In Monday’s Blog we discussed rightsizing as matching the workforce with the workload, and insuring that the proper infrastructure is in place to support growth: people, processes and technology.
We also said that all growing companies, hit “inflection points”, the point on the growth curve where the company is at a real risk of stopping to grow and starting to shrink (or fail). It is anticipating the “inflection points” and putting in place growth support initiatives that is a part of your job as a leadership.
When we talk about the right infrastructure, we are referring to:
- Leadership Roles and Responsibilities
- Strategy Identification and Execution
- Financial Controls and Reporting Systems
- Human Resources Management
- Information Technology
- Marketing and Sales
- Branding
- (Organizational) Culture Development
- Customer Fulfillment
As you start your business, it’s like an embryo with some of initiatives in place – but not well developed. And like an embryo – your business starts to outgrow its current environment. As it continues to grow, it reaches a point where change is dramatic and needs to be supported differently.
Recognize that your business is no different. You need to have a process in place to identify growth (inflection point) changes yourself or have someone help you with it.
To do so, we suggest you to do the following:
- Twice a year assess your company’s current state
- Are you growing, if so how fast?
- What did you say you would do but didn’t – and why?
- What are things about your business that you don’t know?
- Examples include:
- Current financial condition
- Who are your key customers
- Customer satisfaction
- Examples include:
- Is your strategy and approach to the market still right?
- Have an independent third party challenge your assumptions
- Identify what you are not doing and should be doing to support growth
Early success can distort your view of the business; it can lead to complacency and over-confidence in your skills. In this case, success can be your greatest enemy. Unfortunately some business owners find out too late that their early success cannot be sustained with introducing business principles and business management skills.
Don’t be one of those business owners. Understand that inflection points do exist for all businesses (and yes, that does mean yours also). And with the appropriate approach, you can identify them, anticipate them and create solutions to successfully transition through them to the next level of business.
Copyright 2011 Kubica and LaForest
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