We believe in the transformative power of growth. The “Alchemy” approach, which was first enunciated in the international bestselling book The Alchemy of Growth, the outcome of a five-year research initiative at the international management consultancy McKinsey & Company. This approach has now been extended through a new three-year collaboration with McKinsey resulting in the book The Granularity of Growth.

These principles represent our basic beliefs on growth:

It’s grow or go. As a company’s businesses mature, it must build new ones to take their place. What distinguishes the corporations that carry on growing is their ability to establish and build new businesses, even as they grow their core businesses. The “Three-Horizons” model is a framework created to help executives manage a pipeline of growth.

Growth is granular. There’s no such thing as a growth industry; and no such thing as an industry without growth. The fact is that growth patterns are most visible when you take a more granular perspective and look for pockets of opportunity that represent around $100 million of revenue potential. The secret to above-average growth lies in these where-to-compete choices.

Discontinuities create high growth momentum. We concentrate on industries facing discontinuities because market turbulence creates granular growth opportunities in its wake. Our chosen sectors are financial services; infrastructure and property; information and communication technologies; healthcare and nutrition; and professional services.

Large organizations need to be run as a connected set of small communities. Sustained growth requires passionate commitment to a compelling purpose. Individuals generally do not feel that deep sense of purpose in groups exceeding 50-150 people. Therefore, sustained growth requires line leaders to be guided and motivated to build self-generating communities or “clusters” as we call them.

Growing organizations enjoy a surge in collective and personal energy. Profitable growth creates wealth for shareholders and the community. But growth unleashes benefits beyond the economic. It revitalises companies where people only show up just to collect a paycheck into stimulating environments where employees find a higher and noble purpose in their work.