GrowthX’s new marketing approach to help local SMEs remain competitive
KUALA LUMPUR: GrowthX's new marketing approach is set to help local small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to remain competitive with a proven formula much sought after in this new digital economy.
According to GrowthX principal trainer and CommerceDotAsia Ventures Sdn Bhd chief operating officer Dr Tom Tan, GrowthX was started in the Silicon Valley in 2015 by several founders who had extensive experiences building and mentoring start-up companies.
Through their first-hand experiences, they developed a proven methodology and training syllabus that teaches an organisation to meet the many challenges when looking for success in the digital economy.
“With GrowthX, companies now have a scientific method in which to develop product market fit and with the right growth mind-set to be able to build a successful and scalable business or product,” Tan said.
“Through the foresight of the Malaysian Founder of Commerce Asia, Ganesh Kumar Bangah, the GrowthX Silicon Valley programme has been brought to Malaysia and is the first to be deployed outside of the US.
“It aims to provide the organisations as well as entrepreneurs in Malaysia and also Southeast Asia with a proven formula to develop a thriving and scalable business growth model to remain competitive.”
On whether the Silicon Valleybased syllabus is really applicable to Malaysian SME entrepreneurs, product managers and marketers, Tan affirmed that it does in the increasing competitive market in Malaysia, particularly in today's digital economy.
“The growth marketers in the Valley are more focused on results and less on vanity metrics that bring little to the business,” he explained.
“The growth hacking term was first coined by Sean Ellis, the first Dropbox marketer. He is a GrowthX mentor as well and many of our syllabus are based on the experiences and teachings of the co-founders and mentors of GrowthX.”
“We have actually localised a few elements of the course so that it suits the local entrepreneurs' dilemma in getting more sales for their business. We also looked at free or low-cost tools and strategies that can have maximum impact, and that has worked in Malaysia.”
GrowthX provides growth leadership through two approaches which are Growth Academy and the Market Acceleration Programme (MXP).
The GrowthX Academy trains individuals in Business Growth, Growth Marketing or UX Design. Each programme is modular based and is delivered through a hybrid face-to-face and online method. Its world-class instructors are entrepreneurs, founders, business owners and investors who teach the skills, mindsets and frameworks necessary in today's competitive environment.
The GrowthX Academy delivers a dynamic curriculum structure, personal and professional branding, hands-on experience working alongside real companies and immersion into our network of student peers, instructors, mentors, events, start-ups and investors.
The programmes drive expertise in a curated suite of technologies and applied concepts, each selected for their workplace utility and relevance to solving the world's most important problems.
Tan assured that participants will learn about something new, then immediately reinforce that knowledge by using it to build and test live projects with real companies. Each lesson builds up to the next so as to create a strong foundation of confidence and skills moving forward.
On the second approach, Tan explained that the cost and complexity of product development have been drastically reduced and have become more predictable.
“Consequently, the biggest risk for most start-ups has shifted from prototyping a product to getting it to market.
“The MXP is designed to help founders develop, test and validate hypotheses at every stage of the market development process.
“That equates to less time and capital required to learn whether and when you can achieve productmarket fit.”
He went on to note that the only sustainable way to find product-market fit is through the continuous give-and-take between the start-up and its customers.
“Founders must methodically go through a process to learn how customers will acquire and use their product. We call this Market Development and it differs from sales.
“Sales is the pursuit of revenue for the purpose of profit; market development is the pursuit of revenue for the purpose of learning. Rather than hiring a ‘coin-operated' sales leader to follow conventional wisdom, the market development process focuses on enabling the start-up to organise itself so it can learn from customers and then respond to them.
“Unlike traditional accelerators that teach founders how to build a minimally viable product and raise money, the MXP teaches our founders how to market their product and make money.”