How do you prevent your company growth from stalling?

It is common for firms of all sizes to reach a plateau where revenue growth seems to stall.

Political and Economic factors beyond our direct control have an impact on company growth of course, but surprisingly the research shows that 87% of growth stalls are preventable,

and are related to the strategic decisions you made in the past.

It is critical to measure the Key Performance Indicators

which you know I am absolutely a fan of,

that drive your current business model on a weekly and monthly basis.

However, these metrics may not register that a significant change is occurring in your business.

If you’re not vigilant about industry changes, and do not take corrective action quickly, it can be extremely difficult to kick start things to get your business growing again. In fact, the research shows that the odds are against you ever returning to growth!

Most growth stalls occur because a strategic assumption that was once true, no longer applies to your business model.

In fact, it is the assumptions that you hold most deeply – or have “known” so long, that you no longer question them – that pose the greatest threat to your long-term growth and survival.

The tendency to cling to obsolete or incorrect ideas has been characterised as “GROUPTHINK”

Typically, the large incumbent company has enjoyed a long run of success with their existing business model.

The leaders have become closed-minded; there is peer pressure toward uniformity.

Leaders overestimate their abilities based on their past success. They fail to consider alternatives, and filter out new information that does not match their existing view of the world.

They keep expanding the features of their current offerings, adding more costs, rather than more revenues.

Let me say that again, they keep adding more costs, rather than more revenues.

They become bloated and unfocussed.

They fail to realise that their customers are increasingly attracted to new entrants, with disruptive new business models.

Think new banks, like Starling or Monzo, who have totally disrupted the main bank offerings and the way they do business.

They mistakenly think their brand name will protect them from these “inferior” competitors. This classic trap is called the “Innovator’s Dilemma”.

Business change comes at you quicker than you think, and leaders have to adapt and be faster at responding.

Questioning your strategic assumptions on a regular basis is critical, but seldom something that leaders do well (if at all).

Every month we read about the death and decline of well-known businesses who failed to adapt to new entrant upstarts, with new business models.

How are you and your business adapting to the new rhythm?

Are you making the changes when they need to be made, or are you hoping it will look after itself?

Here is a model I use that shows business owners how they achieve growth but then when they reach the plateau, they either decline or die, or move back down the level and work by themselves. Or they adapt to the new rhythm, make the changes that are needed and continue up the S curve.

Where are you on the S curve and where do you want to be?