February 20, 2010

Not wanting to be very dramatic with the title, but we all know growth is key to human well-being and continued existence. I personally seek and am energized by growing intellectually and emotionally. The key to growth in my life has always been a burning desire to leave my comfort zone and venture into a learning zone where there is uncertainty, manageable stress, calculated risks and most importantly, opportunities for new experiences and innovations. The comfort zone is my foundation and the learning zone is my journey.

The point of view for growth is like a basic building block. It becomes the key in developing the code of growth in your life, in your organization and in your community too. As an entrepreneur who is challenged with the need to constantly achieve profitable growth, here are a few conceptual parameters that I have included in my point of view through my experiences, interactions and readings

-- Business “Maturity” is an ongoing process – The idea of a mature business is pseudo. Any company of any size in any industry has to grow regardless of how mature the company or the industry is.

-- Real growth is Profitable growth – Not all growth is good. The notion of growth at all costs or growth for its own sake can be detrimental to the future of the organization.

-- Growth is a culture and a mindset – As a leader you seed growth in everything you do as a company and it catches fire when everybody buys into it.

-- Growth for the long haul – A long term perspective for growth requires a meticulous attention to the basics – cost, quality, management principles, continuous improvement, productivity and operation excellence.

-- Growth has to be both qualitative and quantitative.

-- Growth has to become a habit and the risk is well worth it – In most cases, it take courage to venture into newer paths for growth but it is far better to do that than stay stagnant and watch your competition grow.

At Visions@work, we have and we will go through a variety of growth experiences reflecting new products, new services, new features to existing products, new market segments, partnerships, acquisitions, management changes and other events that have shaped our progress and continue to do so.

The ultimate challenge for a leader is to create an organization or an environment that can sustain profitable growth.