THE QUEST - LONG-TERM PROFITABLE GROWTH

Transcription

1 THE QUEST - LONG-TERM PROFITABLE GROWTH The answer - renew, By Professor Bala Chakravarthy - September, 2008 IMD Chemin de Bellerive 23 PO Box 915, CH-1001 Lausanne Switzerland Tel: Fax: info@imd.ch

2 All leaders seek profitable growth for their firms and yet only a few succeed. This eternal performance challenge requires leaders to act in two key areas balancing the firm s strategy to exploit its current niches while also exploring for new niches and providing systems that support both exploitation and exploration. In a recent study, [i] I looked at the performance, over a 15-year period from 1990 to 2004, of nearly 6,000 large public companies (i.e. with 2004 revenues greater than US$500 million) throughout the world. The results of that study are striking. Only one firm in four was able to show sustained profitable growth over any consecutive five-year period, and this decreases dramatically as the time period is stretched. Moreover, for those that actually managed to achieve profitable growth, sustaining the two was incredibly challenging. I offer two complementary ideas to ensure it can be achieved: (1) pursue a strategy of continuous renewal in which your firm s existing businesses are purposefully metamorphosed into businesses of the future; and (2) provide a tailor-made management system that supports both the exploitation of existing markets and competencies, and the exploration of new ones.[ii] The and problem A dilemma that often confronts business leaders is, Should I profit from the core or should I engage in creative destruction in order to compete for the future? Exploiting the core can bring growth and profitability in the short run, but unless this is complemented by a continuous exploration of future markets and competencies, profitability and growth will eventually stutter. Connecting the firm s present to its future, without taking undue risks, is every executive s dream. Companies can move into exciting new space but do so by venturing into new markets or new technologies one at a time and not simultaneously. I call this a strategy of continuous renewal a blend of exploitation and exploration. Let me explain what this strategy looks like. IMD - THE QUEST - LONG-TERM PROFITABLE GROWTH Page 2/5

3 The two traditional initiatives used for growth and profitability are protect & extend and transform. Protecting and extending the present core is the obvious first renewal strategy. The other strategy, transform, is to proactively migrate to new markets likely to be attractive in the future and to acquire new competencies to lead in these markets. These are the two poles of the dilemma that I presented earlier. Two other renewal initiatives leverage and build provide the bridge. Leverage is a strategy that takes the firm to new markets by deploying the competencies that it already has. Build is a strategy that brings new distinctive competencies to the firm in order to protect its existing market franchise. Both leverage and build should logically lead to the other. If the two are linked systematically, they can help the firm migrate to both new markets and new competence platforms, progressively over time. Sustaining high performance requires the firm to have a healthy portfolio of build and leverage initiatives that complement each other and spur its continuous renewal. But what about mergers, acquisitions and strategic alliances? My answer is that these are not strategies, rather means to execute each of the four renewal initiatives. While acquisitions and alliances can be positive and provide growth platforms, organic growth has to be the primary vehicle for renewal. Executing continuous renewal The leader has to set a context that enforces the right discipline, as is appropriate to the risk profile of each renewal strategy. Financial control systems must naturally be standardized, built around certain key measures that can be applied across the firm. The dilemma, however, is that standard measures can also be biased, often favoring shortterm financial performance over longer-term growth. It is useful here to distinguish and split out the capital and expense budgets needed to maintain the momentum of a business from those required to implement strategic programs for future growth and profitability. We call the former the momentum budget and the latter the renewal budget. Their relative mix will vary depending on the renewal initiatives that the firm has. The momentum and renewal budgets are qualitatively different. The output delivered against what was promised is a good measure of performance for the momentum budget. But a renewal budget cannot always be measured by output measures. Some projects straddle more than one budget year for execution. A renewal budget has to be controlled by the activity milestones that have been reached. Without such a scrutiny, savings against the budget may merely indicate delayed execution. IMD - THE QUEST - LONG-TERM PROFITABLE GROWTH Page 3/5

4 The route to growth To summarize: 1. Emphasize the build and leverage initiatives. Remember they are complementary; ideally, both build and leverage should lead to the other in the long term. 2. Use acquisitions and alliances to accelerate the build and leverage initiatives. 3. Budgeting and control systems tend to be designed predominantly for the large number of initiatives that seek to protect and extend the current core. Systems that are standardized and invariant across your multiple initiatives a one size fits all are not very conducive to exploration. Build, leverage and transform initiatives require a renewal budget and an activity based control. [i] This is a study by Professor Bala Chakravarthy with Abraham Lu, Research Fellow at IMD. It is referenced in the appendix to the book mentioned below. [ii] Based on Professor Chakravarthy's recent book with Peter Lorange, Profit or Growth? Why You Don t Have to Choose. Harlow: Wharton School, Pearson Education, Professor Bala Chakravarthy teaches on the Orchestrating Winning Performance (OWP) program. IMD - THE QUEST - LONG-TERM PROFITABLE GROWTH Page 4/5

5 RELATED PROGRAMS ORCHESTRATING WINNING PERFORMANCE - The 6-day global business program Program Director Bettina Buechel A unique energizer: boost your performance, broaden your perspectives and expand your global network Design the program that suits you IMD - THE QUEST - LONG-TERM PROFITABLE GROWTH Page 5/5