Executive Focus: Three More Keys to Growing Your Company the Old-fashioned Way

This is part 2 of a series begun in last week’s edition of Idea Factory.

You can build a sustainable and successful big catalog business without playing accounting games or engaging in financial manipulations. And you can do it without commoditizing and devaluing your employees. Continuing last week’s discussion on how to grow your catalog in an organic and sustainable way without underhanded manipulation, here are three more keys to successful growth.

4. Be a humble, passionate and focused leader. CEOs at high-performance organic growth companies don’t fit the stereotype of the high-flying, bigger than life, charismatic, all-knowing corporate leader. Like the leaders of any major company, they face intense challenges, manage numerous employees, and struggle to maintain their competitive edge. Yet there is something special about organic growth CEOs. These leaders value their employees. There is a sincere respect for line workers, and no wonder: many such leaders began their careers on the factory floor.

Clearly organic growth leaders want their companies to operate as teams. At Best Buy, all executive offices are modest in size — barely big enough for a desk and two chairs — and windowless. The company founder’s office is the one exception. The company reserves windows for team spaces — showing that teams are a higher priority than management. Wal-Mart uses an Open Door program, whereby employees can directly contact the CEO about anything they’re not satisfied with. The top executives of Tiffany & Co. pride themselves on being humble representatives of the company. When asked to describe the Tiffany culture in one word, President Jim Quinn replied, “Humility. There is only one star here and it is Tiffany.”

Organic growth leaders believe the essence of business are the abilities to relate to, communicate with, and engage on a deep cognitive and emotional level with employees and customers. Business is done through and with people. These companies constantly fight the deadly killers of corporate cultures: elitism, hubris, arrogance and complacency.

5. 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. But they are execution champions, day after day after day. They’ve 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 technological 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, product and loyal customers, its operational excellence is what makes it viable, stable, and resilient. It has survived the ups and downs of being sold to American Machinery and Foundry, then being repurchased by management, and ultimately going public, and it continues to grow organically.

Harley-Davidson has three simple rules: 1. Know the customer; 2. Take nothing for granted; and 3. Never stop learning.

But its technology is what helps drive productivity and metric-tracking. After investing heavily in building technology systems, it turned to its supply chains to efficiently integrate its more than 600 suppliers into the manufacturing process. Technology and execution excellence have allowed Harley-Davidson to keep all of its manufacturing operations in the United States.

6. Instill a small company soul into a big company body. A small company soul is entrepreneurial. Employees have a sense of ownership of the customer, are held accountable for results and share in the rewards of those results. When held to these standards, employees act like entrepreneurs. They are energized and engaged in the day-to-day business because they feel they have some control over their destiny. They have autonomy and respect, and they feel rewarded for their efforts.

Take a look at a company like SYSCO, the largest wholesale food distribution business in the United States. SYSCO has infused its employees — from truck drivers to salespeople — with a sense of ownership.

SYSCO salespeople also take pride in the role they play in the company’s success. Each salesperson visits their customers an average of three times per week. They develop friendships with their customers, who are usually chefs or food establishment owners, and they feel a sense of responsibility to help them succeed. Some even go so far as to bus tables or wait on customers if the need arises. SYSCO and other high-performing organic growth companies have learned to create a positive entrepreneurial environment that meets employees’ basic needs. As a result, they have high employee engagement and consistent high performance. High employee satisfaction leads to high customer satisfaction, which leads to profits.

Edward 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. He is the author of “The Road to Organic Growth: How Great Companies Consistently Grow Marketshare from Within” (McGraw-Hill, 2007, $22.95). He can be reached via his Web site, www.EDHLTD.com.