The drive to identify new growth areas, opportunities and establish long-term success plans can be difficult for both established companies and start-ups.
Against this backdrop, Sage, a global expert in cloud-based accounting and management solutions through Sage Business Cloud, has developed five processes that a company should take to improve its planning and structure its growth process:
1. Get the right people in place
It is a critical process for companies to establish the requirements and experience that the staff of the teams must have, as well as the role they will play once they join the company. It is important to assess whether the type of professional required is one with multiple skills, valid to play a role in different areas of the business, or to look for a specialised professional to fill gaps in the company's expertise and help accelerate new areas of business.
2. Focus the business on the customer
The success of any company is based on obtaining new customers and their subsequent loyalty. Companies that focus their business on customers are 60% more profitable; and it is important that they maintain this point of view throughout their business life, and not only at the time of starting their activity in the market, as is often the case.
To address this situation, it is necessary to analyse the current customer base to identify strengths and weaknesses in the company's performance in retaining customers, as well as paying close attention to market trends. Conduct surveys, interview new customers, existing customers and those who for various reasons have churned, and actively listen to them in order to act accordingly.
3. Adapting to changing technologies
The use of technologies also opens up a wide range of possibilities for companies to improve their operations and contribute to growth. Adopting cloud-based services, for example, is a way of reducing established IT infrastructure, not only reducing costs and improving efficiency, but also freeing up the IT team to explore new ways of using emerging technology that will improve the business rather than simply reacting to problems.
4. Stay ahead of the curve
Driving sales in the short term through promotions and new products and services will help generate revenue, but it is not the best way to position companies for sustained long-term growth. Companies need to take a broader view and have strategies to stay ahead of market and customer trends, and to stay ahead of the competition.
This requires a more holistic and longer-term view of your company's operations and business: your company's vision, sales strategies, market positioning, workforce, technology infrastructure and processes, and so on.
5. Focus on your own business and not on the competition.
Instead of focusing on the competition, companies should invest time and resources in better understanding their own business, including team development and employee engagement. A recent report on employee engagement found that a 50% increase in active employee involvement in strategic issues for the company equates to a 3% increase in revenue growth in the following year.
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