Everywhere we look, someone is talking about growing something. From my days in corporate, when I used to pitch my business plan in the hope of getting buy-in from decision makers, and therefore approved funding, I loved and enjoyed telling the story of growth . I enjoy setting a solid story for brands and businesses, and love to structure the building blocks of growth in simple steps. They always come in milestones, and it even looks like an actual building growing from milestone to milestone. To avoid the boring financial dryness in the discussion (although it is the most important argument to get funding) I always look at it as a story. This often reassured investors, as each milestone builds on a level of success and keeps growing thanks to trusted teams and… the funding. The fuel and the engine of growth: Data and the ’Head of Growth’. When I embarked on the digital transformation of the brands, I came to meet a lot of individuals and talents, claiming now the ambitious title of: Head of Growth . If you researched that 3 years ago, you would find it associated with the digital marketing performance te ams. Their duty and missions were to grow your revenue through their strategies on the digital marketing spent . T hat is in the simplest of forms. A successful head of growth would have firstly made sure the right data infrastructure is present t o then take many of the sources to come up with strategies of growth – and would not only limit the data to online traffic and online behaviors. They will try to bring in, for example, the offline CRM information and other information linked to the inventory churn and supply chain insights. Also, I always found the best sources of data lie within the customer services departments . It is no surprise that many of these talented individuals are usually moved to head operations in the most visionary of organizations. "Opportunities lie in the place where the complaints are" JACK MA The customer services department holds a well of knowledge. They know what is going well and what isn’t working in the business , and these insights - if actioned into plans - can evolve and improve any business, and therefore grow it! From collecting your data to using it. How can we today, with all the sources of data and mediums in our hands, build a network that pulls the relevant data from everywhere to make measured decisions on growth? Moreover, can we also make use of this data to anticipate good predictions on the trends and the sources of potential growth? Take for instance that a business is getting a lot of online search traffic from a market it is not playing in. Could that be an opportunity to unlock? Or looking at missed sales data. There are some sizes that buyers never stock. This could be a missed opportunity of growth. Growth teams must keep going back and forth from strategy to research, to testing, building and execution . A wheel of continuous testing can fuel sustainable growth for many and help keep up with the ever-changing customer needs. Designing a wining formula. Rising from the COVID crisis, new business ventures evolved - ones that are data driven and boosted by AI and analytics. According to a few studies conducted by PWC, 52% of companies were found to have accelerated their AI adoption plans due to the COVID crisis . So it‘s easy to say that AI is your best friend. Automating growth processes and mixing your intangibles into the sources can be exactly what the winning formula for decision-making is. This is what many Data Leaders are trying to apply into organizations and startups today. Data is and remains the ‘ King of the Jungle ’ in business - but only if it’s captured and applied efficiently. Learning the lessons: Innovate to Grow. I remember hearing years ago in a conference from the company Chobani (the greek yogurt american player). They spoke to us about their growth unit and the way they structured themselves around it. That unit was independently and with a fully holistic team to test and go with an idea until this one matured enough to become a new product or vertical. It wasn’t common back then to be this bold about it, as all businesses used to see growth as part of their responsibilities. Today, many realize that innovation can be nurtured in organizations through programs, incubators, dedicated teams and (ideally & eventually) through group wide KPIs , holding everyone and anyone accountable to grow through innovation. Basically, you can’t grow nor innovate without testing . You cannot test without allocated resources (budgets & teams) to the process. If we don’t drive that decision top down, operation and execution will always keep focusing on growing the existing businesses and may miss opportunities of scale along the way.