Grow or Die!

A fish swimming upstream must constantly be moving in order to maintain its position or make progress up the river. Once it stops its effort, it will be carried downstream. This is a metaphor that relates to life as a moving stream, and also applies to what it takes to succeed in business. Unless you are growing, you are in the process of dying. Merely hunkering down to survive can be compared to not making an effort to keep moving and growing. Eventually, this leads to being washed downstream with the other businesses that are just waiting for something to change.

Growth doesn’t only refer to getting bigger, but to also getting better. To “grow your business” means to grow in value, become stronger and more capable, and succeed in the achievement of your goals. Growing businesses make greater contributions to the community and strengthen the economy.

During the BizGrowth CHALLENGE that I’ve mentioned in previous articles, you will be given a challenge to develop and grow in six essential dimensions. Just as you, as an individual, have six dimension that require attention to live a fulfilled life, your business as an entity outside yourself should be balanced in these various dimensions to be fully functioning.

To help illustrate why it’s important to take care of each dimensions let’s look at the six dimensions that allow you to live a more fulfilled life and how they correlate to your business. Your dimensions are physical capability, social/emotional relationships, intellectual capacity, financial management, career development, and spiritual strength (focusing on things outside yourself such as worship or volunteer work).

Before I entered the Gold’s Gym Transformation Challenge, I was in poor physical condition with a shoulder injury that kept me from exercising and caused me to wake up several times each night from pain. I was also slightly overweight, congested, had high blood pressure and thought I was going to spend the rest of old age suffering like this.

My poor health affected other dimensions of life because I was always tired from the lack of sleep, was stressed out, and wasn’t motivated to do more. By focusing on my weak dimension and strengthening it, I also improved the other dimensions of my life, which has given me more energy to do the things I’ve been procrastinating.

Likewise, if you are weak in a business dimension, such as Operational Capability, you’ll find that your business has outgrown your ability to manage it and you may be the bottleneck that’s keeping you from pursuing opportunities or adequately taking care of the many challenges you encounter.

In a March 2011 survey of 89 business owners on Saipan, 71% said they attract more customers through advertising; yet, 57% stated that they spend $100 or less per month in advertising. If they are weak in Marketing Strength, then it will have an adverse impact on Financial Improvement, which will affect other dimensions because of inadequate money.

During the CHALLENGE you’ll be able to identify the level of vitality in all of your business dimensions, then work to improve each one, but particularly the weaker areas that are creating an adverse affect on your overall business “health.” There will be questionnaires and models to help you diagnose your business and then create a plan of action to strengthen each of the dimensions. Long after the CHALLENGE is over, your business can continue to improve in each dimension for continued growth. The following is a list of the 6 business dimensions (and their correlating life dimensions):
1) Innovation and Growth (Intellectual Capacity)
2) Professional Development (Career Development)
3) Operational Capability (Physical Capability)
4) Marketing Strength (Spiritual Strength – Customers are the soul of your business)
5) Stakeholder Relationships (Social/Emotional Relationships)
6) Financial Improvement (Financial Management)

All of these are centered on the core of your business, which should be a strong Customer Focus. In other words, each of these dimensions should support a strong focus on better serving your customers because the overriding purpose of all businesses, as described by management guru Peter Drucker, is to create [and keep] a customer.

At the BizGrowth Launch Symposium on Thursday, June 23rd, you’ll be issued the first Challenge. As you complete this and each successive Challenge, you’ll have the chance to evaluate your business in that dimension and take corrective action to improve it. Some dimensions will be your strength and other areas will be areas of improvement. As you continue to meet the Challenges, you will be laying the foundation for a more customer-focused business that operates more effectively with trained staff who know how to market and come up with ideas that continuously improve your business. The end result will be better relationships with your stakeholders (customers, employees, vendors, etc.) as well as financial improvement from reducing costs and increasing revenue.