Vector Growth Partners OutsideIn Approach

There are ten symptoms of the existence of growth inhibitors that we commonly encounter. These symptoms indicate underlying revenue generation problems whose causes are often interrelated. It is critical to avoid taking actions which address one problem only to make another problem worse.

We take an outside-in approach to identifying growth
opportunities

Many management teams find that they are unable to achieve sustainable growth despite intense focus and the best intentions. In these situations we typically uncover "growth inhibitors" which are unknown to senior management and which cannot be identified through conventional analysis. Our approach begins with developing an understanding of the market's perception of the company which is unfiltered by the opinions, interpretations, and biases of the company's internal team and by "conventional wisdom",

We firmly believe that the most valuable insights for enhancing growth are to be found by taking the outside perspective of the market – customers, prospects, channel partners, suppliers, and others. The days of “pushing” products and services to the customer have ended in most markets due to the relentless impact of globalization and the Internet:

Competition now comes from new and often unexpected quarters, eroding established market positions
Power has shifted from producers to ever-more-informed and interconnected customers

These changing market conditions have destroyed the effectiveness of traditional top-down driven growth strategies. Making lip service commitments to being “customer centric” has become a dangerously unsustainable position.

With many more options available to customers and prospects, including providers in low cost countries, the battle for growth in today’s market is centered around providing differentiated value in a compelling way that generates a “pull” demand and a sustainable customer relationship.

The key to success in this battle is to understand what customers and channel partners outside the firm value most and how to enable the company to deliver the products and services that will satisfy their expectations. The problem in most companies is that layers of insulation obstruct the flow of critical market intelligence and filter the information that does get through so that senior management rarely hears the straight story from the market. Opportunities to improve practices or grow the business thus never surface – or surface only after a customer is lost or a competitor gains a foothold in an attractive new market segment.

We have developed a tailored approach to capturing this unfiltered outside perspective and incorporating it as a fundamental component of our analysis of growth opportunities.