??? Profitable Growth Is Everyone's Business - A Book Summary The era of ruthless downsizing and dra...

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??? Profitable Growth Is Everyone's Business - A Book Summary
The era of ruthless downsizing and drastic cost cutting are long gone. Nowadays, companies have
pointed out that the best way to earn profit is only through growth ' profitable growth. In this book,
author Ram Charan provides 10 tools anyone can use to hurdle obstacles and achieve profitable
growth.
These tools are:
1. Revenue growth is everyone's business, so allow it to be part of everyone's daily work routine.
2. Hit many singles and doubles, not only home runs.
3. Seek good growth and get away from bad growth.
4. Dispel the myths that inhibit both people and organizations from growing.
5. Turn the idea of productivity on its head by increasing revenue productivity.
6. Develop and implement a growth budget.
7. Beef up upstream marketing.
8. Understand how to do effective cross-selling (or value/solutions selling).
9. Create a social engine to accelerate revenue growth.
10. Operationalize innovation by converting ideas into revenue growth. One in the most critical
points discussed could be the need for re-orientation of thinking. Most businessmen and executives
think about growth as 'home-runs' plus much more often absolutely nothing disregard the 'singles
and doubles'. Managers often look forward to the big breakthrough or even the grand awesome
without realizing that home runs don't happen everywhere ' sometimes, they don't even occur in a
decade.
Instead of aiming towards that one grand great hit, aim for singles and doubles. This is a surer plus
more consistent path. Of course, you should note that while aiming for singles and doubles, you
ought to not exclude home runs. These singles and doubles are derived from an in-depth analysis of
ALL the fundamentals of a business.
Another step to be considered could be the difference between good growth and bad growth.
Managers should dispel the myth that growth in whatever form is really a victory. Although growth
(both bad and the good) builds revenue, only good growth increases not only revenues and also
improves profits and is sustainable over time.
Bad growth, on the other hand, lowers shareholder value. Unwise mergers and acquisitions are
types of bad growth. Price cutting to realize market share without cutting costs can even be
detrimental for your company's health.

2. Here are a few questions which will help you diagnose if you are part of a growth business:
1. What percentage of some time and emotional energy does the management team routinely spend
on revenue growth?
2. Are there just exhortations and mention growth or perhaps is there actually follow-through?
3. Do managers talk about growth only with regards to home runs? Do they comprehend the
importance of singles and doubles for long-term, sustained organic growth?
4. How much of every management team member's time is focused on making effective visits with
customers? Do they do greater than listen and probe for information and continue to 'connect the
dots'?
5. Does the management team encounter the final user of your product?
6. Are people in the business clear about what the specific future reasons for revenue growth will
probably be? Do they know who's accountable?
7. Would you characterize your organization or business unit's culture as cost cutting or growth
oriented? If the fact is one or another you have to start doing both. Do people in leadership positions
hold the skill, orientation, and determination to grow revenues?
8. Does the organization practice revenue productivity? Does it consider whether you can more
pedestal effectively use current resources to get higher revenues?
9. How well does the sales force extract intelligence from customers and other players in the
marketplace? How well is information communicated and acted on by other parts of your respective
organization, such as product development?
10. How good include the upstream marketing skills- that's, the ability to segment markets and
identify consumer home attributes- inside your business?
About the Author:
Ram Charan is coauthor with the landmark Fortune article “Why CEOs Fail" plus an adviser on
corporate governance, CEO succession, and strategy implementation. He was named as Best
Teacher by Northwestern's Kellogg School and as a top-rated executive educator by Business Week.
He is author of Boards at Work, coauthor of Every Business Is a Growth Business, along with a
frequent reason for Harvard Business Review. (6/2000)
By: Regine P. Azurin and Yvette Pantilla
Regine Azurin is the President of BusinessSummaries.com, a business that provides business book
summaries in the latest bestsellers for busy executives and entrepreneurs.
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