Standing still is moving backwards. A cliché, of course, but which entrepreneur does not have the ambition to grow and evolve? However, uncontrolled growth can cause reduced quality or delivery problems. And that in turn leads to lower customer satisfaction or even loss of customers.
These are some typical growing pains you face as a company. What worked well no longer works. That fantastic multi-purpose employee suddenly becomes a bottleneck and as a manager you have the feeling that you lose overview and control. If you recognize yourself in this, it is time to take a moment to find out the causes and make adjustments where necessary. The life cycle of a company has different growth phases with accompanying crises.
In the start-up phase, when the company only consists of a few people, everyone knows each other. Knowledge, information and experience are shared and problems are discussed. As the company grows, it becomes increasingly difficult to keep everyone involved, to separate important from less important issues and to set the correct priorities. A strong leader is needed to hold and direct the team and to provide the necessary structures and systems.
In the start-up phase, when the company only consists of a few people, everyone knows each other. Knowledge, information and experience are shared and problems are discussed. As the company grows, it becomes increasingly difficult to keep everyone involved, to separate important from less important issues and to set the correct priorities. A strong leader is needed to hold and direct the team and to provide the necessary structures and systems.
Delegating responsibilities creates departments, each with its own dynamics. The danger here is the loss of control in which departments go their own way and focus too much on themselves, without paying attention to other departments. In extremis, departments can start working against each other. There is a need for coordination of tasks and projects across departments so that they are properly coordinated.
This coordination and associated guidelines can lead to bureaucracy, making it difficult to implement changes and adjustments and making it difficult to adapt to changes in the external environment. Continued cooperation and interaction between departments can provide more flexibility. This can be achieved with a continuous improvement culture and process-driven operation, in which processes are always aligned with the strategic objective.
There will always be a new crisis and every company must continue to adapt its strategy to changing market and customer needs. Throughout the life cycle, it remains important to have a clear strategy and objectives that are supported by the company, so that they are actually achieved. In a rapidly evolving society, change is a constant, making it important to develop a culture that embraces change and continuous improvement to remain successful.
Jera Consulting’s specialists are ready to listen to you and help you sharpen your vision and strategy. Feel free to come and talk and we will look together at how we can optimize your organization. Our management consulting services focus on our clients’ most critical issues and opportunities: strategy, marketing, organization, operations, technology, transformation, digital, advanced analytics, corporate finance, mergers & acquisitions and sustainability across all industries and geographies. We bring deep, functional expertise, but are known for our holistic perspective: we capture value across boundaries and between the silos of any organization. We have proven a multiplier effect from optimizing the sum of the parts, not just the individual pieces.