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The Alchemy Of Growth: Practical Insights For Building The Enduring Enterprise Hardcover – April 6, 1999

by Mehrdad Baghai (Author), Steve Coley (Author), David White (Author)

4.4 64 ratings

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Growth unleashes benefits beyond the economic. It revitalizes organizations and invigorates the people in them, creating energy, a sense of purpose, and the glow of being on a winning team. Like the alchemy of old, it seeks to transform the everyday into the exalted by means that seem little short of magical. Yet growth is often elusive, achieved at unacceptable costs, or managed in fits and starts. Based on over three years of research and application at high-performing companies around the world, The Alchemy of Growth is a comprehensive, practical approach to initiating, achieving, and sustaining profitable growthtoday and tomorrow. As the book shows, the secret is to manage business opportunities across three time horizons at once: extending and defending core businesses, building new businesses, and seeding options for the future. The Alchemy of Growth offers managers at all levels the tools and concepts for investing in the right initiatives, capabilities, and talent to propel their companies into the future.

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Why do some companies come and go while others endure? According to McKinsey & Company, Inc. consultants Mehrdad Baghai, Stephen Coley, and David White, the secret to a lasting enterprise is sustained growth. In The Alchemy of Growth, the authors offer a practical guide for jumpstarting expansion and keeping it going. "Growth is a noble pursuit. It creates new jobs for the community and wealth for shareholders. It can turn ordinary companies into stimulating environments where employees find a sense of purpose in their work," they write. "Growth's transformative power is akin to the alchemy of old."

The authors describe the approaches that have succeeded in helping their corporate clients around the world to step up the pace. For instance, companies must simultaneously focus on "three horizons" critical to growth. The first is the current bread-and-butter of the firm; the second, the fast-developing entrepreneurial ventures; and the third, the ideas that will germinate into tomorrow's profits. The best part of the book: the real-life examples of firms that have transformed themselves from laggards to supercharged growth companies. Take Disney, for example. After founder Walt Disney's death in 1966, the company stagnated, with its theme park and film business slipping. But after Michael Eisner took over in 1984, Disney boosted its average annual returns to 29 percent, on the strength of growth in such new avenues as Disney stores, ESPN, and resort development. The Alchemy of Growth is an instructive handbook for managers interested in spurring their companies to new heights. --Dan Ring

From Library Journal

This slender volume is the latest in a growing number of books from accounting, management, or consulting giants. Here, the topic is that most elusive of business concepts, growth. Coauthors Baghai, Stephen Coley, and David White are partners at the renowned consulting firm of McKinsey & Company, specializing in growth strategies. They feel that the growth creation process has three stages: maximizing current business, building emerging issues, and developing viable options. This framework is used to examine successes and failures while exploring the interrelated issues of inertia, momentum, business history, opportunity, leadership, and sustained growth. The last third of the volume consists of two-page summaries of the 30 companies used as successful examples. The concepts are clear, logical, and well documented with footnotes, but this type of business book will date quickly even if the underlying theoretical framework is sound. Public and undergraduate libraries will find this an acceptable though optional purchase.APatrick J. Brunet, Western Wisconsin Technical Coll. Lib., LaCrosse
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Basic Books (April 6, 1999)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 272 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0738201006
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0738201009
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.15 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.75 x 1 x 10 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #893,145 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #7,508 in Business Management (Books)

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4.4 64 ratings

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Mehrdad Baghai

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Mehrdad is Managing Director of Alchemy Growth Partners, a boutique advisory and venture firm based in Sydney. Mehrdad advises large companies on their growth strategies and business building initiatives. He is co-author of the international bestsellers, The Alchemy of Growth, The Granularity of Growth as well as the newly released book As One. Previously, he was a partner in the Sydney and Toronto offices of McKinsey and Company and co-leader of the Firm’s worldwide Growth Practice.

He is the founder of the High Resolves Initiative, a community service project around global citizenship, which has reached over 10,000 high school students. Mehrdad is a Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute. Mehrdad received a B.S.E. with highest honours in electrical engineering and computer science from Princeton University, where he also completed a joint degree on public policy at the Woodrow Wilson School. He continued his education in public policy at Harvard where he completed an M.P.P. as a Kennedy Fellow at the Kennedy School of Government and a J.D. with high honours at Harvard Law School.

