Unlike a general company-level vision which is usually motivational and aspirational, created to resonate with both internal and external stakeholders, a B2B SaaS company’s growth vision is actionable, measurable, and most importantly, achievable. Serving as the organization’s “North Star,” the growth vision articulates what success looks like, how it will be achieved, and the specific, measurable KPIs that will be used to measure it. Sounds like something most high-growth organizations would certainly have covered, right?
Not really. While most executives and leaders at these companies truly believe the path to growth is clear and obvious, the reality is that the organizations are commonly misaligned on how growth will be achieved. And, if you think about it, this should not be too surprising. High-growth organizations often have multiple paths to achieve growth. For example, there is market expansion, product development, acquisitions, cross-sell, increased marketing spend, and many other strategies. Without a definitive and shared growth vision, different teams prioritize and pursue different paths, leading to wasted resources, diminished effectiveness, and cross-functional tension.
Does your organization need to define (or re-define) its growth vision?
To start, here’s a simple exercise you can do at your next executive meeting that will likely be very eye-opening. Give the team 3 minutes to write down what success for your organization looks like in 3 years and what needs to happen between now and then to realize this success. Consolidate answers and discuss. If differences greatly outweigh the similarities, carve out the time to create a clear growth vision for 2024 before diving into the strategic planning process.
5 Steps To Create A Growth Vision To Guide 2024 Planning
Step 1: Agree on a set of numbers / reporting to use as a “source of truth” to drive an honest internal assessment of what worked and what did not work in 2023. This exercise will be difficult, and even contentious at times, but anchoring the discussion in data will help to manage the emotions and unproductive finger-pointing.
Step 2: Conduct a simple SWOT analysis to surface unique organizational assets and untapped internal strengths. Be sure to spend sufficient time acknowledging organizational weaknesses and unpacking competitive vulnerabilities.
Step 3: Determine 2024 revenue goals based on 2023 performance. Try to balance investor pressure and expectations with realistic assumptions. If needed, create a base case and a stretch goal. This needs to be a goal that the executive team (and ultimately the entire organization) feel is achievable.
Step 4: Use insights gained from Step 1 and 2 to define a growth vision that allows the organization to reach the goal outlined in Step 3 in the most efficient way. In other words, what growth levers will the organization depend on to achieve success? Is it new product development, audience expansion, a new sales motion, increased marketing investment, larger sales team, etc.? What needs to happen next and/or hold true over the next year to make the vision a reality?
Step 5: Take the time to gain the buy-in of your executive team. Surface any tensions or skepticism and WORK THROUGH THEM. Then, empower your executives to effectively galvanize and motivate their own teams around the growth vision.
Not all growth is created equal. The best kind of growth for privately-held companies is efficient growth – maximum impact in the shortest time requiring the least amount of investment. This path may challenge long-held organizational beliefs and executive biases. That’s okay. Working through this will enable you to build an even more powerful growth vision – it will serve as a North Star for the organization, a way to objectively make decisions around resource allocation and prioritization, and a ‘limiter’ to ensure the company remains on the same success path.
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