Strategies for Accelerating Growth
Growth Research: Markets & Industries
Research has identified an important, yet surprising driver of growth.
Beyond fast growing markets and winning products or services, there is a surprising factor that drives growth. It is consistently identified by research among the fastest growing. It is effective cross-functional collaboration among senior management. Growth is not just the job of or marketing, it an organization-wide focus. In the pursuit of growth everybody has a role to play, but solo-runs or stand alone initiatives by individual departments or managers are not enough to delivery sustained and profitable growth. That is why the metaphor and model of the pit team is a powerful one.
It takes a team to race a fast car – that is if it is going to win. The driver cannot just get out of the car and fix it him/herself and one or two people in the pit lane is not enough. It takes a team – a pit team. Your management team is the pit crew – your organization and its growth strategy is the car. Watch how your team works together and engages with the issues of growth performance and potential. This will reveal the level of success that your organization is likely to achieve.
EXTRAORDINARY TEAMWORK
Business and organizational success is increasingly team-based. For example, research shows that a collaborative or team based approach is key to effective strategy and execution . It is also key to learning , as well as to innovation and creativity . But what is effective teamwork?
We all have had experience of working with great teams, as well as perhaps some lousy teams too. Yet it can be hard to describe what teamwork is – to make it tangible and put it in words. Thankfully, there is a new way of communicating what great teamwork is, and why it matters. Go to the nearest motor racetrack, or simply type ‘pitstop’ into YouTube. To watch the Ferrari™, McLaren™ or Red Bull™ team undertake a pitstop is to witness teamwork at its best. It is truly awe-inspiring.
A pitstop is a race against the clock. For just a few seconds a driver’s success is in the hands of a highly-choreographed pit team of up to 20 people. It looks deceptively easy, but just one person in the wrong place, and 1st place can become 7th place!
Millions of people are watching from their living rooms – a clock at the bottom of the TV screen counts down the milliseconds. One second, wheels off… two seconds, wheels on… three seconds, the car is back in the race. That’s it!
Great pitstops win races; lousy pitstops lose races. What happens when the pit crew comes together determines the outcome of the race. Now research shows that what happens when your management team comes together determines the success of your organization.
