How to Grow in this Low-Growth Period

The recent global recession has had a profound impact on most markets around the world. And although the recession is supposed to have ended, technically, many markets and industries are still struggling with poor demand. Enough ink has been spilt on the travails facing marketers in today’s poor-growth world so we won’t dwell on that subject. Rather we have been studying and helping those businesses that are managing to grow well over their industry average even in these times.

All these companies are applying one or a combination of many growth models that we have outlined below. These growth models are not just theory. They are battle-tested models that are being applied with great effect by some companies.

• Market Framing
  Often times the growth constraint is self-imposed and reinforced by the perception of who we are and what we do. When a maker of grocery bags frames itself as a provider of reusable bags that it sells to retailers it is likely to face significant competitive pressures from many competitors and pricing pressure from its customers. However as it frames the market differently as a provider of portable, consumer-worn, advertising medium or as fashion accessory, it has started to tap into a much higher growth potential market with far lower competition.
• De-Commoditization
  Most providers have at least a faint idea of how they help their customers – save money, improve their business/lives and provide other benefits. What most do not know however is how their offering adds unique value to their customers when compared to competitive offerings. Without this knowledge, commoditization is inevitable. In these tough times, when customers are more demanding and competition fiercer, there is an even higher need for a clear understanding and communication of the unique value added and the justification for the above-commodity price that we charge. A specialty chemicals maker is growing its business with current customers by articulating its unique value-add through cost reducing components of its offerings (e.g. on-demand expedited delivery) as well as revenue-enhancing components of its offerings (e.g. new claims).
• Reverse Innovation
  Necessity is often the mother of invention. Many global players are finding that their product and service offerings are not fitting “as-is” in rapidly growing emerging markets like India and China. This has led to some of them developing purpose-designed innovations for infrastructure and knowledge constrained markets. In doing so however, they are finding that their value-engineered products and services are not just good for their intended markets but also more established western markets. This turns the innovation flow on its head and is called Reverse Innovation. It is the process by which companies such as GE Healthcare are developing hand-held diagnostic imaging equipment for markets such as India and are now finding applications and growth potential for it in the US and Europe as well.
• Core competencies as services
  Companies such as GE and Microsoft are finding that their core competencies can in fact be directly used to service customer and differentiate against competitors. Whether it is competencies in world-class financial management or digital engagement, such companies are providing training and problem-solving advice to their customers in these areas of core competence and thereby winning deals from their competitors.
• Strategy-Execution Alignment
  Do key stakeholders in your organization and ecosystem of agencies and partners know what your growth strategy is? Do they believe in the strategy? Are they aligned in their actions with the strategy? These may seem simple and dead straight questions that everyone should affirm right away. However it is surprising how often we are still executing the strategy from two cycles ago. Some companies are therefore finding that the growth potential is in them not developing a bold new strategy but in good execution of the strategy they already have. Companies such as DuPont India are using this very approach of tactical alignment behind a common strategy to double their business within three years.

Growth in today’s times is hard to find and even harder to sustain. But there are some good growth models for your organization to adopt. They require the ability to think outside-in and the willingness to try something different. We wish you all the best.