Driving Topline Growth- 15 Tips to get you started

Assessing Our Readiness for Growth

In the first half of the business life cycle, we focus on sharpening our efforts to gain as much market share as possible while the potential for profit remains high. During the second half, our focus shift s to cost reduction, competing, and planning ‘next generation’ offerings to keep our offerings fresh and valuable to our clients. No matter where we are along the ‘S’ curve, we benefit from knowing our place and tactics for growing profitably. The following questions
are designed to help us measure our current, short-term, and long-term capacity for healthy growth. Answer each question Yes, No, or U (uncertain).

1. Is our core business generating sufficient earnings to allow us to invest in growth?
Yes___ No___ U___
2. Do we have the will and the ideas to push profits higher in the next few years?
Yes___ No___ U___
3. Is our value proposition (i.e., cost, quality, service) competitive with the best in our industry?
Yes___ No___ U___
4. Has our market share been stable or growing? Yes___ No___ U___
5. Are we well-positi oned against competi tors, technologies, or
regulati ons that can redefi ne or alter our industry?
Yes___ No___ U___
6. Are our new planned offerings capable of creating as much economic value as our current core business?
Yes___ No___ U___
7. If so, are these new eff orts gaining customer momentum? Yes___ No___ U___
8. Are we prepared and capable of making the investments necessary to support their rapid growth?
Yes___ No___ U___
9. Have we (could we) generate sufficient investor interest and confidence in these efforts?
Yes___ No___ U___
10. Are we attracting entrepreneurial talent with these plans? Yes___ No___ U___
11. Does our leadership team dedicate ‘strategic planning’ ti me to analyze growth opportunities and industry trends?
Yes___ No___ U___
12. Have we developed a portfolio of options for extending or reinventing our core business and creating new offerings?
Yes___ No___ U___
13. Are our ideas very different from those we had last year…
three years ago… five years ago?
Yes___ No___ U___
14. Do we have a shared long-term plan and strategy for turning our ideas into new products, services, or businesses?
Yes___ No___ U___
15. Have our ideas been made tangible with concrete, measurable project milestones?
Yes___ No___ U___

You’ve just completed 15 questions; five each dealing with current business, mid-term growth prospects, and our long-term outlook for growth. While there’s no absolute pass-fail standard, if you’ve answered ‘Yes’ 12 or more times, you’re probably in great shape to grow your topline.

If you responded ‘Yes’ eight times or fewer, you may need to be more intentional in focusing time and resources to adopt planning and project discipline to better position your company for growth. If you selected ‘Uncertain’ a few times or more, you’re probably unprepared to lead your company to healthy growth. Start by focusing on the first five questions related to your current growth prospects. Without a strong foundation of shared team understanding on these near-term issues and opportunities, any growth may come at too great a cost. So, how much growth should we target?

Critical business issues like these are the core of a C12 meeting. Want to join the discussion?  Contact C12 Central TX Chair, Robert.Vogel@c12group.com today to schedule your visit.