Your future success lies at the intersection of what you have done well in the past with what the future needs. Some of us can readily find the intersection. Some of us can also successfully navigate through. Only a few, however, know how to capitalize on that intersection and transform opportunity into sustainable growth. What is sustainable growth? According to Inc. Magazine sustainable growth “is the realistically attainable growth that a company could maintain without running into problems.” Doesn’t sound so difficult but, to many, this kind of growth is ever elusive. Why? Two primary reasons. One – you focus too much on the future, and damage (or ignore) what is working. Or two – you can’t change and the future can’t help but change.
In the government contract world creating sustainable growth can be significantly more challenging. The rules, regulations and processes for winning government contracts is sometimes in direct conflict with creating the solutions that solve the future’s problems. By and large, the government buys low-risk solutions which are often those you’ve done over and over. The resulting “same old thing” means those who have succeeded aren’t trained (or able) to change and those who change can’t (or don’t have the patience to) get into the government contract world. This is a problem.
We previously shared some data about the changes that are happening in the government marketplace. To summarize, spending is shrinking. And while competition is also shrinking it is doing so because fewer and fewer companies successfully compete. To win, you must know how to capitalize on the intersection of your past success and the market’s future needs. To create this kind of sustainable growth, you must help your operations team recognize their pivotal role and teach the business development team to grow responsibly. The answer lies within the blue quadrant below.
How do you know if your organization is not growing sustainably? Several easy to recognize, yet painful, clues:
- You are losing business to companies you’ve never lost to before
- Your customer doesn’t come to you, first, with new problems and challenges
- Your market and customers are changing and yet nobody in your organization understands how or why
- You only do the same stuff while you outsourcing the new stuff to teaming partners
- Your margins are shrinking or your costs are growing
- Your operations team doesn’t have time for business development
- Your business development team doesn’t serve operations
- You’re losing talented team members
If you recognize one of the clues above, and you’re smart, you’ll do something today to welcome transformation. Sustainable growth isn’t something that simply happens. You have to create the platform for future success.