Built to Grow
A Survival Manual for Growing Companies
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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
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
Leaders of growth aren’t successful without a strong team. And when it comes to managing their teams, they display two contradictory qualities: practicality and idealism. On the one hand, they are extremely practical – intensely aware of the realities of their situation and what is needed to succeed, and relentless in their focus on results. On the other hand, they are idealistic – visionaries who defy the odds to transform their ideas into reality by offering their teams support, motivation, and encouragement. Read More
Whatever your level of experience, you can unleash the growth leader within you. That may mean developing a productive relationship with change, reorienting your beliefs about learning, growth, and failure, or developing new ways to think and act as a leader. You can start today, from wherever you are. Read More
Entrepreneurship is not the exclusive domain of venture-backed start-ups. And you don’t need to own a business to be an entrepreneur. What makes you an entrepreneur is the context in which you operate. Entrepreneurship is needed to create something new in an environment of uncertainty. It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in, or the size of the company. This view of entrepreneurship applies to anyone creating innovation anywhere. Read More
There’s an inescapable truth I’ve found over twenty years of working with fast-growth companies: Instead of bringing out the hidden strengths of a business,success tends to bring out the hidden weaknesses. Read More
As a company gets bigger, communication both within and between departments suffers. Ultimately, no one knows what’s going on in other parts of the company. And what was once a well-oiled, integrated machine becomes a company in chaos. Read More
Understanding roles and responsibilities is pretty clear in a small organization. But as a company gets bigger, things that were understood as a matter of course must be made explicit. Everyone in an organization needs to know who is responsible for what and who has the authority for what. Unclear responsibility is one of the most common pitfalls in a growing business. Show me a rapidly growing organization and I'll show you managers with misaligned goals and vague responsibility. Read More
