How many levers?<\/h2>\n
In earlier research<\/a>, we explored three broad profiles that describe how companies achieve organic growth.1<\/sup><\/a> \u201cInvestors\u201d tap new sources of funding or reallocate existing funds to capture new growth for their goods and services. \u201cCreators\u201d build business value with new products or through business-model innovation. \u201cPerformers\u201d grow by steadily optimizing commercial functions and operations. Our latest findings suggest that focusing on two of these growth levers simultaneously will spur growth more effectively than emphasizing one.2<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n In fact, we found that more than three-quarters of companies that mastered two or more levers grew faster than their industry (Exhibit 1). This makes intuitive sense; combining two approaches allows for synergies that can multiply impact. Companies with strong reallocation practices<\/a> (investors), for example, can provide managers with the needed additional resources to optimize higher-potential assets (performers). Too often, this sort of helpful one-two punch is the exception: companies instead tend to emphasize what worked in the past, and thus to rely too heavily on a single lens\u2014which leaves potential growth on the table.<\/p>\n What about three levers? In some sense, it\u2019s the gold standard; a healthy proportion of top-growth-quartile companies were investors, performers, and<\/em>creators.3<\/sup><\/a> That said, executing on every front simultaneously is more than many companies can handle. That\u2019s particularly the case for large organizations, where complexity tends to multiply as growth initiatives proliferate.4<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n<\/picture><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n