Are You Ready to Give Your Company Room to Grow?

Hey Founder,

In a previous blog, I referred to Ishak Calderon Adizes’ belief that companies, like people, move through a series of developmental stages — childhood, adolescence, maturity — that present unique challenges to the organization. The challenges are hard but natural parts in the growth of any company and meeting them head on is critical to healthy advancement to the next stage.

Companies that reach maturity either thrive as they reach their “prime,” marked by a balance of flexibility and innovation tempered by control, or shed their youthful qualities and ossify into a bureaucracy and wilt away.

So, what can make a successful, and unsuccessful, transition from adolescence to prime? Here’s my experience. 

In 2011, I took the helm of a company that had been entrepreneurially run by an owner/ president for 23 years. This represented the company’s childhood, or what Adizes calls the “Go-Go” period. What the company lacked in product portfolio, resources, and systems needed to grow beyond the entrepreneurial stage, it more than made up for in a passionate team who loved their unique product and boasted a growing market share of the expanding independent natural retail market.

Over the next seven and a half years, we raised the company from an active child to a precocious teenager by understanding that what got us to where we were would not advance us any further. We focused on the following priorities. First, we grew our team, hiring senior marketing, operations, and sales leadership. These hires enabled us to scale up our operations and systems, which in turn led to our tripling revenues.

We went from a founder-focused autocracy to an increasingly autonomous culture that encouraged greater accountability and self-management.. 

In the relative blink of an eye, we pivoted strategically from a focus on independent retailers, to an omnichannel model, while continuing to serve our retail partners.

At the same time, we doubled down on culture, including a movement to greater transparency, a business accelerator, the adoption of conscious leadership for professional development, and successful application to become a Certified B Corporation.

In other words, we reached the point where we looked and acted exactly like a company bursting with late adolescent creativity and seriousness of purpose.

Anybody who’s raised teenagers knows you’ve got to pump in the oxygen in terms of giving them room to try things, fail, celebrate, and explore different avenues. In the case of managing a business, this often translates into hiring a few more people than you need, investing in a new marketing or packaging approach to see what will stick, or taking a risk with a new channel, even though you might upset current customers.

Without oxygen the learning won’t occur — without the learning, it’s impossible to pursue your passion as you mature and scale your impact. It’s a balancing act to be sure, and one Adizes admits doesn’t always succeed. “To succeed in Adolescence, companies must improve their controls,” Adizes writes. “The challenge is to implement these controls in a way that does not smother the entrepreneurial spirit. This is a delicate balancing act because too much flexibility will also prevent the Adolescent company from reaching Prime.”

At ScalePassion, we have created a guided learning and scaling process that lasts about six quarters. During these 18 months, we work with companies to put in place the strategic elements they need to move through adolescence and reach their prime. Are you ready to scale? Take our 5 minute quiz to see where your gaps might be.

Sincerely,

Rob Craven, ScalePassion

Enjoy this article? If you would like to see simple, practical tips in your inbox every week sign up for TwoTip Tuesday to help scale your change-the-world business.