STRICTLY GROWTH BUSINESS
Mike Illsley
Copyright © 2012 Mike Illsley
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior consent of the publisher.
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2012-05-27
Dedication
This is dedicated to Annie who put up with me spending hours on the desk top often just when she needed to use it.
Acknowledgments
“Sell where you can, you are not for all markets.”
William Shakespeare
THE STRICTLY GROWTH BUSINESS
The strictly growth business is one that is, and is planned to be, in a permanent state of growth.
The strictly growth business is on a mission, it is going somewhere. It has a clearly defined strategic vision that is constantly reviewed but continues for year after year. It has a yearning hunger to realise its mission.
The strictly growth business is a fun place to be. It is a place where new things happen very often. It is a place where you are free to make a contribution and be seen to make it. It is a place where jobs are secure and promotion likely. It has employees who want to contribute and are in roles matched to their skills.
The strictly growth business employees ensure the business has an impeccable performance. The employees aggressively generate cash for reinvestment and as dividends for owners.
The strictly growth business employs the best functional executives and concentrates their time on tactics for realising the next stage of expansion. They concentrate on the growth issues.
The strictly growth business thrives on leadership from its manager, in its functional practices and in its products.
These characteristics of the strictly growth business are encompassed by the acronym
S trategy
T op Team
R ight people realising the right roles
I mpeccability
C ash
T actics
L eadership
Y earning
THEORY AND PRACTICE
This short book is written by a practitioner, not an academic. It is written as much with the benefit of hindsight as it is with insight. I was a Managing Director who ran two businesses operating in four diverse product market situations, and realised growth in all four.
Growth business management is a pragmatic and practical process, reacting to events as and when they occur. Success, however, will only result from making wise decisions based on a sound and consistant theoretical approach of how a business should operate. The theory and the practice go hand in hand.
The concept behind the book is to combine the theory and the practice. The practice is encompassed in the history of the two businesses under my command and their success underlines the value of the theoretical approach I adopted.
In every market some businesses thrive whilst others stagnate or fail. Simple excuses are often used to explain this. Typical comments are “ happened to operate in the right sector” or “was in the right place at the right time” or “happened to have a unique product plus” or “had access to unlimited funds” or “had a lucky advertising gambit.” And no doubt many more.
The reality is that the businesses that thrive do so because they are obsessed with growth and get all the aspects of growth management right.
The thoughts and opinions written down here represent the way I personally went about the management process of realising growth. They cover just about every aspect of growth management from theory picked up from the academics, through wisdom gained from personal experience and practicalities involved in recruitment and organisation. They are practical comments, many of them learned the hard way through trial and error.
I doubt if any of the ideas here are new. They are simply the way I thought about and did business, and the evidence for their value is that they worked.
I have set the book out with the theory first and then the practice through extensive descriptions of the management of the two businesses during their time under my command. If the reader prefers it is easy enough to read the practice chapters first.
One of the longest chapters of this book is concerned with tactics. Winning tactics are, by a country mile, the single most important determinant of growth.
The title of the book is obviously a play on words. Strictly implies focus and persistence, the best two attributes of the business manager. It is also an acronym for the eight elements which, looking back, characterised my management style.
I would like to think of this book being on the shelves of those charged with the day to day growth of a business, and used as a source of advice and encouragement from a kindred soul.
If all it does is inspire the thought process it will have been worthwhile.
STRATEGY
THE CLEARLY DEFINED STRATEGIC VISION
CHAIRMAN AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
UTILITY AND VALUE
SKILLS AND CASH
COMPETITIVE FORCES
PRODUCT MANAGEMENT
REVIEWING THE STRATEGY
THE CLEARLY DEFINED STRATEGIC VISION
Strategy is the choice of market war or wars that the business commits to win in order to achieve the powerful market position it intends to have and to hold. Everything else is tactics.
