6. Be an execution and technology champion. Interestingly, high organic growth companies don’t tend to have unique strategies, products, or services, nor are they market-leading innovators. What they are is execution champions, day after day after day. They have figured out how to get consistent, high-quality performance from their people.
A critical design in each system is the utilization of measurements, real-time information, and the technology enablement of the entire value chain. These companies use technology to enhance their productivity and efficiency, which allows them to produce outstanding results, which in turn are shared with employees.
Harley-Davidson is a prime example of an execution and technology champion. Although the company has a respected brand and product and loyal customers, its operational excellence is what makes it viable, stable, and resilient.
Harley-Davidson has survived the ups and downs of being sold to American Machinery and Foundry (AMF), then being repurchased by management, and ultimately, going public - and it continues to grow organically.
Harley-Davidson has three simple rules:
- Know the customer;
- Take nothing for granted; and
- Never stop learning.
The Success of High Organic Growth Companies
With these twenty-two high organic growth companies, you see the absence of the big Wow Factors. These organizations don’t generally engage in big changes, big deals, or big innovations. They are into the “blocking and tackling” of business. They are into details, and they execute on those details very, very well on a daily basis.
Great organic growth companies are great execution companies. To be a great execution company, you have to be entrepreneurial, a great people company, and a great technology company. All of these factors result in highly engaged and loyal employees who day-in and day-out perform consistently at high levels of excellence.
You can build a sustainable and successful big business without playing accounting games or engaging in financial manipulations. And you can do it without commoditizing and devaluing your employees.
The twenty-two companies studied and outlined in the book, in their own individual ways, reaffirm the American entrepreneurial spirit. They show us that if properly engaged, U.S. employees can out-perform any and all competition.
The first two keys to organic growth are here.
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Edward D. Hess, B.S., J.D., LL.M., is an adjunct professor of organization and management and the founder and executive director of both The Center for Entrepreneurship & Corporate Growth and The Values-Based Leadership Institute at The Goizueta Business School, Emory University. His organic growth research has appeared in the Financial Times, Fortune magazine, and Fortune.com. He is the author of:
- The Successful Family Business: A Proactive Plan for Managing the Family and the Business (Praeger, 2005),
- The Search for Organic Growth (Cambridge University Press, 2006), Hess & Kazanjian, eds.,
- Leading with Values: Positivity, Virtue, & High Performance (Cambridge University Press, 2006), Hess & Cameron, eds., and
- The Road to Organic Growth: How Great Companies Consistently Grow Marketshare from Within (McGraw-Hill, 2007).
