Smart Things to Know About Growth

Smart Things to Know about Growth is a sharp look at the latest thinking on making the most of the opportunities and avoiding the pitfalls associated with rapid growth.
Grundy provides a comprehensive grounding in the principles that underlie sustainable growth, including setting growth objectives, learning how to adapt to changing circumstances, recognizing when growth is not a good idea and keeping your people with you. What is Smart?

Introduction.

Managing Growth Drivers and Competitive Pressure.

Diagnosis of Growth Issues.

Cunning Options for Growth.

Managing Organic Growth -
With Success.

Managing Acquisitive Growth -
With Success.

Implementing Growth Strategies.

Valuing Growth Strategies.

Growth Checklists.

Conclusion.

Index. Tony Grundy is Senior Lecturer in Strategic Management at Cranfield School of Management, and Director of Cambridge Corporate Development. He has consulted with numerous companies including Barclays Bank, BP, Ford, Lex, Hewlett Packard, ICI, The Prudential, Nokia, Norwich Union and Tesco. He is also author of Smart Things to Know About Mergers and Aquisitions and several books in the ExpressExec series.

He can be contacted via a.grundy@cranfield.ac.uk or via 01494 873 934. Smart is a breakthrough series that offers a completely new learning experience for hassled business people. The book delivers all that the fast-track executive needs to shine and perform. Each book delivers a sharp introduction to the basics as well as experiences and tips from the frontiers of the subject and the insights of the hottest gurus.

Smart books have been selected to feature only those subjects which matter most to today's business professional. The Smart series brings these subjects together to equip the next generation with the secrets of success.

Each Smart book contains icons, features and signposts to help you use the ideas in your career and business:

Smart things to say: gives you inside tips and tricks

Smart quotes: what the experst say

Smart people to have on your side: make friends with the gurus

Killer questions: ideas to make your colleagues jump

Smart answers to tough questions: helps you stay out of trouble and ahead of the game!

;Smart voices: real people from smart companies Unless you have clear goals and growth strategy, then your business could easily slide into a sense of complacency and even begin to go backwards. To grow requires the drive to reinvent yourself, to rethink your business and to even attempt to change the mindset of the industry itself.

Smart Things to Know about Growth takes a sharp look at the latest thinking on making the most of the opportunities and avoiding the pitfalls associated with rapid growth. Tony Grundy provides a comprehensive grounding in the principles that underlie sustainable growth, including setting growth objectives, learning how to adapt to changing circumstances, recognizing when growth is not a good idea and keeping your people with you.

Here are just a few of the smartest things to know about growth:

Growth is a dynamic, ongoing process - and thus requires continuous reflection and review, rather than being deep-frozen in annual business plans.

Sustainable growth will only come in the long term by creative use of the imagination.

By being able to let go of the current industry (and company) mindset, it becomes easier to think about how you might reach a superior growth path.

Most acquisitions actually dilute or destroy shareholder value.

The 'how' of your growth strategy is just as important as the 'what' and the 'why'.

Growth strategies require obsessive attention to stakeholder management.

Perhaps you may currently lack clarity about relative priorities of your growth objectives, your growth strategy and how you will implement it? Or perhaps you are just starting your own business, or you are a manager who needs a boost in the latest thinking in the marketplace, Smart Things to Know about Growth shows you all the right moves to make. Watch your company and your career take off!

Smart Quotes:

Strategic thinking is almost like a 'Road to Damascus' experience, where suddenly you see a "Wooh!" and it becomes clear, and everything changes. So it is the start of clarity.' - PHIL DAVIES, CRANFIELD SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT