Business leaders use a combination of two overarching strategies when expanding an organization: organic and inorganic. Understanding the implications of each approach is critical for building a sustainable, flourishing business.
For instance, big companies with large budgets operating in saturated industries can safely lean on inorganic initiatives. However, younger companies should focus more on organic growth until they maximize their resource potential.
This guide provides a detailed breakdown of organic versus inorganic growth and helps you determine which strategy best suits your business. Find concise definitions, discover the advantages and disadvantages of each approach, and learn why a tailored growth strategy is critical for success.
What is organic growth?
Organic growth refers to growth a business achieves by optimizing internal processes. Examples of organic growth strategies include improving resource allocation, expanding distribution channels, revising marketing strategies, enhancing customer service, and developing product lines.
Stable organic growth results from a sound internal company framework and relies only on internal factors, not external ones, such as mergers and acquisitions (M&As). Businesses grow organically by strategically reinvesting in their people and resources, relying on in-house expertise, talent, and other assets. Most investors and business owners consider organic growth a cornerstone for sustainable development since businesses cannot survive without it.
Examples of organic growth strategies
Every internal process impacts organic growth, from sourcing and distribution to customer service. Optimizing these processes is critical for scaling a stable, structured entity.
Below are some examples of organic growth strategies:
- Expanding product lines
- Implementing new marketing strategies
- Improving customer relationship management
- Enhancing customer service
- Expanding distribution channels
- Identifying new sales channels
- Establishing an online presence
- Increasing production capacity
By strategically optimizing each process, businesses can establish steady, sustainable growth that serves as a strong foundation for long-term expansion.
Organic growth has also become a key strategy for global expansion. As companies map their growth trajectory in today’s interconnected world, they often find it inevitable to expand their customer base, footprint, and talent pool internationally. Going global opens the door to numerous opportunities, from sourcing diverse talent to diversifying revenue streams.
Through organic initiatives, companies can capitalize on international opportunities. Imagine a British fashion company gaining popularity in Argentina. By developing new payment methods, they can increase international sales, and by aligning their brand image with the local culture, they can fuel additional growth.
Some companies take it further, establishing foreign entities to gain a stronger hold in their target markets. This involves developing a global expansion strategy, crafting a market entry plan, ensuring global compliance, and building a distributed workforce.
Advantages of organic growth
Organic growth offers companies many advantages, including stability, sustainability, adaptability, efficiency, and direction.
Plus, strong organic growth is a necessary prerequisite for handling the complexities, disruptions, and costs of M&As, partnerships, and other inorganic strategies.
We outline the advantages of organic growth in detail below:
- Sustainability. Strong organic growth indicates that things are working within a business. The company has effective operational models and valuable products and services that leaders can further optimize for long-term growth.
- Adaptability. Unlike inorganic growth through M&As, organic expansion maintains a tight-knit group of leaders who know the company strategy intimately and can quickly adapt to market changes.
- Stability. Organic growth happens gradually. It involves less organizational disruption and risk and provides a strong foundation for further expansion.
- Manageability. The slow changes in organic growth are more comfortable, natural, and manageable for a company’s internal culture.
- Direction. With organic growth, one cohesive management group maintains complete control over the business’s direction and company vision.
- Cost. Businesses can scale their company at a moderate pace, staying on budget and eliminating the need for external financing.
Disadvantages of organic growth
Despite its many benefits, organic growth has several disadvantages, from speed and vulnerability to limited growth opportunities.
We discuss each of these in detail below:
- Speed. Organic growth is slow. Business leaders must sustainably scale their company, ensuring growth doesn’t overshoot their personnel, support, and resources.
- Vulnerability. In highly competitive, fast-growing markets dominated by M&As, companies focused only on organic growth may lose their competitive edge.
- Limitations. Organic growth offers limited growth potential. As business and customer needs increase, receivables and other cash-consuming items expand, requiring an external infusion of capital, personnel, and other resources.
