Today we're gonna be talking about growth. Now you can probably all think of an example of a business you're familiar with that has perhaps experienced amazing growth or rapid growth. Or maybe you're familiar with a business that has great potential for growth. There are lots of examples, so take for instance the example of Chipotle Mexican Grill. It's a really interesting company, it's just over 20 years old, began in 1993 as a single restaurant location. And it's really grown to become one of the leaders in this very rapidly growing market segment of fast casual dining. So at one point McDonald's even had a controlling share in Chipotle as an investor and in 2006 Chipotle Mexican Grill went public. And over all of this time, there's been quite a phenomenal growth trajectory. Here you can see Chipotle's growth in revenues over time. And you can see, obviously a sorta constant trend of upward growth. And you can see how those revenues have increased over time. And this is pretty substantial growth here. We can see very similar graphic showing the number of locations. So by the end of 2014 Chipotle had grown to have over 1700 locations all throughout the United States. And a couple of dozen locations in Canada and the UK. Now, this is pretty phenomenal growth, and of course, Chipotle Mexican Grill is only one example of a firm that has grown rapidly and grown substantially. And of course, in conversation, as we read in the press, as we think about the business economy, there's a lot of focus on growth. In fact, this is one of the ways that we tend to measure the health, the robustness of an economic system. And of course, all of that interest in macroeconomic growth translates into quite a bit of interest in the growth prospects or the growth trajectory of individual firms. So we're gonna be focused on growth today. And not at the level of the overall economy. We're gonna leave that to the macro economists. But we're gonna gonna focus on the growth of individual firms. And that's where strategy comes in, so you might think to yourself what does it mean to grow strategically? What is strategic growth? Well, first of all, it's imperative for growth to be strategic that it be intentional. That it be proactive. There's all kinds of trends and pressures in an economic environment to grow. We'll talk about that in a moment, but to be strategic about growth requires that a business be intentional and proactive about it and not just reacting to pressures to grow. But of course, because growth is a strategic issue, because it's an important strategic decision for a firm whether or not to grow, and how to grow, It's not enough that growth just be intentional and proactive. I think that's important, but the second point is also important. That growth needs to advance a business's strategy. It needs to be consistent with the company's purpose, and needs to therefore help advance the business's missions and goals. So, when we think about strategic growth, it's an important consideration for firms. It's a prominent feature again, of the economic environment that we live in. Therefore it's something to carefully consider if you're a business. Whether or not and how you should grow. Again, it needs to be intentional and it needs to be something that can help you advance your strategy, advance your mission and purpose. And help you achieve whatever it is you're hoping to achieve through that growth. Now there's lots of different ways to grow. In highlighting the example in Chipotle Mexican Grill, what I've been referring to is the more common strategy of growth through scaling. Meaning scaling in existing markets the business activity that you're already engaged in, so that's a very common way to grow. But there are other ways to grow as well. And these are things that we'll touch on in more depth as we progress through the module but we'll talk about things like growth through market entry. This means entering established markets that you aren't currently operating in. And how do you enter those markets? What's the right strategy to enter and grow through market entry? That's a different way to grow. We'll talk about growth through acquisition, through mergers and acquisitions. That's another way that businesses achieve growth, we'll talk about that as well. We'll talk about organic growth through innovation. So all of these are different ways that one can grow, but for now we're gonna focus this discussion on growth through scaling. Through scaling existing business activity which essentially means, you're gonna try to grow to do more of what you're already doing. And that's a very common growth strategy, and therefore it's an important thing to focus on and understand, as we're trying to understand growth and how it relates to business strategy.
