What a growth system is

A growth system is a structure that combines people, processes, technology, information and strategy to help an organization move toward a goal. Unlike a campaign or a standalone service, it delivers more than a single piece: it delivers the structure that makes the pieces produce growth over time.

For years, the answer to “we need to grow” was a list of services: a logo, a website, a few social posts, a paid campaign. Each one solved something. Growth itself stayed out of reach.

Working with very different organizations, we found that the growth of an organization depends on more than how it communicates outward. It also depends on how it is organized inside, how it connects its people, how it runs its projects, how it develops its communities, how it carries out its activities, and how it uses technology to make all of that simpler.

The definition

A growth system is a structure that combines people, processes, technology, information and strategy to help an organization move toward a goal.

This means our work goes beyond delivering a design, publishing an ad or building a website. We start by understanding what the organization wants to achieve, and then build — or integrate — the tools it needs to get there.

A campaign is one piece

A campaign has a beginning and an end. It launches, it produces results for a while, and then it stops. When the organization has a structure ready to receive what the campaign generates — leads, community, attention — that result stays after the campaign ends.

A system keeps working after every campaign. The campaign is one piece inside it.

The same is true of a website, a piece of content, an event. Each one can be excellent and still leave growth where it was, because growth lives in the structure that connects the pieces rather than in any single piece.

The questions to ask first

Before deciding what to build, you have to understand the organization. These are the questions we start every project with:

1. What does the organization want to achieve?
2. What does it need in order to achieve it?
3. Which people take part?
4. How are they organized?
5. What processes already exist?
6. What activities have to happen?
7. What information do they need?
8. What can be automated?
9. What can improve with technology?

The answers decide what gets built or integrated. It can be marketing, content, advertising, strategy, web development, a platform, community management, customer acquisition, event organization, a partner network, artificial intelligence — or a combination of several. That is why there is no single model: every system is built around the need.

What every system shares

A brand may need marketing, and it may also need to organize a team. An organization may need communication, and it may also need to manage communities. A leader may need digital presence, and also the coordination of people, activities and projects. An event may need advertising, and also owners, logistics, attendees, tasks, suppliers and follow-up.

In every case there is an organization that needs to do something better, to grow, to get organized or to mobilize people. And in every case the answer is the same capability: understanding a need and building a growth structure around it.