Grow Up to Grow
by Miki Saxon
One of the hardest things that bosses of growing companies face is the need to stop shooting from the hip.
I frequently hear from startups, small biz and entrepreneurs that growing up would ruin their culture.
They tell me it stifles creativity. It’s for larger companies. It’s bureaucratic. It’s too time consuming.
“It” refers to the underpinnings of all successful companies. “It” includes stuff like,
- Financial controls
- Annual operating plan that includes financial planning (you can’t plan to do something if you can’t pay for it)
- Organization charts and definitions of responsibilities
- Hiring process
- Long-term planning
- Centralized information technology implementation and planning
Whether it’s just you, or one, ten, fifty or more employees, whether full time, part time or virtual, you need viable processes to keep you focused—think of it as coloring inside the lines.
Everything on this list can and should be scaled for applicability, but all are necessary in some form for any business endeavor.
You don’t have to implement them all at once, but none will happen as long as you allow your MAP to reject or begrudge them.
And don’t confuse process with bureaucracy. Process is like MAP, it gets you where you want to go, whereas bureaucracy stifles whatever it touches; process, like MAP, is ever-changing and growing, while bureaucracy is carved in stone.
It boils down to the fact that bosses can’t be cowboys, so hang up your boots and spurs and do right by your company and it’s people.
Flickr image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/daryl_mitchell/2814824048/
January 31st, 2011 at 2:30 am
Dear Miki,
Excellent paper, good ideas!
Perhaps you will have the kindness to analyze the idea of growing but becoming less interesting (i.e. decreasing the company’s- ability to generate surprises- in the frame
of my paper “My favorite I-word”. it is about the importance of Interestingness.
And the lady who is giving me an interview in “Stop Koalemos” is very similar to you, in many respects. She has helped me to understand the Crisis- before it happened.
I would be honored if you will visit my blog at
http://egooutpeters.blogspot.com. It is for adults, but in the best sense of this word.
January 31st, 2011 at 9:30 am
Hi Peter, I read My favorite I-word and found it interesting:) However, if the growth I describe in the post limits anything it limits the potential for bad surprises and increases the likelihood of positives ones.
As to my similarity with Athena, it’s a lovely compliment (which I appreciate), but, in my mind, not at all accurate. I don’t pretend to wisdom, but do hold my common sense in high esteem.
Thanks as always for adding a much wider dimension to my post.