When a company has hit a glass ceiling with organic growth, it may adopt an inorganic growth strategy for further expansion.
What is inorganic growth?
Inorganic growth in business refers to rapid growth due to external factors, such as mergers, acquisitions, or partnerships. Through inorganic growth, companies acquire another entity’s resources and immediately increase their market share, expertise, talent base, and opportunity.
Examples of inorganic growth strategies
The most common examples of inorganic growth strategies include mergers and acquisitions.
With a merger, two companies join forces to form a single entity. Imagine two businesses want to expand operations, increase shareholder value, and remove direct competition but don’t have the resources to do it alone.
They can achieve immediate scale and rapid growth by combining their talent base, market share, stock, expertise, and product lines. Together, they grow a single, much larger business.
In an acquisition, a larger company acquires a smaller company currently operating in its target market. The larger company absorbs the smaller company’s resources, providing a major revenue boost. However, the parent organization maintains control over the company’s direction.
The reasoning behind each approach can vary. For instance, an acquihire is a type of acquisition where the parent company acquires another entity for the sole purpose of hiring its employees. Other examples of inorganic growth include strategic partnerships, joint ventures, and franchising.
Advantages of inorganic growth
The first advantage of inorganic growth is quick, monumental expansion. However, inorganic initiatives also offer long-term development potential, help businesses gain a competitive edge, and facilitate better access to credit.
We outline the main advantages of inorganic growth below:
- Speed. The transactional nature of inorganic growth results in quick expansion. By merging, acquiring, or partnering with another organization, you immediately increase your market share, client base, and capabilities.
- Potential. Consider your current talent base’s collective knowledge, experience, and expertise. By combining forces with another organization, you can multiply your available resources, which expands your long-term growth potential.
- Competitive edge. Inorganic growth gives you a strategic advantage for purchasing, volume, pricing, and overall reach.
- Market share. Through inorganic growth, companies can immediately access markets and clients they previously couldn’t reach.
- Access to credit. With the combined value of multiple businesses, inorganic growth results in a stronger line of credit, making it easier to generate additional capital as needed.
Disadvantages of inorganic growth
Despite its immediate benefits, inorganic growth also involves several disadvantages businesses must be aware of. These include increased debt, higher risk, and large upfront costs.
We outline each of these disadvantages below:
- Operational complexity. With a merger or acquisition, you must integrate and restructure two organizations into one, ensuring all key processes and personnel are in place. This can result in layoffs, cultural challenges, and supply chain delays.
- Impacts on organic growth. Mergers and acquisitions can dismantle current products and services and close existing stores in favor of new ones, which can disrupt organic growth.
- Loss of autonomy. When you combine forces with another company, you lose control over the company's vision. An ongoing give-and-take process can lead to growth in directions you didn’t initially anticipate.
- Employee dissatisfaction. As companies merge, talent may worry about job security, relocation, or the company's direction. Your people are one of your most valuable resources, and management must adopt new practices to keep them happy, confident, and productive during the transition and beyond.
- Upfront cost. Funding a merger or acquisition involves large upfront costs, including excess spending on transitional service agreements (TSAs). If your company doesn’t have deep pockets, you’ll likely have to rely on external financing, making the expansion riskier.
- Scaling. Rapid growth involves scaling risks. Companies must integrate and scale systems, sales, and support functions appropriately; otherwise, their new company may struggle to put down roots and stabilize.
- Financial sustainability. Finances support every aspect of a company’s operations. Without a sound financial strategy backing a merger, it may collapse.
- Cultural differences. A merger or acquisition’s success depends on the commitment and compatibility of both sides. If cultures are too different and leaders can’t smoothly integrate the influx of employees and other resources, the undertaking will likely fail.
Inorganic growth can be an excellent way to scale your company. However, due diligence is required to avoid the above pitfalls. Before undergoing an M&A or other inorganic growth strategy, businesses must review their potential partners and critically evaluate their position to minimize risk.
