The
intelligent usage of MI differentiates
profit-generating companies from those who are
simply ‘hard workers’
It
is essential that a firm planning expansion is
fully aware of where its current sources of
profit are; and where the future sources are
likely to be generated
Weakness
here causes inestimable damage to the efficiency
of investments
Without
robust MI you are flying blind – which you can
ill afford to do if you are aiming into new
territory
Training
and staff skills
The
staff skills that have brought you this far may
now be getting stretched
This
may be because some of your key individuals
performed at their best in a start-up
environment, and are now losing enthusiasm
Or
it may be because you simply need better skilled
people to perform the more skilled tasks you now
require of them
If
you suspect there are weaknesses in your current
staff skills and structure, address them now
before you expand: it is considerably more
difficult to address personnel issue when the
business is fully stretched, and when it is
dealing with unprecedented volume
IT:
what you need, and what you don’t necessarily need
The
systems that have carried you this far may be at
the end of their useful life.They may not be capable of proving the
management information you now require (see
above), or increased volume may have taken them
to the edge of their capacity.
As
with personnel issues, IT change – with its
lengthy lead-time, and significant disruption
– must be addressed before the business
volumes increase
However:
make certain that the above reasons for IT
upgrade are truly evident.Many IT changes are instigated by the personal desires of IT
staff, or the mistaken belief that a better
system will address underlying problems which
are in fact nothing to do with the technology
itself.Beware
unnecessary IT change.
Management
skills:
have the requirements changed?
One
of the toughest decisions any growing business
faces is the recognition that some of the senior
management who carried it this far cannot carry
it much further.
This
may apply to the owner/CEO as much as it does to
any of the other top half dozen positions
The
type of skills required by start-ups – and the
type of personal rewards created – alter as
businesses grown and become more complex.It may well be that the hiring of an
experienced ‘completer-finisher’ to replace
a high-energy ‘deal-maker’ makes strong
commercial sense
But:
do consider whether there is a different role
for the original team member: often they will
jump at the chance to take on a loosely
structured role in areas such as business
development of people development
Marketing
The
early years of a business require relatively
crude marketing skills, based around the
creation of ‘buzz’ or brand awareness
Business
growth presents opportunities for more focused
activity, with a stronger scientific bent and an
orientation towards return on investment
Significant
wastage will start to occur in growing firms if
the marketing remains based on ‘gut feel’ or
unevaluated scattershot activity
This
almost invariably necessitates an external hire;
though care must be taken to ensure that the
incumbent staff can adapt to a new and more
rigorous approach
Customer
research
It
may be that the initial ‘sales niche’ on
which the business was founded, has run its
course
Typically
the growth of a firm causes the founders to lose
their instinctive grasp for customer needs
Growth
also prevents them from seeing so much of their
customers as they did in the early days
And
the customers themselves may have changed, as
the firm’s products or services have evolved
These
are all reasons for conducting some formal
research, to undercover what the firm is
performing well at (or badly), and how you
compare with your main competitors
A
focused customer research exercise will provide
you with hard facts about how your
business is perceived by your current and
prospect customers – which will lead directly
to better focusing of your resources and your
cost base
Internal
communications
A
growing business can easily alter its internal
‘feel’
Morale,
internal efficiency and the alignment of all
people in a common direction may have been
features of the business in the early days, but
usually come under increasingly pressure as the
business grows in size and complexity
Effective
internal communication is at the heart of
well-run businesses – and poor communication
is a constant feature of struggling businesses
An
assessment of staff morale, and of staff views
on the clarity of the business’s direction and
decision-making process, is vital before
embarking on an expansion programme
Process
improvement
It
is also time for some formal procedures
Fire-fighting
is admissible in start-ups, but for established
companies is a sign of a poorly run firm
You
will know that the business is not functioning
quite as efficiently as it might be: now is the
time to fix it, before business volumes stress
your processes and threaten the business itself
