Business growth requires considerable thought, dialogue and a plan based on the company's vision, mission, values and operating principles.

Business growth, like personal growth, is challenging. It requires considerable thought, dialogue and a plan based on the company's vision, mission, values and operating principles. All of these pieces function together to define the overall focus of the company.

Focus then requires a balance between external and internal factors affecting the company as well as provisions for one of the company's most important assets: its people. Once focus is defined and mitigating factors identified, a strategic plan that adds tactics, action and measurements creates the roadmap to business growth.

The Pyramid of Success
Imagine this plan as a pyramid. Vision is at the top, whether it's the vision of an entrepreneur, the company's ownership, management or the board. Vision describes the ultimate goal.

Below vision on the pyramid is the mission. Mission defines how the company is to achieve its vision; it is the blueprint for the vision.

For example, say an organization's vision is to be the best provider of XYZ services in the North American market within the next 10 years. This organization's mission is to provide services that are more encompassing than anyone else's in the marketplace and delivered in a quality fashion where customer service is No. 1. The mission defines the strategies for achieving the vision.

The next level down in the pyramid consists of the values that drive the implementation of the mission. The values are how the organization treats employees, customers, vendors, peers, community, etc. An organization may have a vision of becoming the biggest and the best, yet this doesn't happen with questionable values.

On the other hand, an organization may have this same vision of being the biggest and the best, yet values quality and delivery of products and services, as well as its reputation and brand in the market.

The second organization has a far better chance of becoming the biggest and the best. Adherence to moral, altruistic and/or ethical values drives how an organization fulfills its mission and achieves its vision.

The Foundation
Operating principles form the base or foundation of the pyramid. They ensure the vision and mission are achieved in a manner consistent with company values. Senior management, middle management, plant workers, shop workers, people in the field, sales staff and other employees will execute the operating principles.

The organization abides by these operating principles every day; it sets goals and quotas and achieves them by following the operating principles. The principles are translated into operational activities within every department and level of the company. They communicate how the people are to be measured in the performance of their jobs, what's expected from employees and how performance is monitored.

Business growth is achieved when operating principles are based on values aligned with the corporate mission to achieve the company's vision. If inconsistencies develop, then reputation, morale, forward progress and growth suffer.

Once the levels of a success pyramid are defined, strategic planning is the next major factor in driving business growth. Planning leads to actions, accountability, responsibility and established completion dates. It defines how to grow the business, the processes needed and, once achieved, how to remain the industry leader.

Without this plan, the organizational vision remains just a pie-in-the-sky illusion without any basis in reality.

Planning for Success
When companies grow from an entrepreneurial startup to an institutional-based, professionally managed organization, changes occur.

If the company doesn't take the time to review, adjust and synchronize the strategic plan to the vision, mission, values and operating principles, failure is likely. That's because management hasn't taken the time to make sure early successes are translated into the broader corporate culture and that individuals form high-functioning teams that continue to maintain their focus on the long-term vision.

Second, the business environment is not static or predictable. Rather, market conditions, product/service variables, employees, information and competition are continuously changing. That's why flexibility in the strategic plan and the decision-making process is important. Without flexibility, companies become too rigid to make the necessary adjustments needed to adapt and continue their growth to the top.

Monitoring Data
Strategic planning flexibility is derived from examining key business indicators and matrices to determine how they relate to the operating departments of the company. Monitoring data such as quality output, overtime requirements, scrap output, efficiency, productivity, the amount of waste and re-work generated by an employee and meeting quotas provides valuable input to the decision-makers.

The information then drives other internal business decisions, such as employee incentives, compensation and training. Without adequate systems in place to provide real-time data, top management cannot consider how new information impacts growth.

This concept is similar to one that coaches use in managing their sports teams. The coach examines all the team facts, figures and performance records. The statistics are attainable because they were tracked within the organization.

The manager then decides what to do when there are two outs and no players on base, or when to bring in a left-handed vs. a right-handed pitcher and when to bunt. The data allows the manager to be flexible in adapting to quickly changing scenarios in the game.

External Balance and Focus
Businesses that grow successfully are balanced as well as focused. Their leaders are up to date on the latest marketplace, industry and technological trends. They tap into external business intelligence such as the status of their competitors, groundbreaking research and development as well as the potential for innovative products and services. They know what's going on in the marketplace.

Again, the sports analogy applies. Before a game, the coaching staff creates a plan partially based on viewing films of the other team to see how it reacted and performed previously. The coaching staff also employs scouts to determine which new players will be the best fit for the team's success.

In business, employees (scouts) share the responsibility of examining what the competition is doing, dissecting their products, services and sales strategies and investigating new research and development. This allows organizations to know where they stand externally on the business growth ladder relative to their competition.

This type of focus is not only concentrated on other businesses producing similar products or with similar visions and missions. Rather, it requires a broader view to determine how other industries function. In this way, it's possible to determine whether new processes are transferable and can promote growth in the organization.

Gregg M. Steinberg is president of International Profit Associates. For more information, call 847-808-5590. A longer version of this article is at www.usbusiness-review.com.