Following the Wrong Theory of Growth

The Right Theory of Growth

Many of the ScaleUps I start working with are scrambling to reach former rates of growth.

But are they using the right methods?

More often than not, I suspect they apply what Chris Zook calls “The Wrong Theory of Growth”

Situation-Dependent

The first thing to realize is that there are several root causes for stalling growth. So restoring growth momentum requires different solutions depending on the problem. Dealing with a growth stall is situational, there is no one-size-fits-all. It is one thing if you are trying to respark growth on the basis of low and shrinking market share. This would suggest that customers are not very happy with your product. You should increase your Net Promoter Score. But if you have reached domination and your share is growing, expansion into a new category is solid.

The large majority of scaleups I work with have a small market share, at least when we get started. It does not worry me as it is a normal starting position for all startups. What worries me is scaleups expanding beyond their core before dominating that core. Many scaleups are building footholds in several markets, while dominating none. The technology may scale, but the go-to-markets never do. It is very simple. When your marketshare is small, your job is to make your market share bigger. In fact, to make it dominant. Startups who invest in an adjacent field before dominating their core market commit a serious strategic mistake.

I will bet you cannot imagine how often clients tell me that they do not know their market share. Or that they are active in so many markets, that it all depends what markets we are talking about. In both cases, I suppress a massive frown. Not knowing your market share, or not even being able to estimated, betrays a naïve approach to growth that always leads to failure. Making a growth company successful is or about building a large market share, or building market power in other words. If you cannot even measure the degree of power you are building, then that betrays undisciplined growth projections. You can be sure that you are applying the wrong theory of growth. Even worse is when you are active in several markets and you do not know the market share of any of them. Or, you tell me that the market shares are so different from market to market that it is impossible to draw generalized conclusions. I guess it is already clear that I do not hold this argument in high regard. The job of the scaleup is to build extraordinary market power in an attractive segment. If you have no data on how well you are doing, then you’re not doing your job.

Roland Siebelink regularly speaks and writes about leadership in fast-growing tech startups. You can find more of his insights, including free chapters of his book “Scaling Silicon Valley Style.”