Growth is one of businesses' fundamental purposes. Considered with the systems approach, businesses are open systems in constant interaction with their environment, with a structure that is affected by it and affects it. In this respect, businesses behave like living organisms. Constantly under the influence of economic, social, political and technological changes, businesses are at the same time obliged to sustain their lives within the competitive environment by using their resources in the best way. Like a living organism, businesses too are born, grow, develop, age and die. Businesses' most important struggle is to extend their lifespan. Organizations that generally start out as a small venture grow over time by establishing their products in the market; once they reach a certain size, they now wish to sustain their existence by continuously developing themselves. However, there are many businesses that cannot maintain this state. Businesses that cannot keep pace with the changes around them over time, and cannot achieve modern management, fall behind their rivals and age. This is at the same time a process of breaking away from the market. A business detached from the market can be likened to a living organism that cannot take in nourishment. At that point its activities have ended. The living organism has died.

The business's most important aim is to make the process of growth and development continuous. The growth and development process must be managed in a balanced way. Businesses have to act very carefully while growing. Businesses continuing the struggle to stay in the market sometimes aim to generate cash flow by giving up their profits in order to ensure their sustainability. If this pattern of behavior finds a similar response across the entire competitive environment, all the actors enter into efforts aimed at generating cash flow rather than making a profit. This gives rise to a chronic inability to grow. Therefore, while implementing growth strategies, businesses have to think of profitability as the fundamental aim. This is strategic for the sector's growth and survival — and the foundation of strategic development is profit.

At the same time, businesses growing naturally over time as a result of intense demand for their products is also a process that must be watched and managed carefully. Putting more products on the market in the face of high demand means the business will need more working capital. An uncontrolled increase in the speed of growth also increases the likelihood of the business entering a financial crisis. For this reason, in growing businesses, management must know how to hit the brakes when the time comes.

Another obstacle to growth is that businesses which start as a simple organization when entering the market fail to attain an institutional structure. In these businesses, the management team needs to make the transition from entrepreneurship to big-business management and realize the cultural change toward professionalism. For permanence in growth and development, institutionalization and culture change should be developed as modern management requires.

Growth strategies can be grouped as Integrative Strategies, Diversification Strategies and External Growth Strategies.

Integrative strategies are the strategies a business applies when the product and the market essentially remain the same. These are horizontal and vertical integration strategies.

A business applying the horizontal integration strategy expands its field of activity in order to dominate the market. To reach this aim, it increases the number of its service production points. The strategies to be followed for this purpose are market penetration, product differentiation and market differentiation.
The market penetration strategy focuses entirely on spreading further in the market. In this strategy, no change is made to the product. Increasing sales is the main goal.

Applying the product differentiation strategy means the business differentiating its product in terms of quality, design and packaging. In this way, the aim is to increase effectiveness in the market.

The market differentiation strategy, in turn, is finding new areas of use for the existing product. The main aim here is to find the segment that does not use the product and to market the product to them.

Vertical integration strategies are strategies involving growth toward resources or distribution channels. Growth toward resources is called backward vertical growth, while growth toward distribution channels is defined as forward vertical growth. For example, a business producing aircraft engines also moving into aircraft production can be considered forward vertical growth. A firm producing aircraft investing in aircraft engine production is an example of backward vertical growth.

Diversification strategies are strategies aimed at entering the market with a new product, or operating in different markets with the same products. These strategies include single-direction and multi-direction diversification in the market.

While single-direction diversification covers focusing on one product and seeking new markets, new products created in the existing market using new technologies also fall within this strategy. Multi-direction diversification strategies, in turn, lean entirely toward operating with new products in completely new markets.

On the other hand, another method of growth is realized through external growth strategies. A business growing by using other businesses' resources is an example of the external growth strategy. Mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures can be counted among the external growth methods.

Author: Atakan Genç