According to the book Every Business is a Growth Business by Ram Charan & Noel Tichy, Times Business, NY, 1998. the authors believe there is room to grow in every business. The last portion of the book is a handbook to begin the process for you to examine your company and where it can grow. As a profitable sustaining business you are good at something, better than the rest, which means if desired you could extend your abilities to beyond what you are doing. Most companies are very good at the basic aspect of their business, they may not be so good at the other aspects to run the business and that is where the abilities of your company can be used to solve the needs. Can the pond be bigger? When you see the pond can be bigger, are you willing to make it bigger?

Sometimes the answer is no for example a  number of years ago, the author worked for a medium sized business which owned what its customers thought were 3 competing businesses. The customers would switch some of their purchasing between the 3, never knowing the ownership structure. The owners had little reason to innovate or to grow for they were satisfied with what they had.   Another company which I worked for had some of the best assets in the business, but very little desire to exploit them or use them to meet their customers needs. The company had very loyal and wealthy customers, but with a management structure in which any change needed senior vice president approval and they were content to rest of the laurels of the past. The business was profitable, but it could easily had been a leader; in the end, it was sold to a bigger institution.

The above are examples of before any company can decide it wants to grow the leadership must want to lead. In many cases, the leaders say they wish to grow but the internal rules of the company highly suggest that is not what they want. For example, part of innovation is getting it wrong, but the key is to start small, do pilot projects and scale up. In some companies they are adverse to getting it wrong so not doing or only doing innovation at the margin makes a longer career.  If the company decides it wants to grow 4 questions must be answered and worked on.

1. what existing customers believe about the company and its products.

2. what employees think of the company.

3. the company’s real competitive position

4. whether the company was generating enough cash from operations.

Often what people on the outside think and what people in the inside think are two different answers. Bringing them to one answer is the challenge of the leadership.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, companies which pay dividends have a existing profitable market share which is great. The challenge is to maintain it while a great many things change in the marketplace. If the company is not trying for growth but is happy to sit on its past, then the competition will rise up and take its profitable operations for they will offer better. Only if the company is a monopoly and highly regulated one, even though, there are methods around those companies. As a shareholder you need to see the company growing or be prepared to sell your shares.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions