Over the last 4 years, the US economy has been in either a negative growth or in a slow growth mode. Unfortunately, the FED and most other forecasters believe that this trend will continue for at least the next 3 – 4 years with US GDP growth increasing at an annual rate of only 2%-3%. Because of the overall market weakness many companies too have seen their revenues decline.

All companies want (and at this point many need) additional top-line revenue. Yet, in light of these weak economic forecasts, companies will not be able to rely on organic market growth to generate additional revenues. Companies will have to do things differently and more aggressively than their competitors to drive increased sales.

How can companies consistently increase sales after so many weak years and after they have cut their resources down to “bare bones”? How can companies afford the growth they need?

How about through a free lunch?

We all know that there is no such thing as a true free lunch. That is true too in the growth acceleration process described below. In order to generate success, companies will have to do some work. However, the process that is described below and the examples provided are all cases where companies found increased sales without the need for incremental spending. In fact most of the examples below included sales growth generated by lower actual spending.

The process described here to grow the top-line is one that better focuses a company on its core competency.  It is a surprise to most that many companies do not have a consensus on the true and complete nature of their competency.  As such, these companies cannot fully understand who their target market is for their goods and services. By extension, these companies cannot either truly define what the optimum business drivers are for their goods and services. The result is that many of these companies are wasting resources against efforts that are not delivering optimum returns.

Refocusing a company on its core competency is a process that can be completed in a relatively short period of time. The process requires a well defined basic research process, a situation assessment, consensus building, planning and execution. While the process is straight forward and relatively fast, the results can be extra-ordinary. Some real-world actual results of a core competency refocus process:

• At Playtex, a brand that had not seen growth in 10 years returned to growth by redirecting wasteful promotional spending against the true driver of results in the category – retail distribution.
• At Revlon, the hair care portfolio which had also been in decline for many years reversed that trend by redirecting wasteful spending into higher ROI promotional efforts. These were promotions that better supported the brands’ equities.
• At Revlon as well, an anti-perspirant brand that had been growing slowly for many years dramatically accelerated sales by a refocus on new products and promotions that were indicated by the brands’ equity.
• In O-Cedar Brands, a refocus on the company’s core competency of innovation allowed the company to emerge successfully from many years of decline.
• At Marcal Paper, the company identified and then tapped into strengths it owned with its retail partners to find tens of millions in new revenues.

A core competency strategy has also delivered millions in new, profitable sales for huge, healthy companies including Pfizer, Schering-Plough, Duane Reade and Kraft-Nabisco and for brands that included Halls, Trident, Dentyne and Dr. Scholls. And while all the results above are in consumer goods, the process is in many ways more apropos for B to B, industrial companies. Many examples of B to B success through a better focus on core competencies can be found on this web site.

While not entirely free, the process of research and identifying core competencies almost always finds  waste to fund more optimum spending. This waste is the secret to the “free” lunch.

The core competency focus is a straightforward business building process that has delivered results time and again. It is a process that is more indicated now than ever before and it is a process that can come as close to generating the elusive free lunch as any that may exist.

For more information on how the process can work for you and your company, please contact Michael Roth at Michael Roth Advisors (michael@michaelrothadvisors.com; 973-452-2584).