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Born to Grow

This chapter fuses two of the most important concepts not only in marketing, but in business: analysis (via the SWOT tool) and strategic growth (via Ansoff's Growth Matrix). Organizations are born to grow. Those that do not follow through on this pull of inertia are destined to fail. Growth, though, is often haphazardly implemented by founders, managers, or entrepreneurs who fail to connect the findings of SWOT with a well-thought-out growth strategy. We've covered the four main components of SWOT; we look now at the four main components of the growth matrix, once again using Side Launch as our storyline.

Three years into Side Launch's existence, founder Garnet Pratt encountered the type of good problem most entrepreneurs dream about-demand for her company's beer was soaring, and growth opportunities seemed to be everywhere. Sales of Side Launch had grown 100 percent in each of those years, and at the time of this writing, it was poised to grow by another 40 percent year over year from 2016 to 2017. "That is staggering growth," she said, "to be growing at 40 percent when the industry is growing at 20 percent. And we have all been feeling it, but it is a good problem to have. I'd rather that than having a bunch of beer in the refrigerator that won't sell."

Keeping up with increasing demand for the four core brands created by Side Launch-Wheat, Pale Ale, Dark Lager, and Mountain Lager-will, by default, result in growth by market penetration. "At this point, it's the only logical strategy," asserts Dave Sands, VP Operations. "And with these four core beers, we have covered a large cross-section of craft beer consumers," chimes in brewer Michael Hancock.

Side Launch also realizes that other growth strategies exist. "We develop new flavour profiles regularly throughout the year in limited quantities," explains Michael. Technically, this is product development strategy, but in the case of Side Launch, it is more about living up to brand and category DNA than it is a deliberate attempt to grow. The exquisitely on-brand names of these specially produced beers, "The Ships of Collingwood" and "Man Overboard," show leadership and innovation as a brewer. "It's important that we don't chase trends," rationalizes Michael, "but at the same time it is important, there's no question, for a reputable craft brewer to be innovative, while at the same time being grounded in the traditional values which result in a really good-tasting beer."

"It's easy in any consumer goods business to get caught up in chasing trends and growing at the peril of your core portfolio," explains Dave. "Ultimately, whether you're big or small, you have to do both. Take care of the products that got you to where you are and pay the bills, but be open and forward looking to what's next." The brewery's operations manager then makes an interesting comparison between brewing beer and preparing food. "I look at production brewing [of the four core Side Launch brands] like baking-proven recipes and ingredients, precisely controlled, deliberate, time consuming, and let's face it, not very sexy or exciting if you do it right. The product development is like cooking. Taking an idea, finding some ingredients we like, tinkering, testing, adjusting, and hopefully ending up with something tasty. But this is a small-volume opportunity."

For now, the Side Launch strategy of expanding its share within that growing craft beer market seems the only logical strategy. The linkage here between SWOT and the growth matrix can thus be summed up by Garnet's description of her brand's greatest strength-"Being true to style and authentic"-and by Michael's identification of the opportunity-"The market for craft is huge and growing and just waiting to be tapped, when you consider the core number of craft consumers, and those in transition." Extracting your biggest findings from SWOT will almost always lead you to the most viable and profitable strategy for growth.

1. Using Ansoff's Growth Matrix, which growth strategy is Side Launch employing as it attempts to "grow in the craft beer market"?

2. The Side Launch products stemming from its "Ships of Collingwood" and "Man Overboard" series represent what type of growth strategy?

3. What would be an example of a diversification strategy for Side Launch?