The Insight 70 Ways to Grow
The Insight 2025 Growth Strategies for SMB, Nonprofits, and Community Organizations
Download Now 70 Ways to Grow
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The Insight 70 Ways to Grow
Introduction:
Celebrating 25 Years of Executing Growth Strategies
A clear strategy sets the course for action. Action without strategy leads to wasteful meandering.
For 25 years, we have worked closely with over 300 organizations, in addition to our programs. These in-depth engagements, serving as fractional executives, directors, or managers with executive and project teams consisting of at least five members, have presented an immense opportunity to learn from multiple industries with thousands of leaders. These industries range from manufacturing (where I cut my teeth) to professional service organizations, nonprofits, and community redevelopment private/public partnerships. While these environments differ, I have learned that the underlying process elements are ultimately the same.
I call it Organic Integration. Organizations and communities are evolving organisms composed of people making decisions that shape their growth and development.
Different phases of growth require different strategies to continue the growth process. And if organizations are not growing, they are dying. The objective is to continue growing by selecting the best strategies at any given point in time to sustain the evolution.
This guide is a collection of growth strategies that we have planned and implemented with our clients over the past 25 years. Your strategy selection should be based on the set measurable objectives to be achieved. The strategies can be relevant for any organization at any stage of growth.
The stages of growth are: 1) Entrepreneurship (most businesses live here), 2) Growth (scaling a good thing), 3) Maturity (operating with less margin), and 4) Reinvention (regenerating the growth cycle with a new model, products, and services).
Regardless of your organization's stage, the four elements of Organic Integration must be aligned.
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Passion: Leadership self-awareness and executive team alignment about how decisions are made, the direction you are heading, and the values you expect team members to operate by.
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Strategy: The go-to-market strategy that drives revenue, profit, and customer engagement.
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Collaboration: The organizational structure of roles, expectations, collaboration, and feedback that will drive internal team success.
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Process: The core operational process by which the team will rally to implement reliable transactions with customers and stakeholders.
As you can imagine, when these elements are out of sync, confusion, complacency, chaos, and crisis ruin all good intentions.
The goal is Organic Integration when these elements are aligned through the efforts of team collaboration with those responsible and accountable for the integration, enabling it to accelerate the organization's growth.
Over the past 25 years, I have facilitated nearly 10,000 sessions with leaders and their teams to align these elements and select the best strategies to achieve their growth objectives. You too can achieve the almost $1 billion in growth our clients have achieved if you believe in and execute the discipline required to achieve Organic Integration.
Self-aware and aligned leaders who have learned how to collaborate and make decisions as a team possess the essential skills and are the price of entry to achieving Organic Integration. Now it is time to be strategic with the critical thinking skills required to design the rules of your game, win your vision, and achieve the growth outcomes you desire.
In reviewing this guide, in each category, which strategies have you tried, are implementing now, or want to implement in the future? Is your team aligned with these strategies? Is the timing right? How do they align with your growth objectives?
Let's dive in and explore the strategies that will drive your growth...