- Entrepreneurs actually show their inability to switch to executive mode much earlier in the business development process than most people realize.
- But the reasons executives fail to “scale”—that is, adapt their leadership capabilities to their growing businesses’ needs remain messy
- The ability to effectively lead a project, department, or organization beyond the start-up stage depends on whether or not the executive is affected by the four dangerous pointers here:
1. The Scaling Challenge:
- Business school courses can’t really teach students to deal with people objectively, to think strategically, to create loyalty within a diverse workforce, and to impress customers and investors.
- These capabilities derive from experience that the new CEO may not yet have.
- No wonder so many entrepreneurs fail to become self-sufficient leaders as their businesses increase in complexity.
2. Task Orientation:
- Executives who focus on the job at hand—particularly those who have done well in operations, product development, or finance—are the weight lifters of the business world.
- They execute brilliantly with demanding short-term assignments, but the long-term strategy is often beyond them.
- As their companies grow, they often fail to establish strategic priorities.
- Leaders able to scale, by contrast, understand the importance of a stream-lined strategy.
- They learn to extract three or four high-level goals from a longer list and focus their teams accordingly.
3. Single-Mindedness:
- We all admire disciplined people, and in start-ups, laserlike focus on the quality and differentiation of a new product or service is an important asset.
- But a leader’s devotion to a single issue can also damage a growing organization.
- A leader who doesn’t communicate with and listen to employees with distinct opinions can end up losing their loyalty.
4. Working in Isolation:
- It is okay to develop or flesh out an idea in isolation.
- After the birth of the product or the idea, the internal focus must shift.
- The understanding of markets and how the product can be placed in it has to be a team effort.
- Eg. For JioFiber and other domains of the same, a dedicated team had worked to come up with a one-year free subscription and how retention can be done easily even after that.
To know more about scaling and steps to avoid, read the entire article: https://hbr.org/2002/12/why-entrepreneurs-dont-scale
We have the answers to all your scaling related questions from our expert panel, do drop in your valuable questions related to any business topic through this link and we’ll reach out to you: https://sncoglobal.com/#q&a
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