Last Thursday I went to a seminar on Growth & scaling your business. I often avoid these networking events, but this being the start of a New Year I thought: “…what the hell, lets do this!”
The programme included different perspectives on growth but for me the key question was this:
Why grow and what does growth mean to me, personally?
It’s not an easy one to answer. Most people assume that growth is logical. “Of course, you need to increase your turnover and of course you need to add more personnell……” But is it as logical as it seems? The same as with how many kids we want: most people will almost automatically say two. But why? Is one not enough? Do we need a spare one? (just in case the first one doesn’t make it, we still got you, Charlie ? )
It’s the same with growing the company. It’s something to think about. And it’s something personal. Like religion. It’s a personal thing. You decide for yourself what is needed and what is best suitable. This also changes over time. What you crave for at a certain point in time will change. But….what does growth mean to me, personally?
I see growth as a balancing act. Balancing internal capabilities with external demands and possibilities. In the past 3 years we have focused on keeping our clients happy. There was very little time to do some institutional development of PID. Some updates via FB now and then, but that was it. In 2017 we finally developed 3 important building blocks: website, PID movie and (inter)national partners. Our international partners enabled us to work on a high professional level with internationally accepted methodologies. The website enables us to extend our digital presence. The PID movie provides the means to give our customers a visual impression of what we stand for.
For me growth now is not necessarily in extending staff and turnover. But I do crave for growth in terms of experience. Growth in experience; by working in other places and by working with other people. The first is growth by extending the market, geographically. Not necessarily more turnover, but deriving turnover from other areas. For the past 5 years I have enjoyed working on Curacao, and solely on Curacao. As part of the PID team I had the opportunity to work with inspiring partners and on an exciting professional level.
Working on Curacao: dynamic and on the highest levels
We have been able to work with almost all ministries in the past 3 years on a variety of topics, ranging from public finance and operational efficiency to justice and youth development. All had in common to create a more result-based and participatory process, often with multiple stakeholders. We also strived to go beyond traditional consulting through a more sustainable approach where we built internal capacities within government.
All the knowledge and experience of the past assignments came together in of our most exciting and challenging assignment yet: that of the governing programme 2017-2021. Our role was to make sure that the goals of the newly elected cabinet were aligned with the various ministries and that the governing programme was composed of national goals that were more result-based. The additional challenge was to align national goals with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Albeit, all these assignments were on Curacao. It is now a new year. If we say that growth is an option, but change is certain than my intention is to embrace change and choose for growth in a way that is appropriate for me in this time and place.
I look forward to extend our lessons learned and track record to other parts of the Dutch Caribbean and work with a broader range of professionals. Growth in experience. Growth as a balancing act.
Best wishes to All
Iwan Zunder