Structure & Growth

Astutely managing the interplay of structural order and growth accounts for most strong movement in the business environment over time. Historically, this has been the key to achieving authentic momentum – the condition in which the future seems inexorably to draw a company forward as the company faithfully hews to its value proposition.  

A management team’s producing results of that quality has always required excellence in three capabilities. Executives must be able to explain causal dynamics in the environment – this makes planning possible. They must be able to project their firms within future states of affairs - this makes execution possible. And they must be able to relationalize phenomena by measurement – this makes possible evaluation and iterative adjustment.  

When these capabilities are weakened – as often occurs in today’s business environments - firms misjudge the structural relations connecting extant to projected states of affairs; their decisions do not properly order the firm’s day-to-day actions; and their analyses do not have adequate explanatory power to impel the company forward. This compromises the judgment of probabilities, turns strategy into ritual, and leaves momentum to accident.