Remember, inorganic growth in business can’t compensate for weak organic growth or other internal issues. Ensure you have steady organic growth to carry the weight of an abrupt expansion.
| Inorganic | Organic | |
|---|---|---|
| Speed | Inorganic growth is fast | Organic growth is slow and steady |
| Stability | Companies face more disruptions, compliance risks, and opportunities for things to go wrong | Companies face less disruption and greater stability |
| Adaptability | Having more stakeholders and decision-makers creates friction | Having fewer stakeholders makes it easier to pivot and implement new strategies |
| Comfort | Operational disruptions and team restructuring can be unsettling for your team | Gradual changes are more comfortable and natural for your team |
| Direction | Leaders must make concessions to partners, forfeiting some control over company direction | Leaders have complete control over the company's vision and direction |
| Vulnerability | Companies can rapidly corner the market and edge out the competition | Companies can quickly lose their competitive edge in a market where fast-growing M&As dominate |
| Opportunity | Quick access to more resources, expertise, and capital creates immense growth opportunity | As receivables and cash-depleting resources expand, growth prospects shrink |
| Integration | Companies must undergo the complex, time-consuming, and risky process of combining organizational processes and personnel | Companies enjoy slower process integrations |
| Cost | M&As involve large upfront costs | Gradual growth makes it easier to stay on budget and forgo external financing as you expand |
| Risk | Sudden expansion involves increased risk | Gradual expansion involves incremental risk |
Which businesses are suited for each growth strategy?
Organic and inorganic growth strategies are suited for any business at nearly any development stage. However, the ideal approach for a particular organization depends on its individual circumstances and goals.
For instance, larger, established companies in saturated industries are best positioned to pursue inorganic growth. Young companies, such as startups, often focus their initial efforts on organic growth until they reach their resource limits, at which point they may turn to a merger or acquisition to expand further.
The importance of tailored growth strategies in business today
One-size-fits-all growth strategies always fall short as they fail to account for a business’s individual circumstances. Your company’s unique size, product offerings, target market, and competition determine its growth potential. Crafting a precise, tailored growth strategy that accounts for each factor is critical for mitigating weaknesses, leveraging strengths, and reducing risk.
Suppose a company needs to gain knowledge of doing business in a new market or is hesitant about opening a new office overseas without first justifying the costs. By conducting market assessments, clarifying their competitive edge, and enlisting the right partners, they can maximize their chances of success.
Ask yourself the following questions when crafting a tailored growth strategy for your business:
- What resources do we have available?
- What strategic partners can help us fill in the gaps?
- How competitive is our market?
- How far ahead of the competition do we need to stay?
- What are our long-term goals for expansion?
- Where do we want to expand to and why?
- Do we have stable organic growth?
Answering these questions can help you clarify your capabilities and aspirations and craft a growth strategy that minimizes risk and capitalizes on your company’s unique opportunities.
Remember, most growth strategies combine organic and inorganic initiatives. Companies must implement a balanced and optimal ratio of both approaches; however, the ideal ratio depends on your company type, industry, customer base, stock price, and other factors.
Drive business growth by transforming your workforce model
Growing a business can be risky and complicated, especially with old workforce models. Transform growth and streamline your expansion by partnering with an employer of record (EOR) like Velocity Global.
An EOR is a third-party entity with global infrastructure and international legal expertise that simplifies and streamlines growth for companies of all sizes, no matter their approach.
By creating an agile HR infrastructure, Velocity Global makes it easy to navigate the most overwhelming tasks associated with expansion, from conducting market assessments and crafting tailored entry strategies to quickly and compliantly managing divestitures, M&As, and partnerships.
Whether you want to test out a new market without establishing a legal entity or need help meeting contractual employment terms as you undergo a merger, we streamline the entire process. With Velocity Global at your side, you can maximize your growth potential without skipping a beat.
Contact us today to learn more about how our global workforce management solutions can help you reduce your time-to-market, minimize costs, and mitigate risk as you expand.
