What does good actually look like?

Entrepreneur Andrew Scott, CEO of The Ascot Group, explains why the businesses that achieve sustainable growth are the ones that define success before they start chasing it.

I have found that businesses that define success before they chase it achieve sustainable growth, Andrew Scott says.

Some while ago, I noticed that many of my conversations with business owners followed a familiar path. We would start by discussing sales performance, market conditions, customer demand or growth plans. We would look at the data and talk through the practical challenges facing the business. Then, somewhere along the line, the conversation would shift from numbers and targets to something much bigger.

It was not about spreadsheets or sales forecasts. It was about ambition.

Questions such as: What are you really trying to build? What do you want to become known for? What kind of company do you want customers talking about when you are not in the room? What sort of business do you want talented people to join and stay with?

They are deceptively simple questions, yet they are often the ones that generate the longest discussions.

Part of the difficulty is that entrepreneurs rarely run out of opportunities. There is always another customer to win, another product to launch, another problem to solve or another opportunity that looks too good to ignore. Most businesses become highly effective at managing what is in front of them. Finding the time and headspace to think about what comes next is much harder.

That is a problem because growth does not happen by accident. The businesses that consistently outperform their competitors usually have a clearer picture of where they are heading. They understand the markets they want to own, the reputation they want to earn and the capabilities they will need to get there. That does not mean everything goes according to plan. Markets change, competitors emerge and economic conditions have a habit of rewriting the script. But clarity gives leaders a framework for making decisions, helping them spot the right opportunities instead of chasing every opportunity.

This is where coaching can make a real difference. It is often misunderstood. Some see it as motivation, while others assume it is about someone telling you what to do. The best coaching is built around questions rather than answers. It creates the space to step away from the day to day and look at a business with fresh perspective, challenging assumptions and helping founders articulate ideas that may have existed only in their own heads.

I find that most entrepreneurs already know where they want to go. The problem is that the vision often remains unwritten and unspoken. It exists in conversations, instincts and intentions rather than in a form the wider team can understand and rally behind. The result is that good people work incredibly hard towards slightly different objectives. Nobody is pulling in the wrong direction, but neither is everyone pulling together.

When leadership teams define what success looks like over the next three to five years, something changes. Decisions become easier, priorities become clearer and investment becomes more purposeful. Employees understand how their work contributes to something bigger than today’s targets. Growth becomes intentional because everyone is working towards the same destination.

After all, if you cannot clearly define what success looks like, how will you know when you have built it?

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