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Across industries, there is a lot of talk about the importance of a “growth mindset” for entrepreneurs and managers of existing corporations.
There are countless studies – e.g the one presented by Harvard — which highlight that corporations that focus on growth through innovation and investment often outpace corporations that are stuck in a establishment that tends to stagnate or fall behind.
But what exactly does operating with a growth mindset seem like? In the article entitled Why is a growth mindset critical to business success?” highlights how Microsoft has developed a culture around this manner of pondering to prevent falling behind in the dynamic world of technology. In 2014, CEO Satya Nadella modified the culture from a bureaucratic to a growth one and worked to develop system-wide processes to embed a growth mindset among all employees, from entry-level to top management. In the article, one Microsoft worker summed up the company’s culture by stating that it had modified from “I know everything” to “I learn everything.”
“Learn everything” is the key here. It’s easy for entrepreneurs and others to think they’ve mastered all the pieces they need and are less likely to hunt down learning opportunities. In a world that is moving as fast in every way as ours, this is a self-defeating way of pondering. “Learn everything” doesn’t just mean attending conferences and reading whitepapers about your company; it is very essential to “learn everything” about your own business.
However, “learning everything” about the pros and cons of current business processes, systems and development programs can be daunting. Just like looking under the hood of your automobile, you may be forced to see leaks, cracks, and other problems that you’re not aware of because, like your automobile, your business is still growing. However, if you want to move fast and sustain with the competition, you need to face your weaknesses.
Facing the incontrovertible fact that you don’t know what you don’t know is essential for growth. You may understand your product category, but do you know how to arrange lead generation and sales programs that may provide you with a qualified prospect? Do you know how to nurture them so that they generate conversions and lifetime value? Do you know how to configure IT and operational processes that may optimize productivity and allow you to achieve more with less?
The key to growth is to face your weaknesses and strengths and get help when you need it. Business managers seem comfortable signing up to SaaS products that allow them to manage payroll, staffing needs, account management, customer relationships and communications for monthly subscription fees. But how likely are you to subscribe to growth-focused services or devote time to growth initiatives each month? Constant focus and activity are the key to success.
What does the continuous development plan that you implement and monitor every month seem like? Here’s a look.
1. Check your establishment
Since no one is the master of all the pieces, it is value finding experts who will audit the areas of your company that you can and should learn more about. This may include an audit of your digital brand presence, offerings, business model, sales processes, customer onboarding and success programs. Your systems for information technology, financial management, customer transactions, project flow, system monitoring and so on. Experts can quickly discover where you’re losing money and efficiency, in addition to discover opportunities.
Your audit should include identifying the expectations and aspirations of your customer groups and looking for ways to add value, each material and emotional, to your products and brand experience.
2. Stay up to date with trends
Take time to not sleep to date with technology and other changes that impact your industry. Monitor consumer attitudes towards your category and brand to discover issues that would change purchasing behavior and brand loyalty.
3. Invest in your business
To succeed in any category, you need programs and systems that enable you to operate at a high level of efficiency so you can focus on innovating recent products, services and systems to increase efficiency and competitiveness. You have to lead with recent ideas and not all the time try to catch up with others who are moving faster than you. To achieve this, you need to invest in systems and technologies that allow you to automate workflow processes, customer and account management, accounting and more, so that your time can be spent on innovation.
4. Prioritize marketing and sales
If no one knows about your brand, it’s secure to assume you won’t get many recent leads and sales. Marketing is greater than awareness. Marketing helps define your brand values and build relationships that drive sales, loyalty and referrals. It also communicates your values, corresponding to CSR and ESG, that are essential to consumers, leading to stronger relationships. Consumers select brands with similar values. Check McKinsey study this confirms it.
All these processes enable you to continuously gain knowledge about your company, its strengths, opportunities, threats and weaknesses.
The most vital element of growth? Continuity! Creating a company with development in mind is not a one-time initiative. This is an ongoing process that involves all systems, corresponding to those identified above, and must be monitored, managed and executed on a every day basis. As Microsoft demonstrates, this must be the foundation and core of your company culture. Every worker and contractor you use must be obsessed with growth, which suggests continuously looking for ways to stand out from the competition, add more value to customers, imagine recent ways to do old things higher,
Establishing regular processes or finding partners who can do this for you, using a growth-as-a-service model to help you grow, should be a top priority. You can read about these and other development strategies in the recent book published by Entrepreneur Press, “Market Your Company – Your Do-It-Yourself Guide to Marketing.