Organic growth is hard! Too often companies resort to an easier path…..M&A, rather than focusing on an organic growth strategy. But the simple fact is that you can’t grow through acquisition alone.
In the article, “The Mindset Your Company Needs to Grow Organically” from Harvard Business Review, the authors touch on three key mindset shifts that are critical to organic growth:
- Go on a “Founder’s quest”
In essence, find a problem worth solving that really inspires you. Rather than focusing on maximizing your share of the market for an existing product, think like a Founder and focus on finding new markets by solving existing problems that may be underserved.
- Test, Measure, Learn (like a “lean start-up”)
Validate the problem, the solution and the business model you plan on bringing to market. Practice “radical candor” to ensure you stay focused on market needs rather than trying to validate any prior assumptions.
- Invest in Growth
Too often companies invest in growth like a banker, rather than a VC. Bankers want to ensure they get their ROI. VC’s hedge their bets by looking at the overall value of their portfolio. To grow, there has to be some tolerance for discomfort, unfamiliarity and even failure. Unilever is a great example of how to implement this type of growth mentality in a large organization, through their Foundry and Ventures divisions, which provides collaboration opportunities between Unilever and mature start-ups to solve big business challenges. Did you know that Unilever had to undergo 449 failures to achieve a single Foundry success? What this tells us is that while they may have developed just one innovation, their tolerance for failure and appetite for innovation is incredible!
What is your failure to success ratio? Your appetite to innovate? Click here to read more about how to inspire the right growth mindset in your own firm.