Succes | Growth

The only way a business can be successful is if they are clear on how they measure success.

Traditionally, success is measure financially and to gain more success businesses typically need to grow more. When you dig into that definition a little deeper you find that it is not as simple. Different industries use different financial measurements of success. Some look at financial ratios, others look at market penetration and still others look at the bottom line. Financial measurements of success have the luxury of working with numbers, but it still isn’t straight-forward.

Companies that tackle social and environmental problems don’t always have clear-cut definitions of success. In fact, for some businesses success might mean shrinking in size rather than growing.  

A recent article in Stanford Social Innovation Review explored the relationship between success and growth. The website DoSomething.org decided to cut back on their programing in an effort to grow.

They recognize the importance in being hyper-focused on the desired impact of their work. Many of the programs they cut were “successful”. These programs received media praise, funding, and high number of participants, but they did not directly contribute to the overall mission of motivating 100,000+ people to participate in campaigns for change. What DoSomething.org did is an excellent example of a focused definition of success that is de-coupled from monetary growth.