Amazon is now using its customers to deliver packages and has launched Amazon-Now, a service that guarantees customers’ orders within an hour by tapping into its 244 million customers to deliver packages. Amazon is proving that big companies can out-share the start-ups in the sharing economy, disrupting their current business models and building on the strengths they already have. With crowd-funding that allows for new and unexpected competition in unexpected places, explosive growth is expected. What are you doing to generate your own explosive growth?
I tell my executive clients that they need to create a leapfrog organization and hire for the size and scale they envision for their future business. Here’s how to do it:
Step 1: Pick a Time Horizon
When I used to work at Land Rover, our strategy sessions focused on ten years out, so we would start with a five-year leap. When I worked with rapidly growing consumer electronics companies, we focused on a two-year leap. Pick the right time horizon for your business.
Step 2: Know Your Current and Future Business
Consider what markets you are currently in, which industries, and what products and services you offer; also note your current profit, revenue, and employees. Now skip ahead to your first leap and paint the picture for each category. What will be different?
Step 3: Live in Your Future World
Next, ask yourself, does your current executive team have the capability and capacity to run that future business with the scale, complexity, industry, and services you will offer in the future?
Step 4: Develop a Plan to Leapfrog to Your Future World
Do this by addressing the various situations you find yourself in with your executives, starting with your CEO. Evaluate which ones can grow where they are, which ones need support, and which ones are mismatched. Then make a plan to move, grow, and support your team.
Step 5: Redefine Today’s Roles for Tomorrow
Finally, scope your roles on your executive team so they are targeted for the size and scale of your future company. That is the fastest way to catapult your growth.
This is one of the ways I work with executive teams and boards to create a new trajectory of rapid growth, where are you on your journey? Dedicated to growing your business,
Val