Helping You Navigate the Inevitable Scaling Headaches
About You
You've successfully grown your business to its current size but you're frustrated, overloaded, constantly fire fighting. Common thoughts include:
- Why does everything depend on me?
- Why can't I step out of the day-to-day?
- Why does this feel harder when we have more people?
You suspect there's another way but not sure where to start, to change these dynamics.
You're likely to be an MD/CEO of a business with:
- 20 - 250 headcount
- Experiencing scaling friction or organisational strain
- Struggling with management layer transition points
It sounds and feels like:
- Things used to feel simple, now they don't
- We have managers but unsure if they're up to the job
- We've taken on more people but deliver less
- Leadership team alignment weakening as pressure grows
YOUR SCALING ROADMAP
We Help You Understand Common Growth-Stage Challenges & Resolve Them!
Using our iCAS Growth Model, we help you locate & address your business performance challenges.
01
Intuition Limit
You sense your business is too big for "Gut Feel" but not big enough for structure.
Solution: Clarify Roles & Responsibilities
02
Control Challenge
You feel out-of-control to some degree & managers aren't up to the job, so you keep getting dragged into decisions.
Solution: Cohesive management depth
03
Alignment Strain
You sense everything has become more complex and what worked with 50 is no longer working.
Solution: Intentional organisation design
04
System Stressing
You sense the business needs to become independent & run as a system but not sure how to achieve this.
Solution: Multi-level management
Every growth stage comes with limiting factors. Addressing them opens up your ability to absorb more growth opportunities. Ignoring them drags performance.
Which growth stage is your business at? Read on, to find out more.
Intuition Limit: Scaling Challenge at 20 - 40 Headcount
To big for "gut feel"; too small for structure
At 20-40 headcount, your business still feels like a small team but your sense of control is starting to slip.
Typical Pain Points include:
- Decisions can't be made on gut-feel any more
- Everyone's busy but sense that things aren't getting done
- Informal communication starts breaking down
- You're the hub everyone is feeding into, creating a bottleneck
- Management layer emerging but role & responsibilities aren't clear
Welcome to the
Intuition Limit Growth Stage - too big to run the business on "gut feel" but still feels too small for formality. To succeed, you need to start letting go. Mindset shift & clarity of role responsibilities & processes are needed.
Control Challenge: Scaling Challenge at 40 - 60 Headcount
LOSS-OF-CONTROL FEELING PREVELANT; INCONSISTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
At 40 - 60 headcount, the business feels chaotic but you fear bureaucracy. You're regularly pulled into your business, with little time to focus on the business.
Typical pain points include:
- Managers in situ but they're unclear on purpose & expectations
- Decision making slows down
- Communication & performance is patchy & manager dependent
- Gaps in ownership emerge & tasks slipping through those gaps
- Friction & blame between teams become pronounced
- You're uncertain where you should spend your time
Welcome to the Control Challenge Growth Stage. You've outgrown previous practices used to run the business. To succeed, each function needs to step up. Consistent management practices & cohesive management team are needed.
Alignment Strain: Scaling Challenge at 70 - 90 Headcount
complexity has multiplied; needs alignment
At 70-90 headcount, running the business feels complicated and heavy.
Typical pain points include:
- Silos exist & departments optimise for own goals, not business
- Cross-functional friction increases
- Leadership team mis-aligned & pulling away from each other
- Purpose & focus of each management layer unclear & unaligned
- Organisational complexity outpaces clarity
- Sub-cultures abound & standards vary
Welcome to the
Alignment Strain Growth Stage. You've outgrown your current operating model but unsure of how to fix it. To succeed, you need to coherently align the organisational system. Intentional organisational design is needed.
System Stressing: Scaling Challenge at 100+ Headcount
Organisation needs to become a system that works independently
At 100+ headcount, you have too many direct reports & functions reporting into you. Decision-making authority must be delegated.
Typical pain points include:
- Leadership team still looking to you rather than to themselves
- Question marks over middle-management ability
- Culture diluted with some sub-cultures causing issues
- Lack of clarity on approval processes slowing activity down
- Increased compliance & governance obligations
- Financial complexity increases & margins are under pressure
- Manual workarounds still in place, even with tech investments
Welcome to the System Stressing Growth Stage. The organisation has outgrown you & needs to become an independent system. It requires clear organisation design and multi-level leadership & management capability to work effectively.
New Book Coming Soon!
It might not feel it but your business is a system. To work, every part must play its role or frictions clog the system. Performance Management is the mechanism used to address system frictions. But the current paradigm no longer works for today's business complexities.
Irial O’Farrell’s innovative new book on performance management recognises & outlines a new paradigm in her upcoming book, Re-imagining Performance Management for the 21st Century. Follow Irial on Amazon or sign up to our newsletter, to receive release date news.
Business Growth Insights
As a thought leader and author, Irial regularly contributes to podcasts and articles. Feel free to explore these resources and how they relate to your business success.
Clarify Your Performance Scaling Frictions
You've built your business to its current success but you need to address growing friction.
Take the next step & book your complimentary clarity call now.