Growth Archetype: Anchored Enterprises
For mature firms with flat growth curves
Why This Matters
Anchored enterprises often have scale but struggle to maintain momentum. Dive into this page to determine if you’re an anchored enterprise and how to shift from reactive growth to strategic expansion.
Anchored Enterprise Definition
Large, established companies with many customers across different regions (>$500M)
Anchored enterprises are larger firms that have a wide customer base and a mature leadership structure. These companies are slow and deliberate with their investments, often waiting for more favorable investment environments to make their next move. They are also hit harder by uncertainty.
The Challenge
Anchored enterprises have solid go-to-market (GTM) structures with many customer segments, are structurally complex and already present in many geographies. However, due to their cautious attitudes, they are less likely to make creative choices to boost them into a new stage of growth.
A company in this category will rely on a tried-and-true strategy: entering additional geographies. While this approach of conquering untapped markets has worked in the past, moving into additional—and previously deprioritized—geographies is an increasingly expensive bet. This strategy is often riddled with regulatory complexity, insufficient demand or other limiting factors.
For an organization in this position, breaking into new geographies is a costly scaling strategy with low ROI. To see success, anchored enterprises must begin focusing on alternative strategies to enter new markets.
Scaling Strategy
The primary scaling strategy that works the best for anchored enterprises is standing up new channels.
Instead of setting up salesforces in new geographies, these firms should seek out new sales channels. This strategy offers an easier, more cost-effective path to new market entry, with research showing a nearly 15% jump in revenue uplift.
Because anchored enterprises have strong products and a solid structure in place, their next phase of growth will come from leveraging new partnerships and preserving profitability.
increase in revenue uplift for seeking out new channels
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