Growth Strategy

For businesses to survive, growth is an imperative, not an option. Often the most straightforward way to increase shareholder value is to increase revenue growth, which is usually less painful than alternative methods such as cost reduction or acquisition and merger. However, for all its positive implications, achieving growth is a complex and difficult equation for majority of companies. But, only a small minority of companies succeeds in their attempts at sustained growth.

We understand that to grow successfully, a company must first properly define and focus on its "profitable core". An effective growth strategy is a critical part of any growth program – it sets the goals and priorities for all other initiatives in the program. But developing strategy for growth is not the same as setting strategy in a low-growth environment. It presents a unique set of challenges that managers have to tackle in what is often called unfamiliar territory. To conquer these challenges and make the new territory of their own, they need new skill sets and a new prospective to think.

But, what drives a great growth strategy? We have found that the most attractive, defensible, and compelling growth strategies are built on the intersections of the company’s:

• Management passion is often forgotten but extremely important. Growth paths are uncertain by definition; almost all growth staircases experience bumps and disappointments along the way. Growth strategies supported and driven by inspired leaders who are passionately committed to the growth aspiration are far more likely to succeed than those managed as logical extensions. This means in addition to meeting analytical criteria, a growth strategy should be built on the passions of management and with an understanding of their beliefs and prejudices. Without this emotional commitment to critical business ideas, growth strategies are less likely to succeed.


• Market opportunities arise from three key sources: discontinuities (such as improper stocks, poor distribution network and vendor strikes), major trends (including demographic shifts and changes in consumer buying behavior), or latent demand for products not currently offered (existing product/attribute gaps). This latent demand could be for entirely new products or new bundles of attributes based on an existing product.


• Capabilities include the company’s existing capabilities, as well as those it could reasonably build. This includes business-specific competencies such as product innovation, operations, or information management; privileged assets, such as brand equity, distribution networks, front-line sales force, or proprietary technology; special relationships with government/corporate, such as those which might help create access to an opportunity or those where a partner brings a complementary capability; and growth-enabling competencies, such as acquisition and merger skills, risk management, or capital productivity. To be a source of advantage, the capability or bundle of capabilities must serve as Companies USP’s be it’s distinctiveness, leveragability, and sustainability.


• Additional growth requires that a company relentlessly pursue business adjacencies that strengthen its core, that


• Foster the ability to anticipate and quickly react to the competition, and


• Develop processes to eliminate or circumvent the inherent organizational inhibitors to growth


and when the core formula has run its course, or faces industry upheaval, its time to renew your strategy and capabilities. Urconnect India help managers facing this issue to look deep within their organizations to find undervalued, unrecognized, or underutilized assets that can serve as new platforms for sustainable growth.


• Finally, successful growth relies heavily on management execution. This last imperative is particularly challenging in many organizations, which is why Urconnect India works to generate consensus within management by jointly developing and prioritizing growth strategies.

In an era of increasing turbulence and Competitiveness, some companies will hit a wall in their traditional business lines and need to renew their core. We help such companies find successful platforms, often within their own businesses, customer insights and capabilities to renew their business model.

For more information on Urconnect India's Growth Strategies, please call us or click here to send us a message.

Sustaining Profitable Growth

Many companies top management find growth as the toughest challenge they have to face. Of course, revenue and even profit growth can easily be created by acquisition but, as many studies have shown, the majority of acquisitions destroy shareholder value -simply going on the acquisition trail is no panacea. Unfortunately, organic growth, though often value-creating when it can be achieved, is usually difficult to drive and sustain.

Our study and experience has shown that companies which make a firm distinction between long-term growth and short-term growth helps them perform far more strongly, because this distinction leads them to a different series of steps, each of which is value-creating, and if executed properly lead to sustainable growth. This path consists of three key steps:

1. Leave the belongings/sentiments - understand which parts of your business have the potential to create value in the future, and get rid of the rest (we call it sentimental thrash).


2. Ensure that your business is strategically secure - validate all your competitive advantages and the long-term perspective of the market and reshape the product/attributes, and the businesses within it, accordingly


3. Exploit the competitive advantage you have created as the key driver of both acquisitive and organic growth.

Urconnect India helps companies take each of these steps by bringing a combination of strategic accuracy, business and technological innovation and the ability to drive major change through the business. In a nutshell companies selling into mature markets need to expand their horizons. We help them look for new sources of revenues, or adjacencies, via new distribution channels, customer segments or geographies, and avoid taking a step too far.

For more information on How you can Sustaining Profitable Growth, please call us or click here to send us a message.

Urconnect India’s Growth Experience

Urconnect is working to help companies find the next wave of profitable growth in turbulent economic times. Growth strategy is our core strength, and we work with growth businesses across industries. Urconnect focuses on growth in terms of revenue, cash flow and shareholder value, all of which are needed for sustainable, profitable performance.

For more information on Our Growth Experiences, please call us or click here to read case studies.