I’ve been a business scaling coach for over a decade and in that time I have learned a lot. Some big wins, some battle scars, and a deeper appreciation for taking a systems thinking approach to growing companies.
In my coaching practice, I have a unique specialty area. I don’t specialize in a particular type of business or vertical niche. I work with companies across a range of sectors because I specialize in a specific stage of organizational development — the expansion stage, also known as the transition between the Nail It and Scale It stages.
This is a critical and usually rocky period for businesses to navigate. One the one hand, you have nailed product-market fit and growing sales. On the other, the old structure and approach—the one that got you here—isn’t getting you to the next level. How do you scale your company through this transition without losing your entrepreneurial speed and edge?
What I’ve learned is that most companies struggle with this transition. The founders or CEO feel like a bottleneck. There are strong vertical functions like sales, operations, engineering but weak cross-functional coordination. The company may have lost sight of its founding vision and what used to be fast and easy to accomplish inside the company now seems to take too much time and effort to accomplish.
Many companies (myself included when I was a venture-backed CEO) have tried to solve these problems but chose a “cure” that was worse than the original disease, setting themselves back months and years. There are folk cures such as replacing the founder prematurely and losing a powerful innovating force; or attempting a Queen of England structure, in which a single President and COO oversees the company while the founder focuses on innovation and market evangelism. If the wrong executive or approach is chosen for this stage of development, this can be extremely difficult to overcome.
Scaling up your business can be easier, smoother, and less risky than you might think. There is a sequence of steps to follow, based on first principles, that can quickly propel your business into new heights. When the CEO and Leadership Team learn to spot and work with these principles (rather than unknowingly fighting against them) and follow the right sequence, great things begin to happen.
When it all comes together, it’s exhilarating.
What kinds of great things actually happen? Below are ten case studies from Organizational Physics coaching clients to illustrate. They are worth reading because they come straight from some very talented CEOs with real-world battle scars and the wisdom to show for it. And they explain why working with Organizational Physics principles made all the difference.
Growing a business isn’t easy and much depends on market forces—but how you approach the challenge makes all the difference. I am so impressed with how each of these leaders approached their unique challenge.
As you read these case studies, see if you can spot the principles and the sequence of steps to follow to scale your own business more quickly and smoothly. If you resonate with this approach, drop me a line and we can explore what coaching together would look like for you.
Case Studies
Listed in alphabetical order. Click the logos to read.