Is Your Strategic Mindset Capping Your Company’s Growth?
Every successful company has a strategic mindset of time-tested beliefs about why the company wins, where growth comes from, and what it needs next. Those beliefs shape leadership’s priorities and practices over many years, building the business into what it is today.
But when you start to prioritize rapid growth, your current thinking gets tested. Will what got you here get you there? Too often, the answer is, Our mindset, which served us well in the past, is now holding us back.
Is Your Team’s Mindset More Operational or Strategic?
Most leadership teams we work with have an operating mindset, one centered on day-to-day success. It keeps the shop full, the team selling, customers well served, and operations running, all while growing the business bit by bit. When the goal becomes more rapid growth, however, an operating mindset—fixed on how things have always been done—can cap growth.
In contrast, leaders who shift to a strategic mindset start to see new paths for success. They ask different questions: Where will new growth come from? Which markets matter most going forward? How should we organize to win the future?
How a $50M Manufacturer Uncapped Its Growth
A Successful Company at a Turning Point
This $50 million metal fabrication and machining company, a Shepherd client, had a lot going for it. Skilled workforce. Heavy equipment built for large metal parts, from construction equipment to oil rigs. Ample space to grow. Loyal customers. Nearly five decades of steady incremental growth.
The company clearly knew how to succeed. Its “job-shop” model had added growth year after year. Leadership’s operating mindset was solid. Look everywhere for leads, take on whatever work comes in, deliver it well, and repeat.
Then the founders passed ownership of the family business to their sons. The brothers set a new goal for rapid growth: double in 5 years.
But could the same mindset that built the company to $50 million over the past 45 years double the business again in the next 5? Leadership knew something had to change.
What the Data Revealed
As part of Shepherd’s GAMEPlan process, we analyzed 3 recent years of sales data, account by account—who bought what, which industries they came from—to pinpoint where sales were rising or falling. The company served hundreds of customers across more than a dozen industries, yet its growth was concentrated just in three markets: defense, construction, and energy. Of these, defense stood out most.
From its founding, the company’s operating mindset emphasized treating every customer and every job as equal—and that approach worked. But the data told a different story. It turned out that some markets, customers, and types of work contributed far more to growth than others.
From Chasing Projects to Chasing Markets
With that insight, leadership shifted from an operating to a strategic mindset. The old: Chase projects. The new: Chase markets—and chase projects only in the markets that matter for growth.
The firm then built a growth strategy around winning new business in defense, construction, and energy. It reorganized its team into market-focused business units, hired people who knew those markets from the inside, and rebuilt marketing around them. The biggest bet was defense, with the most additional investments to develop its position.
In 3 years, revenue more than doubled to $120 million, 2 years ahead of plan. As the CFO put it at the time, the shift in strategic mindset enabled them to “prioritize, focus, and go!”
Four Questions to Assess Your Strategic Mindset
Start with these four questions for your leadership team:
Having chosen where growth will come from, are you set up to win?
Real answers are rarely a clear yes or no. But if the honest answer to any of these is even a partial “no,” the mindset that served you before is unlikely to get you to the new target.
Your team needs to ask where the new growth will come from. Answer that, and the path to win comes into focus. From there, your team can envision, adjust, and carry out the changes to structure, roles, marketing, and production that the new growth requires.
These questions are particularly valuable to ask at moments of transition, such as a new owner or CEO, an acquisition, a shift in market conditions, or a generational handoff. Take time to step back, reassess, and decide what the company could become.
Shift the Mindset, Then Build the Plan
A shift in strategic mindset is often what is actually needed to turn growth targets into results. Once the mindset shifts, the plan can follow. If your owners, your board, or your own ambitions call for faster growth—but your team’s thinking hasn’t caught up—let’s talk about how shifting your strategic mindset can uncap your growth.
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