When it comes to business growth, a lot of business owners think about how their marketing strategies can help them scale bigger. But sometimes you need more innovative ideas for company growth.
Some of the most successful companies in the world, like Tesla, Microsoft, Google, Facebook and Apple, have achieved tremendous growth not through outward expansion, but via inward expansion – starting with solidifying their teams.
In this blog post, we will explore some of the most innovative ways for company growth that aren’t necessarily related to marketing.
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5 Innovative Ideas for Company Growth
Here, we’ll go through the significance of hiring talented individuals, delegating personnel, and adopting the right mindset required to recruit highly effective people for your brand.
By the end, you’ll understand why a strong team is the driving force behind achieving innovative and sustainable company growth.
1) Hire the Right People from the Start
There are plenty of unconventional methods to grow your company, but one of the most basic facets of any business is its people. It may seem cliché, but that doesn’t make it any less true.
With any business, the path you tread toward success often begins with a brilliant idea or a superior product/service that sets the foundation for growth and prosperity. However, the realization of this vision requires more than just a concept; it demands the collective efforts of a high-performing team.
Building a team is a meticulous process that goes beyond mere recruitment. It involves the careful selection of individuals who possess not only the necessary skills and expertise but also a genuine passion for the company’s objectives.
A high-performing team is a cohesive unit of like-minded individuals who are not only driven by their personal goals but are also aligned with the overarching vision and mission of the organization.
Selecting the Right People for the Job
When it comes to assembling a high-performing team, it is vital to seek individuals who not only excel in their respective fields but also exhibit a strong commitment to the organization’s success.
Passionate team members bring enthusiasm and a sense of purpose to their work, inspiring others to push their boundaries and achieve greater heights.
Additionally, skills and expertise are essential for the team’s success, as each member’s unique abilities contribute to the collective strength of the group.
A high-performing team’s success also correlates with the company’s vision and values:
When team members are genuinely invested in the organization’s objectives, they develop a sense of ownership and accountability, leading to increased dedication and loyalty.
This alignment creates a powerful synergy within the team, fostering collaboration and open communication. If people aren’t on the same page, how can you expect them to mimic your expertise and business philosophy consistently and homogeneously?
You have to start from the ground up with every person straight out of the gate and make sure they’re able to replicate the success you’re able to reach. If not, you’ll learn very quickly that they’ll just weigh you down.
Related Content: Business Growth Strategies: Optimizing Partnerships for Success
2) Don’t Isolate Yourself
You know, it’s funny how we tend to put visionary leaders like Elon Musk on a pedestal. Sure, the guy’s got some serious genius going on, but here’s the real deal – even the brightest minds need a team to turn their big ideas into reality.
Take Tesla, for instance. Those groundbreaking innovations we all love? They didn’t just magically appear from Musk’s brain. No, it was a full-on collaborative effort from a diverse bunch of experts, engineers and innovators that made it all happen.
It’s no surprise that Tesla has produced some mind-blowing stuff. Their electric vehicles, renewable energy solutions, and luxury vehicles are off the charts.
We’ll excuse them for the cyber truck fiasco in this case:
But you know what? It wasn’t just one dude calling all the shots. It was a whole gang of talented folks working together like a well-oiled machine.
Musk had the humility to realize that he couldn’t enact his vision alone. He knew in order to grow his business, he had to first grow his team. That’s the beauty of inviting people into your vision – it’s like a superpower that enables you to accomplish stuff you’d never dream of doing alone.
Whether you’re running a business, doing some cutting-edge research or trying to unleash your creative mojo, working with a team is where the magic happens. Embracing that collective intelligence means you open the door to endless possibilities and growth. It’s like having a whole army of brainiacs backing you up and cheering you on.
So, next time you catch yourself ruminating on how Jeff Bezos or Mark Cuban got to where they are, take a step back and think about the teams that helped get them there.
3) Become a Master of Delegation: The Underdog Skill You Need
In the early stages of your career or business, it’s totally normal to be all hands-on, wanting to take charge of every single task. I mean, we’ve all been there, right? But as you start scaling up and things get bigger, it gets pretty darn impractical to handle everything on your own. That’s when delegation becomes your new best friend.
Think about John Donne’s poem “No Man Is an Island.” The opening phrase reads: “No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent.”
