Why do many leaders find themselves in charge of an organization unprepared to meet the challenges resulting from growth? There are many potential root causes, but in my experience, it results from: people, process and planning.
People
A mismatch between the skills of your key people and their job requirements as a firm grows is difficult to manage. It’s tied up in relationships, culture, history, loyalty and other factors. By allowing these factors to override the basic skills necessary for a role, you create a bigger problem. It’s easy to assume that as your company grows, those in critical roles will grow with it. You want this to be true, and often it will be, but there will also be instances when it isn’t.
The key is understanding what will be required for a role not only today, but also in one, three and five years. When possible, help the incumbents grow with their roles. But if people are “in over their head,” you aren’t doing them any favors by leaving them in their role. Deal with a mismatch quickly to ensure a better outcome for both parties. Delaying only leaves you with fewer, far worse, options.
Process
A quote from Sun Tzu’s “Art of War” says, “Know yourself and you will win all battles.” Smaller enterprises often get by via heroics. So, the transition from knowing all the employees and communicating through personal interaction to having to rely on process is difficult.
How do you ensure everyone understands what the firm is trying to accomplish when you can’t explain it personally? How do you embed the company’s culture in a growing workforce? The answer is process.
Entrepreneurs too often view process as the enemy; instead, process is a means to systematically embed throughout your organization what made you great in the first place.
Planning
Leaders at growing companies often are so caught up in managing the day-to-day challenges that they don’t take time to solve the big problems, and instead treat a series of symptoms. They don’t set aside time for strategic thought, let alone formal strategic planning.
Don’t be reactive, applying heroics to solve every issue. Instead have a vision for what you want as a company in three, five and 10 years, and plan for it. Engage your customers and your senior management in the planning process. A first step is formal, regularly scheduled strategy sessions where long-term goals are the only focus. Many of you work 200-plus hours a month. Does spending 2 percent of those hours on strategy and long-term planning seem like too much? If you fail to plan, you’re planning to fail.
While growth presents many challenges, it also creates opportunity. In the words of Sun Tzu: “Opportunities multiply as they are seized.” To take advantage of opportunities, you need the right people and processes in place when those opportunities arise and a plan for success. If you do, you’ll build the foundation upon which sustainable growth can be achieved.
David Grafton is chief consultant and senior director of Blue Water Growth, a global business consulting firm with extensive on-the-ground experience and expertise in North America and Asia. Its services include M&A guidance, private capital solutions, product distribution, production outsourcing and consulting services for its clients.
