Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- List of contributors
- Acknowledgments
- 1 The challenge of organic growth
- 2 Profitable growth at Siemens Medical Solutions
- 3 UPS: Brown's organic growth story
- 4 Execution: making growth happen at The Home Depot
- 5 SYSCO: how has it achieved thirty-four years of continued growth?
- 6 Strategic position, organic growth, and financial performance
- 7 Defining and measuring organic growth
- 8 The make or buy growth decision: strategic entrepreneurship versus acquisitions
- 9 The misunderstood role of the middle manager in driving successful growth programs
- 10 Organic growth through internal corporate ventures
- 11 Linking customer management efforts to growth and profitability
- 12 Harnessing knowledge resources for increasing returns: scalable structuration at Infosys Technologies
- 13 Stay tuned: knowledge brokering via inter-firm collaboration in satellite radio
- 14 New directions for the study of organizational growth
- Index
- References
8 - The make or buy growth decision: strategic entrepreneurship versus acquisitions
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 December 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- List of contributors
- Acknowledgments
- 1 The challenge of organic growth
- 2 Profitable growth at Siemens Medical Solutions
- 3 UPS: Brown's organic growth story
- 4 Execution: making growth happen at The Home Depot
- 5 SYSCO: how has it achieved thirty-four years of continued growth?
- 6 Strategic position, organic growth, and financial performance
- 7 Defining and measuring organic growth
- 8 The make or buy growth decision: strategic entrepreneurship versus acquisitions
- 9 The misunderstood role of the middle manager in driving successful growth programs
- 10 Organic growth through internal corporate ventures
- 11 Linking customer management efforts to growth and profitability
- 12 Harnessing knowledge resources for increasing returns: scalable structuration at Infosys Technologies
- 13 Stay tuned: knowledge brokering via inter-firm collaboration in satellite radio
- 14 New directions for the study of organizational growth
- Index
- References
Summary
There hasn't been a business climate this brutal in decades. But forget growth strategies or novel accounting: The Business Week top 50 rankings this year go to companies that have made themselves indispensable to customers – by extending inventive new services.
Business Week, March 25, 2003Although this quote downplays “growth strategies,” the article from which this comment is taken actually reports that the Business Week Top 50 grew substantially during the focal time-period (Foust, Jespersen, Katzenberg, Barrett, & Crickett, 2003). Analysts characterized the companies included in the 2003 Top 50 list as “nimble,” capable of making “quick turnarounds,” and committed to placing an “emphasis on innovation.” These companies, which appear to have the learning-oriented skills required to strategically innovate (Govindarajan & Trimble, 2004), were able to excel despite a stagnating economy and skeptical investors.
Google Inc.'s strategic and entrepreneurial actions demonstrate successful corporate growth. At a time when many businesses consider being able to maintain current revenues as an indicator of strong performance, Google Inc. appears to be an antidote to mediocrity and perhaps should be considered to be a model for smart or strategic innovation during challenging times. Google's commitment to hiring highly talented human capital results in crucial flexibility for the firm – flexibility through which the company is able to experiment, simultaneously pursuing multiple growth avenues while doing so (Hammonds, 2003). Skeptics may respond that Google, a relatively young company in a dynamic industry, shares few similarities with and is not comparable to most companies.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Search for Organic Growth , pp. 124 - 146Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2006
References
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