The tide of growth moves all boats.

Growth is a beast whose many tentacles reach throughout an organization. All aspects of your business must be in continual balance to grow successfully and sustainably.

A firm’s growth is defined and measured by the increase in the number of customers or users and/or the increase in the average revenue per customer/user. A growth objective therefore is stated as either a certain number of customers or the amount of revenue increases over a certain period of time. A rate of growth of 15% per year is typically the high-end of the range that can be maintained without harmful effects. A rate of 25% per year or higher is hyper growth and is extremely risky to the firm’s survival; it therefore requires very special strategies and cautions.

An essential ingredient in all growth strategies must be the maintenance of a balanced and concurrent rise of all functions of the company. I.e., the “tide” of a rapid increase in the number of customers necessitates a rise in all functional areas or “boats” of the company.

To accomplish this balance and confluence, it is necessary to have a multidisciplinary structure of forward information and feedback/analytic systems, as well as liaison of a number of areas of marketing, sales and even product.

In other words, to tame the Kraken of growth, all boats must rise to the challenge.