The 4th Stage of Business : 2nd Growth

This is the final part of a four part post on the stages of business growth: Start-Up, Emerging, Performing, and 2nd Growth.

Like an Oak businesses have growth stages

Now, not every business reaches the 2nd Growth Stage, but that is not to say that those businesses that don't are unsuccessful.  Performing business are great. They are profitable, have reach a level of growth and can expand via vertical and/or horizontal integration. They have good management, a great brand and an excellent culture - but they may never reach the 2nd Growth Stage.

2nd Growth businesses are the great success stories. They can be small, medium, or large entities that go the next step in development.  This normally takes, what I term, big bet decision making and usually includes a major investment, merger, acquisition, new product line, or other impacting action that propels that business to reinvent itself. Apple's development of the iPhone, Netflix's switch to streaming from the mail order business, Amazon's decision to e-tail everything from just books - these are examples of 2nd Growth stage development.

We witness 2nd Growth in the technology, healthcare, and cleanspace sectors but it can occur in any type of business. Bose was a manufacturer of high-end audio speaker systems in New England and through innovative product development and a great branding program propelled itself to a 2nd Growth stage and is now a household word in audio products.

Businesses have growth stages. Like a sturdy oak that goes from acorn to sapling to tree businesses go from Start-up to Emerging to Performing and in special cases have a 2nd Growth.

Jim Lavorato