5 minute read
Uncomplicate Business
Is your business primed for post-COVID growth?
The writer speaks about how COVID has affected the economy and mentions certain indicators that could help to bring businesses back on the growth charts
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Yeh dil mange more was the famous life cycle, don’t use price as a lever to spur Pepsi slogan from the late 90s. One Indicator 1: A Happy ecosystem growth. of the reasons it became a runaway hit A happy ecosystem is the best indicator of Some of the e-commerce businesses was the way it played on our obsession sustainable growth. Your growth should are examples of how not to do it. Growing for growth, for always seeking that little have kept you and everyone else happyat the speed of light and losing money bit more. This obsession with growth is or at least not sad. Why? If everyone’s at a similar rate. It could be argued that there in all spheres of our life, whether it happy, it indicates a sustainable ecovaluations of some of these loss-making is the hunger for more GDP or a bigger system. If suppliers are not happy with companies is through the roof. But those car or house or more money or a bigger payment timelines, chances are they’ll are the exceptions rather than the norm. business. Growth has strong perceived drag their feet on the next order. If a The private equity players bought into linkage to prosperity. customer feels cheated, they’ll move to Flipkart, assuming they would sell to
This obsession with economic available alternatives. If employees have a larger player – and they found one in growth is recent. Till the 18th century, increased work pressure with increased Walmart. So, unless you are looking at the population hardly grew. Nor did the growth, performance may suffer, or their playing the valuations game (or have very economy. For most people, the clothes on growth in the organization is out of sync deep pockets!), a general rule is to never their back and a few pots and pans were with business growth. Long story short, lose money on a sale. the bulk of their possessions. So, things it pays to keep everyone happy with your If you’re profitable, just make sure that were stagnant. Other than ambitious growth for it to be sustainable. the profits don’t just remain on the books. kings, everyone pretty much remained at One warning – differentiate between Businesses need cash. As someone once the same place. Economic growth started inertia and happiness. Everyone’s said: Turnover is vanity, Profit is sanity, with rising consumerism in Europe happiness shouldn’t be at the cost of and Cash is reality. that drove a cycle of growth. A lot of future growth. Many companies showed this demand was based on unimportant excellent growth, with all stakeholders Indicator 4: Knowing why you grew stuff, such as silk slippers, suede gloves apparently happy. Suddenly the ground It’s easy to celebrate good growth. And and fancy butter dishes. Yet, as Bernard opened beneath their feet. They were why not? Yet, it’s critical to understand Mandeville argued in his 1723 book The too content with the current situation. and analyse reasons for growth. If Fable of the Bees, what made countries Nokia is a telling example. They moved there’s no answer, the growth is not rich was ‘shopping for pleasure’. It’s the from being a fast-growing company sustainable. It is also crucial to analyse consumption of the seemingly silliest with happy employees to zilch in a short flat or negative growth. This normally things that makes economies grow. The period. happens at a superficial level and often only way to generate wealth, argued results in a blame-game. Sales personnel Mandeville, was to ensure high demand Indicator 2: Consistent Growth not selling, GST implementation etc for absurd and unnecessary things. Consistency is important. Other than are few examples. Yet, try to go beyond Even the concept of GDP is fairly new. expected or explainable seasonality the surface while analysing poor Developed by Simon Kuznets in the (or pandemics!), there shouldn’t be growth, separate the controllable and 1930s. It was only after World War II troughs or peaks within or across years. uncontrollable factors from each other that it entered the mainstream and grew Inconsistency is bad. You swing between and plan and implement interventions in to become the universal measure of the understaffing (hunting for employees) to the controllable factors. growth of the economy. overstaffing (underutilized employees).
The pandemic has thrown all growth You swing between periods where Summary out of the window. GDP has degrown suppliers want to dump stock and where Some businesses take a conscious across the world. Most companies, other you want stock but the suppliers can’t or decision to grow slow. Slow growth than a lucky few, have degrown. In some won’t provide you with it. Roller-coasters allows for a personalized experience cases, the degrowth has been off the are fun, but not for your business. for customers and (possibly) better charts. In these uncertain times, how do quality of life for the promoters. Yet, be businesses decide whether their growth Indicator 3: Profitable Growth wary that it’s not a symptom of inertia (or degrowth) is par for the course? I Profitability should not take a beating at or conservatism. Some big names have don’t have an answer. Yet, there are some the altar of growth. Selling at the cost of gone under by not moving fast enough indicators of ‘good growth’ in the past. margins is an easy game to get in, but very and responding to market needs. Not If you find these indicators for your difficult to get out off. Unless, you were planning and executing everyday is the business, it’s very likely your business will pricing at a premium and are reducing biggest risk, even if you choose to grow be back to growth soon. the premium due to the product / service slowly The author runs iv-advisors, a consulting firm helping businesses become bigger and better. Email:sunildias@iv-advisors.com
Specifying the reward – the benefit or solution that the consumers will get by using the product, adds on. Offering higher value is a sure way to get better engagement. Habit marketing should be focused on changing product experience so that consumers are self-triggered to buy. Also, building a relationship with customers leads to a better brand habit building that ensures growth and profitability. Hence, persuade and engage consumers to build strong brand habits