I talked to over 50 founders in the last 8 months. The number one problem they faced was.. any guesses? Scaling up. Even founders running million dollar companies said that scaling their business while maintaining the quality of their product/service was the most challenging part. And honestly, I didn’t gain any concrete strategy on “how to scale your business” from these conversations. Yup, I received interesting insights. But most of the scaling up process for big companies seemed to be very organic and the foundation of this organic growth was customer trust. Customer’s trust is probably the most valuable and underrated asset of a brand. But I am still looking for a solid framework or theory that helps understand the idea of growing a business easier. Thoughts?
Drishti, this is a standard question taught in most B-Schools, and while it may or may not work for a start-up, they should have one of the numerous case studies as their strategy. Not having one is setting yourself up for failure. An analysis of your target market and the rate with which to grow would give you your starting and end points and the pace at which you can and should grow. None of the business problems have a foolproof solution, but some time-tested approaches exist. In my professional opinion, the key thing is the human element. Even in seemingly large organizations, we see small accounts of 10 people grow to 5000 people in 3-5 years. In most cases, if not all, it is not the brand image that we have but the immense hard work that the team on the ground does. Knowing what is the problem that is to be solved and WHY it is the right problem to solve has been the key in all my past experiences. Hire the right people, and they WILL make you grow.
Whether it is today or 100 years back.... Word of mouth remains the most powerful branding. It only happens when customers trust the company.
CEO, Indian Hempstore | Pioneering Green Tech & Sustainable Products | Hemp Industry | Ex Flipkart, ITC , 30 Under 30
11moFor mature businesses scaling up gets more difficult as they are already having set processes and standards. Once the company goes mature their adaptation towards technology and lean gets difficult. The culture plays the most vital role when it comes to expansion, people are mentally set with limited thinking with less room for creativity . Whereas startups are more agile towards scaling up as they have no choice so they hustle and plan every aspect to get the required sales .