Agur Jõgi, its CTO Pipedrive and expert in technology and scaling organizations. Experienced as an innovator, founder and C-level executive.
The business section of airport bookstores is full of advice for business owners of all sizes for a very good reason. There are distinct rhythms that repeat themselves in many businesses and industries. Leaders can use what they learn and experience a better journey by avoiding known potholes.
However, we don’t know how many of these books are not only read but digested, how often the ideas are actually put into practice. Business leaders shouldn’t dismiss all of this advice, especially when so much is based on widely shared experiences.
But, of course, not all advice applies equally to every business. In this article, I’ll share some leadership lessons based on where companies are in their journey—whether they’re a startup, a scale-up, or a mature company—to show how leaders can navigate the growth path forward. .
Startups: Experiment, Experiment, Experiment
Startups often have limited funding or no access to financial resources for long, difficult periods. Many struggle from a lack of planning or lose focus as they try to do everything at once, pushed by their circumstances.
Growing businesses soon realize that there is never enough time to execute everything perfectly. But this problem has a solution: Always be on the lookout for people who are ready, willing and able to “wear many hats.”
Another problem is the most easily solved: the lack of prioritization of sales and marketing. Keeping investment in sales and marketing independent of other priorities is a sure way to lead to greater sales opportunities.
But there are risks involved in doing so. Clearing the path for sales and marketers is critical. These groups should represent the business message, but they should also be given permission to sing their own tune as they know the potential customer base. Staying too tight, being too prescriptive and holding them back with poor processes and workflows can be an immediate and destructive throttle to growth.
Exiting this stage is based on focusing on finding the right product-market fit. If necessary—and be open to it—bring on board independent and experienced senior team members with hands-on skills to run experiments on every part of the process. As a startup, you might have a great idea, but it’s rare that you also know the exact right way to implement it.
Experiment, experiment and experiment again to find the right conditions to succeed. Read and get tips. Leaders must be learners.
Escalations: Experiment, Operate and Experiment
The scaling company often runs the risk of growing too quickly without properly validating the business model. Common threats include losing focus and/or developing the core product without business alignment.
These companies often also hire too quickly and onboard too many people, especially when revenue seems to have been squeezed. That’s when overconfidence can lead to overreaching decisions.
Sometimes growth comes while the business lacks a scalable and secure infrastructure to meet its service commitments and compliance obligations. And it’s very easy to get the balance wrong between being organized and stable versus being nimble and proactively reacting to market trends or unforeseen situations.
Finally, they face the same problem as startups: downplaying sales and marketing when other urgent pressures seem to take precedence. Stopping the goose from laying the golden eggs is not likely to improve the situation in the medium to long term, even the business has to find a budget cut somewhere.
How do you find stability and growth? The product or service must be reliable to ensure that the first paying customers remain and the new customer base grows. Despite the need to find stability, it should still be a highly experimental environment. The key difference is that apart from experimentation, business tactics are much more relevant.
It is important to remember that you are allowed to say “no” to any increasing volume of customization requests. Stay focused on the design and product roadmap. Listen to the signals, but don’t give in to knee-jerk reactions.
Mature Enterprises: Operate, Build, Operate, Experiment
Mature companies usually face challenges related to inefficient processes and time management. Lack of focus, sometimes scaling without a thoughtful business strategy.
As companies mature, leaders forget that scaling does not mean growth across all business areas, which can lead to bloat and inefficiencies. On the other hand, relying too much on the existing business model can cause the company to lose momentum in acquiring new customers or prospects.
Still, stability and growth remain very much within reach.
Customer retention is key. Finding new customers cannot and should not be the only solution to solving customer churn — that can be a pitfall.
Instead, it’s important to manage the company’s reputation, for example by maintaining a resilient and secure IT infrastructure with the right certificates and all the privacy and security features required by compliance and good business practice. On the supply side, keep products and services up to the latest industry standards. Don’t be too slow or too hasty to change. Instead, take an agile approach to service evolution.
Finally, mature companies—especially larger ones—often face employee turnover, so it’s important to find and retain the right people. To do this, find the right team balance. Hire experienced senior executives to experiment and mid- and junior-level professionals to operate the business in a cost-effective manner.
Conclusion
Companies of all sizes and at every stage can continue to grow by keeping these mantras in mind:
• Think first, plan second, act third.
• Build bridges, not products or services.
• Speak many “languages”—business, leadership, people management, sales, marketing, and anything else that will help you deal with challenges intelligently.
• Don’t take talent for granted. Find, nurture and help your people empower them to grow with the company.
• Keep learning to keep driving.
In short, leaders must commit to closely monitoring their company’s journey to identify when it is time to change paths and receive new advice for the next phase of growth.
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