100 days of Trump: making growth possible - even in uncertain times

Growth in uncertain times

In view of these global uncertainties, 2025 does not seem like the year for bold business decisions. Anyone who empathically puts themselves in the shoes of many decision-makers can understand this: In a storm, they prefer to stay the course instead of trying out new paths. Moderate growth in proven spheres seems safer to many than new growth in uncharted waters.
But this only buys you time. The actual challenges don't disappear - they catch up with you. What is postponed today becomes a necessity that cannot be postponed tomorrow.
Nevertheless, the time bought by moderate growth is exactly the time needed to steer the ship into calmer waters. Once there, decision-makers have the space and clarity to make bold decisions again and realign the course. Our 5 levers for growth in uncertain times start with the current portfolio orientation or market development and help to optimize the course taken. Whether individually or in combination, they have proven to be particularly effective in practice. In many cases, noticeable effects were seen after just a few months.

5 levers for growth in uncertain times

1. Portfolio: Eliminate inefficiencies in the portfolio
2. Innovation: making smarter investment decisions
3. Marketing: Selling existing products better
4. Customers: Increasing customer value with up- and cross-selling
5. Market: market opportunities to be better utilized

1. Portfolio: Eliminate inefficiencies in the portfolio

Historically grown product portfolios are often sluggish, confusing and expensive to manage. Many companies carry legacy burdens that tie up resources, increase internal complexity and make market cultivation inefficient. In a time of tight budgets and increasing market pressure, portfolio streamlining is a lever for cost efficiency. The aim is to identify and systematically eliminate blurring, overlaps and unprofitable products. A structured screening of existing portfolio clusters for economic impact and future potential creates clarity and frees up urgently needed funds for strategic investments.
In addition to obvious KPIs such as sales, return and investment, other parameters are also important for assessing impact and future potential, such as

• Brand strength: How strongly does an individual brand in the portfolio influence customer behavior?
• Portfolio fit: What contribution does the product/service/individual brand make to the overall portfolio?
• Growth potential: What opportunities does the product/service/individual brand have to develop further (e.g. by expanding into other product ranges or markets)?

2. Innovation: making smarter investment decisions

Tighter budgets are having an impact on the redesign of a portfolio, with the potential ROI of product and service innovations becoming increasingly relevant. Gut feelings or innovation euphoria are now a thing of the past. Instead, decision-makers would do well to define clear business goals, key figures and threshold values for innovations. A systematic prioritization logic that compares the expected impact and the required resources ensures that investments are focused on those projects that will make a substantial contribution to the company's development in the foreseeable future.
Templates that help to identify the expected impact and required resources:

• Business model canvas - oldie but goldie - to identify sales potential via customer benefits, market size, saturation and growth
• Also Business Model Canvas to ensure the strategic fit by evaluating the customer relationship, scalability and sustainability.
• Business case to achieve investments via capital and time to maturity.

3. Marketing: selling existing products better

Sometimes you don't have to reinvent the wheel, you just have to turn the existing one faster. This is because many companies do not fully exploit the market potential of their existing products and services. Relevant target groups are ignored or not addressed, additional sales channels are not used, advertising messages are not understood. What is needed in this case is the targeted activation of the existing portfolio. In short: a sales booster. To do this, the unused potential is reviewed and effective short and medium-term activation measures are developed.
Search fields for unrealized potential are, for example:

• Portfolio: What are Cash Cows, Stars, Poor Dogs and Question Marks - today and yesterday?
• Trends: What trends are emerging in the operating industry, market, region, target group? And how do they influence your own portfolio or marketing activities?
• Target groups: Are there related target groups? How great is their potential for each segment and market?

4. Customers: Increasing customer value with up- and cross-selling

Existing customers are often the most obvious and effective driver of growth - but they are often neglected in difficult times. Instead of focusing solely on acquiring new customers, an important lever for growth lies in maximizing the customer lifetime value of existing customers. Up- and cross-selling mechanisms help to sustainably increase revenue per customer
However, two requirements that build on each other are crucial for success:
- Knowledge: Data on customer behavior and history, quick A-B tests for new products/services/campaigns and much more are essential in order to understand better and faster what delivers real added value for customers.
This in turn is the prerequisite for

• Engagement: The aim is not just for customers to use your product or service, but for them to have a good experience and therefore a high level of engagement. Companies that view their customer relationships with this customer success mindset are more successful when it comes to growth via existing customers.

5. Market: make better use of own market access

Jumping in at the deep end and conquering new markets in uncertain times can be risky. It is therefore advisable to first fully exploit the potential where market access already exists. Key questions are, for example

• Channel: Which distribution channels are underdeveloped?
• Partnerships: Which partnerships could improve market access?
• Customer Journey: Where are there unused synergies?
  If the growth forecasts for your own core business are exhausted, you cannot avoid tapping into new markets in order to continue growing. In addition to understanding your own (potential) assets and market opportunities, the most important thing is to derive a valid assessment of investment requirements and potential ROI. An analysis based on a defined score card, which covers the investment thesis, market size, market-specific trends, regulations and much more, is helpful here. If such a score card is filled out for several market options, it is possible in the second step to compare and thus prioritize them based on specific criteria.

Growth in uncertain times requires a plan and clear priorities

As the next 100 days of Trump are unlikely to be any less turbulent, companies are well advised to invest their resources consciously. Even small, targeted levers - for example in the portfolio, in investment decisions, in marketing, with customers or in the market - can have a big impact. Our five levers for growth in uncertain times will help you to develop a clear plan - with which companies can not only find their way back into calmer waters, but also possibly emerge stronger from the Trump crisis.