Why Growth is the Most Universal Problem in Business

Posted on | March 28, 2009 |

Bob Bloom, author of The Inside Advantage

Business owners and managers all over the world say they have an urgent need to grow their business. Given this reality, why are so many businesses struggling just to meet last year’s revenue numbers? Why do more than 500,000 US businesses fail each year? Why is growth the most universal problem in business?

More important, why is business growth more essential and more difficult in 2008 than ever before? Here’s what Keith Harrison, head of global supply at Procter & Gamble, told the Financial Times about P&G’s current challenges (Friday, June 27, 2008): “It’s the toughest operating environment, clearly, that I’ve ever been in.” FT defined P&G’s situation in this eye-popping way: “P&G has forecast that its material and energy costs will increase by $2bn in the fiscal year starting July 1.” It boggles the mind to think that P&G has to generate $2bn more in revenue and/or cut $2bn in costs just to stay even with this single line item expense, certainly only one of many line item expenses under severe global inflationary pressure.

This is the problem facing every business in the world today. This means that your business is no longer competing locally or nationally - your business, what ever its size or type, is now competing for products, people, technology, services, delivery and finance with the businesses, mouths, governments and cartels of powerful emerging economies.

This is not a short term technical correction, nor is it a problem that the world has ever faced before. In the same issue of the FT, Robert Hormats and Jim O’Neill of Goldman Sachs International underscored the reason for this burgeoning global demand of goods and services: “Since 2001, the US share of world GDP fell from 34% to 28%” while the combination of Brazil, Russia, India and China rose from 8% to 16%.

Historic overhead structures are just that - history. They have been invalidated by sustained and unprecedented global demand for every commodity - from oil to rice to paper, from skilled labor to capital, from delivery to technology.

To overcome this destruction of your overhead structure your business must start growing immediately and grow at a much higher rate than any time in history.

If business leaders want and need to grow, why aren’t more businesses growing? There are three simple reasons:

1. Self-delusion – “This is just a temporary revenue problem – we’ll bounce back next month – surely next year will be better”.
2. Procrastination – “I’m going to create a growth plan next month – well, it’ll have to be next year because I’m just too busy now”.
3. Lack of know-how – “Truth is, and I hate to admit it, I simply don’t know how to get started – I need an easy-to-use blueprint for growth.

If you need an easy-to-use and quick-to-implement strategic growth process, you’ve come to the right place.

These four steps, when defined in brief, insightful plain language statements will enable you to kick-start your business’ growth:

1. WHO is my Core Customer?
2. WHAT is my Uncommon Offering:
3. HOW can I differentiate my business, so more customers will buy from me – not my competitors?
4. OWN IT! How can I use my imagination vs. my money to make my Uncommon Offering well known to my Core Customers with little or no investment in infrastructure or advertising?

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