This is the draft findings presentation for the Initiative for Real Growth. It runs in five parts: the growth challenge, the initiative itself, the seven building blocks of real growth, growth leadership, and the Real Growth Foundation.
The research base is 586 vision interviews across 15 markets, 854 online survey respondents, an AI meta analysis of published work on growth, and experts drawn from eleven WPP companies. Reported performance was validated rather than taken at face value.
Key findings
- The challenge is stated as a list of pressures. Traditional business growth formulas are failing, geographic expansion is running out of steam, barriers to market entry are disappearing, better informed consumers are more demanding, established players are losing out and disrupters are themselves being disrupted.
- The pressure reaches the role itself. CMOs are the first to go when growth is lacking, and average only a 25-month tenure.
- What keeps growth leaders awake, according to the interviews, is a negative economic outlook, industry reputation and recruitment challenges, private labels as retailers act like brands, the arrival of the chief growth officer, and Amazon. The summary judgment is a declining influence on growth strategy.
- What gets them up in the morning is new retail and commerce, broader solutions through strategic partnerships, and direct to consumer models, with personal and team capability growth as the overall answer.
What the company brings to market
The first block is an abundant market view, presented against the myth that growth is about winning market share from competitors. Over-performers assess and understand market developments at 82 percent against 45 percent, and make big bets and stay consistent at 71 percent against 39 percent.
The difference is where they look. Under-performers focus mostly on increasing market share, at 55 percent against 40 percent, while over-performers take a wide-angle lens on category growth and beyond, at 59 percent against 42 percent. Adobe’s expansion beyond creative software and Mars moving from pet food to pet care are the worked examples.
The second block is ever-evolving experiences, against the myth that growth is about increasing customer satisfaction. Over-performers embrace being always beautifully dissatisfied and focus on eliminating friction, delivering ever-evolving experiences at 64 percent against 21 percent.
The third is multiple business models, against the myth that anything outside the ROI model will be killed. Willingness to accept new business models runs 67 percent against 43 percent, and over-performers are described as playing chess and checkers simultaneously across industries, verticals and consumer segments.
How the company is organized
The fourth block is whole-brain intelligence, against the myth that the problem is a lack of data and analytics. Over-performers attract whole-brain talent at 69 percent against 27 percent, put data and analytics at the core of strategic decision-making at 67 percent against 37 percent, and build data-led creative experiences at 73 percent against 32 percent.
The deck names the capability gap on both sides: the need to boost financial literacy and analytical skills, and the need to boost human insights and creative capacity. The Adidas case runs through interpreting journey data points for deep human insights that drive creative solution development.
The fifth block is a fluid organization, against the myth that agile forces a redefinition of responsibilities. Over-performers organize to win the war in micro-battles, scoring 64 percent against 27 percent on competitive agility, 71 percent against 48 percent on marketing and sales collaboration for e-commerce, and 71 percent against 46 percent on external connectivity.
Haier and Go-Jek are the organizational cases. Haier flattens the internal organization into smaller competitive teams around a smart home vision, with an incubation platform that challenges the status quo. Go-Jek starts from a clear code of conduct and promotes micro-entrepreneurship with consumer micro-battle teams.
The sixth block is an open culture, against the myth that culture is fixed in the DNA. Over-performers rewrite the culture script, scoring 48 percent against 29 percent on a culture of people, change, entrepreneurship, innovation and teamwork, and 62 percent against 43 percent on bringing diversity into strategic decision-making.
Why the company does what it does
The seventh block is humanizing growth, against the myth that the objective is profitable growth. Top-line growth is the top ambition for both groups equally. The split comes after that: under-performers focus twice as much on the bottom line, while over-performers focus twice as much on the people they serve, meaning clients, colleagues and communities.
Haidilao and Cisco are the cases. Haidilao starts with meaningful employee care, which results in excellent customer care. Cisco made the transformation from profit to people through a simple, shared ambition it calls the people deal.
The leadership section describes a path: beyond communication and shiny digital toys that distract, back to marketing basics, refocusing on growth, and claiming a business and even a societal leadership role.
Scope and limitations
The deck states its own status. It is a draft for review, explicitly not for distribution at the time, with case studies and solution connections still to be finalized, and it is the 45 minute version in which many slides exist only to make a single point.
Source
This page summarises Findings Presentation, by Marc de Swaan Arons, January 4, 2018.