I don’t mean how many years
have you been in business, but rather what stage of business development are
you currently living through? It’s an important question since, like individuals, organizations go through a series of developmental stages with their
unique challenges and opportunities.
Here is a model of business
stages that I use to assist people in thinking through some critical issues about
leadership, strategy, operations/execution and talent management:
- Start Up (--$): craft mission, vision, strategy; assemble core team; develop first product/service offering(s)
- Proof of Concept (-$): attain first customer(s) and revenue
- Scale Up (+$): expand market and internal capacity; make a profit; stay lean (quality AND efficiency)
- Stabilization: take a breath; redesign processes for sustainability; evolve culture; edit core stories; treat symptoms of “founder-itis”
- Innovation & Diversification: display mature paranoia and humility (beware the “S” curve to obsolescence); invite internal competition and experimentation; expand/replace offerings and talent (internally or through acquisition)
It turns out that each phase
of business development requires a somewhat different leadership approach,
strategy, operational infrastructure and staffing. Noticing when your business
is approaching a phase transition is key to redesigning these elements and
powering through to the next stage with energy and success.
QUESTIONS:
- At which stage of development (1-5) is YOUR business?
- How do you need to redesign your leadership approach, business strategy, operations and talent (compared to the previous stage) in order to be successful?
- Are these really linear step-by-step stages or do you need to be doing multiple stages simultaneously?