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Andres Leon

MINDBLOWN.

Reviewed in the United States on June 24, 2018

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Worked with startups and incubation for more than 7 years and I believe this book was written way before its time. Its an amazing read and every page is mindblowing filled with principles and guidelines.

This book is the big blueprint for innovation. It puts all the pieces together coherently for you to structure your thinking for innovation. Everything you’ve learned from design thinking, lean startup, customer experience, incubators, investment, etc., or said in another way, the ingredientes for innovation, are assembled and structured in a very actionable way here.

EXTREMELY RECOMMENDED.

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O. Halabieh

The Three Horizons of Growth For Sustained Business Leadership

Reviewed in the United States on January 1, 2014

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Below are key excerpts from the book that I found particularly insightful:

1- "Growth's transformative power is akin to the alchemy of old. Always a mystery, alchemy's magical blend of science, philosophy, art, and spirituality held secrets that even its practitioners found difficult to penetrate. Still, they were all drawn to its alluring aim: to transform the everyday into the exalted. The pursuit of corporate growth has prompted a similar reaction in the field of management. Although excited by growth's promise, executives are uncertain about how to capture it. Feeling ill equipped to lead a growth charge, many seek a approach that shows them how they can actually attain and sustain growth. This book is addressed to them. It attempts to arm business leaders for growth by laying out a proven practical framework for the holistic management of a growing enterprise. The ideas and approaches suggested here are applicable to businesses and business units of all sizes, in all locations. They are intended to provide guidance to all levels of business leadership."

2- "Our research makes it clear that very few companies sustain above-average growth for their industry year after year. Indeed, some of the companies we studied have already suffered slowdowns, and we fully expect more to do so. But these setbacks do not detract ft-om the lessons to be learned from the sustained phases of growth; indeed, they serve to reinforce the need for new approaches to help executives keep growth going. Our own approach has been specifically developed to help companies grow throughout the business cycle - not only sailing through the upswings, but also maintaining growth during the downturns."

3- "Horizon 1 encompasses the businesses that are at the heart of an organization - those that customers and stock analysts most readily identify with the corporate name. In successful companies, these businesses usually account for the lion's share of profits and cash flow. Horizon 1 businesses are critical to near-term performance, and the cash they generate and the skills they nurture provide resources for growth. They usually have some growth potential left, but will eventually flatten out and decline. Without the support of a successful horizon 1, initiatives in horizons 2 and 3 are likely to stagnate and die. Management's primary challenge in horizon 1 is to shore up competitive positions and capture what potential remains in the core businesses. Even when these are mature, continuing innovation can incrementally extend their growth and profitability. Traditional sales force stimulation programs, product extensions, and marketing changes can aim contribute. Restructuring, productivity enhancement, and cost reduction measures will also help maintain healthy performance for as long as possible."

4- "Horizon 2 comprises businesses on the rise: fast-moving, entrepreneurial ventures in which a concept is taking root or growth is accelerating. The emerging stars of the company, these businesses are attracting investors' attention. They could transform their company, but not without considerable investment. Though substantial profits may be four or five years away, they have customers and revenue, and may already generate some profit. More important, they are expected to become as profitable as horizon 1 businesses in time. Horizon 2 initiatives are usually characterized by a single-minded drive to increase revenue and market share. They need continuing investment to finance rollouts or otherwise accelerate the expansion of the business. In a few years, horizon 2 initiatives should complement or replace a company's current core businesses. They may represent either extensions of these businesses or moves in new directions. Horizon 2 is about building new streams of revenue.That takes time and demands new skills. Without horizon 2 businesses, a company's growth will slow and ultimately stall. A good growth company needs to have several of these emerging businesses "on the boil," working to convert promising ideas into future earnings generators.

