Built to Grow
A Survival Manual for Growing Companies
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A company may appear to be the picture of success, a company that all others would aspire to be. But your greatest fear shouldn’t be that you will have to compete with this company. Your greatest fear should be that you become this company. This company isn’t a model. It’s a disaster waiting to happen. It’s dying, and it doesn’t even know it. Read More
Early in my career, I assumed that all business growth was good; I assumed bigger was always better. After a $1 billion bankruptcy, it’s safe to say that I was wrong. Looking back, I can see that we stumbled and fell over the same fundamental issues that I see growing companies tripping over today. Read More
Of course there’s no alarm that’s going to go off to warn of an impending business disaster. But there are many clues. As the leader of a growing business, you need to be on the lookout for these clues because these common mistakes are critical signals that foreshadow catastrophe. Read More
Successful growth companies have a healthy paranoia about their success. They know that competitive advantage deteriorates over time unless it is constantly cultivated and reinforced. And these companies are seriously concerned with future threats to their continued success. But far too often, once “hot” companies cool off because they are too focused on harvesting their success to notice the world is changing around them. Read More
In business, problems are inevitable. No company ever sails smoothly to success. But the faster a business grows, the more it seems as though there is only enough time to find a quick fix for every problem that comes up. When an organization is moving fast and dealing with a daily crush of activity and firefighting, it’s sometimes difficult to slow down and address issues that are critical but don’t seem particularly urgent. Read More
Having the wrong person in the wrong job is one of the most costly and time-consuming mistakes a business can make. Yet this major business blunder is committed over and over again. Just one weak person in a key position can drag down the performance of the entire organization. Read More
The bigger a company gets, and the faster it’s growing, the harder it is to get everybody on the same page. The issue is that there probably isn’t an easily understood page to get everyone on. In all likelihood there are many pages, actual and mental, together with meeting notes and emails, each intended to explain the vision, mission, and strategy of your business. Furthermore, most of these messages are full of unclear or even conflicting statements concerning who your company is, what it does, and how it does it. Read More
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... Read More
