Five Focus Areas for Growth-Forward Companies

Unlocking growth requires involving your team to understand which aspects of your business are out of balance, and disproportionately focusing on them.

By Jeffrey Wiant, Erin Kirby, and Natalie Warren

It’s a new year. GDP growth is slow. A different industry leader is announcing layoffs each week, consumer spending lacks confidence, and you need to grow your business while navigating the uncertainty. Where do you look? How do you prioritize focus?

During these uncertain times, when proceeding cautiously is prudent and macroeconomic indicators are not confirming an obvious strategic direction, it’s an opportunity to look inward. It’s time to devote attention to what your team is seeing as they operate your business.

Why involve my teams?

Through nearly 250 conversations Slalom had with CEOs in 2022, we found only 20% of these CEOs identified new ways to collaborate, develop, and grow strategic thinking by specifically looking to their teams as the inspiration.

This group of leaders opted not to rely on their own personal understandings of their organization’s strengths and weaknesses, and instead looked to their employees and teams as gatekeepers to valuable insights of which they would not otherwise be cognizant.

To adopt this mindset, business leaders can actively seek feedback from each of the teams across their organization to uncover truths and concerns that may be previously unknown. In doing so, we not only learn from our employees “on the ground” doing the work of operating the business but we also gain access to a wider range of thought from a larger number of people with differing backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives.

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While it’s natural to assume more input from more people can result in a greater likelihood of disagreement, experts warn not to let that deter you. Research shows that more perspectives drive better, more innovative decision-making. After all, challenging assumptions and beliefs are part of what generates new ideas.

It turns out the benefits of looking inward go in both directions. Leaders learn from employees, and employees end up being more productive.

A study examining this relationship found that employees who were brought into decision-making opportunities reported performing at a higher level by virtue of feeling more engaged in collective outcomes. An added bonus is a better relationship between employee and manager, whereby the employee feels heard, valued, and committed to an organization’s strategic direction.

Simply engaging your teams and seeking their perspectives has exponential value and can give you a more complete understanding of where new opportunities exist for your organization.

What opportunities can I uncover to help my organization grow?

We’ve identified five growth drivers that leaders of successful, growth-forward companies intentionally focus on.

1. Customer obsession

Instilling the value of customer obsession within the organization generates the right customer experience throughout all interactions within the company, differentiating it from competitors.

Hyatt: When this global hospitality company sought to push the boundaries of customer digital experience, they chose Slalom to build an industry-leading World of Hyatt app resulting in an 80% increase in booking revenue.

2. Insurgent mindset

Maintaining an insurgent mindset promotes innovation and purpose, developing and embracing a framework for sustaining innovation excellence and maintaining competitive advantage.

Broadridge: When this global fintech leader saw increasing demand for digital assets, they utilized Slalom’s Element Lab innovation hub to rapidly ideate, research, prototype, and test a series of Web3 product hypotheses.

3. Relentless focus on team

Focusing on developing and evolving your teams to perform at their best, allowing them to take advantage of opportunities, respond to threats, and stay competitive.

NASDAQ: When stock exchange giant Nasdaq wanted to address company culture through the lens of its business transformation, Slalom partnered to deliver an enterprise-level culture activation roadmap.

4. Highly aligned leadership

Forging an aligned leadership team that shares the same vision and understanding of success will help your organization thrive and lead in your market.

Conscious Capitalism: When this nonprofit organization wanted to bring global awareness of its mission, they chose Slalom to evaluate market opportunity, define a strategy for growth, and build passionate alignment.

5. Operating foundation as a strategic advantage

Strengthening the operating foundation with the right platforms and tools provides you with a strategic advantage by identifying areas to capture further value and enabling agility and speed in decision-making within the organization.

Supply Chain: When a global manufacturer experienced an increase in net freight costs and supply chain inefficiencies, Slalom partnered to improve their shipping network resulting in $16M in cost savings.

All companies should have an awareness of how their organization performs across these five growth drivers. However, it’s difficult to excel and lead in all five simultaneously, so we must uncover exactly which area of the business is deserving of focused attention.

The secret to unlocking growth within your organization is understanding which aspects are out of balance, and disproportionately focusing on them.

So how do we direct focus?

Even the most disruptive of industry-leading companies struggle to master each of the five growth drivers. What’s more common is for an industry-leading company to choose and adopt a single value driver — customer obsession, insurgent mindset, or a relentless focus on team. When done correctly these companies are known in their industry and beyond for embracing their chosen value.

Industry-leading companies will also have mastered having highly aligned leadership and building a strong operating foundation. These growth drivers are what enable performance. Without them, it is much more difficult for a company to achieve industry-leading status, or for the market to believe they truly embrace and live their chosen value.

To direct initial focus into pursuing one of these growth drivers, we can start by asking our teams for input on where the organization is thriving (or merely surviving) across each area. This allows us to set a baseline among the performance and value side of the business.

How do I go about this in the best way?

Engaging your teams is most effective when you ask the right questions across the right areas, and diligently analyze and prioritize the possible paths to pursue growth. Slalom can help you engage your teams in the right way to derive insights that can direct your focus and investment as you’re growing. Partnership with us enables:

• Assessment across growth drivers. Immediate understanding of where your organization — from leaders to operators — witnesses strength and opportunities, straight from insights uncovered through our growth survey.
• Analysis of opportunities. Root cause diagnostic of opportunity areas, conducted through targeted interviews, focus groups, and fact-based analysis.​
• Identification of solution and impact. Options of solutions for opportunities along with estimation of the benefit and level of effort required for each.
• A path to growth. An action plan to implement your solutions, accelerate your growth drivers, and activate growth.

Involve your teams, evaluate your strengths among the five growth drivers, direct your focus, and chart your path for growth. This is how we do it with our clients.

Are you ready to choose your next path for growth?

Slalom is a global consulting firm that helps people and organizations dream bigger, move faster, and build better tomorrows for all. Learn more and reach out today.