Why do Businesses Stop Growing? (North Harbour)

“If your business is not growing, it’s dying”.  I’m not sure whether it was Bob Dylan or TJ Sullivan whos words were adapted into this business cliche – but it is oft repeated in business literature.

Although overused, this statement is generally true.  We live in a finite world where growth is necessary for survival – but also a world where we cannot all grow.  Generally one business’ growth comes at the expense of another business.  Your clients and customers have only so much to spend, so they will collectively spend it with you or your competitors.   Typically businesses grow until they reach a constraint that the directors cannot or will not move past.  And then they decline with their share of the market eroded to businesses that are not hampered by the same constraints.  Maybe quickly – or maybe over many years.

So why is it that some businesses grow from strength to strength while other seemingly similar businesses are in terminal decline?  How can you identify the constraints that are facing you or your business?  What are these constraints?  How can you manage and move past these constraint?  What happens if you just can’t?  What is the experience of other business owners?

For those business owners with an eye to the future who are concerned about these questions, the 21 February Business Owners Forum will be a must-attend event.

This event will be held at the BNZ Partners facility on Constellation Drive, North Harbour at 5:30pm on Thursday 21 February 2013 – and will run through to 7:30pm on the night.

Here are our panelists for this event:

Fraser Hurrell.   Fraser is a Chartered Accountant and a director of Elevate CA Limited.  He meets with many business owners every year, and the question of growth is high on the agenda of most of these meetings.  Fraser will share some of the insights from his cleints’ experiences – and some of the themes around what tends to go right or wrong with their best laid plans.

Chris Vincent.  Chris’ resume includes 13 years working for the Westpac Banking Corporation, 6 years in the Merchant and Investment Banking Sector, managing the turn round of struggling companies including acquisition of companies that had gone into receivership.  Chris has 19 years in the manufacturing environment and for the last five years has been CEO of RPM International.

Dean Young.  Dean is director of Brave Day – and a member of the Entrepreneurs Organisation of New Zealand.   He has dealt with high-value clients his entire career, both as a corporate dealer and a money market dealer in the 1990s and in the insurance industry since 1999.  Dean will share some of the insights from his journey.

As always for Business Owners Forum events, this session will be free of charge and completely free of sales pitches from the supporters or the panelists.  And there will be pizza, beer and wine to lubricate quality discussion.

Business Owners Forums are held monthly on the third Thursday of the month – alternating between North Harbour  and Whangarei venues – and also in Newmarket starting March 2013.

If you’d like to attend this event, email Fraser Hurrell before the end of 19 February.  And if you’d like to be included on the invite list for future events, just add your contact details in the box to the right.