This work session reports the first learnings from the Initiative for Real Growth research and turns them into a storyline. Its central claim is that overperformers focus on people and let profit follow, and it defines real growth as an ever-evolving positive impact on people’s lives.
The research effort behind it was substantial and local. The target was 100 colleagues leading interviews across ten major markets, 250 leaders interviewed, and 1,000 survey completes by the end of 2018.
Key findings
- Long term growth focus separates the two groups at 63 percent against 14 percent.
- Having a top growth ambition focused on people splits them at 43 percent against 28 percent, and focus on innovation, change and entrepreneurship at 24 percent against 3 percent.
- Assessing and understanding market developments shows the widest gap of all, at 90 percent against 37 percent.
- On organization, integrating marketing and sales splits the groups at 78 percent against 40 percent, and effectively removing internal barriers at 43 percent against 6 percent.
- Putting data and analytics at the core of strategic decision making runs at 75 percent against 40 percent.
The storyline
The argument runs in two directions at once. Overperformers focus on their own people, through what the deck calls a culture of responsible freedom, and on the people they serve, by removing friction and adding positive surprises.
Employees come first in the sequence. Take good care of them, the deck argues, and they will take good care of your customers.
The journey to growth is described in four stages: predictably incremental, steady innovation, regular refresh, and ever-evolving personal experiences.
Two brands illustrate the progression: a music service moving from library to playlist to personalized weekly discovery and brand partnerships, and an ice cream brand moving from basics to seasonal ranges to pop-ups and personalization.
The seven drivers
The drivers are growth ambition, growth market, growth models, growth mindset, growth organization, growth intel and growth leadership.
Growth ambition carries three golden rules: put people first with employee and consumer growth metrics, balance long and short term, and treat making the ambition stick as a leadership responsibility, keeping it infectious and simple.
The market rules are about attention and resourcing: moving from a large share of a small market to a small share of a large one, embracing a future and outward focus, and dedicating resource, time and money to it.
The model rules are about pace and ownership: speed up and try, test and learn, partner or buy the capability you lack, and make innovation a way of life rather than a separate division.
The mindset rules start with the leader. Have the guts to be vulnerable and humble, because vulnerability establishes empowerment, risk-taking, trust and diversity. Then organize moments for meaningful connection and build curiosity, risk-taking and problem-solving.
The organization rules are counterintuitive by design: take control by letting go through full transparency, work in micro-battles and scale what succeeds, and elevate the consumer voice.
How each driver is built
Each driver has a three-stage build. Growth ambition runs from articulate through infuse to amplify, moving from defining purpose and setting metrics in multiple time frames to a real-time dashboard linked to individual KPIs.
Growth market runs from understand through anticipate to shape, using a full horizon scan, macro market analysis, foresight techniques and an expert network of future-facing voices.
Growth models run from understand through experiment to scale, testing a new product or service on a small scale before identifying rollout opportunities in other markets.
Growth mindset runs from connect through inspire to build, starting with an internal engagement survey on the values that actually live in the organization and ending with hiring, rewards and capability programs aligned to the new culture.
Growth experience runs from define through test to learn and adapt, mapping the customer journey today, tomorrow and in three years, and locating friction across it with partners involved.
What the CMOs asked for
The quotes collected are requests rather than opinions. One asks for the chief growth officer role to be mapped out, with what is in and out and how CMOs become better business partners. Another asks for peer practice simplified enough to engage a CEO, plus a usable framework.
Others describe the pressure they are under. One notes that disruption hits twice, once in the sector and again, faster, in marketing. Another says most companies are simply using the wrong metrics.
One quote sets the time horizon plainly, describing laughter at any two year payback plan in a company that has only made ten year decisions.
Scope and limitations
This is a work in progress deck. Some driver sections carry placeholder text instead of content, two leadership statistics are left as an unfilled percentage, and the growth leadership section is marked as work in progress.
Source
This page summarises INITIATIVE FOR REAL GROWTH: LOCAL WORK SESSION, by Initiative for Real Growth (IRG), November 2018.