Five Lessons to Power Enterprise Growth Beyond the Core
March 2024
15 min read
Aperture Setting
It’s a simple truth: growth happens over time, while customer and market dynamics change too quickly to only focus on today. Yet, many companies typically invest in growth by time horizon, meaning they first prioritize core business growth, then adjacent, and finally transformational growth that often gets deprioritized. When in reality, investment in the core business can support adjacent and transformational growth to drive enterprise value. Viewing everything as one business in service of the customer fuels growth across horizons in the long-term.
Lessons to Power Growth Beyond the Core
Companies of all sizes know growing beyond their core business is hard. These learnings come from years of hands-on experience with C-suites helping do it successfully and drive enterprise value.
Focus on your first best customer
For market leaders, a new offering’s customer base can be built-in at launch, even when that audience isn’t the long-term “best” customer. Identify which existing customers to launch with for immediate learnings, revenue, and clarity on how it fits into what exists today. This is a “first best customer” strategy.
Root every move in purpose
Purpose-led companies are far more successful at creating new offerings. Viewing new offerings from the core can mistakenly deem them “irrelevant.” A values led organization knows what business it’s really in– at the highest order– and purpose can serve as a guide to grow beyond the core.
Measure portfolio value
New offerings are often “small” compared to a core, already scaled business. Instead, measure the benefits to the core business from the new one: better data, improved lifetime value, or possibly increased enterprise value via access to a high growth industry.
Show up with something tangible
The most ambitious ideas are often the most abstract at first, but lack the tangibility to survive. Invest in proofs of concept that close the gap to what's possible for the internal organization, and to build evidence of demand with customers who now can envision the change.
Keep your metrics singularly simple
Large companies have many metrics, but new offerings require focus. Keeping it simple tempers the bar for success, while keeping an eye on what matters: new segments, new engagement, new value worth measuring. Old metrics are often focused on optimization and can’t measure new things.
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