The Institute for Real Growth ran the Impact Study with the Future of Marketing Institute at the Saïd Business School of Oxford University. It set out to explore the shift in what growth means, identify the drivers of humanized growth, describe the roles of the board and each C-suite function, and take a deeper look at the CMO and marketing.
The premise is that companies are no longer defined solely by their capacity to generate profits for shareholders, and are increasingly seen as parts of a larger societal ecosystem responsible for creating value for employees, customers, communities and investors.
Key findings
- Ground means connecting to human stakeholder reality. Over-performers show an aligned understanding of stakeholders, engage them, and include stakeholder perspectives in strategic decision-making. Transparency is a hallmark, in good times and bad.
- Reimagine means a future-centric vision with both utopian and dystopian elements, long-term thinking, and a clear corporate purpose that leaders can make compelling.
- Focus means a holistic strategy centered on adaptive change. Prioritizing one stakeholder is acceptable as long as the company spells out how it adds value for the others.
- Organize means breaking down functional silos and driving systemic change, empowering employees closer to stakeholders so decisions come quicker and more relevant, and collaborating beyond the company with industry, NGOs, governments and regulators.
- Unleash means da Vinci leadership: empathetic thinking that uses both sides of the brain, an environment where employees feel safe to share ideas, and leaders who prioritize active listening, vulnerability, servant leadership and open communication.
Adaptive change and performative change
Over-performers separate transformative initiatives from day-to-day operations and manage the two differently. They also recognize the need to stop initiatives that do not fit the strategy, and align senior leader incentives with strategic priorities.
The holistic strategy is not a separate document. It supports short-term decisions in the context of the long term and guides everything the company does, all the way to its corporate social responsibility activities.
Five implications the study draws
The first is that intangibles are the new tangibles. Brand value, customer data, employee loyalty and reputation are growing in importance, and leaders need ways to measure and manage them.
The second is incentive alignment. Over-performers align leadership incentives with long-term growth strategies, which pushes leaders to weigh factors beyond financial metrics.
The third and fourth are about relationships. Collaboration with NGOs, governments and regulators is described as essential, and transparency in good times and bad, with authenticity and a rooted connection to purpose, is what builds trust among stakeholders.
The fifth returns to leadership. Empathy, vulnerability and open-mindedness are described as pivotal, and the leader’s job is to create a culture that empowers employees and fosters collaboration.
The conclusion
The summary closes on its definition of growth. True growth is not measured only in financial terms but in the positive impact an organization has on all its stakeholders, which the study equates with society at large.
Scope and limitations
The document is an executive summary that distills the study’s overall findings, so it states the drivers and implications without the underlying data.
Source
This page summarises Oxford IRG Impact Study – Driving More Humanized Growth Executive Summary, by Institute for Real Growth, Future of Marketing Institute at the Saïd Business School of Oxford University, 231020.