Growth is critical.

Growth is critical. It makes the corporate world turn.

It is the focus of conversations every day. Business growth. People growth. Strategic growth. Customer Growth. I'm sure you can add to this list!

What gets talked about a lot less, is understanding the sources of growth.

How do you strategically evaluate growth? How do you identify which source of growth is working and which isn't? How do you harness the different sources of growth so they fuel each other?

The following is a practical, strategic framework for evaluating and amplifying growth:

1. VERTICAL GROWTH: this is the growth that comes from excellence within a function, and continual improvement. Whether you are in marketing, sales or finance, vertical growth is driven by capability, and measured through functional KPI's. Is your team better than last year - and delivering growth?

2. HORIZONTAL GROWTH: This happens across functions. This is about stopping siloes, effective ways of working, priority setting and creating a great culture, so it is easier to get the right work - done. This is the focus for C-Suite. Growth is measured through overall company performance metrics, cross-functional productivity and employee experience.

3. DIAGONAL GROWTH (Innovation): This is the ability to grow in the short term, as well as invest in creating your future business. It's defining your next growth horizon - now. As change is accelerating, this is becoming even more important, as your healthy business today could become unhealthy tomorrow. This is measured through innovation metrics (pipeline, % of innovations meeting targets, %of sales from new products) and performance versus competitors / category.

When you look at all 3 sources of growth and key metrics, you create a clear picture. Where are we winning or losing?

When each source of growth is healthy, then you can create a growth flywheel - where each part fuels the other. This is where you create a halo effect through growth amplification.

Unfortunately, if one component is unhealthy - then the flywheel doesn't work. The connection is broken, so momentum falters. There is no "double bounce".

Are you strategically evaluating the sources of growth? Do you have a growth flywheel?