The 8 Potential Focus Areas to Grow Your Business

Over the years of working in the trenches with our clients, we have identified eight key stumbling blocks to growing a prosperous organization. Through identifying these patterns and opportunities within your team, you can take new steps towards growth, change and innovation.

1. Most business plans lack real strategy. Just by setting higher goals than last year will not reflect how you are going to win in the market. Tacking on a set percentage increase rarely works to engage people towards breakthroughs; but typically deflates them instead. Longer term ‘infinite’ strategies that are inclusive and transparent are required today.
2. Most companies manage their income, rather than value creation for their customers. As a result, their offering is not compelling enough to the ever-changing motives of the market. Change through the lens of financial income is an important element but standing alone is shortsighted.  Customers and clients care more about the experience they receive, not your profit statements.
3. Business strategies are not clearly thought out and very few people in the company understand them. The best strategies have everyone’s fingerprints on them. People will support what they help create, and reject change as forced on them. Most organizations are not organized around their strategy and an established market position.
4. Only 17% of Canadians are engaged in their companies. They do not realize where the business is going, how the company makes money and how their role contributes to growth initiatives.  Your work as a leader must be centered around this fact and working to create a new culture that will not only attract but retain great people.
5. Fewer than 10% of well formulated strategies are successfully implemented according to David Norton and Robert Kaplan, authors of The Balanced Scorecard. They cite poor execution, lack of alignment and follow-up. Measured execution of change is an acquired taste and at first most people default to fuzzy thinking, resulting in poor strategy and execution.
6. Only 30% of companies in Canada invest in their people’s growth which limits a business’ capacity. Those who do, often spend valuable resources of time and money on training that produce little impact.  They spend resources trying to ‘fix’ poor performers, while ignoring the ones wanting to contribute more and learn new skills.  Have you ever noticed it is not to the problem people who leave companies, it is the ones once considered but ignored because they were ‘just fine’ in your eyes?  Remember, people do not leave bad companies, they leave bad managers.
7. Sales strategies, prospecting management systems and existing client service standards are not planned out and executed. As a result, most companies spend money only on generating leads and marketing for new business. They do not necessarily ignore, but instead, take for granted the existing clients who serve as reference and upsell potentials.
8. Most leaders add leaders like them rather than choose business savvy people who are disciplined in business creation, performance coaching and leadership skills.

Think about whether your company might be making these mistakes.  These mistakes are common in virtually all growing businesses.  However, identifying and correcting them can create dramatic performance gains in sales profitability and net worth.  Those individuals who are invited to tackle them can become high performing leaders of the future for their company.