Those Successful Companies of Nowadays Selectively & Aggressively Invest in These 4 Areas... But

Frankly speaking about investments, there is one true fact. The larger a company reaches, the smaller it thinks. The process is cunning, and companies must always be at alert for signs that it is kicking off. If you want your business to grow sustainably at scale, you need to figure out how to make big investments that will best differentiate you in your core. Fact!

I was reminded of this a little less than a year ago, when I was studying one of the richest business tycoon - Eike Batista - alongside with other companies in Brazil conglomerate with more than 22 distinct businesses spread across dozens of markets. It was a pity, that Eike Batista with these other companies had experienced no organic growth in all these investments in about 8 years, the stock price had melted away and they were seeking growth in all the wrong investments.

Firstly, the growth of most of these acquisitions had aready slipped down after being acquired-which resulted the opposite of the justification for their purchases. Secondly, the capital of Eike Batista's company was invested uniformly across an extraordinary range of business types and competitive positions. He was investing in a big times on the acquisitions, but because of many companies under the same umbrella and the fact, that they were being treated equally. The investment in the bad businesses with the hope that they would become more like good ones, and did not make big bets of investments in the good ones, just because they were doing fine.

This resulted in? Consistent mediocrity which at the end may be a downfall.

The best and successful companies-those that grow profitably and sustainably at scale- reject and do not invest in a kind of ''peanut butter'' approach of investing resources around anyhow and unnecessarily. But they're instead intelligently matured of all aspects in which they allocate funds and they invest in big time in 4 areas:

1] capabilities of game-changing,

2] leaders of next-generation,

3] business models of next-generation:

C. Zook and I would say that the n˚ 4] is that, these companies have made themselves being what they are today and have already been prepared for the future –making themselves “Maturing Digital Organization” and they are ready for Digital Transformation, Artificial Intelligence and Robot...Whatever! They have the “Deoxyribonucleic Acid”. It is no more a culture in their organization, it is their DNA from birth.

These best and successful companies use the 10X-which is a willingness to commit 10 times the normal resources-on their critical capabilities. Pão de Açúcar, for example, has learned that ''Residential Same-day Delivery to the Customers'' in all the units of the supermarket would meaningfully increase revenue and bring a sound return of it investment. Therefore, it has invested in its own delivery fleet and drone technology. In the Brazilian food industry today, Pão de Açúcar, Extra, Dias - all belong to only one family-Group Pão de Açúcar- the 10X decision to invest in capabilities of game-changing of Group Pão de Açúcar. Abilio Diniz, thought big about critical capabilities for the future core of his business and built an integrated supermarket complex designed to serve a full 80% of the giant Brazilian food market.

These best and successful companies invest solidly in leaders of next-generation. AB InBev, until today, the largest beer company of all times. On the 5th of December, 2008 I received a phone call from Edmilson Gama, the CEO & Founder of KaSoluion, the largest & Official Microsft Distributor of e-learning Latin America. He said, Habib! Come over to KaSolution for a chat. getting there the following day I was contracted to participate in a project of e-learning that KaSolution was designing for AB InBev. The Xmas day was fast approaching and we kept on working on this project. I became overwhelm when I started going through the terms and data involved in the project. And immediately the words that came to my thought were ''Learning is an Essential Component to Leadership Development''. Talent management is easily over a third of all executive time when you count it all...the culture, the training, the creation of value, all telling how each talent should optimize their mission. The whole system in AB InBev is built on meritocracy and this is the reason the investment in young talent is so huge.

These best and successful companies invest in their next-generation business model and in the specific capabilities that will differentiate it. This is what Steve Jobs has done together with Apple’s business management crew before he passed away on October 5, 2011 and the business management crew continues investment on the next-generation business model and in the specific capabilities that will differentiate it.

Apple embraces what I would call a deliberate strategy –it lives inside their customers’ wants and needs and make that part of the company. Apple’s phenomenally successful iPhone, iPod, iTune, MacBook Pro and so on and so forth are cases in point. Apple partnered with AT&T, granting the carrier five years of exclusivity as the only iPhone-compatible U.S. carrier, approximately 10 per cent of iPhone sales in AT&T stores, and a small piece of Apple’s and iTune’s revenues. In return, AT&T developed iPhone features like visual mail, which provides enhanced information about received messages and a touch-screen interface for calling back or deleting them, and streamlined the in-store sign-up process. And while Apple wrote its own operating system, it partnered with multiple firms to produce a wide range of applications. Some of these applications like the preloaded Google Map, iTune Music Store, iBooks etc were free in the beginning; and many other applications have been on sales through the on-line store. And nowadays, other partners have been producing different kinds of accessories that are being sold in Apple and other retail stores worldwide.