back-end processes, and which continue to nurture their client base, are those most likely to survive and thrive, both throughout and beyond any kind of downturn including recession.
Your own business growth strategy will be one that applies best practice from the most suitable business models for your business and industry. One which is consistently adapted to external ‘challenges and opportunities’, with strong back-end processes in place to cope with the demands of business grow thin order to continue to provide quality products and services to current and new customers, and the ever-changing business world, will prove to be the best fit for your business.
JoJo Ramsden is an MBA graduate from the Association of MBAs accredited Lancaster University Management School, and business owner of Dragon&Phoenix Business Growth Consultancy.
www.jojoramsden.com/about jojo@jojoramsden.com
She is an international strategic business growth trainer, with expertise focusing on doing business in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
MBA specialisms included critical path analysis for managing projects, international marketing, entrepreneurship, and business growth models.
JoJo has extensive experience applying ‘best practice rollout’ and ‘train the trainer’ programmes in the British Council, British Trade and Cultural Office, and INTO University Partnerships, and has played an instrumental role in the successful business growth from start-up to multinational companies of several joint ventures in the UK and across 4 continents for the past 30 years.