5- "Horizon 3 contains the seeds of tomorrow's businesses - options on fiiture opportunities. Although embryonic, horizon 3 options are more than ideas; they are real activities and investments, however small. They are the research projects, test-market pilots, alliances, minority stakes, and memoranda of understanding that mark the first steps toward actual businesses, even though they may not produce profits for a decade, if ever. Should they prove successful, they will be expected to reach horizon 1 levels of profitability. A company that thinks it has a promising horizon 3 just because it compiles a long list of whiteboard ideas at a management retreat is fooling itself. Without deliberate initiatives to develop good ideas into horizon 3 opportunities, a company's long-term growth prospects will fade. The options in horizon 3 are rarely proven opportunities, but they need to be promising and to have the support of management. Building successful businesses means seeding numerous options. Some will fail for internal reasons; others will fall victim to shifting industry winds. Most will never grow to become successful new businesses. Given these odds, a great deal of horizon 3 activity is needed to cover the multitude of possible futures. A company's goal should be to keep he option to play without committing too much capital or other resources. The challenge is to nurture promising options while ruthlessly excising those with diminishing potential."

6- "The three horizons can be used to promote growth in three ways. First, as a diagnostic tool, the three horizons can help managers assess the prospects for growth at any level in an organization and reveal possible gaps in the volume and consistency of new profit sources. Second, as a language, the three horizons approach offers a coherent way to communicate with employees and investors. Its simple terminology makes it easier for both groups to understand and discuss corporate priorities."

7- "An excessive focus on growth can be just as much a problem as because they have failed to fill their business creation pipeline. others lose the right to grow when they become obsessed with new businesses. The novelty of these opportunities can be so exciting that managers take their eyes off horizon 1, forgetting that it must be maintained in order to provide the financial capacity to drive growth."

8- "Another troublesome pattern occurs when companies have strong horizon 1 businesses and lots of ideas in horizon 3, but few people working to turn these ideas into real businesses. No matter how exciting the ideas may be, horizon 2 will remain empty until businesses are built. A company can find itself in an insidious situation as promising horizon 3 options lull it into a false sense of security. To complicate matters, these options can also inflate market expectations for growth far beyond the company's capacity to meet them. As the gap between market expectations and the company's actual growth widens, a steep fall in stock price becomes more likely."

9- "If there are no hard and fast numbers to determine ideal balance across the three horizons, how should you define it? The standard is simple: balance means having the next engine of growth ready when it is needed. Applying the standard, however, is far from simple. The definition of balance varies from company to company. Consider the following factors: Pace of industry evolution...Degree of uncertainty...Managerial and financial capacity...Shareholder expectations."

10- "Pruning the portfolio of businesses through divestment creates capacity for growth. Although a business unit may still be earning adequate profits, these must be weighed against the opportunity costs of management distraction and competition for resources. Management attention and other resources are often more productively focused on growth opportunities than on businesses with limited potential...Shedding unsatisfactory businesses has the added benefit of signaling strategic intent to both stock markets and employees. Conversely, not pruning increasingly irrelevant businesses can send mixed messages about a company's direction and resolve to grow."

11- "In our work, we have looked for ways to open managers' eyes to hidden opportunities. To this end, we have developed a tool that we call the "seven degrees of freedom." By systematically addressing each degree of freedom in turn. managers can learn to think more broadly about growth opportunities in their businesses. 1. How could we increase sales to the same customers with the same product mix? 2. How could we extend the business by selling existing products to new customers? 3. How could we grow by introducing new products and services? 4. How could we expand sales by developing better delivery systems for customers? 5. How and where could we expand into new geographies? 6. How much could we grow by changing the industry structure through acquisitions or alliances? 7. What opportunities are there outside existing Industry boundaries?"

12- "Companies are right to be cautious about pursuing growth initiatives. But to let due caution prevent them considering unusual ideas is foolish. Collins and Porras strike the right balance: "We're not saying that evolutionary progress equals wanton diversification.... Nor are we laying that the concept of 'stick to the knitting' makes no sense. The real question is: What is the 'knitting' in a visionary company?""

13- "Whether the process is top-down or bottom-up is beside the point. It is not just the breadth of involvement that matters. but the breadth of the search. In the end, whatever the process used and resources deployed, finding attractive opportunities is always as much art as science."

