The simplest growth strategy

Copy and paste

My feet are abnormal. They’re flat, wide, and aging. I use orthotics to ease the pain. Shoe shopping is difficult but I’ve narrowed my choice of stores to Athlete’s Foot and Skechers. There may be others but these two have what I want.  

What’s more, they're international. If I forget to pack my ideal shoes, I can buy them in most countries. My needs can’t be that abnormal because both chains are global successes. There are 1,700 Skechers in 160 countries. The equivalent numbers for Athlete’s Foot are 483 across 27 nations.

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The power of simply connecting

Why you need to get out more

About thirty years ago, my hometown, Sydney, built a monorail. It was revolutionary at the time. It connected the city to museums, an exhibition centre and a few tourist spots. Trouble was, it didn’t connect to anything else. The city’s main rail terminal was a kilometre away from the nearest stop. Nor did it venture downtown. 

Sydney is harbour city. Tourists want to go the Harbour Bridge, the Opera House and their associated ranks of bars and restaurants. They’re all at Circular Quay, where trains, buses and ferries collide in a transport hub. It was easy to get there from anywhere, except by monorail. 

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How to grow any business

You’ve probably already got what it takes

There are several remarkable things about General Electric (GE). For a start, it’s been around for a while. Thomas Edison put it together in the late 1880s.

It was one of the first entrants in the Dow Jones Index. Out of the original members, it’s the only one still on the list. The rest have disappeared.

GE has arguably transformed itself a few times. It started making electric turbines. It developed leasing facilities for customers. That led it to finance. It’s said to have been the first business to actually own a computer. In the 1960s it had a significant computer division. It sold that business to Honeywell.

The financial crisis almost brought GE undone. Now it is exiting finance and reinvesting in manufacturing, buying industrial businesses that align with its historic strengths.

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