Course Preview | Business Strategies for Growth: Fewer, Bigger, Bolder from Kellogg Executive Education
4:21 min
29
This program has 3 objectives. The first one is growth, the second one is growth and the 3rd one is growth. We will be discussing how you can grow personally, how you can grow your team and how you can grow your enterprise. And we will be talking about now how you can apply these lessons immediately. Working with many executives and companies, I hear many pain points.
What are some of the most frequent challenges people face? My company is not growing. This is one of the main challenges that always comes through. Silos are alive and well. People in different departments act like they're in different companies. Retaining and inspiring people always comes up as a big challenge and linked with this is acquiring skills and talent. My team lacks energy very often. I feel I'm being murdered by endless PowerPoint presentations. My work life has declined into back to back virtual meetings.
These are very stressful as I feel that there's a lot of activity being busy and is often being confused with output. I'm so busy I can hardly find time to think now. I've heard these and similar complaints many many many times. But the crescendo has been building to a roar recently, and that virtually all the pain develops from that implacable demand to grow. I think I've got something that will help overtime. I have developed a framework for building sustainable, profitable growth. That is growth that continues to build on itself.
I call that framework Focus 7 because it includes 7 steps and because sustained growth almost always begins with focus. So with my colleague from Northwestern University, Professor Sani, I laid out that framework in a book. Few are bigger, bolder, and I'm finding that some of the practical lessons from this book are even more applicable today in this volatile, uncertain world. I continue to apply the Focus 7 framework and continue to improve on some of the practical lessons and tips.
Focus 7 can be applied across industries, it can be applied across different functions, and it is applicable independent of what level you are in the organization. The work we do focuses less on the what, We focus more on the So what now what? Our work clearly has a bias for action. We also believe that success is 10% strategy, 90% execution. Talk is cheap. PowerPoint is even cheaper. Our task is not only to talk about growth, but to make growth happen.
Think of Focus 7 as your personal toolkit. It forms the basis of this program. Now all of you have a choice in life. You can either be cozy or you can fly. My hypothesis is it is extremely risky to be cozy. Why? Because if you are cozy, you tend to be comfortable. Very often comfort leads to complacency and sometimes complacency leads to arrogance. I encourage all of you to fly.
What are some of the most frequent challenges people face? My company is not growing. This is one of the main challenges that always comes through. Silos are alive and well. People in different departments act like they're in different companies. Retaining and inspiring people always comes up as a big challenge and linked with this is acquiring skills and talent. My team lacks energy very often. I feel I'm being murdered by endless PowerPoint presentations. My work life has declined into back to back virtual meetings.
These are very stressful as I feel that there's a lot of activity being busy and is often being confused with output. I'm so busy I can hardly find time to think now. I've heard these and similar complaints many many many times. But the crescendo has been building to a roar recently, and that virtually all the pain develops from that implacable demand to grow. I think I've got something that will help overtime. I have developed a framework for building sustainable, profitable growth. That is growth that continues to build on itself.
I call that framework Focus 7 because it includes 7 steps and because sustained growth almost always begins with focus. So with my colleague from Northwestern University, Professor Sani, I laid out that framework in a book. Few are bigger, bolder, and I'm finding that some of the practical lessons from this book are even more applicable today in this volatile, uncertain world. I continue to apply the Focus 7 framework and continue to improve on some of the practical lessons and tips.
Focus 7 can be applied across industries, it can be applied across different functions, and it is applicable independent of what level you are in the organization. The work we do focuses less on the what, We focus more on the So what now what? Our work clearly has a bias for action. We also believe that success is 10% strategy, 90% execution. Talk is cheap. PowerPoint is even cheaper. Our task is not only to talk about growth, but to make growth happen.
Think of Focus 7 as your personal toolkit. It forms the basis of this program. Now all of you have a choice in life. You can either be cozy or you can fly. My hypothesis is it is extremely risky to be cozy. Why? Because if you are cozy, you tend to be comfortable. Very often comfort leads to complacency and sometimes complacency leads to arrogance. I encourage all of you to fly.
