
                 ENEMIES OF A GROWING COMPANY
                 ============================

In a dynamic, growing business change is often a way of life.  But
the constant change may be too much for the entrepreneur who
struggled with the business through its infancy.  And like the child
who holds a baseball that's too big for his hands, the tighter his
grasp the more it slips away.  There are some specific activities
that begin here at this point of intensive growth that are enemies
of a successful business.

Enemy #1:
--------
The first is for management to adopt the attitude that they're just
going to keep doing the same things they've always done, and fail to
see or acknowledge that it no longer works.  Managing a start-up
business is very different from managing a rapidly growing firm.  It
requires a different set of skills and a keen knowledge of how fast
the growth is occurring.  The things that worked yesterday just
aren't effective now.

Enemy #2
--------
Another management attitude that begins developing here is that top
decision-makers become self-satisfied and indulgent because business
is booming.  They demand little results from their people or
themselves.  The once self-critical evaluations they previously gave
themselves are replaced with a luxurious complacency that's proved
too expensive for the most successful businesses.

Enemy #3
--------
A third management activity that's an off-shoot of the one above is
that when sales and profits decline management adopts a defensive or
apathetic stance rather than trying to correct the problem.  Among
themselves they make excuses and generally agree that some outside
force is to blame.

Enemy #4
--------
The next thing that begins to happen is divisions and departments
lose communication with each other.  Everyone begins to guard his
turf and cliques and political enclaves develop.  What was
previously interaction is now viewed as interference.  Political
games and set-ups develop that are aimed at placing blame, not
solving problems.  Problem solving is a thing of the past.

Enemy #5
--------
The fifth attitude (or enemy) is an outgrowth of the one above.
Decisions are pushed up the hierarchy away from where the actual
work task is performed.  It's confined primarily to the top
managers.  Delegation becomes a stale skill.  It's considered
dangerous.  So the lower echelon talent becomes more frustrated and
eventually leaves.  The crisis deepens because there is usually no
one left trained and waiting in the wings to take the jobs of the
former workers.

Enemy #6
--------
The next things that occur are decision-making cop-outs.
Spur-of-the- moment meetings are called that continue for hours.
There is no announced agenda and few decisions are made.  The
meetings give managers an excuse for putting off making a choice of
taking a stand.

Enemy #7
--------
The top decision-maker surrounds himself with "yes" people whose
deepest goal is to avoid being fired, not to create any meaningful
support for the President's decisions.  They become "responsible" by
being agreeable, not necessarily effective.  Constructive dissent is
not welcome in this atmosphere, and those who offer it are
considered troublemakers and gotten rid of.

Enemy #8
--------
Management then begins to make warnings and threats without a plan
of action.  They lose their credibility in the lower ranks and
people get used to aimless existence.  When decisions can no longer
be avoided, they are made out of fear, not for growth or success.
At this point the once thriving enterprise is a candidate for a
merger or a buy-out by a result- oriented entrepreneur.  Or worse
yet, the business could end up in bankruptcy.

Entering the growth stage of a business is a little like becoming a
parent of a teenager.  The next few years will be turbulent and
volatile.  If you can ride it out with an openness to meet the needs
that arise, you'll be growing your business green.

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Resource Box - Ask for these books at your local library:
HOW TO MANAGE A TURN-AROUND by Stanley J. Goodman; HOW TO SAVE YOUR
BUSINESS by Arnold S. Goldstein; WHY SMALL BUSINESSES FAIL by William A.
Delaney.
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(c) Copyright 1990 STRICTLY BUSINESS! BBS - 614/538-9250 * 8/N/1

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