---
id: "claim-independent-growth-strategies"
type: "claim"
source_timestamps: ["¶16"]
tags: ["growth-strategy", "unit-economics"]
related: ["concept-business-model-portfolio", "action-separate-growth-strategies"]
confidence: "high"
testable: true
speakers: ["Donna Henrike Bohrer", "Karolin Frankenberger", "Joakim Wincent"]
sources: ["commercial"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-commercial"
originDay: 5
articleStem: "hbr-tier2-09-customer-workarounds"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2026/05/what-customer-workarounds-can-reveal-about-your-business-model"
sourceTitle: "What Customer Workarounds Can Reveal About Your Business Model"
---
# Different Business Models Require Independent Growth Strategies

**Claim:** Once a [[concept-business-model-portfolio]] is validated, traditional growth levers must be applied *independently* to each model. Because subscriptions, usage-based APIs, and enterprise agreements possess fundamentally different underlying economics, applying one unified growth strategy across all of them dilutes each model's effectiveness.

**Confidence:** high. **Testable:** yes — measure whether per-model growth tactics outperform a blended strategy on each model's unit economics.

The actionable form is [[action-separate-growth-strategies]]. This claim is also the authors' partial rebuttal to the portfolio-complexity critique (see [[counter-portfolio-complexity]]): manage each model on its own terms rather than blending motions.

**Related:** [[concept-business-model-portfolio]] · [[claim-single-model-is-ceiling]] · [[prereq-business-model-mechanics]]