Long term goals · Build, buy or ally · Component

Growth mode decision

For one growth move of the business: what it requires, the answers to the mode questions, and the route chosen.

The deliverable

What it is

Each growth move named under Direction of growth — a new market, a new offer, a step change in scale — asks for things the business does not yet have: a customer base, a market position, a presence, volume. The decision records whether the business will grow into the move organically, buy its way in, or share it with an ally. How a single missing competence is closed is a narrower question, settled under Building in Core competencies.

Working through the questions in order is the discipline. It makes the case for the chosen route explicit and shows what would have to change for a different route to be preferred.

One level in

What it is made of

Each element is a constituent part of the component. Follow one to see the attributes it carries.

  1. Growth move requirements

    What the growth move asks of the business — scale, customers, market position, presence — and how far that is from today.

    3 attributes: Requirement · Why needed · Growth move

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  2. Mode tests

    The answers to the four questions: relevance of existing resources, tradability, closeness needed, and integration feasibility.

    3 attributes: Test · Answer · Confidence

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  3. Selected route

    The mode chosen — build, contract, alliance or acquisition — with the reasoning and the date of the decision.

    3 attributes: Mode · Reason · Decided

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State what the move requires without naming the route. A requirement that names the route has decided the question before it is asked.