TY - JOUR T1 - Editorial: Growing Business (June 2010) JF - Open Source Business Resource Y1 - 2010 A1 - Dru Lavigne A1 - Mekki MacAulay AB - Growth is important for any business, especially technology companies that operate in an environment of constant innovation, advancement, and evolving consumer needs. It is essential to maintain long term profitability, develop a brand, and attract new investment. But the path to successful growth is not obvious, and is filled with hurdles. Growth requires capital, making consistent revenue a necessity. But figuring out the smartest way to invest capital to promote growth can be a daunting task. Growth can also require some experimentation with different stategies, weathering the occasional failure along the way, in order to find one that is the right fit for the company. But where do you start? Book stores have hundreds of books on business growth, with many promising a surefire strategy for success. But the reality is that there is no single growth formula that works for all businesses. Entrepreneurs must understand what drives their business--something that might be very different from other, similar businesses--and leverage this knowledge in order to grow. Growth requires focus, and energy must be directed on one particular aspect at a time, such as revenue growth, market growth, product line growth, or even shareholder growth. Trying to extend in all directions at once is a sure path to failure. Disciplined, incremental, consistent growth is the formula for success, no matter how that success is defined by the business. PB - Talent First Network CY - Ottawa UR - http://timreview.ca/article/354 IS - June 2010 U1 - Talent First Network Dru Lavigne is a technical writer and IT consultant who has been active with open source communities since the mid-1990s. She writes regularly for BSD Magazine and is the author of the books BSD Hacks, The Best of FreeBSD Basics, and the Definitive Guide to PC-BSD. U2 - OSStrategy.org Mekki MacAulay is the Principal of OSStrategy.org, a consulting firm that helps companies improve their competitive advantage and strategic positioning in a world embracing open source. Mekki is also the president and founder of MekTek Solutions, an IT services company based in Ottawa, ON. Mekki holds undergraduate degrees from Carleton University in Computer Systems Engineering, and Psychology, and a Master's degree in Technology Innovation Management. His research interests focus on open source adoption; open source ecosystem value creation, extraction, and keystone company positioning; and quantifying the value of passive participation in open source projects. ER -