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Probably, everyone in the company believes that the work of a CEO is very elementary & limited to management. Sadly, that is not the case. The CEO is responsible for the continual growth, improvements, success, and achievement in the company.
Just a thought, how about getting rid of these three letters ‘CEO’ and replace it with CGO? (A CGO stands for Chief Growth Officer.) Why not? As the only target by the business owners is ‘growth’, the growth that brings more customers, more business and more money.
If for a long time your business is not crossing the boundaries of defined growth, then it is dying with few clients and declined growth graphs. I am sure you have not started to see the deathbed. As a ‘Chief Growth Officer’, it is essential to look after every aspect of your company, to see your customer base growing. In this competitive business world the competitors are not missing any opportunity to grow, so how can you outpace?
No matter how the growth plan is plotted, everything starts with YOU. Yes! You are responsible for the rise. So, what are the things you can do to pace the growth graph? Let’s explore.
Be Aware Of Market Trends
Change is inevitable, and business owners fail to grasp that. Usually, the CEOs who have an operation or finance background focus on optimizing the internal operations and cost control. Due to this, they often fail to understand the real market picture of customers, employee engagement, competitors and even the company.
Don’t get trapped with the so-called fascinating factors of growth and lose the sight of real market trends. So, what are the solutions to understand the current market scenario? Start with SWOT. Use the required resources and tools for market analysis to conduct SWOT (strength, weakness, opportunities, and threats) of your company and even the competitors. Either you have the option to subscribe industry analyst’s services; as an external resource can help you more than an internal team member. Gaining the knowledge about current trends will help CEO to make better decisions and drive the business growth.
Therefore, at quarterly months or a year, analyze your business under the microscope to acknowledge the changes that are creeping in.
Openly Share The Vision
Most of the time, employees don’t know the vision of the company, and they work just for the sake of a job. Eventually, you can understand the thin difference in the work done with the passion to achieve the goal and the work done just for the sake of completion. The CEOs usually commit the bold statements about the future of the company, but don’t share the employee’s part in making the goal.
Envisioning the future, looking forward to exciting possibilities of growth and sharing them is an important quality that decides if they are a leader. Yes! Leaders achieve their goal when the team (executives along with management) works together and share the same goal, progress, and changes in vision. The employees who know the vision to the core will definitely be an important mark in your growth story.
Cultivate A Customer Focused Philosophy
Over the period of reading multiple success stories in the industry, I have witnessed that CEOs who have witnessed the topmost level of growth continuously are the ones whose growth strategies are based on customer satisfaction. They have leveled-up their proficiency on being more attentive and engaging as they have learned the fact that their revenue comes from customers.
You are not a CEO if you lack the following skills:
• The ability & excellence in building relationships with customers
• The skill to listen and understand first. You need to be strategic while replying when customers have told you about the requirements & problems. Just claiming about being the best is never a solution.
• Self-Awareness – Relate to your customer and know how you can create an impact on their idea/problem.
Embrace Technology
It’s easy for the CEO’s to get mired in all routine struggles and wonder about growth stalled factors. Probably, one such factor is ‘latest technology’.
In a tech-advanced epoch, where each sector of our work, from driving efficiency to automation, from providing outstanding customer-experience to routine works will be embedded with technology. ‘Embracing technology’ does not ask you to implement the tech trend, but understand how new technologies will be an edge to their business routines and growth. The CEO and the CTO can ask the technology analysts or a software development company to know where the investment is essential.
Internal Improvement Opportunities
I believe, employees are the unsung heroes behind a company’s growth. No business owner would admit the fact that they can grow a flourishing business just by setting standards of quality and never look back to manage the resources. In fact, the companies that pay utter attention to internal practices and create ideas to improve are most successful organizations.
If customers are the heart and soul of the company, employees are the backbone of any organization and so a job of CEO is to work, manage the internal practices for better individual employees. The CGO’s endeavor is to even measure company’s cultural progression and offer employees the freedom to create the creativity and optimize their own productivity. Working constraints are always detrimental to a company’s growth.
Develop Other Products/Services To Sell
What if your company has already reached to growth level you planned earlier, and now you are planning to advance and create a new level? How can you grow? The quick and easiest way is to add a product to sell. Now you already have a good number of a customer base, and since they know the company, it becomes easy for them to trust and buy.
Apple included iPod, Apple Watch, and iPad. Porsche did this by creating an SUV. The ideas and growth begin when you start thinking along this vein. Start questioning, what else would your customers buy from you? Conduct a survey and know what they want. The customers will love to see that you cared about their opinions.
The formula is simple “The more the products offering, the greater the revenue”.
Hopefully, the passion to witness the change of success will push the endeavors for a bigger & a better business.
