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Where's your company on The Business Growth Cycle?
Part 1 in a Series of 4The Business Growth Cycle is a model that enables business leaders to identify the level of performance at which their business is operating and to determine exactly what needs to be done to move that business to the next level. The Business Growth Cycle is based on my and many other's years of experience and is an approximation of how successful businesses grow and some of the problems (The Top 12 Warning Signs of Success™) they encounter in their efforts to become what I call a mature, financially stable, professionally managed and led business (Level III). From my experience this should be the objective of all growth hungry businesses.By having a sensitivity and general understanding of the stages of development in The Business Growth Cycle managers will be in a position to predict problems and thereby prepare solutions and coping strategies to help the company go to the next level before a crisis gets out of hand.Companies tend to pass through a series of predictable developmental phases as they mature. Transitions between these phases do not always occur naturally or smoothly, regardless of the strength or expertise of top management.Every organization and its component part are at different stages of development. Each level begins with a period of steady growth and stability and ends with a crisis period of substantial organizational turmoil and change. The task of top management is to be aware of the stages; otherwise, it may not recognize when the time for change has come, or it may act to impose the wrong strategic solution.Experience shows only one out of ten companies who grow from Start Up (Level I) to Rapid Growth (Level II) succeed in making the transition to a Market Leader (Level III). The remaining 90 percent slide back and shrink, fight the same battles in different ways, or go out of business when they hit the transition period between Level II and Level III.The critical task for business leaders in each developmental phase is to find a new set of organizational practices that will become the basis for managing the next level of performance. Leaders must be ready to work with the flow rather than fighting the tide. And they must be watchful, because it is easy to diagnose the symptoms and miss the onset of the disease.When a business is at or near the top of either the Start Up or Rapid Growth Phase (Level I or II respectively), intervention by an experienced business advisor can help determine where the company may be entrenched, blocking transition to the third phase. The advisor can also help plan the necessary steps toward maturing the business and help ease implementation of change. We ALL need the mediation of others to help broaden our vision and heighten our perspective!Explore the three levels of the Business Growth Cycle:
KEY QUESTION:Where do you think your company is in The Business Growth Cycle, would other people in your company agree? If not, what level would they consider the company is experiencing?
