Barriers to Business Growth
(Part Two)
In part one of the Barriers to Business Growth, we covered three areas that aren’t strictly financial but often show up that way. There were Change, Risk and Innovation. Here and on the Behind the Scenes of the Blog private podcast, we covered how those often show up in companies with tenured founders and management teams.
But those elements have mirror images that can be equally challenging for businesses if not managed well. Overcorrecting is not the answer! It’s just a different type of roller coaster.
Relishing Change
Once upon a time, in my corporate management job, I had someone observe that the company seemed to like change for the sake of change. There wasn’t any real benefit – at least that they could see – so much as it just made people (e.g., management) feel like they were doing SOMETHING.
That is 100% a real thing.
Some people thrive on change. Some people depend on it. Some companies use it as an excuse.
The key is knowing the difference.
Companies that use change to their advantage aren’t necessarily the ones that have well-thought out strategies and plans in advance. They might, but what they really have is the ability to stick to an initiative or plan until it has been proven to work or fail. That means that they have to give it time to get embedded into the people, processes and systems. Any change needs to be evaluated along the way – and given a chance to mature. That happens more quickly with some changes. The most successful change-agent companies know how long it should take and not try to rush the outcomes.
Companies that boomerang to the next big idea or shiny object often don’t have the opportunity to reap the rewards of those changes as they are on to yet the next one. Ideation is only step one of a change process. Implementation and execution are where the outcomes are truly settled.
Reveling in Risk
There is an inherent risk to everything. The level of risk ranges from really low to extremely high but it’s there nonetheless.
Companies (owners and managers) that depend on the adrenaline rush of risk to power them and their companies may have big wins. They may also have big losses. That can translate into the financial side but it’s much more about the activity than that.
The downside (besides striking out while swinging for the fences)? Burning out the team. Not everyone is a born risk-taker or adrenaline addict. In fact, the majority of the stable team members inside your client’s companies are not. They weren’t hired for that. They were hired for stable customer service, dependable invoice processing and reliable project management.
Obsessed with Innovation
Innovation can be challenging to separate from change. In part one, our view of innovation was that you can’t solve the problem with the same thinking that created it. That means brainstorming and “out of the box” thinking.
Innovating is critical to most businesses not falling into a cycle of only incremental change when their industry or market or competition is moving much faster than that.
Innovation is also time-consuming and can result in plenty of false starts. Unlike change and risk, innovation can be much less frantic. It can also be a big time drain:
Days of brainstorming sessions that result in lots of great ideas and no decisions or actions. Repeated quarterly.
Employees randomly making “innovations” in their processes without understanding the full process implications.
Product development teams focused on 3 year innovations instead of 6, 9 and 12 month incremental upgrades and improvements to build customer loyalty
Like so many things in business, change, risk and innovation aren’t inherently good or bad. There is no perfect answer for all businesses. Business growth depends on change, risk and innovation - but in a balanced way that is fully implemented. It is possible for companies to have too much of a good thing putting their business profitability, team morale and survival at risk. The magic is in helping your clients finding the right mix over time – and knowing when it’s time to evaluate it all over again.
Subscribe to the Behind the Scenes episode of this blog post in our private podcast! You’ll hear what inspired the post and get real-life examples from our client work over the years.
