McGrath Rita Gunther, MacMillan Ian C
Columbia University's Graduate School of Business, New York, New York, USA.
Harv Bus Rev. 2005 Mar;83(3):80-9, 148.
If company leaders were granted a single wish, it would surely be for a reliable way to create new growth businesses. Business practitioners'overwhelming interest in this subject prompted the authors to conduct a three-year study of organizational growth--specifically, to find out which growth strategies were most successful. They discovered, somewhat to their surprise, that even companies in mature industries found rich new sources of growth when they reconfigured their unit of business (what they bill customers for) or their key metrics (how they measure success). In this article, the authors outline these and other moves companies can make to redefine their profit drivers and realize low-risk growth. They offer plenty of real-world examples. For instance: CHANGING YOUR UNIT OF BUSINESS: Once a conventional printing house, Madden Communications not only prints promotional materials for customers but also manages the distribution and installation of those materials on-site. Its revenues grew from dollars 1o million in 1990 to dollars 133 million in 2004, in an industry that many had come to regard as hopelessly mature. IMPROVING YOUR KEY METRICS-PARTICULARLY PRODUCTIVITY: Lamons Gasket, with dollars 80 million in revenues, built a Web site that radically improved its customers' ability to find, order, and pay for goods. The firm's market share rose along with its customer retention rate. The authors also suggest ways to identify your unit of business and associated key metrics and recognize the obstacles to changing them; review the key customer segments you serve; assess the need for new capabilities and the potential for internal resistance to change; and communicate to internal and external constituencies the changes you wish to make in your unit of business or key metrics.
如果公司领导者能被满足一个愿望，那肯定是希望找到一种可靠的方式来创建新的增长型业务。商业从业者对这一主题的浓厚兴趣促使作者对组织增长进行了为期三年的研究——具体而言，就是找出哪些增长策略最为成功。他们发现，有点出乎他们意料的是，即使是成熟行业的公司，当它们重新配置业务单元（向客户计费的内容）或关键指标（衡量成功的方式）时，也能找到丰富的新增长源。在本文中，作者概述了公司可以采取的这些及其他举措，以重新定义其利润驱动因素并实现低风险增长。他们提供了大量实际案例。例如：改变业务单元：马登通信公司曾经是一家传统印刷厂，如今它不仅为客户印刷宣传材料，还负责在现场管理这些材料的分发和安装。在一个许多人认为已极度成熟的行业中，其收入从1990年的1000万美元增长到了2004年的1.33亿美元。改进关键指标——尤其是生产率：年收入8000万美元的拉蒙斯垫片公司建立了一个网站，极大地提高了客户查找、订购和支付商品的能力。该公司的市场份额和客户留存率一同上升。作者还提出了一些方法，用于确定你的业务单元和相关关键指标，并识别改变它们的障碍；审视你所服务的关键客户群体；评估对新能力的需求以及内部对变革的抵触可能性；以及向内部和外部相关方传达你希望在业务单元或关键指标方面做出的改变。