14- "Executives who want to develop horizon 3 options into core profit engines face two big problems: market uncertainty and gaps in their skills, assets, and relationships. We have found that successful growers typically address these problems by taking not bold leaps, but a series of measured steps. Each step takes them a little closer to their ultimate :es money in its own right, and adds capabilities that prepare them for further opportunities. When these growers look back on what they have achieved, they see not a chaotic zigzag but a distinctive staircase pattern."

15- "No formula can substitute for managerial iudement. Even so analysis of more than 100 growth staircases reveals a consistent pattern. Virtually all successful staircases proceed in four phases: seeding the initial growth options; testing the the business model; replicating and extending the business; and managing for profitability."

16- "Even when there is strong capability building at each step, migrating an idea from a horizon 3 option to an emerging horizon 2 enterprise and on to a horizon 1 core business is tricky. The advantage of taking many small steps rather than a few big leaps is that it helps companies manage the risks that arise on two fronts. First, market uncertainty makes it impossible to predict the success of a business: for every great idea, there are many that will fail. Second, new businesses call for capabilities that a company does not yet have; without them, the promise these businesses hold out will not be realized."

17- "A broader definition of capability is required that includes all resources useful in gaining competitive advantage. In addition to operational skill, our definition of capability includes three other classes of resources: privileged assets, growth-enabling skills, and special relationships."

18- "Only by differentiating their management systems across the three horizons can corporations avoid the barriers to growth that most systems inadvertently perpetuate.If all managers are evaluated purely on the profitability of their businesses - a good measure of horizon 1 performance - they will have little appetite for building horizon 2 enterprises. If some leadership time is not systematically reserved for building fledgling businesses, the needs of the core business will consume all managers' days and nights, and they simply will not have a free moment to build horizons 2 and 3."

19- "Horizon 1 operators: Deep functional and/or industry expertise Strong drive to hit targets and meet plans consistently, Discipline; Horizon 2 Business builders: Entrepreneurial desire to create, Comfort with ambiguity, Top-line-focused, sharp decision makers ; Horizon 3 Visionaries: Champions, Unconventional thinkers"

20- "Our research indicates that about three-quarters of the companies that sustain high growth and high shareholder returns make acquisition a critical component of their growth strategies. They frequently acquire other companies - often up to five a year - to further the development of their growth staircases."

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gulatin2

Certainly a good read. Although management consultants help company management navigate ...

Reviewed in the United States on September 11, 2015

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Certainly a good read. Although management consultants help company management navigate the issues companies face or help them evolve, but I would love to read more data-driven stories .

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M. S. Rifaz Marikkar

Excellent book on growth and strategy!

Reviewed in the United States on August 3, 2022

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Excellent book on growth and strategy!

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Charlie Mopps

Did I get fired because of this book? Or in spite of it?

Reviewed in the United States on June 9, 2023

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Had to read the book as the CEO demanded it of all senior execs. Book is fine enough; like any business book it could stand to have an editor focused more on making it concise. Long story short: some businesses are meant to last longer than others.
Got fired from the job regardless. Realistically, this wasn't the book's fault though for now I'm putting the blame there as well as the CEO's penchant for starting his benders at 9am.

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Dennis A. Starliper

Excellent. Well articulated and complete

Reviewed in the United States on June 8, 2014

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Simple yet comprehensive bible regarding the strategy for growth. Hamel and Prahalad, Adizes, Slywotzky and Morrison fill in a lot of detail under this overall thesis....

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Dan Feliciano

This is an older, but damn its great.

Reviewed in the United States on February 21, 2016

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This is an older, but damn its great. The authors do an incredible job describing growth cycles of business and they provide good ideas how to optimize each cycle as well as how to prepare the next business cylcle.

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tinotchka

Exhilarating and Exhausting

Reviewed in the United States on April 30, 2005

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This book provides a easy-to-understand mental model for thinking about organizational growth. However, the concept of growing and managing three "horizons" of growth at the same time exhilarates and exhausts. This book could be enhanced by incorporating sustainable principles like the Triple Bottom Line: People, Planet, and Prosperity.

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