If you are going to lead a growing business, you are going to make mistakes – lots of mistakes. Here are five of the most damaging: 1. Not anticipating and planning for what lies ahead Can you imagine taking a trip to an unfamiliar place without a roadmap or GPS? Probably not, yet leading a fast-growing company can seem a lot like traveling through uncharted territory. You need to be prepared for what lies ahead, beyond the horizon. Unfortunately, most leaders of...

The critical factor in a high-growth company’s success is not strategic focus. Nor is it operational excellence. And it’s not products or services. All of these are important, but the most significant factor is an organization’s ability to put it all together, to craft strategy and execution into a workable growth system. Business growth is more than a strategy – it’s a system. Products and strategies are the result of the system that creates them, including the process of creating the idea...

The greatest source of competitive advantage in companies that grow from small to big is the unique combination of what it does and how it does it. No Obvious Competitive Advantage Much of what we believe about what makes growth companies successful is just plain wrong. It’s not about having a visionary, charismatic leader. It’s not about having the best talent. It’s not about being the most innovative in the industry. It’s not about being in a hot, sexy market. It's not .

The Perils of Success The entrepreneurial dream is often inspired by visionaries like Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Michael Dell, Henry Ford, and Sam Walton – legends who built their companies on vision and passion, established new markets, altered the business landscape, and experienced extraordinary success. They were able to build on initial start-up success to lead their companies through growth and find not only long-term success, but industry dominance. It’s the dream that so often eludes entrepreneurs. The far more common experience...

There’s a vibe in growth companies, a certain attitude that’s easy to pick up the moment you walk through the door. It’s an atmosphere that’s completely absent from companies that are stagnate and stumbling along. Organizations have internal environments that either enable growth or inhibit it. The choices made in a business reflect the mindsets that exist within the organization. Every day, in companies across the world, people are making choices about how to conduct business. These choices either promote growth or...

One of the least appreciated aspects of leadership is the need to let go of things that aren’t working. Business leaders must let go of product lines or sometimes even entire businesses whose time has passed. Leaders must kill ideas, strategies, or initiatives that may have worked well in the past, but are now draining valuable resources needed for the future. Leaders must...

At first glance, the only apparent difference between a small company and a big company is the amount of revenue and market share. If only it were that simple. When companies grow, they must change beyond simply getting bigger. Business Growth is an Evolutionary Process The average $10 million business is far different from the average $100 million business, which is different still from the average $1 billion business. As a business grows and becomes more complex, it will constantly face new...

Much of what we believe about what it takes to scale a successful company and keep it growing is just plain wrong. Despite all the conventional wisdom about the greatness of America’s entrepreneurial culture, the fact is most companies start small and stay that way. Think that’s an overstatement? Consider this: In the United States, only seven tenths of one percent (0.7%) of all companies will ever reach $50 million in annual revenues. And an even smaller number, only one in a...