THE COMMON SENSE OF BUSINESS GROWTH
By Robert H. Bloom

The Simple Truth of Growth: Common sense will more-likely-than-not translate into business success.
The best way to expand the size, scope, and profits of your business is to grow it from the inside, capitalizing on strengths that already exist within your company or brand.
Generating growth by doing what you are good at and doing it better than anyone else is common sense. It works because you are leveraging something you already own—profiting from your company’s Inside Advantage.
If you have any doubts about a common sense approach to growth, take a look at the strategy that built the world’s largest E-retailer:
“We start with customers; figure out what they want, and figure out how to get it to them.” (Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, New York Times, Jan. 5, 2008).

The Harsh Reality of Growth: In today’s intensely competitive, rapidly changing global marketplace, no enterprise can survive without growth.
Moreover, a flourishing business should double in size every five years. Yes, it’s an ambitious goal, but it is achievable if the business leader has a sound strategic plan and the determination to implement it effectively.
Most business leaders have an abundance of determination, but all-too-many lack a disciplined strategic growth plan. Here are the most common reasons for the absence of a growth plan:

• Procrastination—“This is my busiest season, but I’ll definitely put my plan in place next quarter—or maybe next year will be a better time.”
• Self-delusion—“We’re experiencing a little slow down right now, but I'm confident I can turn things around very soon.”
• Tried and failed—“I finally gave up because every growth process I tried was unbelievably complex and time consuming.”
• Growth requires investment—“Jump-starting our growth will be expensive and I can’t afford that kind of investment right now.”

In previous generations, the lack of a sound growth plan resulted in a long, slow decline of a business. In today’s world of high velocity technological and geopolitical change, category leaders—even entire categories—can disappear overnight if they fail to develop a strategic plan that anticipates and confronts the accelerated transformation in the marketplace.
Many business leaders who lack a sound growth plan decide to cover up the flaws in their company by investing in an aggressive advertising campaign. This expensive solution seldom delivers the intended results and always hastens the business’ demise.
Other business leaders can’t resist the seductive exhortation to “reinvent” their business. Of all the alternatives to a sound growth plan, “reinvention” is the surest way to self-destruction.

Common sense works: Focusing on the right customer will stimulate growth and enable a business to realize its full potential.
Every company has a variety of important customer segments such as distributors, dealers, stakeholders, vendors, and of course, the end users of the product or service. However, in today’s business world, no enterprise has sufficient human and financial resources to mount an effective appeal to all of its customer segments. To grow your business, you must focus on the customer segment that is most essential to your success. Lack of focus will prevent growth and it often leads to failure.
A number of years ago, Nestle USA assigned my advertising agency a promising small brand they had recently purchased. It was a juice product in a crowded category of “juice drinks” for young children. The previous agency was using animated TV commercials targeting young kids while they were watching cartoons. But, the Nestle brand—Juicy Juice—was not growing.
We discovered that Juicy Juice was made of 100% juice, unlike the competitive products that were made of water, coloring, and sugar. It was apparent that kids didn’t care whether they were drinking 100% juice or colored water. Our solution was to change the target audience from young kids to moms who wanted their young kids to drink a product with nutritional value. This focus on the right customer and the right message fueled the brand’s growth and it’s one of Nestle’s most successful products.
To remain relevant to your customer, keep this in mind—customers’ needs and desires evolve much more rapidly than most business leaders perceive.

Common sense works: You don’t have to be bigger or better than your competitors, but you do have to be different from them.
Your company has an undiscovered or underutilized strategic asset—it might be a different way of thinking or working, a proprietary process, or an uncommon ingredient or technology. It’s something you already do and do better or differently than anyone else. It’s your Inside Advantage.
Your Inside Advantage will set your brand or business apart from competition with little or no investment because this special customer benefit must be well known to only one audience—your most important customer segment.
Does Tiffany’s famous robin’s egg blue box cost any more than any other colored box? Of course not—but to up-market gift givers all over the world, this little blue box stands for elegance and quality and it differentiates Tiffany & Co. However, don’t think you can just create an “image” of difference—your company, like Tiffany, must be different and act differently than its competitors.
The magical moment in your business is when customers decide to buy your product or service because they admire and benefit from your Inside Advantage.

Common sense works: Every company has an Inside Advantage that’s waiting to be discovered and exploited. Right now—somewhere within your business—there is an Inside Advantage waiting to ignite your growth.

Robert H. Bloom is a widely respected authority on business growth. As U.S. chairman and CEO of Publicis Worldwide, he helped craft and implement the growth strategies of some of the world’s largest companies and brands, including BMW, L’Oréal, Nestlé, Southwest Airlines, T-Mobile, and Novartis’ Theraflu and Triaminic. As an entrepreneur, he grew an advertising agency into a successful national business.
Bloom advises firms of every type and size on their growth strategies. He is the author of “THE NEW EXPERTS and THE INSIDE ADVANTAGE.” For more information or to contact Robert Bloom, please visit www.thenewexperts.com.