I am intrigued as to how you would structure this interview question. You are not expected to elicit questions to gather data, but rather to think / brainstorm on spot about the growth strategy. The only information that we know is that the firm is small (valuation ~$3M) and is currently operating globally (in both developed and developing countries).
Hint: think about productisation, geographic expansion and M&A.
Thank you guys and I really appreciate your input!
(editiert)
I would structure this in the following way .
1. Current revenue stream :
a. Get longer term contracts from the current suppliers . ( build relationships with current customers )
b. Marketing about the service and quality in industrial journals / directly going to maufacturing comapnies and offering discounts on first service.
New Revenue Stream :
a. Explore New markets
b. Explore new suppliers in the same markets
c. Go into online video tutorial for self maintenance of pipelines ( users will have to subsribe for the videos )
d. ) Enter into manufacturing pipes as well ( with all the experience gained over the years of maintaining the pipes )
I would prioritize both a and b in current revenue streams and b and c in new revenue streams looking at the feasibility of these ideas .
Hey there - adding another approach here for comparison
Going to assume growth strategy means growing topline revenue here, and not profitability (in which case cost cutting could also be a viable "growth" strategy).
The framework I would use is:
Growing revenue = Setting right goals + Executing appropriately
Goal 1: Sell more existing services
Goal 2: Develop new services (would deprioritize given how small the company is, should not spread itself too thin)
Lastly, productisation is an interesting concept. In tech, usually it means packaging a product so it is much more scalable and requires less human input. This could be a viable strategy to increase self-service from clients, and decrease cost to sell, and increase velocity of selling. If there is a way to do this for the services above, then it is also viable.
And these are just organic ways . Adding to this would be the inorganic ways of partnering with or acquiring some other firms in the geographies that have the maximum businesses of servicing of pipelines .