Facing an uncertain economy, with a recession likely, maintaining growth in your organization’s hierarchy of strategic priorities seems fanciful. Yet not doing so will be devastating to ongoing value-creation. In spite of these forces, Alan Murray, of Fortune’s CEO Daily, notes that the majority of CEOs surveyed by PwC intend to keep transformation programs moving forward. On the growth angle, PwC observes:
"My advice is: Get your company fit for growth. Do all the cost restructuring that needs to be done, then reinvest in growth. And that growth needs to be powered by technology. That will be the future."
—Mohamed Kande, global advisory lead, PwC
We at Sage Partners concur with this advice. Now is the time to ensure your organization is ‘fit for growth.’ If you tone down your growth mindset it will become difficult to regain your form once conditions improve. Apt analogy: when an athlete takes time off due to injury their muscles will atrophy. Before returning to competition, they must access their capability and retrain to become fit for competition. Growth capabilities, if unattended, will atrophy as well.
To avoid this decline we recommend taking time to assess your growth fitness. We use a 20-factor scale to evaluate clients’ growth capability. Here is an example of a summary chart for a client in the technology space:
While none of us will score consistently in the growth zone—4s and 5s—it is critical to identify the areas of weakness, especially any value 2 or below. And, like the athlete returning to the field of play, identify and assess growth weaknesses, then take corrective action.
Now is the time to step back to assess your organization’s growth capacity to be ready to move as market conditions improve. Take our advice and that of PwC and get fit for growth.
Sage Partner Thomas Doorley III contributed this Sage Advice.