Getting growth in tough times. (Thought Leader).

Most smart chief executives know that relying on the inspired efforts of a few mavericks to nurture new-growth opportunities is a recipe for stagnation.

What I have learned from these CEOs is that success in creating growth depends on developing a systematic, organizational capability to identify shape and nurture such initiatives. Examining the practices of companies that have successfully fostered growth suggests some key principles I urge CEOs to apply.

Treat growth as a discipline to be pursued at all levels. Companies that treat growth as the purview solely of a business development group rarely create meaningful growth. Innovative growth needs to include operating managers as they interact with customers and the marketplace.

At drug distributor Cardinal Health, based in Dublin, Ohio, there is no corporate unit in charge of new businesses such as reimbursement services. Instead, every manager knows that growth is a critical component of his or her report card.

Cardinal's managers focus on two dimensions: absolute growth and relative growth. The absolute rate of growth supports overall financial health, generates profits to reinvest in the business and helps attract and motivate the best talent. The relative rate of growth is important because trailing the overall market's growth rate would mean that Cardinal's offerings were viewed as mediocre or less relevant by customers. By focusing on both, Cardinal has grown faster than the health care distribution market by more than 50 percent annually, excluding acquisitions.

Develop many small maverick ideas, not a few large ones. One approach to innovation is that taken by Milwaukee-based Johnson Controls, which has expanded from assembling automobile seats, a commodity product, to providing complete auto cockpits.

Johnson Controls encourages people to spend time pursuing unconventional paths of inquiry, but also imposes a staged evaluation process with the goal of making bad ideas "fail fast." Every year, the firm spends a little money on many growth ideas. The ideas go through a "gate" to decide whether to continue or stop. The gate consists of a cross-functional team that meets periodically to review the progress of each idea and make the crucial funding decisions.

Shift resources from product innovation to customer innovation. Most large companies spend huge sums on product R&D without any certainty as to which part of that R&D will turn into revenue and when. By contrast, most new-growth initiatives are starved for funding and held to impossibly high standards of certainty about their payback potential. CEOs should consider devoting 10 to 15 percent of their product innovation budget to customer innovation instead.

Air Liquide, based in Paris, is a great example of how a tradition-bound supplier of industrial gases was able to make this shift. In the early 1990s, Air Liquide launched technology that allowed a smaller gas production facility to be located on the customer's site, instead of relying only on large centralized plants. One important result was a higher level of interaction between customers and staff. The onsite teams soon discovered their customers had pressing needs Air Liquide might be able to address. By gradually offering new services, Air Liquide was able to expand its markets, gain a greater share of customers' wallets and improve customer loyalty.

Organize to suit the needs of the new business as much as the core business. Next-generation opportunities are often quite different from the core business, with different capital structures and methods of capturing value. To succeed, these businesses need to be structured in this light.

This might seem obvious, but most companies have spent considerable time and effort creating common metrics, rewards and organizational structures that they seek to impose throughout their organizations. However, form must follow function.

Executing new-growth strategies will never be easy. Unless you take meaningful, visible steps consistent with these four principles, your chances of attaining sustained growth are small.

Adrian Slywotzky is a Boston-based senior partner with Mercer Management Consulting and co-author of How to Grow When Markets Don't.