We help successful growth companies stay on track

We work with successful companies that are worried about their future growth prospects - often in the technology, media and telecoms sectors. Their major concerns include loss of culture, talent and company value - which can easily become a £multi-million problem. 

We help them to re-energise by jointly developing a focused growth strategy and rebuilding the capabilities to grow successfully. We bring in-depth sector experience, a solid understanding of the issues facing growth businesses and blue-chip strategy & implementation skills

research: growing profitably & sustainably with less



Phase 1 of our research initiative is now complete!

The core problem

Sustainable profitable growth is difficult, especially in the “tricky middle ground” between early stage start-up businesses and large mature businesses.

For an early stage start up business, the focus has been relatively clear - grow revenues as quickly as possible. For a mature business with limited growth potential, the focus could be simplified to driving cost efficiency to increase profit. But in the middle ground, just as the start-up business finds it has “grown up” with an enlarged cost-base to match, it may well see the rate of market and revenue growth begin to slow. Suddenly it has a much more complex task - to re-ignite growth and manage cost-efficiency at the same time. These challenges are quite different and can create tensions which are difficult to manage.

Some organisations manage this difficult transition with aplomb, and go on to become great sustainable businesses. Others run aground, their costs growing faster than their revenues - their future being much less certain. Recent economic conditions have arguably made the tricky middle ground more applicable to a wider range of businesses.

This research especially aims to help organisations in the tricky middle ground. We aimed to identify what it takes to grow profit sustainably within a limited set of resources - to balance the creativity, entrepreneurialism and innovation of a start-up with the operational cost management discipline of a mature business.

Key insights from research phase 1

Phase 1 of this research focused on 2 lines of enquiry: a review of previous research / excell growth partners’ experience of the area coupled with an assessment of specific practices in 5 companies. From this, we developed a best practice framework covering 6 dimensions of performance:

• Leadership & execution.
• Strategic focus & innovation.
• Learning & growth.
• Internal focus (operations).
• External focus (ecosystem).
• Financial management & measurement.
  

We established the “settings” and approach in each of these dimensions that would most likely be successful for sustainable profitable growth, comparing theory from previous research with over 20 years of practical experience and 5 case studies from organisations grappling with the challenge of profitable growth.

Click here to see a 5 minute presentation summarising the key findings from the research.

Is your organisation set up to grow profitably & sustainably with less?

A good way to check your organisation's current level of capability is to take a look at the high-level self assessment checklist - click here. Further detailed resources are available to help you on request.

We have also developed a growth capability workshop for Leadership Teams that are keen to have greater exposure to the ideas in this research report and to work through specific opportunities to raise their game. Please contact us for further information if you would like to find out more.

We see this phase of research as the first step of an ongoing programme: we intend to carry out follow-up phases focusing on specific topics of interest. We welcome input to our research agenda - please contact us if there is a particular issue of interest to you.