I hear so many anecdotes that are used to hammer home a point - some even stick in my mind. One such centres on the late Sir Frank Williams being asked to purchase a vending machine for the staff canteen at Williams F1 headquarters - Williams’ response being to ask: ‘How will it make the car go faster.’ An argument for well stimulated staff aside, the story illustrates the sole focus of the organisation, and one that the whole team can unite behind; making the car go faster.

We talk to a lot of founders who tell us that growth is the main goal of their business and that their concern is how to achieve that growth during an economic downturn. Our challenge back to that is ‘How are you focusing the business on achieving sustainable growth?’ Having a chosen growth focus requires that every decision be made with growth in mind, aligning the team around a shared mindset, strategy and capabilities.

Leaders that instil a growth mindset in their teams combine that naturally with the tracking of leading and lagging growth indicators against clear and measurable KPIs. They are open to investing in new opportunities inside and outside of their core business and remain focused on growth even in the face of direct challenges and those caused by their operating context or environment. Such a mindset even transforms disruption into opportunity.

At Colab-8, we help founders looking to grow their businesses to truly develop an innovation led  growth mindset, to develop multiple pathways for growth and partner to ensure the execution of newly formulated sustainable growth strategies.

Make the car go faster.