Business has an obsession with growth. And usually unlimited growth. A target is set, and we always laud people for beating it. Sometimes with an accelerator for beating it significantly.
But although growth is seductive, without scale, it ends up destructive.
That’s because the growth that we tend to focus on is top line. Usually sales or revenue. But top line growth often destroys organisations that haven’t worked on scaling themselves.
I’ve seen this first hand. In a previous life, our sales numbers were going through the roof, while our team members were walking out the door. The sales puzzle was solved, but with poor leadership and a lack of positive culture, people looked elsewhere. Which was creating a serious cash crisis. And sucking the fun out of work.
Because while growth may be about sales, revenue or this year’s profit, scale is about values & culture, robust (but not over-complex) processes, people & structure, resilience and optimism, impact and contribution.
And sales, revenue and profit.
Back to the Clash, the question should never be “Should I scale or should I grow?”
You need both.
Will 2022 be another year of a strategy at best vaguely met? Of being a CEO unable to step back from the day-to-day to do the things your company needs to meet it's ambitions? Of having a purpose and values that don't directly connect to everything you do? We're looking for an intimate beta group of CEOs (10 to 40 employees) to join us on this upcoming webinar to talk through our Build on Purpose framework for making strategy, purpose and values happen.