Growth Plan.
Strategy becomes roadmap. 1.5 days for leadership teams that want to translate their growth ambition into concrete paths. Organic + inorganic. AI-first. With owners and KPIs.
Most growth plans don’t fail on ambition.
They fail in the gap between the boardroom and Monday morning. The board has signed off an ambitious growth target, top management nods. Six months later the M&A pipeline is empty, the organic initiatives have fizzled out, and no one can say who owned “AI-first”. That’s exactly where growth burns. Not in the plan. In the translation.
A plan without an owner is a hope. A hope with a deadline is a growth plan.
Three signals that it’s time.
Ambition is set — the path is missing.
You’re aiming for the next growth stage — organic, through acquisitions or both. But you don’t yet have the concrete way to get there.
Organic and inorganic unresolved.
How much growth from the existing base? How much from M&A? Who drives what? Without answers, the initiatives grind each other down.
AI is here — but not in the plan.
Generative AI is changing your business. But in the 12-month plan it shows up as a footnote, not as a strategic pillar.
It’s not a lack of plan.
Most Mittelstand companies have several plans — strategy, budget, M&A pipeline, AI initiative, talent roadmap. The problem isn’t planning. It’s integration. Four parallel plans without a shared roadmap don’t make a growth architecture. They make a traffic jam. You need a roadmap that integrates five dimensions — and was built in one room, not five.
This is where the real leverage sits. Because growth that doesn’t carry is just speed.
A day and a half. One integrated plan.
The growth plan is the largest format in the JUSTGROW architecture — a full day plus a half day, because less time doesn’t do the complexity justice. Online or on-site. Can also be planned as a 30-day Leadership Sprint.
| Day | Focus | Output |
|---|---|---|
| Day 1 — Paths & cohesion | Strategic growth paths organic + inorganic, vertical depth, cohesion & trust | “Big bets” per vertical + acquisition theses |
| Day 2 (half day) — Execution & roadmap | Operational efficiency, AI as core driver, talent & team, 2026 roadmap | One-Page Growth Plan with owners + KPIs |
Six blocks. One plan.
Strategic growth paths
How does the ambition translate into organic vs. inorganic? What has to be true to deliver 3x organically? 3x through M&A? Success criteria for both paths.
Organic Growth Deep Dive
In breakouts per vertical: which levers pull? Where are the gaps (trust, skills, processes, tech)? Which AI-first opportunities are open? Output: 2–3 big bets per vertical.
Inorganic Growth Deep Dive
CFO + M&A lead: pipeline & acquisition filter, post-M&A integration, synergies with organic growth. Output: defined acquisition theses.
Cohesion & Trust
Which behaviour builds trust in the team — and which blocks it? Three concrete cohesion commitments for the next 12 months.
Operational Efficiency & AI
Bottlenecks in finance, billing, structure. Quick wins and structural changes. Prioritise two to three company-wide AI initiatives (product + process + culture).
Talent & Team
Critical gaps in skills and the leadership pipeline. Initiatives for acquisition, retention, succession. Building a strong A-player team.
Not a PDF plan. A living roadmap.
One-Page Growth Plan 2026.
Your entire growth roadmap on one page: organic bets, inorganic roadmap, AI initiatives, operational enablers, talent commitments — with owners and KPIs.
A clear path.
A shared view in the leadership team of how much growth comes from where — organic and inorganic — and who drives which path.
AI-first initiatives.
Two to three concrete company-wide AI initiatives with a lead, a budget, a success indicator.
Governance cadence.
An agreed quarterly review logic that turns the 1.5-day sprint into a running system.
A plan without owners and KPIs is a wish list. We deliver both.
The One-Page Growth Plan 2026.
At the end of Day 2 we condense all outputs into a single artefact. One page. Carried by the whole leadership team. Working from day 3.
| Element | Content |
|---|---|
| Growth Ambition 2026 | One number, one statement. |
| Organic Bets | 3–5 strategic growth levers with a lead. |
| Inorganic Roadmap | Acquisition theses + priorities. |
| AI-First Initiatives | 2–3 company-wide AI bets. |
| Operational Enablers | Quick wins + structural adjustments. |
| Talent Commitments | Skills gaps + pipeline + retention. |
| Cohesion Anchors | 3 behavioural commitments for the leadership team. |
| Governance Cadence | Quarterly reviews, escalation paths. |
Who stands behind it.
Two Growth Advisors facilitate — Olaf Sell and Georg von Laffert.
Olaf Sell
20+ years of scaling, M&A support and operating-model design. Facilitates strategic-planning workshops for buy-and-build platforms and international Mittelstand groups.
Georg von Laffert
An operator with scaling DNA from industry and tech. Guides leadership teams between strategic clarity and hard execution.
JUSTGROW works along its own method: One-Page Growth Plan · KI-Kompass · Leadership Sprint · Growth Circle · FeedForward · Klartext-Editions. No coaching. No classic consulting. Sparring at decision-maker level — with a hard roadmap output. Why more speed isn’t the same as grown-up growth is here: Growth vs. scaling.
Frequent questions.
What sets you apart from classic strategy consulting?
We don’t deliver a 120-slide report. We mobilize you into an integrated One-Page Growth Plan that you carry yourselves — with owners and KPIs from day one.
How many participants are ideal?
8 to 15 people. An extended executive team: C-level + vertical leads + M&A lead. Above 15, the roadmap loses its edge.
Do we need to prepare?
Yes, intensively. At least three pre-calls (CEO, CFO, M&A lead), individual interviews with all participants, and a pre-reading pack one week ahead.
Online or on-site?
On-site recommended — the growth plan needs energy levels that are hard to hold online.
What happens after the sprint?
One-Page Growth Plan + minutes within 48 h. A quarterly review format anchored in place. Optional: sparring support for the leadership for the first two quarters.
What does it cost?
On request — depending on the number of participants, travel effort and the depth of pre-work. You get the transparent logic in the discovery call.
When is Strategy the better sprint?
If you don’t yet have a shared strategic direction, Strategy comes before the growth plan. The growth plan translates strategy into a roadmap — it doesn’t produce strategy.
When is Leadership Team Alignment the better sprint?
If your leadership team decides past each other more often than together — roles and decision paths unclear — then Leadership Team Alignment comes first. Otherwise the growth plan runs into a vacuum.
Related sprints.
Ready to translate your ambition into a roadmap?
If you have a growth target but not the integrated path — then the growth plan isn’t “nice to have”. It’s the missing piece between the boardroom and Monday morning.
Book a discovery call →