ENEMIES OF A GROWING COMPANY ============================ In a dynamic, growing business change is often a way of life. But the constant change may be too much for the entrepreneur who struggled with the business through its infancy. And like the child who holds a baseball that's too big for his hands, the tighter his grasp the more it slips away. There are some specific activities that begin here at this point of intensive growth that are enemies of a successful business. Enemy #1: -------- The first is for management to adopt the attitude that they're just going to keep doing the same things they've always done, and fail to see or acknowledge that it no longer works. Managing a start-up business is very different from managing a rapidly growing firm. It requires a different set of skills and a keen knowledge of how fast the growth is occurring. The things that worked yesterday just aren't effective now. Enemy #2 -------- Another management attitude that begins developing here is that top decision-makers become self-satisfied and indulgent because business is booming. They demand little results from their people or themselves. The once self-critical evaluations they previously gave themselves are replaced with a luxurious complacency that's proved too expensive for the most successful businesses. Enemy #3 -------- A third management activity that's an off-shoot of the one above is that when sales and profits decline management adopts a defensive or apathetic stance rather than trying to correct the problem. Among themselves they make excuses and generally agree that some outside force is to blame. Enemy #4 -------- The next thing that begins to happen is divisions and departments lose communication with each other. Everyone begins to guard his turf and cliques and political enclaves develop. What was previously interaction is now viewed as interference. Political games and set-ups develop that are aimed at placing blame, not solving problems. Problem solving is a thing of the past. Enemy #5 -------- The fifth attitude (or enemy) is an outgrowth of the one above. Decisions are pushed up the hierarchy away from where the actual work task is performed. It's confined primarily to the top managers. Delegation becomes a stale skill. It's considered dangerous. So the lower echelon talent becomes more frustrated and eventually leaves. The crisis deepens because there is usually no one left trained and waiting in the wings to take the jobs of the former workers. Enemy #6 -------- The next things that occur are decision-making cop-outs. Spur-of-the- moment meetings are called that continue for hours. There is no announced agenda and few decisions are made. The meetings give managers an excuse for putting off making a choice of taking a stand. Enemy #7 -------- The top decision-maker surrounds himself with "yes" people whose deepest goal is to avoid being fired, not to create any meaningful support for the President's decisions. They become "responsible" by being agreeable, not necessarily effective. Constructive dissent is not welcome in this atmosphere, and those who offer it are considered troublemakers and gotten rid of. Enemy #8 -------- Management then begins to make warnings and threats without a plan of action. They lose their credibility in the lower ranks and people get used to aimless existence. When decisions can no longer be avoided, they are made out of fear, not for growth or success. At this point the once thriving enterprise is a candidate for a merger or a buy-out by a result- oriented entrepreneur. Or worse yet, the business could end up in bankruptcy. Entering the growth stage of a business is a little like becoming a parent of a teenager. The next few years will be turbulent and volatile. If you can ride it out with an openness to meet the needs that arise, you'll be growing your business green. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Resource Box - Ask for these books at your local library: HOW TO MANAGE A TURN-AROUND by Stanley J. Goodman; HOW TO SAVE YOUR BUSINESS by Arnold S. Goldstein; WHY SMALL BUSINESSES FAIL by William A. Delaney. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (c) Copyright 1990 STRICTLY BUSINESS! BBS - 614/538-9250 * 8/N/1 Product Catalog System(tm). UNICOM Information Services.