• 7 Essentials to Achieve Exponential Growth
• By David G Thomson
• Wiley
• RRP $46.99
How to get New Zealand companies to grow is an age-old conundrum for our politicians and economic advisors. Our business leaders are equally baffled by how to achieve it, with just one or two notable exceptions – Fonterra being one of them.
David G Thomson, author of the bestseller Blueprint for Billion, visited New Zealand recently and thinks he knows how business leaders might up their success rate. “By reading my latest book,” he told this reviewer. So I have.
There are, according to his latest book, seven essential super-growth drivers. And they will become increasingly important, not just to enterprises of the future, but to nations in general. Thomson findings are based on his study of what he calls recession-proof businesses – like Apple, Microsoft, Google and number of other obvious and not-so-obvious US companies.
In addition to spelling out what he thinks companies need to do to grow dramatically, he argues that governments should create the environment in which growth businesses thrive. Too often they waste time, effort, intellect and other exhausting but ultimately pointless activities, with small businesses and starting up numerous enterprise incubators. The book is an actionable blueprint for companies focused on growth, but also suggestion that government change their enterprise boosting policies and priorities.
Economic turbulence creates change. Exceptional companies, according to Thomson, profit from varied economic conditions. Now is the time, therefore, to separate the growers from the grafters and for growth focused organisations to differentiate themselves from their competitors.
The book is 200 pages short. It includes an explanation of what defines and underpins growth, what the author’s seven essentials for high growth are, where they come from and how to action and implement them. Finally, Thomson identifies his three essential leadership pillars which are about being purpose driven, enterprising and service focused.
The core of Thomson’s argument for growth is that only super growth-focused companies can deliver significant national economic advantage. He defines growth as having simple, fundamental and essential characteristics: achieving compounding customer demand as measured by revenue growth. This approach allows companies to grow revenue every year which is the “number one objective” of all for-profit management teams and the one most difficult to achieve.
The book is easy to read and for many, will be worth the effort.
