The frameworks underneath
You never see the frameworks in an engagement: you see one decision. Here they are, explained plainly, under the question each one helps answer.
A framework is a way of looking, not an answer. Five forces, PESTEL, a lifecycle curve or an Ansoff grid each show one face of a business; none of them, alone, tells you what to do next.
In the Growth Strategy method each framework serves one of the eight questions, and it is applied with the unit economics of the sector it lands in. These explainers are open and ungated: what each one is, when to use it, how it works and where it stops being useful, with one link up to the question it belongs to.
- Diagnose Growth
Where does growth actually come from?
Is it real, or bought? Volume, price, mix or new customers.
- Deepen the Core
Can we grow from what we already have?
What is already on the table: pricing, wallet share, customer profitability.
- Replicate the Engine
Should we reproduce what we have built?
The second-unit decision: breakeven, ramp and the group cash trough.
- Build Demand
How do we win it, at a cost that works?
A cheaper demand engine: channel economics, route to market, sales capacity.
- Execute the Deal
If we are buying, which play are we actually running?
Thesis first, then screening, synergy and integration.
- Fund the Plan
Where does the capital come from, and in what order?
Can the balance sheet carry it? Capital allocation, working capital, over-trading risk.
- Realise the Value
How does this end, and what is it worth when it does?
How growth becomes enterprise value: the value gap and the founder-dependency discount.