Preface ? these articles on stages of business growth are guidelines ? so use them with some flexibility. They are also based on number of employees and not annual revenue because different industries will generate different levels of revenue based on employee count. If you are looking for sales by paid employee for your industry, contact me I have a complete list. We will cover the following stages:
- Stage 1: 1 ? 10 employees ? The One Person Show
- Stage 2: 11-30 employees ? The Ramp Up
- Stage 3: 31 ? 50 employees ? Delegation
- Stage 4: 51 ? 70 employees ? People Crunch
- Stage 5: 71 ? 125 employees ? Professional
- Stage 6: 126 + employees ? Visionary
Stage 6 ? Visionary
The visionary. Patterns of behavior have been established, processes are in place and the feel of the company is good and comfortable. Your confidence in your staff is strong. There are good managers in place and employees are responding well to their direction and leadership. The culture is good and strong and it is a good place to work.
Management/Organizational
As the CEO of a stage 6 company, you are engaged in a unique blend of managerial and visionary styles. You believe strongly in the power of effective and consistent communication. Your leadership style is creating synergy by connecting people to each other, healing rifts in a team and motivating during stressful times.
There are more people and more complications. The impact is felt by the CEO on the hiring practices of the first 4 stages. The CEO is spending time in two distinct areas: people and processes. The CEO is now managing through people and evaluating if the hires through the last 4 stages are working and spending more time with the management team to build their confidence as a group and each individually; it is now a people business and it takes about 70% of the CEO?s time. The second focus is making sure internal processes are running smooth and flawlessly.
One of the biggest challenges may be employee turn-over, this is one indication that the department managers are not as strong and experienced as you need. People stay with a company because they respect their manager. If you are beginning to provide your employees with managers who are already trained and hardwired to grow the business and manage the people, your company will feel less frustrating, become more productive and make more money.
Marketing/Sales
The marketing person is tuned in and working effectively. They are integrated with the sales department and customer service. They understand the needs of the market and are looking for innovative and unique ways to get the message to their highest value prospects. Management is provided with monthly marketing graphs showing what is/is not working, market penetration and return on marketing dollars.
The sales manager is seasoned, effective in leading, hiring, mentoring and monitoring the sales organization. The sales manager is spending 60% ? 70% of their time in the field with each of the sales people, nurturing them to improve their trade. There should be individual sales evaluations in place for each sales person on at least a quarterly basis on customer acquisition and product or market growth.
Human Resources
The HR manager is clearly comfortable with the job, the company and providing the guidance the company needs in the personnel area. They are on top of their primary functions and are keeping up the ?culture? of the company and making the organization a place to look forward to work in.
Product and/or Service
The VP of operations is comfortable in their job, driving performance forward and managing the day-to-day functions and people effectively. There are regular (weekly) production management meetings with the production management team where opportunities are evaluated, performance is measured and issues are discussed and resolved. KPI?s are a routine and the employees in this area are comfortable with reporting key indicators on a daily basis.
Finance
The company has a very qualified controller. Someone who has an accounting degree, has 5+ year controller experience and understands the big picture. They work closely with the CEO and the balance of the management team, giving the financial perspective of new opportunities and threats to the company. As the company grows, more money is changing hands more frequently and a good person at the controls of the money system is critical. These functions are just an extension of other responsibilities defined in previous stages of growth articles. If they don?t have a controller that understands the big picture, the company will benefit from someone giving them that insight.
The company has a profit target that is supported with a revenue and expense budget for the year, by month. The controller and the key management staff: sales, operations, CEO and controller review performance on a monthly basis and evaluate, standardize and improve the overall performance of the business. The company should have a projected cash flow forecast in place that is updated on (at least) a monthly basis to insure that the company will have adequate cash to operate and that the line of credit and financing is adequate to support growth.
Challenges in this stage
Revenue and profit
Weak project management
Difficulty diagnosing/forecasting problems
Employee turnover
Not getting systems in place
Your organization is uninformed about company growth
What to do to get to the next stage
Continue to focus on revenue and profit and weakness in your company including people and systems. The goal of the company is to function as a well oiled machine with improved systems, better people and a powerful culture.
Connect with Dan Lacy:
Dan Lacy at PO Box 2900 Anderson, Indiana 46018.
27
Jun
Source: http://www.catalistconsulting.com/stages-of-business-growth-stage-6-visionary/
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