Growth platforms

The verb 'grow' comes from the Old English growan (of plants) before 900 a.c. It means 'to grow, flourish, increase, develop, get bigger' class VII strong verb; past tense greow, past participle growen). The noun 'growth' is probably coganted with Old Norse grōthr.The noun 'platform' comes from Middle French plateforme/platte fourme, literally meaning 'flat form', deriving from Old French plat 'flat' and forme 'form' suring the 1540s. There are three stages in implementing a growth planning process which are based on three basic questions: Strategic analysis: referred to the environment (which could either be internal, external and marketing) where the business operated. It also looked at the resources possessed by the business or that it could possibly have and at the expectations and objectives of its main stakeholders and owners. Strategic choice: it basically generates options which have to do with the strategic analysis. This process evaluates the options based on acceptability, feasibility and suitability and then selects the suitable strategy Strategic implementation: this process focus on achieving the correct organisational structure, planning the resources (physical and financial) and sorting out the systems and the people by implementing the change process. This process has been developing and it can be considered one of the few 'big company' management theories which can be used effectively and simply. Most businesses have a growth strategy which is based on 'acquisitions and partnerships that create shareholder value by creating or reinforcing platforms for long-term growth'. When a business is in a high-growth industry it is able to maintain high growth rates for a longer period of time. However, many investors take this high growth as granted which usually lead to much slower growth rates once the industry stops booming. It is believed that 65% of acquisitions which businesses buy in order to grow in size have destroyed more value than they actually created, an acquisition can’t be a substitute for a growth platform. New growth platforms help companies grew as they created families of products, services, and businesses and extend their capabilities into multiple new domains. The NGPs acted as a method of growth in which each business was acquiring new capabilities and further market knowledge. The size of the growth platform is strategic to the corporation. Small scaled businesses can only have a NGP when provided through a partnership or government funding, usually these exist in the agricultural sector and improve the knowledge and infrastructure ensuring better food security.