This is Marc de Swaan Arons presenting the Humanized Growth Study in full. It opens on the growth challenge, works through the seven building blocks with the measured gap between over-performers and under-performers on each, and closes on the marketing opportunity and the da Vinci growth CMO profile.
The study rests on more than 750 qualitative interviews, more than 5,000 quantitative responses across markets and functions, AI analysis of more than 3,500 growth publications and behavioral analysis of three million LinkedIn members, and was updated after COVID struck.
Key findings
- The framing problem is that the license to grow is being challenged, traditional business growth formulas are lacking, and marketing has suffered a loss of influence.
- On abundant markets, over-performers are far better at spotting and choosing the right wave and at understanding market developments, at 86 percent against 36 percent. Mars moving from pet food to pet care is the worked example.
- On multiple models, willingness to accept new business models runs 71 percent against 39 percent, illustrated by the move from supermarket shelves to cafes and subscription models.
- On evolving experiences, focus on delivering ever-evolving experiences runs 81 percent against 32 percent, and over-performers are described as embracing being always beautifully dissatisfied.
- On open culture, over-performers build ecosystems with complementary partners at 67 percent against 39 percent, and have more diverse strategic decision-making at 70 percent against 45 percent. Their most-cited culture description is innovation, change and entrepreneurship, at an index of 133.
Anticipating change, and clearing the way
On the anticipative organization, the gap on competitive agility in organizational change is the widest in the deck, at 68 percent against 16 percent. Over-performers also prioritize and effectively remove internal barriers, at 50 percent against 24 percent.
They are far better connected, with 3.5 times more connections with other functions and 5.5 times more with senior leaders, and they integrate marketing and sales for e-commerce at 68 percent against 37 percent.
Data and creativity together
The whole-brained block pairs technology with human creativity. Over-performers report a much stronger ability to attract whole-brain talent, at 65 percent against 25 percent, and put data and analytics at the core of strategic decision-making, at 66 percent against 36 percent.
The point is not data instead of creativity but creative solutions inspired by the data, which 59 percent of over-performers report developing.
What growth is for
On the seventh block, top-line growth is a shared ambition, indexing 98 against 93. The difference is in what comes next. Under-performers put bottom-line profit first at 130 against 85, while over-performers put impact on people first at 120 against 76. Cisco’s move from a product focus to what it calls the People Deal is the example given.
The context section explains why the stakeholder set widened. Systems are being questioned and the future is unknown. Pre-COVID the focus was customers and capital markets, and post-COVID colleagues and community joined them, alongside an increase in empathy. Laurence D. Fink of BlackRock and the 2019 US Business Roundtable statement are cited as markers.
The opening for marketing
The deck argues that CEOs need help while the CMO role is under strain. Many have documented the CMO crisis, and when growth is lacking the CMO is typically the first to go. The reasons given are a perceived over-focus on communication, distraction by shiny digital toys, and being seen as insufficiently commercial.
The answer offered is the da Vinci growth CMO profile. An IRG CMO survey update reports a significant shift to humanized growth at 78 percent against 4 percent, and increased CMO influence on growth at 65 percent against 11 percent.
The session ends in work rather than conclusions. Participants score their own organization for five minutes, discuss best and worst scores for twenty, choose the biggest recommendations, and close with a plenary discussion.
Scope and limitations
The deck reports paired percentages for over-performers and under-performers without stating the base on the slide, and notes that the study was updated after COVID, so figures come from more than one wave.
Source
This page summarises Driving Humanized Growth, by Marc de Swaan Arons, 2022-04-07.