Strategic Planning with the Growth Phases Framework

Growth Phases is a technique that enables better strategic planning in business.

According to the Growth Phases, model, there are six stages of growth. Each stage requires its own strategies and structures.

• Growth through creativity is the initial phase of a company, characterized by hard work and poor pay. The company is typically small, relatively unstructured, and highly adaptive. Eventually the company reaches a size that required additional leadership and management capabilities.
  
  
• Growth through direction is characterized by sustained growth, the development of management systems and processes.
  
  
• Growth through delegation gives middle management decreased authority and autonomy. Top management intervenes only when necessary, and reviews are done periodically to manage from a distance.
  
  
• Growth through coordination and monitoring constitutes the separation of the company into divisions (e.g., product groups), a corporate staff that oversees and monitors critical control structures, and division-level managers with Profit and Loss accountability. Formalized structures and bureaucracy eventually results in a red-tape crisis.
  
  
• Growth through collaboration accounts for decentralization, cross-functional teams, and innovative development. At this stage the company reaches an internal growth crisis.
  
  
• Growth through extra-organizational solutions is a sixth stage added in the 1990's. It describes mergers, and networks of organizations as an additional path of growth.
  
  
  

  Other Strategic Planning Frameworks

  • 4P's Marketing Mix
  • Seven S (7S) Management Framework
  • AIDA - Attention, Interest, Desire, Action - Buying Process
  • Ansoff's Matrix - Product-Market Growth Matrix - Expansion Strategy
  • BCG Growth-Share Matrix
  • Bass Diffusion Model - Product Adoption and Innovation
  • Blue Ocean Strategy
  • Choice Model for Decision-Making Behavior
  • Competitive Advantage
  • Core Competence - Collective Learning in the Organization
  • Cost-Benefit Analysis
  • Delta Model
  • ERG (Existence, Relatedness, Growth) Theory of Motivation
  • Experience Curve
  • Framing Effect on Psychology and Marketing
  • GE (McKinsey) Matrix
  • Growth Phases
  • Predicting Industry Evolution and Change
  • OODA Loop - Observe, Orient, Decide, Act
  • PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Act) - The Deming Cycle
  • PEST Analysis - Political, Economical, Social, Technological, Environmental, and Legal Factors
  • Perceptual Mapping - Brand Marketing
  • Porter's Five Forces
  • Product and Marketing Positioning
  • Product Lifecycle (Industry Lifecycle)
  • Root Cause Analysis
  • SWOT Analysis - Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunties, Threats
  • Technology Adoption Curve
  • Value Chain
  • Balanced Scorecard
  • Benchmarking
  • Customer Segmentation
  • Pricing Strategy & Price Optimization
  • Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A)