Donne is basically suggesting that no one ought to live life in solitude. We rely on others in our relationships and our interactions. To that end, it’s prudent that for any business leader to scale their operation beyond their solitary capacity, they have to involve others in the plan.
It’s like handing over the reins to people who’ve got your back, freeing up your time to dive deep into strategic decisions and actions that drive serious growth.
When you shift your mindset from “how can I do it all?” to “who can solve it for me?” you’ll open the door to quicker development, faster success, and time free from your schedule.
If you start looking for capable hands to take on challenges, you’ll tap into a whole new level of potential. Suddenly, it’s not just about what you can do alone; it’s about what you and your team can achieve together with all of your innovative ideas for company growth.
4) Find Out Who Can Help You, Not How
Two books stand out to us as valuable resources in the quest to build a top-notch team.
The first, titled Who, offers a comprehensive framework for hiring great people, making it a must-read for leaders and aspiring business owners:
Author Geoff Smart’s hiring framework relies on four essential steps:
- Scorecard: The document that describes exactly what you want a person to accomplish in a role.
- Source: Systematic sourcing before you have slots to fill ensures that you will have high-quality candidates waiting for you when you actually need them.
- Select: Rely on a series of structured interviews that will allow you to gather all the relevant information.
- Sell: Once the right players are identified, they must be persuaded to join the company.
The second book, aptly titled Who Not How, emphasizes the importance of recruiting over trying to tackle every task yourself. While the titles might be self-explanatory, delving into their content will solidify your understanding of the significance of recruitment.
5) Embrace the Importance of Culture, Communication and Alignment
As a marketer, the idea of managing people and dealing with topics like culture, communication and alignment might not initially sound appealing. However, understanding that these elements are fundamental to unlocking true leverage and fostering company growth will shift your perspective.
Creating a positive work culture, facilitating open communication and ensuring that everyone is aligned with the company’s vision are key components of a high-performing team.
For Zappos’s hiring process, they conduct two interviews, one that focuses on the resume, and one that evaluates whether the candidate fits in with their culture. They also offer all trainees $2,000 to quit after the first week of training, because they want only those who absolutely love the company culture to stay:
5) Focus on Talent, Not Size
When we think about Gary Vaynerchuk, a well-branded and successful thought leader and motivational business speaker, it’s no wonder that concentrated talent is integral to growing your business.
Gary V started off as a loner, publishing guerrilla commentary and speaking at smaller events, but as he grew more popular, so did his team. Now he has a full-time videographer constantly following him around, recording the goings on of his day-to-day business.
Why is that important? Well, he knew what he needed to elevate his brand identity to the next stage, and he sought out the talent that could help him get there. Now, he employs over 800 people who all share in his vision — quite the ant hill!
Despite not having the largest ad agency, Gary understands that the true driver of growth is skilled individuals.
Your team’s ability to execute innovative ideas for company growth and drive results is what sets your company apart, regardless of its size or market presence.
Becoming a Master of Recruiting
Really, what it comes down to for acquiring the right talent is learning how to recruit properly.
Too many hiring managers get this part wrong, and it leads to gradual realizations that the wrong people are installed to pivotal roles in companies.
Take the time and effort to thoroughly understand your candidates. Don’t just probe them, but also test them. Give them hypothetical problems (or real problems) pertaining to your business and ask them how they would solve them.
This kind of harkens back to the same type of hiring test that Elon Musk uses when evaluating candidates. His favorite interview question is: “You’re standing on the surface of the earth. You walk one mile south, one mile west, and one mile north. You end up exactly where you started. Where are you?”
The idea is that you shouldn’t care as much that they provide the “right” solution as you ought to care about their problem-solving process and the types of questions they ask as they try to decipher the issue.
Final Thoughts on Innovative Ideas for Company Growth
The best ways of growing your business do not solely lie in marketing or product development. While marketing plans and inbound lead generation are huge components of modern businesses, we keep coming back to the bones of any organization, which are its people.
From hiring top talent to delegating tasks effectively and fostering a positive work culture, investing in people is the key to unlocking true business success.
If you’re ready to level up your brand, Single Grain’s growth experts can help!👇
Repurposed from our Marketing School podcast.
