Ichak Adizes consults with firms about managing corporate lifecycles. He states that there are 10 stages of the corporate lifecycle, one pre-start, four growth, four declining stages, and one for organizational death. There is a lot of good material here for a senior executive to consider, but I am just going to focus on the growth side.
Adizes breaks the 4 growth stages into Infancy, Go-Go, Adolescence and Prime. The problems that growth firms face are all the same. It’s always: people, time and money. However, in a growth environment there are different priorities for financial metrics at different times in the cycle.
Firms in Infancy are focused on cash flow. You’ve only got so much cash and so much research and development to do. We define in months our “runway” left by the amount of cash you have divided by burn rate. When you are out of runway, the firm has to be aloft or you are out of business. In Infancy, it is spending on the right things that must be managed by the senior management team. Treat every spending priority as if you had 6 months of cash left. Good employees believe in the vision and are committed. Budgets are check book oriented. Don’t forget the balance sheet because stretching vendors isn’t generating free cash flow!
Go-Go firms are focused on sales growth. That is what makes them fast growers. In this phase the key financial metric is sales. The company wants as much sales as it can get at a good margin. The focus is on selling to firms that pay on time and offer a good margin. Selling a big order to a distributor who is known for slow payment and low margin isn’t as important as selling to five smaller customers for cash up front and a decent gross margin rate. The best hires are able to step in at any level and take care of the customer. Accountability is diffused and procedures are changed on the spot.
Firms that reach Adolescence struggle with balancing the entrepreneurial spirit with professional management. The key people that could do every job in the department now become assigned to one job and they chafe about the lack of “make it happen” attitude. Profits become more important to the company. I’ve had meetings with CEO’s who complain about the lack of expense discipline after hearing story after story from them about how they’d shipped product timely without any thought of costs. Instilling discipline, procedures and process isn’t easy and it has to be balanced against the flexibility that helped the company grow sales quickly. Adizes says this is the most difficult stage for firms and for founders. Budgeting can become a battle rather than a collaboration. Good executives focus on steady process improvements and increasing accountability.
As firms mature into the Prime stage the company balances profit growth, controls and cash flow. Return on investment and risk management become important for the CEO/CFO to manage. The strategy is working, profits and sales are increasing and there is a good balance between entrepreneurial spirit and control. The locus of effort is in longer term planning rather than on day to day operations. Watch for signs of creeping bureaucracy and procedures that kill initiative. New initiatives require taking risk and too much risk management means that the business will stop investing in the future. The senior management team should be setting stretch goals and pushing the company to think outside itself. The focus has to be on the future and maintaining performance.
Eventually if the company is unable to balance return on investment with sales growth and risk management efforts result in too few initiatives taken, the company begins to decline. I’ve followed dozens of mature firms that talk a lot about growth in sales and earnings but don’t grow consistently. Plans are all short term in nature which contribute to the choppy results and don’t create a long term competitive advantage. Often there is increased turnover in the executive ranks, rather than solve the problems we choose to change the players. The focus of the firm is inward, rather than outward. Often sales increases are driven by large increases in invested capital as growth is forced, rather than planned. Discussions about how mergers will help the management team achieve the bonus plan become relevant.
It is easier to stay in the Prime phase than to recover from a fall. To get back to Prime requires leadership by the CEO/senior management team and commitment by the Board to focusing on the profitable core of the business. Firms that fail to face previous mistakes and poor capital allocations can struggle for years.
Dr. John Zott is the CFO for Carlson Wireless Technologies, and Principal consultant at Bates Creek Consulting. John is the chair of the Careers Committee at FEI Silicon Valley, a senior adjunct professor at Golden Gate University andcomments regularly on issues that affect consumer businesses. If you are a former student, colleague or would just like to connect – reach out.