Unveiling the Hidden Drivers of Company Growth: Insights from Trium's Latest Research

New research conducted by Trium reveals the most critical drivers of growth among our clients. The news will be surprising to most founders and CEOs focused on business metrics like product/market fit, industry attractiveness, or capital efficiency. 

The three top drivers -- leadership team cohesion, extended leadership team effectiveness, and leadership operating system robustness are human factors. These are factors that, while often under-weighted, are easier to control and implement for those CEOs who make it a priority.

Now in its third year, the Trium Performance Tool has been deployed across roughly 500 leaders at 25 companies across various stages of growth, industries, and geographies.  And the data indicates that when these factors score high, confidence in company financial performance increases by 50%.

The most critical predictor of performance is leadership team cohesion. When the leadership team works together well, meaning they are clear, aligned, and operating with a high level of trust, confidence in company financial performance doubles. Beyond optimizing the talent and expertise of individual leaders and functions, CEOs of high performing teams focus on how the team is working together.

The second critical performance indicator is extended leadership team effectiveness. Our research showed that when the leaders sitting just below the leadership team feel connected to and accountable for the strategy, the sense of financial potential for the company is also twice that of companies who don’t have cohesive extended leadership teams. Enduring businesses prioritize next-level leadership who release pressure from executives and are necessary carriers of culture and critical drivers of execution.

The third indicator of success is a leadership operating system that is designed properly for the company’s current stage of growth. The way the top-team engages with each other, meeting cadences, goal tracking, and ways of working are constantly evolving in growing businesses. Confidence in financial performance is 70% higher among those companies whose leaders feel the operating system supports efficient decision-making and is supportive of their strategy.

Finally, our analysis reveals that companies whose strategies are clear also have clear 12-month roadmaps and plans. And the opposite is true: when strategies are unclear, so are the roadmaps. In our experience, companies with a clear theory of winning – a simply articulated explanation of where the business will play, how it will win (rather than just survive), and a clear tie to what capabilities  and management systems they will disproportionately invest in brings together the strategy and roadmap. Companies with that in tow have a 60% increase in the level of confidence in financial performance.

The good news for leaders is that these performance drivers transcend time, competitive climate, industry conditions, and other exogenous factors. Those companies who turn their attention to these three factors will achieve greater results.