You have an idea, you run it by close friends, some of them agree that it might work and you start a company to pursue your vision. After a lot of hard work, your vision becomes a reality and a company is born.
Most companies go through five stages of transition which are
1. Existence
2. Survival
3. Success
4. Takeoff
5. Maturity
The strategy, organization, process, people and technology that helped in the Startup phase (Existence and Survival) for the most part do not work in the Growth phase (Success and Takeoff). As companies start transitioning they could do various things to help them with growth, and we offer 5 essentials that we think need to be addressed:
5 Essentials to get you from Startup to Growth.
1. Aligned Management Team
2. Crystal Clear Products & Services
3. All About People
4. Trickle-down Objectives
5. Critical Success Factors
Cultures are impacted by geography, language, kind of people that have been hired, etc. As an example, at Sunbonn, we are trying to build a culture that is centered around our five core values while taking into account that our clients and delivery team is globally diversified, and we are fortunate enough to have long term clients that have trusted us with their business.
We need to make sure that we have the correct management team on the bus that is aligned on the culture, share the same core values and has the correct seat on the bus that is taking them to their destination together in a “Work hard – Play hard” environment.
One of the things that serves in the startup model is that, most startups are willing to do whatever work comes their way to keep the lights on.
As part of going into the growth mode, one has to look at the existing products, services, clients, etc. to really see what is working and what is not working. One cannot throw away the baby with the bathwater, but one does have to identify what products and services do they really want to focus on based on past experience coupled with what looks promising in the future.
One has to be very clear on what Products and Services the organization is going to take to market for transitioning into growth model. If it does not work, you should have the courage to change it.
I really believe that if you have the right clients and right people on the team then everything else works out on its own. As companies move towards growth, they have to inform the team that things are going to be different going forward and they have a choice to stay and evolve with the company, or leave without any hard feelings on either side. You hope that your team will stay and evolve with the organization in a growth model.
Since you have built the management team as well as clarified your Products and Services, you have set the stage to build the organization structure to support your Products and Services which will allow you to invest in building the team skills to be highly successful in what you take to market.
If you have committed people with the right attitude and certified skills, they will automatically take care of whatever needs to be done such as improved business processes, deliverables, etc. to be successful.
I feel like 10% of the companies do an amazing job at this, 10% companies do a decent job of it, and 80% companies don’t know what it is, or have a really hard time implementing it.
You need to have your corporate objectives defined with everybody in the organization understanding them. Take those corporate objectives and trickle them down to department objectives, to management objectives, down to the lowest person on the team making sure that everybody understands their individual objectives and how they feed into each other while aligned with corporate objectives.
Everyone needs to understand if they focus on their objectives then all the corporate objectives would be met. When you run into challenges figure out a way to still meet your objectives or you see a peer missing their objectives then figure out a way to lend a hand such that their objectives are still met.
In my experience this is one of the hardest things to implement and could take multiple iterations before you get this process correct and once you get it correct, it is guaranteed that the organization will flourish.
It’s best if you have 4 to 5 metrics that allow you to see how you’re performing in relation to your corporate objectives and aligned to your core values.
There are no specific measurements that apply to every company since they are unique to each and every organization. The common traits are that they should be handful, simple to track, easy to explain, shared openly and tied to individual objectives.
The metrics should be defined with proper analysis by reviewing the challenging areas in the business as well as linked to support the corporate objectives. Tying individual bonuses to the Critical Success Measurements will assist in getting growth in a hurry.
We at Sunbonn have selected the following 5 Critical Success Factors and you can check out as to how they map to our values by visiting Sunbonn
1. Revenue
2. Customer Satisfaction Survey Score
3. Delivery (On Time, Hours & Errors)
4. Aezee Product Downloads
5. Operational Commitment
Zain Ali