Built to Grow
A Survival Manual for Growing Companies
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50% of all businesses are gone within the first 2 years. After 5 years, it’s 80%. In 10 years, it’s 96%. 500,000 businesses are started every year. At the end of 10 years, there are only 20,000 of them left. The bottom line: Only 4 out of 100 businesses survive 10 or more years. Read More
CEOs of growing companies face all the challenges that come with success: they need to scale their organization, to go regional, national, or global, to recruit and develop the right team as they scale, to build a great culture, to work effectively with their board, and to lead by influencing others rather than doing it all themselves. Success requires specific behaviors and changes to take on each new challenge along the way. 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
In business life, one of the greatest challenges is having difficult conversations. And for many managers, firing someone is the hardest conversation of them all. But you cannot build a great business without a strong team – that means learning how to let people go. Read More
Do you have the leadership and managerial talent needed to grow your business? Developing your high-potential employees helps meet one of the biggest challenges of rapidly growing organizations: the ongoing need for leadership talent. Read More
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. Read More
I have witnessed numerous highflying companies come crashing to the ground. Through these experiences, I’ve learned a fundamental truth: Businesses don’t fail. Leaders fail. Nearly all leaders who preside over struggling businesses slip into several leadership traps on the way down. These traps can be so destructive that they can overshadow a leader’s strengths. 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
I regularly come across companies with the same basic symptoms: A misty image of the future, lack of a common purpose or shared aspirations, resistance to change, overwhelming problems and unrealized opportunities, and a general sense of unease. These are challenges that can only be solved with leadership. Read More
