sustaining business growth

8/14/2019 Sustaining Business Growth

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Sustaining Business Growth Part 1by N.Balajhi

posted athttp://enablingbusiness.blogspot.com

Businesses grow but not al l business grows continuously. In fact continuous

growth is elusive even for the ones led by the best of business minds. There may

be periods of f latness or even temporary slump due to external environment but

as long as a business turns up in quick t ime and resumes its growth journey, we

may deem a business as growing continuously.

To grow, a business has to perform. Continuous performance ensures continuous

growth. The word performance has different meanings to different people. To

some it may simply mean more money generated. To some it may refer to quality

of product or service. And to some it may mean return on investment. None of it

are wrong but even all of it do not capture what performance is al l about in a

business context, especially when we talk about business growth. An all

encompassing business performance would mean performance at al l the three

levels viz.,

Strategic

Competitive

Operational

Strategic performance involves

articulating vision and formulating

strategy. Competitive performance

involves harnessing knowledge and

innovating to achieve operational

excellence. Operational performance

involves delivering quality product /

service on time at effective cost. The

picture given alongside captures

three layers of performance in a

pyramid.
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Mostly people relate performance to operational performance. As long as the

external environment is conducive and friendly to the business then eff icient

operational performance alone may suff ice. However competitive pressures arepart and parcel of todays business environment and add to it the side effects of

globalisation, companies can no longer rest on their operational laurels. They

have to transcend competitive and strategic performance levels successfully in

order to grow and maintain the growth momentum.

Operational Performance vs. Competitive Performance

Operational performance involves successfully delivering on three traditional

yardsticks viz., Time, Quality and Cost. The operational mantra is to consume

optimal resources and delivering high quality of work in the least possible t ime.

A company sans operational issues and problems would deliver on operational

yardsticks 24x7. In the absence of any changes in the environment this

performance would suff ice for a company to be competitive. However changes in

the environment induced by the market / competition / economy / regulation /

society etc. can derail even the best of companies priding in eff icient operational

performances put up yesterday. It would not be suff ice to deliver eff iciently (by

yesterdays standards) when the

environment is constantly changing. In a

changing environment, what is eff icient

yesterday is not eff icient today. A

company needs to learn, know, adapt

and innovate in order to remain

competitive and lead the pack. It has to

evolve and dump work practices,

policies, systems, products, services,

technology etc. that were rendered

obsolete by the environment.

Companies that harness knowledge and foster innovation enrich their operations

and constantly raise the bar. These companies wil l remain competitive and often

capture the best of the market. The competitive performance factors viz.,

Knowledge and Innovation become a source of improvement for performance on


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operational yardsticks viz., Time, Quality and Cost. An operationally eff icient

company achieves operational excellence by managing and exploiting its

competitive performance factors. A strong Operational performance means

operational eff iciency. A strong competitive performance means operational

excellence.

In the next post we will discuss Competitive Performance in l ittle more detail and

explore the role of 'Knowledge' in achieving competitiveness.

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sustaining business growth

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