We've been talking about growth strategy as a potential avenue for creating value. And remember there are lots of pressures on businesses to grow and there are lots of sort of not very well thought through reasons to pursue growth. And what we've been talking about Is how growth needs to be strategic. In other words, we need to understand with clarity, why it is we are attempting to grow. So, remember this idea of the strategist challenge? There's this fundamental idea that strategy is about creating value. It's about creating, defending, developing a valuable, competitive position. And so, it turns out this is a useful lens for thinking about and evaluating potential growth opportunities. Is this something that will help us advance our mission and help us create value? So, let's talk about this for a few moments and just remind ourselves what this is all about. Strategy begins with values, with understanding mission and purpose and what kind of value it is that we're trying to create. That gets to the core of who you are as an organization. And do you really understand that? That has to drive strategic decisions as you move forward in the competitive marketplace. And then of course, we're on the lookout for opportunities to create that value. Are there existing, or can we create new market opportunities to create that value in a way that others aren't creating it. Right? Is there an opportunity for us to occupy a niche, or expand, or create more value than we created before, and of course that also has to do with our capabilities. Our resources and capabilities, do we have what it takes to create this kind of value in a way that's consistent with our purpose and mission and values? And so, remember strategy is about putting all of these things together. And it's at the intersection of these things that we find a valuable competitive position. And this is the opportunity for your business to create, and develop, and defend the opportunity, essentially, to create value. So, this is a useful lens for thinking about and evaluating potential growth opportunities. Because the key question here is, will this potential growth opportunity allow us to create more of this value? Will it allow us to enhance the valuable competitive position that we currently occupy? Or will it allow us to create a new valuable competitive position or enhance and defend that position in some way? So as we think about growth opportunities it's important to take a step back, understand why you're attempting that growth. Hopefully your answer to that question has to do with how that growth will help you create more value. And remember it's not enough to just say those words. You need to understand with clarity how you're going to be able to create more value through growth. But it's also important to layer on top of it all of these ideas of is it consistent with your values and your purpose. Is it something that plays to your strengths, your capabilities. Is it something that fills an exciting or a future or some sort of an important market opportunity? And so we need to think about this strategist challenge and the objective of creating and sustaining a valuable competitive position. And that's a very important thing to consider as you're contemplating a particular growth opportunity. Will it help you do that? Will it help you do more of that? That's the question as you're contemplating strategic growth.
