The Five Critical Growth Challenges You Must Address
On Your Way to Stage Five (58 – 95 Employees and Beyond)
I remember experienced business owners telling another CEO of a growing company,
“Watch out. When you get to 50 employees, everything changes.”
Their frustration was that no one would tell them exactly what those changes would be.
As a Stage 5 company, you have 58 – 95 employees.
The company is beginning to align itself – sales and marketing understands and is involved with product development.
You have trained and/or hired qualified managers and help them to get their divisions operating on solid ground.
No longer invisible to the outside world, your competition is heating up because you are now playing in a larger fishbowl.
Because you are entering a larger competitive domain, you need to focus more of your energy on
developing new opportunities and cementing key relationships with current customers.
Staying alert, not allowing mediocrity to set in, paying attention to the little things (never assume your vision and values are safe), will help you continually stay ahead of the tidal waves that can sink your ship.
It’s harder and harder for your employees to feel ‘valued’.
It’s more difficult for you, the CEO, to ‘touch’ every single person in the organization.
You need to maintain a constant vigilance to stay on top of how your managers
are aligning employee performance to company goals.
That’s the hard part.
The easy part is for your employees to disengage because they aren’t feeling ‘valued’
and decide the grass is greener someplace else.
Do they understand gross margins, how the company makes and keeps money?
Is there an intentional training program in place for all employees that is focused on company goals?
How much of your budget have you allocated to training?
Money invested in training your staff on Company Goals, Company Issues and Company Priorities
is far more productive at this stage of growth then sending them to expensive conferences and outside training programs.
If you took the time to develop strong operating units in Stage 4, the art of integration will be much smoother.
Having spent the time and energy to build a great team, look to them for guidance and advice in their areas of expertise.
Get a Free Growth Stage Strategy Session With Me to Discuss Completing the Work as You Go. Begin by Completing the Growth Strategy Survey.