Ever seen a Nascar race and a car will scrape a wall on the turn? What happens? Paint and plastic go flying and the car slows down. Hopefully, there is no more damage to car or driver. Patch up the issues and get back to top speed, right? In a business that is growing, you are always on a curve with pressures everywhere. What is so hard about GROWTH?
Walls are unavoidable! I define the difference between startup and growth business phases as: “Growth businesses have obtained momentum and reasonable stability month-to-month yet are hitting glass ceilings from time-to-time due to growth.”
Growth pressures are a wonderful testimony to the business. If you aren’t growing, something is wrong. The difficult thing about managing growth is that the cracks are not predictable in time or location. Stress is stressful on any organization. Therefore, if cracks are unavoidable, we have to plan for the growth issues.
The first strategy is to prioritize the most costly area to discover a growth problem. In other words, “Where can I least afford to find out that we hit a wall?” For me, I have found my top areas are: Service and Operations Control. I NEVER want a customer to experience poor service because I know they will tell others. I MUST have good controls over my operation so that I don’t make big mistakes and I know that quality is maintained. Those are my critical two – but everything is important! Some items are critical and some are just important. Smart growth business managers know the difference and they are proactive on the critical areas. They don’t skimp and save on costs in their critical areas because that can surely hang you. For example, do you want the low-cost heart surgeon? Probably not. The critical areas will avoid hitting a wall if given more attention, receive advanced planning, and growth is assumed ahead of time. Don’t wait to add phone lines until customers start complaining they cannot reach your company, for example. Don’t run your revenue engine into the wall! Plan for growth and be your own pit crew in advance of the issues taking on a life of their own. The Growth business keeps growing when it figures out how to tend to the problem areas before they cripple market momentum or profitability. – M