Category Archives: Company Building

This is the second post in a five part series introducing the four stages of business growth. Every new venture begins with a vision about a great new product or service, how it will reach its customers, and why a lot of people are going to buy it. To turn the vision into reality – and a profitable company, founders must test their assumptions about the market and potential customers, and turn them into facts. The biggest mistake most young companies make...

This is the first post in a five part series introducing the stages of business growth. Can you imagine trying to build a skyscraper without a blueprint? 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. The best and fastest path may not be clear. You need to know what lies ahead, beyond the horizon. Unfortunately, most leaders of growing...

My last post discussed the multitude of problems that arise from a lack of candor in organizations. But simply asking people to be more candid without a supporting organizational culture is futile. The concept of candor is simple, but being honest inside of organizations is difficult. It’s hard because you are fighting against human nature and established organizational behaviors. People avoid conflict, engage in groupthink, tell their bosses what they think they want to hear, withhold feedback, hoard information, and ignore reality...

Within high-growth companies, one of the greatest challenges is having difficult conversations with clarity, ease, and effectiveness. Too many people struggle with how to say no, give constructive criticism, address performance issues, speak up in meetings, or confront interpersonal problems. Picture yourself stuck in another pointless meeting where no one in the room says the things that need to be said. Slide after mind-numbing slide fails to break any new ground. Despite the facts that are staring everyone right in the face...

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...