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Build, Borrow, or Buy: Solving the Growth Dilemma
How should you grow your organization?
It’s one of the most challenging questions an executive team faces—and the wrong answer can break your firm.
The problem is most firms’ growth strategies emphasize just one type of growth—some focus on organic growth, others on M&A. When these strategies falter, the common response is simply to try harder—but firms falling into this “implementation trap” usually end up losing out to a competitor whose approach is more inclusive.
So where do you start? By asking the right questions, argue INSEAD’s Laurence Capron and coauthor Will Mitchell, of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto and Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. Drawing on decades of research and teaching, Capron and Mitchell find that a firm’s aptitude for determining the best resource pathways for growth has a defining impact on its success. They’ve come up with a helpful framework, reflecting practices of a variety of successful global organizations, to determine which path is best for yours.
The resource pathways framework is built around three strategic questions:
• BUILD: Are your existing internal resources relevant for developing the new resources that you have targeted for growth?
• BORROW: Could you obtain the targeted resources via an effective relationship with a resource partner?
• BUY: Do you need broad and deep relationships with your resource provider?
Written for large multinationals and emerging firms alike, Build, Borrow, or Buy will help solve a perennial question and will guide you through change while priming your organization for optimal growth.
It’s one of the most challenging questions an executive team faces—and the wrong answer can break your firm.
The problem is most firms’ growth strategies emphasize just one type of growth—some focus on organic growth, others on M&A. When these strategies falter, the common response is simply to try harder—but firms falling into this “implementation trap” usually end up losing out to a competitor whose approach is more inclusive.
So where do you start? By asking the right questions, argue INSEAD’s Laurence Capron and coauthor Will Mitchell, of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto and Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. Drawing on decades of research and teaching, Capron and Mitchell find that a firm’s aptitude for determining the best resource pathways for growth has a defining impact on its success. They’ve come up with a helpful framework, reflecting practices of a variety of successful global organizations, to determine which path is best for yours.
The resource pathways framework is built around three strategic questions:
• BUILD: Are your existing internal resources relevant for developing the new resources that you have targeted for growth?
• BORROW: Could you obtain the targeted resources via an effective relationship with a resource partner?
• BUY: Do you need broad and deep relationships with your resource provider?
Written for large multinationals and emerging firms alike, Build, Borrow, or Buy will help solve a perennial question and will guide you through change while priming your organization for optimal growth.
- GenresBusinessEntrepreneurship
256 pages, Hardcover
Published August 14, 2012
38 people are currently reading
224 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
August 26, 2015
Excellent book , I took a course with here @ INSEAD very insightful
January 25, 2021
Had to read this for business school, but it's honestly pretty accessible and addresses a personal pain point that I've experienced in my career, which is often that alliance and acquisition activities are completely unaligned with company or product strategy. Capron and Mitchell do a great job in reframing corporate development activities as resource acquisition problems and provide an excellent framework for assessing which of these three options you should favor for a given situation. (Actually, borrow has two sub-options, but we all know that for optimal marketing purposes, choices should be presented as a trio. :) ) The authors take pains to also point out that selection error often results from corporate silos, where "build" often reports to a VP of Product / Chief Product Officer, "borrow" often reports to Business Development, and "buy" reports to Corporate Development, and since these three functional silos do not have a common point of reporting outside the CEO, the choice often arises from which VP is shouting the loudest. Accordingly, resource failures often get ascribed to implementation problems rather than incorrect option selection ("the implementation trap") -- unsurprising, given that the SVP who advocated for their chosen option is unlikely to admit that they made such an error. Sadly, too few organizations do what Cisco has done, which is to establish a common reporting line for all three functions.
If you're short on time, Capron & Mitchell's "Finding the Right Path" article in July-August 2010's HBR is a reasonable substitute, although the full rubric to evaluate each option is only available in this book.
If you're short on time, Capron & Mitchell's "Finding the Right Path" article in July-August 2010's HBR is a reasonable substitute, although the full rubric to evaluate each option is only available in this book.
November 13, 2019
It’s one of the most challenging questions an executive team faces—and the wrong answer can break your firm.
The problem is most firms’ growth strategies emphasize just one type of growth—some focus on organic growth, others on M&A. When these strategies falter, the common response is simply to try harder—but firms falling into this “implementation trap” usually end up losing out to a competitor whose approach is more inclusive.
So where do you start? By asking the right questions, argue INSEAD’s Laurence Capron and coauthor Will Mitchell, of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto and Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. Drawing on decades of research and teaching, Capron and Mitchell find that a firm’s aptitude for determining the best resource pathways for growth has a defining impact on its success. They’ve come up with a helpful framework, reflecting practices of a variety of successful global organizations, to determine which path is best for yours.
https://www.fahasa.com/
The problem is most firms’ growth strategies emphasize just one type of growth—some focus on organic growth, others on M&A. When these strategies falter, the common response is simply to try harder—but firms falling into this “implementation trap” usually end up losing out to a competitor whose approach is more inclusive.
So where do you start? By asking the right questions, argue INSEAD’s Laurence Capron and coauthor Will Mitchell, of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto and Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. Drawing on decades of research and teaching, Capron and Mitchell find that a firm’s aptitude for determining the best resource pathways for growth has a defining impact on its success. They’ve come up with a helpful framework, reflecting practices of a variety of successful global organizations, to determine which path is best for yours.
https://www.fahasa.com/
October 10, 2025
Good framework to help selecting the right path for growth. However, I personanlly found that the book use too many examples and not all relevant. Some chapter explain high level of concept and then list companies that were successful. I found this piece is less value added. With that said, still a strong fundamental book.
July 24, 2021
Quick and easy read, tonnes of good examples, clear framework. I imagine it would be quite useful for someone running a company. I personally found it a little too consultant-ish. There is a matrix and a flowchart for just about everything, a little too logical and structured for my taste.
May 8, 2014
Excellent and clear approach to a central question for any company working on its growth strategy.
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November 30, 2016May come back sometime to read this book and enjoy it but I was reading it for a class so I do not think I can give an accurate review on this book.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews