The Swimming Pool of Growth…
And how not to drown!
Everyone talks about the theory of how to grow a company and it sounds easy if you say it quickly. It’s all about climbing the mountain to get to the next peak and all that stuff – but life isn’t like that and neither is business. Growth is rarely evenly paced and consistent. It’s not a clear path and it’s not a linear journey. Going up a mountain is also dangerous and you risk falling off at various stages if you put a foot wrong.
So let’s look at it another way – think of a swimming pool. Any pool will do as long as it’s got 4 lanes in it and preferably some water. Each of those lanes represents something you need to devote time, effort and resources to. Label those lanes – Lane 1 is Funding and Finance, Lane 2 is Talent, Lane 3 is Customers and New Markets and finally Lane 4 is Governance. At the other end of the pool is your next milestone – time to jump in – SPLASH!!
Now all these things are important, but if you try to take the whole pool on then the chances are that you’ll sink or sadly drown. So, here’s the thing, you can swim faster in some of those lanes than others and it’s okay to do that. Businesses are all different and they need different things at different times depending on where they are in their development. Okay – by the time you get to the end of the pool you’d hope to have all those lanes broadly the same in terms of how far you’re along them, but how you get there can be different.
So let’s take an example. Most businesses that manufacturer products feel that the key to their growth is winning new customers and breaking into new markets – so they may charge off in a front crawl down lane 3 splishing and splashing as they go. And that’s okay, but at some point you need the other lanes to catch up. Poor old Governance in Lane 4 is doing the breast stroke, getting irritated at being splashed by Customers and Markets and desperately trying to catch up. All of a sudden, Funding and Finance in Lane 1 launches into a frenzied butterfly (what is that stroke anyway??) as working capital comes under pressure to fulfil potential orders that Lane 3 might be converting. Talent in lane 2 perks up as some new hires may be needed as the business grows and kicks into gear with backstroke.
The point here is that the 4 swim lanes will inevitably go at different speeds at different times. Businesses who dive into all 4 lanes doing the front crawl are rare and there is a high risk of burnout and exhaustion and maybe a lifebuoy. The trick is to control the speed of each of the lanes so that they all remain in touch with each other. It may be that you need to slow down sometimes in some lanes to allow others to catch up a little and that’s okay too.
In an ideal world, by the time you get to the other end of the pool it’s a dead heat. Governance put in a late sprint to ensure that the risks were covered in the new contracts, Talent got there in the nick of time with a late lunge to ensure that boots were on the ground to deal with the new orders, Funding deciding to dump butterfly and a change to front crawl meant they got that working capital boost and Customers and New Markets almost drowned with exhaustion but did a doggy paddle at the end to get home. The perfect race.
Good growth is about getting the 4 key components to the end of the pool at the same time in a measured and controlled way, accepting that it’s okay for them not to be neck and neck all the way. Given that most people can’t swim in 4 lanes at once, help is generally needed whether that is someone cheering from the side of the pool, offering a life vest or sometimes diving in and dragging you gently along. Coleid is that support. We know how the race should be swum, we’ve got the medals to prove it and we’ve never had anyone drown on us yet!!