Are You Spending Enough Time on Growth?

October 30, 2023
|In Article
|By Jess Webb

After seeing the Four Forces of Growth model (featured in my new book), a CEO recently asked me what percentage of time he should spend in the growth quadrant and which activities he should focus on..

The model shows a clear distinction between activities that help to drive more growth of the key economic unit of the business and growth of a business in the future, versus things to improve a business. The latter should mostly be handled by the team.

A Consensus About Time

After talking to many leaders about this, there is consensus that a CEO should have at least half of their week in that growth quadrant ] on activities that will impact the business beyond the current financial year: a geography, a product line, a customer or an acquisition. 

Strategic vs Operational

This is the strategic part of the CEOs job, one of their two dramatically different roles:

    • Strategically growing the business for the future by getting the opportunities and the resources to make that happen and
    • The operational part of their job (if they don’t have a COO or President) to ensure, on a daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly basis that they achieve what they need to, this financial year.

To truly thrive, be effective, grow, and scale your company over the long term, you need to spend about 50% of your time—depending on where your business is and what it needs at this point—focused on things that will notably impact the business, in 2025 and beyond.

The Challenge

Ask yourself:

    • Currently, what percentage of your time do you spend in that growth quadrant?
    • What would be ideal for you?

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