Blue Ridge Partners' Book “How to Grow a Business” Offers Practical Advice for Accelerating Profitable Revenue Growth
McLean, VA (PRWEB) February 21, 2014 -- Blue Ridge Partners, the management consulting firm whose top-level expertise is widely recognized among its Fortune 500 and private equity firm clients, has brought their considerable expertise to the market with the release of the book, “How to Grow a Business: Insights from Working with Over 300 Companies.”
This book begins by connecting top-line revenue growth with increasing shareholder return. While cost reduction, multiple expansion, and free cash flow improvement all contribute to Total Shareholder Return, more than half of all shareholder return comes from profitable revenue growth. Blue Ridge Partners has seen companies double or even triple in value by following the four revenue growth principles described in this book. "We advise companies to focus resources on the core of the business if strong growth opportunities remain," said co-founder and managing partner Jim Corey, whose own career as an operator and business advisor spans three decades. "If the core offers limited profitable growth opportunities, then the core needs to be extended."
The other three principles of revenue growth described in this book are gathering rich facts about the market and your own sales and marketing performance, choosing the most powerful growth initiatives and focusing on the top three or four—“it’s better to get “A’s” on three or four initiatives than to get “C’s” on 10-12.” Most importantly, the fourth principle is to master the science of "making change happen" within the organization. This is where most organizations fail in accelerating growth.
Senior executives and other potential readers shouldn’t let the deceptive simplicity of the title fool them – Blue Ridge Partners offers an unusually nuanced and sophisticated treatment of their sole business-consulting mission with this laser-focus look at revenue growth. “We wanted to present an insightful and pragmatic approach to the complex topic of accelerating revenue growth,” said Corey. Based on their experience with over 300 companies, Blue Ridge Partners understands the challenge that many top leaders face when trying to improve the performance of sales and marketing in their organizations. Less than 17 percent of CEOs have direct experience leading sales and marketing during their careers, yet they frequently must make critical decisions about these key functions.
“How to Grow a Business” analyzes the critical role played by sales and marketing in accelerating profitable growth. The book offers comprehensive understanding of how sales and marketing can be integrated into a high-performing organizational structure including the interactions with finance, product development and management, strategic planning and other corporate units.
The book also reflects the Blue Ridge Partners commitment to the guiding principles that inform their consulting work, including the belief that most insights leading to strategic change don’t come from within a firm but rather, by looking back at the company through the “eyes of the market.”
The book outlines "The Nine Voices of the Market®," a strategy of gathering external perspectives from all stakeholders, including customers, lost customers, lost prospects, partners, industry analysts and trade associations, and competitors. "This market view often shows that what a company assumes to be true about the market, is sometimes false," said Brad Wilsted, Senior Managing Director. The book also addresses the "10 critical questions many companies can't answer, including “why do we win and why do we lose, where is our sweet spot in the market, are we properly aligned with customers in the market, are we effectively generating leads and winning new customers in our targeted sweet spots, and are pricing inefficiencies leaving margin on the table?”
“We recognized that senior executives and private-equity professionals are looking for clear thinking and pragmatic approaches, offered in a concise style,” said Wilsted. “Our new book provides proven techniques and approaches for accelerating revenue growth, along with specific examples and case studies on how they are implemented.”
Early reviews of “How to Grow a Business” by senior executives and private equity firm professionals have been uniformly enthusiastic. Typical reactions include, “clear thinking and practical approaches,” “focused on things that really matter for growing revenue” and “ideas you can use immediately in the business.”
To learn more about “How to Grow a Business: Insights from Working with Over 300 Companies,” or to request a copy, please send an email to [email protected].
About Blue Ridge Partners
Blue Ridge Partners is a management consulting firm focused exclusively on helping companies accelerate profitable revenue growth. The firm works with Fortune 500 and upper middle market companies to enhance their strategic understanding of markets and customers and to improve their execution in sales and marketing organizations. For more information, visit http://www.blueridgepartners.com.
David Schutzman, Blue Ridge Partners, http://www.blueridgepartners.com/, 203 550-8551, [email protected]
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