By Kabir Ahuja, Liz Hilton Segel, and Jesko Perrey
There are many paths to growth, and high performers take more than one—supported by reinforcing capabilities such as advanced analytics and digital customer-experience manageme
Growth is a tonic for most companies. It attracts talent and creates strategic options while generating financial resources to fund new moves—provided
the growth is profitable. It’s also been harder to come by over the
past decade, as a sluggish macroeconomic environment and accelerating,
technology-driven disruption have ratcheted up pressure on businesses.
Digital technologies and the pace of competition, however, also open new
avenues to organic growth for those companies that have the
capabilities and dexterity to take advantage of them. Today’s fastest
growers, for example, price products in real time; they create
meaningful and positive customer experiences with digital interactions;
and they refine products continually with customer feedback. To
understand the relationship between organic growth approaches,
capabilities, and performance in this environment, we recently surveyed
approximately 600 executives at leading companies in the European Union
and North America.1 We found that companies exhibit three basic growth tendencies; that an approach combining two or more of these holds particular power in driving growth; that advanced analytics
is an ingredient of standout growth; and that success depends on
nurturing a set of reinforcing capabilities that fit the growth
approach.
