Why do growth initiatives fail?

By SOCH Business Mentors LLP Posted June 16, 2018 in Insights on Business & Organisation Transformation

Why do growth initiatives fail?

All companies understand that the ability to sustain growth is becoming increasingly critical for any business. In fact, it has become the very source of competitive advantage for a business. This means that businesses need to continuously look for opportunities to grow and to improve.

Any initiative towards growth entails changes for progress – small to big, operational to strategic, short-term to long-term. The need for changes in business is becoming more frequent with the ever-changing volatile business environment.

Unfortunately, change and growth initiatives do not have a very good success rate. In our research, most of the growth initiatives fail due to two factors:

  1. Resistance to change by people in the organisation
  2. Lack of interest due to poorly communicated reasons for the change

Why does this happen?

As per the research, every growth initiative to be successful requires consistent efforts and actions by all stakeholders of a company. When the reason for change and change itself is not compelling enough for people, they are bound to lose commitment. It begins with commitment and then requires the right mix of strategic and operational choices, processes, governance and most important of all, behaviours for the growth initiative to be successful. These choices need to be communicated, discussed and worked upon to ensure that they culminate in productive behaviours at all levels of the organisation.

How can these two challenges be overcome?

The key areas to focus in order to overcome the barriers of the growth initiative is to begin the initiative by building a common picture in the minds of all who are part and will impact from the initiative along with rules that will ensure that people stick to their commitment to bring the results together and an execution mechanism that will help people deliver results. These 3 key focus areas – a common picture, rules and an exaction mechanism can together bind people enabling them to deliver results to build a future-ready organisation.

Our understanding reveals that most businesses are aware of the need for change but are unable to look for a structured way of designing, implementing and delivering change.

We understand the intricacies and technicalities of bringing change. Our mentors, behaviour psychologists, and business experts help bring change for progress, through a custom designed, structured and systematic way as per the maturity of your business and its stakeholders. We work with you on your business challenges to ensure that every step towards change is well-thought and would add to the sustainability of your business performance.