6Ws of Sustainable Corporate Growth

Know Why, Know What, Know When, Know Who, Know How


I keep six honest serving-men

(They taught me all I knew);

Their names are What and Why and When

And How and Where and Who.

– Rudyard Kipling



The Do-or-die Struggle for Growth

By McKinsey3

Large companies with strong revenue growth and high shareholder returns not only execute well but also almost always compete in the right sectors or segments at the right times.

Top-line growth is vital because companies that don't increase their revenues run out of ways to drive their earnings and risk being acquired.

For companies aspiring to grow, where to compete is just as important as how. To choose the right battlegrounds, they must match their distinctive capabilities with sectors where profitable growth is likely to occur.

Companies that have systematically lagged behind the competition should carefully consider their options.



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6Ws of Corporate Growth

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6Ws of Corporate Growth (150 slides)
Know Why

What is the real purpose of your business? Your company needs profits to live, but profits are not what the business is for. The objectives are to provide value to the population and to make the community better. When this vision is lost then we lose sense of purpose, the feeling of belonging, the sight of why we work, and why our business exists. Start a business when you have a passion for something and want to create something that you can be proud of. Inspire yourself and your people with a clear vision. Define shared values and let values rule. Achieve your sustainable competitive advantage by continuously developing existing and creating new resources and capabilities in response to rapidly changing market conditions. Focus on strengthening your distinctive capabilities – leadership, teamwork, processes, tacit knowledge, etc. – which cannot be replicated by competitors.


Know What

Finding the right balance in your business will help you refine your goals and hasten you towards them. Organizations prosper by achieving strategy through balancing the four major factors or perspectives: Financial; Customer; Process; and Growth... More

Sustainable Competitive Advantage

Sustainable competitive advantage is the prolonged benefit of implementing some unique value-creating strategy based on unique combination of internal organizational resources and capabilities that cannot be replicated by competitors. Sustainable competitive advantage allows the maintenance and improvement of your enterprise's competitive position in the market. It is an advantage that enables your business to survive against its competition over a long period of time... More

Know Where


Remember the old joke about the car mechanic who’s called in after every other mechanic failed? He listens to the engine for a few minutes, then hauls off and gives it a big swift kick in a certain strategic spot. Lo and behold, the engine starts humming like a kitten. The mechanic turns around, gives the car owner his bill for $400. The owner is flabbergasted and demands an itemized breakdown and explanation.

The bill says... '$1 for my time, and $399 for knowing where to kick.'

Know When

Timing is everything. You have to know not only how to make a move, but when. “The value of actions lies in their timing,” said Lao Tzu. Customer value derives from timely delivery. Change is unavoidable, but if you can anticipate it and understand business cycles, you can ride with change instead of being run over.

Case in Point Dell Inc.

In the early 90's, the tech market "forced" computer companies to cut their advertising budgets. Dell Computers saw this as an opportunity. They threw even more money into advertising. Since nobody else was advertising, this made them the only visible computer company. Dell Computers understood the business cycle and took control of the market while other companies were letting the market control them.1


Know Who

"In the end, all management can be reduced to three words: people, product, and profits. People come first," said Lee Iacocca Your corporate vision is worthless, strategies powerless and shared values are corrupt without the right people to execute... More

Know How

Manage processes, not people. Focus not on what they do, but on how they do it. Establish a synergistic enterprise-wide and an end-to-end (cross-departmental, and often, cross-company) coordination of work activities that create and deliver ultimate value to customers... More


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