The starting claim is that traditional business growth formulas are lacking. The study asks what it takes to win, and answers it by contrasting the revenue growth of over and under performers.
The Growth Study 2020 combined more than 750 qualitative interviews, more than 5,000 quantitative responses across markets and functions, an AI analysis of more than 3,500 growth publications, and behavioral analysis of over 3 million LinkedIn members.
Key findings
- The result is seven building blocks of growth: humanized growth, abundant markets, multiple models, evolving experiences, open culture, anticipative organization, and whole-brained.
- Abundant markets is illustrated as the move from pet food to pet care, a redefinition of the market rather than the product.
- Multiple models is illustrated as the move from shelves to cafes and subscriptions, and evolving experiences as the move from a library to daily mixes.
- Open culture is the shift from procedures, structure and quality to innovation, change and entrepreneurship. Anticipative organization is the shift from an oil tanker to a flock of birds.
- Connection is measured in both directions: 5.5 times more connections with senior leaders and 3.5 times more connections with other functions.
What the building blocks add up to
Whole brained is defined as pairing data with human insights and technology with human creativity. Humanized growth, the block the others sit under, is defined as the move from shareholders to all stakeholders.
The leadership counterpart to the seven blocks is the Da Vinci growth leader profile.
The program built on the study
The program objectives are to deliver concrete humanized business and personal growth plans, build cross-functional team capability, and connect participants with world-class content, experts, and practitioners.
The curriculum is three modules covering the why, what, and how, with milestone sessions that integrate the learning into growth plans and alignment with existing strategy planning processes. It runs 16 weeks, blended and interactive, at 1.5 hours per week, for teams of 20 to 50 marketing and cross-functional colleagues with more than ten years of experience.
The standard roadmap places three leadership sessions across the program, on self in week five, team in week eleven, and ecosystem in week sixteen, with three milestone delivery weeks marking the end of each module.
One adaptation shown is for a global tech company, where the core curriculum runs over eight weeks every other week, core team discussions happen inside facilitated sessions, three facilitated sessions are dedicated to the growth plan, and facilitators are needed bi-weekly in two time zones.
Speakers listed include Antonio Lucio, Greg Welch of Spencer Stuart, Jim Stengel, Meredith Verdone of Bank of America, Stan Sthanunathan, Rob Reilly of WPP, Keith Weed, Chris Burggraeve, Robbie Kellman Baxter, and Hubert Joly.
Scope and limitations
The building block illustrations are single company examples rather than measured results, and the deck reports the study’s sample sizes without breaking down which findings rest on which method.
Source
This page summarises The Growth Study, by Institute for Real Growth, 2021.