Growing the Top Line

Introduction

Twenty years ago, in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, I started a growth‐strategy consulting firm called The Beacon Group. Like the business world, and the entire nation, we were in uncharted waters, the economy was a wreck, and we needed a path to recovery. I thought the name was fitting because, as a sailor, I knew that beacons were a critical part of safe navigation.

We were pioneers, breaking new ground in a field we called growth strategy. This was 2001 – there was no Blue Ocean Strategy, only The Innovator’s Dilemma books, to guide us. No class on growth strategy was offered at B‐School. We learned through trial and error by working with clients to help them scale, codifying the growth lessons we learned along the way, and by repeating them with other client teams.

Originally written as a training tool for our employees, this book began as a tool to teach consistency, a metric of quality in the services world. There are plenty of one‐hit wonders in the business world, but we’ve always been focused on how the best of the best think about growth. Consistency was our goal and, in 2010, we began using our model to show clients how we developed our growth strategies. This model has been accepted as a standard with leading c‐level strategy practitioners at Beacon’s clients. This book contains interviews from current and prior leaders at major corporations, including Intel, Medtronic, CDW, Johnson & Johnson, Juniper Networks, Nike, Pratt & Whitney, Eaton, Motorola, ...