This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
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We have spent many years focusing on the difference between the majority of ordinary firms and those few that deliver truly exceptional results.
Our research has shown that increases in marketing pressure can lead to significant profitable growth. The Pushers delivered good performance and matched the Dow Jones average over a 20-year period. But who wants average growth when there is a much better option?
The Pioneers—those momentum-powered firms that decreased their marketing-to-sales ratio—achieved revenue growth 93 percent greater than the Pushers. That is the sort of growth that gets companies noticed, that drives exceptional increases in value for all stakeholders.
How did they do it? By creating the conditions that are needed for the momentum effect to take place.
Ask yourself the question prompted by that meeting with a financial analyst at the beginning of this chapter: When are we going to start building some momentum? Momentum offers an easier, more efficient, and exceptional form of growth. But it requires the ambition to break free from the traditional reflex of using more resources to fuel it. The very things that seem to push you forward are holding you back. Momentum does not happen by chance. Nor can it simply be willed into existence. Achieving momentum requires an understanding of its source, and then the relentless application of a systematic process. It requires a momentum strategy.
Momentum leaders are not lucky—they are smart. They have discovered the source of momentum and, with it, the beginnings of a smarter way to exceptional growth. Managers often talk about "riding the wave." Momentum leaders aren't that passive. They live by this motto: First build your wave, then ride it.