… said the Swiss writer and entrepreneur Kurt Guggenheim. That is my experience too. If you as a management team concentrate fully on achieving your growth targets, you run the risk of overwhelming your employees and business partners. Do it differently: Before you embark on the implementation of the measures for business expansion, for example through internationalization, you should concentrate on winning your company’s companions for growth and getting them excited about it. What can growth do to the organization? What are the effects on the employees affected? What advantages do suppliers and other business partners have from the expansion? I recommend discussing these and many other questions with your colleagues in advance. How exactly, you can read in the following:
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Phases of an organic growth initiative
Phase 1: Exact definition of the strategic growth target by shareholders, supervisory and advisory boards, and management.
In conceptual workshops, shareholders, advisory boards and management of the company not only develop the growth targets, but also the specific reasons why this target achievement is necessary. This is where the mental involvement of employees and business partners begins. If the company management already has a common understanding of growth reasons, a supportive understanding can also be achieved towards those accompanying them.
Phase 2: Development of a strategic action plan to implement growth.
Often the management of the company already have the concrete implementation steps for a growth initiative in mind, worked out or agreed with each other. It is well invested time to obtain the expertise of employees and business partners before taking the first concrete growth measures. If a group of representatives of the company’s relatives is well selected to participate at strategy workshops, it can be achieved that important factors, that management often does not focus on, are included in the measures. On the other hand, ambassadors have been won, to advertise and perhaps even inspire the growth strategy to all other employees and business partners.
Phase 3: Implementation and management of growth
In many companies, large-scale growth initiatives are defined in projects and a corresponding project organization is formed. Often only those employees and possibly business partners are included in the project work, who have the appropriate expertise to implement the respective growth step. A steering group made up of management and representatives of employees and business partners can work wonders. Topics such as the effects of growth on qualification and personnel development, the search for and on-boarding of new colleagues, burnout prevention of employees and improved internal information exchange become more important if these are discussed together with the representatives. The implementation of such measures is more sustainable if employees and business partners are involved.
If you consider this phase model of organic growth, the chance of “organizing harmoniously” is much higher! I accompany your growth in these phases and run the workshops with you or support you and your employees with my growth coaching.
Achieve growth by leading the growth process together!