In this episode of Functional and Fabulous, Ger and Gordon talk to Richard Chapple, Chief Growth Officer and Co-Founder of The Growth Foundation, a leading consumer retail growth specialist consultancy. Drawing on his 20 years of DTC (Direct -to-Consumer) expertise, Richard provides advice in this episode for scaling retail businesses.
Gymshark's Growth Challenge
Richard begins the episode explaining that businesses approach The Growth Foundation for a variety of reasons, including a guidance at a product visionary stage or seeking advice on hiring and team building. Some businesses have already recognised specific challenges to the growth path but lack the expertise to address them. This can range from scaling operations to expanding to new markets.
One example, he highlights is Gymshark, a successful workout clothes brand. Despite their significant success, they struggled with determining the best path for future growth. Richard was able to work with the Gymshark team to identify key areas of uncertainty including product and geographic expansion.
Strategic Clarity and Balancing Tactics
Throughout this episode, Richard continues to emphasise the importance of strategic clarity and how this acts as a guidance for all decisions in the business. Once a business has a clear vision and mission, they can then identify the target audience and understand their needs. This then gives a starting point to make decisions on how to market and the channels to focus on — or as the episode title puts it, “where to play and wow to win”. By having a shared clarity on the overall strategy, the business can allocate its resources and energy towards executing tactics that align with core strategy. It also helps to avoid wasting valuable resources and energy on quick wins that may seem tempting but can dilute the core values of the brand.
Richard explains that once a clear strategy has been set out, it’s important to balance it with effective tactics that will bring the strategy to life. By prioritising the significant tasks, delegating correctly and tracking progress, the business will be able to effectively achieve their strategic goals. It is also important to learn from mistakes and be adaptable to changes.
Key Frameworks
SOSTAC Framework with Added Vision
The SOSTAC model is an ideal framework for a strategic planning. This involves situational analysis, defining objectives, strategy development, implementing tactics and ongoing adjustment. Richard also emphasises the importance of including vision and mission, abbreviated to a V for the purpose of this model, in order to expand on the business purpose.
The Functional Perspective
This model views the business as a collection of functions, such as marketing, sales, and operations. It emphasises collaboration and alignment between these department to achieve strategic goals.
The Growth Quadrant
The model looks at a business' strategic clarity and tactical capability. It plots businesses on a graph, and allows the business to identify their strengths and weaknesses. By doing this, it highlights areas for improvement, and teams can make informed decisions about resource allocation.
Want to find out more about how to develop a clear strategy and the balance between strategic thinking and tactical execution. Why not watch back the podcast here.
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