There is more than one way for a company to grow. While many organizations initially focus on growing through the success of organic products – as companies gain traction and seek to grow faster, they start to evaluate alternative modes of growth. These often include mergers & acquisitions, new product development and enhanced product strategies.

Mergers & Acquisitions: M&A is often used to augment technology or acquire geographical footprint. Different types of acquisitions include scale, merger of equals or a tuck- in. This mode of growth is slightly more aggressive and often has a more direct line to Return on Investment (ROI) as the belief is the investment will result in a desired ROI.

New Product Development: While M&A is a very direct approach to growing in new markets, the core tool that every organization has at its disposal is the ability to innovate and develop new products. The offset between M&A and innovation is often time. While development takes time and effort, M&A often provides quick returns. Many organizations often have a blended approach to growth by leveraging a combination of M&A and Innovation.

Enhanced Product Strategies: While innovation and M&A tend to be the levers that are pulled most frequently, there is another mode of growth that organizations can utilize – enhanced product strategies. Depending on the product portfolio, organizations may be able to license specific components in order to generate a passive income stream which can be utilized to support investments in other parts of the business – or for very young firms, help generate steady income to keep the lights on, while they focus on their core technologies on which their future platforms for growth will be built upon. Not only can organizations license-out technology, but they can choose to augment gaps in product/innovations by licensing-in technologies to avoid long development timelines.

These paths to growth allow organizations to quickly gain additional market share, expand into new geographies, enhance reach and grow faster than if they were to rely on organic growth alone.