Growth is not a matter of the marketplace. It is all about the company. The impediments to growth sit within a company itself, not in the marketplace. The first place to look for growth is internally, not externally. Companies must be ready and able to capture growth.
The companies that are fit for growth dominate the marketplace, which is reflected in growing concentration both within sectors and in the stock market. The success enjoyed by these companies is confirmation for all companies that growth is available no matter the market, good or bad. There is a wide open opportunity for every business to gain ground and grow. Growth is rarely hostage to the marketplace.
Even in sectors hardest hit by the pandemic, not all businesses fared the same. Not all airlines. Not all restaurants. Not all automobile manufacturers. Not all hotels. What differentiated companies that struggled (many went under) from companies that did better (some thrived) was not the marketplace, which was the same for every company. It was the company itself.
Kantar’s work with companies worldwide has shown time and again that even the biggest opportunities are out of reach if a company lacks the structure, skills and competencies it takes to grow. Yannis Kavounis, a Partner with Kantar’s Consulting Division in the UK, summed up this wealth of applied learning as the foundational prerequisite that growth begins with “the courage to grow.”
Courage is needed more than ever. While growth is always on the agenda, the coronavirus pandemic has made growth the only thing on the agenda. Kantar’s decades of experience and success helping companies grow rests on ten proven actions across five critical imperatives that will deliver growth for every company for every kind of future.
Kantar Plan for Future Growth
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5 Critical Imperatives |
10 Key Actions to Undertake |
Immediate Next Step |
Illustrative Impact |
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1. Focus on doing the right things rather than waiting for the marketplace to right itself. |
1) Full-blown commitment to customer-centricity. |
Internal benchmarking audit to identify and fix organizational capabilities gaps. |
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2. Grow the category not just the brand. |
3) Broaden category boundaries. |
Frequently updated understanding of the underlying drivers of demand. |
Brands in growing categories 5X more likely to be growing, as proven by Kantar research |
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3. Resecure the core and target loyalty softness among competitors. |
5) Remap the structure of demand. |
Real-time, reactive systems for tracking and improving ‘meaningful difference.’ |
45 percent faster growth for big brands prioritizing loyalty, as proven by Kantar research |
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4. Find profit through purpose rather than making profit the only purpose. |
7) Embrace a credible, differentiated purpose strategy. |
Continuous tracking to gauge corporate and brand relevance to social issues and purpose. |
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5. Plan against scenarios not certainties. |
9) Bring together top-down and bottom-up trendspotting and futures assessment. |
Sharpen focus and capabilities for growth in ‘uncomfortable places’ that will require new business models. |
Performance by a Kantar client business unit grew from slightly declining to 33% growth |