Five core foundations blocking business growth and scaling

Executive overview

Most companies trying to scale are missing one or more of five foundational elements. Without them, strategy, planning, and growth acceleration have nothing to anchor to.

The five are: purpose, values, BHAG, core customer, and brand promises. Once defined clearly, they drive hiring, decision-making, quarterly planning, and competitive positioning.

Without a memorable purpose, values no one can recall, and no BHAG, there is no game to play.

Purpose, values, and BHAG

• Purpose is the difference your business makes in the world — not aspirational, but concrete (e.g. "keeping the world working" for a staffing firm)
• Values are not generic words like "integrity" or "teamwork" — they are specific, richly described characteristics that define how you operate
• Use the Mission to Mars exercise (Jim Collins / Scaling Up book) to identify 4–5 genuine values
• BHAG is a 10-year goal that inspires the whole company, including suppliers and customers
• Translate a financial BHAG into purpose — a home builder aiming for $100M becomes "building 100,000 families their dream home"
• Values determine who you hire, how you make decisions, and who you work with day to day

Core customer

• A core customer is a qualitative, rich description — not a demographic or industry list
• Identify the attributes of customers you love working with; take the opposite of the ones you hate
• Distill to 3–5 defining characteristics (e.g. hungry for growth, coachable, personality fit)
• Revenue size and industry are useful context but not the core of the profile
• The profile tells you which customers to fight for, keep, and pass on

Brand promises

• Brand promises are what your core customer can reliably count on from you
• Start with internal speculation, then validate with 3 questions asked to real customers:
  1. Why did you choose us initially?
  2. What are we good at now?
  3. What is different, weird, unusual, or even annoying about us?
• Distill answers down to the top 3 promises; the first is most important
• Promises must be stated clearly and consistently across the whole company

Putting the five to work

• The five foundations enable three-year targets, annual goals, and detailed quarterly plans
• Infuse them into meetings, culture, marketing, hiring, and operations
• Review and refine quarterly — this is not a one-time exercise
• Once grounded in these five, you can develop accelerators: words you own, X Factor, tenfold competitive advantage