For entrepreneurs, strategy can be an overly complicated subject fraught with big company theories and methodologies. Many entrepreneurs have a good understanding of where they want to take their company, they struggle with getting what’s in their head onto paper and then harnessing company resources to achieve those ambitions. They also struggle with ensuring all the people in the company share in their vision and participate in advancing the company’s strategy.
That’s where Ventrek’s 10-4 Growth Matrix comes in. In our previous post (https://ventrek.com/latest-news/the-four-entrepreneurial-ambitions/) we outlined that most entrepreneurs have four major ambitions for their company that evolve over time: Faster Growth, Greater Profitability, Engaged Staff and Increased Freedom. These ambitions drive company strategy at different times or the lifecycle of the business. In another post (https://ventrek.com/latest-news/the-10-entrepreneurial-strategies/) we explained further that entrepreneurs can pursue any one of the ten major entrepreneurial strategies at any point in time. These ten potential strategies are: Activity, People, Customer, Market, Product/Service, Innovation, ESG, Image, Partner and Financial.
Now comes the tricky part in entrepreneurial strategy. What strategies should an entrepreneur choose based on the ambitions sought? Strategic alignment is absolutely critical for entrepreneurs as resources (time, money, people) are scarce and already stretched. If an entrepreneur’s ambition is, say, Faster Growth, what strategies should they pursue to achieve that ambition?
Introducing Ventrek’s 10-4 Growth Canvas for entrepreneurs. This powerful tool helps entrepreneurs select the appropriate strategy based on their chosen ambition at the time. This incredibly powerful tool allows entrepreneurs to quickly pick the appropriate strategies. Let’s look closer at the matrix and illustrate how it can be used.
Example 1: Entrepreneur Seeking the Ambition of Faster Growth. Remember, it is incredibly difficult to pursue more than one entrepreneurial ambition at any given time. Resources are constrained so focus is paramount. In this case, the entrepreneur is seeking faster growth. To achieve this ambition, simply utilize the 10-4 Growth Matrix and scan the “Faster Growth” column. This column reveals that Customer, Market, Product/Service, Image, Partner and Financial strategies are appropriate to help achieve the Faster Growth ambition. Pursuing those six strategies in a given year or two timeframe allows the entrepreneur to stay focused and harness the appropriate resources.
Example 2: Entrepreneur Seeking the Ambition of Greater Profit. In this case, the entrepreneur has likely gone through a fairly strong growth phase in the business and, most likely, profits are suffering. This is not uncommon. Eventually, attending to profit must occur and this is where the entrepreneur can pursue four major strategies to achieve this ambition: Activity, People, Product/Service and Innovation. For example, utilizing an Activity strategy will result in greater attention to processes and efficiencies in the business. This attention will likely uncover areas to improve upon and these areas typically result in greater profitability.
You get the idea. By combining Ventrek’s 10 Entrepreneurial Strategies with the 4 Entrepreneurial Ambitions this powerful growth matrix frees entrepreneurs from the complex world of crafting strategies allowing them to focus on executing the strategy at all levels of the company.
