David Cummings on Startups

5 Growth Planning Ideas

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David Cummings

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Continuing with yesterday’s post that CEOs Focus on Growth, not Execution, there are a number of strategies and ideas to implement when it comes to growth planning. Often, as a CEO, it’s easy to sit back and be reactive to the deluge of inbound requests, which never stop. CEOs need to be proactive.

Here are five ideas to focus more time on growth planning:

  1. Develop a simplified one page strategic plan and build support for the three-year section
  2. Run monthly strategy sessions soliciting growth ideas
  3. Take a solo retreat and reimagine the future
  4. Hire a business coach (pro athletes have coaches, why don’t more CEOs have them?)
  5. Join EO or YPO and develop a peer group that is growth-oriented

Growth planning isn’t something that’s turned on and off of a regular basis. Rather, the best CEOs are always focused on growth and are constantly thinking about it.

What else? What are some more growth planning ideas?

Comments

3 responses to “5 Growth Planning Ideas”

  1. Ron Stebenne Avatar
    Ron Stebenne

    Hey David…Just want to thank you for your really informative content. Oftentimes I receive blogs/how-to’s etc. that have little real content value and are just a waste of time. You really do provide a nice balance of general information peppered with specific steps/ideas based on your real-life business experiences. I appreciate the time and effort you put into these posts. Keep up the good work!

    Reply
  2. John R Naugle Avatar
    John R Naugle

    Greetings from Atlanta: City of Peace.

    Hi David. Excellent List of 5. Thanks. I’ll save those and work on them.

    Regarding your question: “What are some more growth planning ideas?” One in particular that I have been focusing on is engaging a dynamic and proven business leader, like yourself, to be our organization’s Chairman. I have much too learn as an aspiring CEO and I am certain that I will grow in my service aspirations when I find a courageous mentor and trail blazer that’s already cleared some paths.

    Good news! I am excited to tell you that Maria Saporta, one of the region’s most respected journalists, has somewhat referenced the name of our organization in her recent article. I would like to invite you and your followers to read her article and also my comment at the end of her article (fyi, my comment-moniker is ‘ATLpeace’).

    http://saportareport.com/blog/2014/09/nobel-recipient-muhammad-yunus-promotes-atlanta-as-city-of-peace/

    To the great possibilities of our great city.
    John
    PS
    If you need inspiration about our possibilities,
    please consider these following four quotes:

    PS
    1) Marc Morial, former two-term Mayor of New Orleans, once stated:

    “I can’t tell you how to market your city,
    but I can tell you the appeal of Atlanta…
    To outsiders, you are seen as a shining light,
    You are seen as a beacon!”

    2) Plato (born ~2,400 years ago) once stated:
    “This City is what it is because
    our citizens are what they are.”

    3) Pericles (Athens, Greece) was born 2,500+ years ago, and is often referred to as “History’s most productive mayor.” He once stated:

    “All things good on this Earth
    flow into the City because of the City’s greatness.
    Well, we were great once. Can we not be great again?”

    4) His Holiness The Dalai Lama, an official part-time resident of Atlanta and one of the most globally admired peacemakers, stated the following in 2007 when he came to speak at Centennial Olympic Park:

    “Atlanta has a great significance,
    and it is a great joy for me to
    be with you today,
    the citizens of Atlanta…
    Visionaries such as Mahatma Gandhi
    and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
    have shown us that successful changes
    can be brought about nonviolently.
    I believe that, at the basic human level,
    most of us wish to be peaceful.
    Deep down, we desire constructive,
    fruitful growth and dislike destruction.”

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZbm_3Hq2ps

    Reply
  3. aiyshah2014 Avatar
    aiyshah2014

    I think strategic plans are a great idea and the shorter the better. However it is always good to do a detailed one too because it forces you to think about how you are going to actually achieve these things.

    Also we can never know the future, so I think a huge part of a strategic plan should be accounting for keeping an eye on the market and noting how to take advantage of an opportunity to diversify should it raise it’s head.

    Reply

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