INDEX
The Corporate Lifecycle
In his book, ‘The Pursuit of Prime’, Ichak Adizes outlines the 10 stages of corporate life cycles.
“So you've got business problems. Well, thank God! Problems come with change, change comes with growth, and no company ever achieved peak performance without growing. The struggle (great effort) for success is a struggle with problems. Rejoice. Without problems you'd be dead.
But there are problems, and then there are problems. Some problems threaten while others beckon. Like good parents, good CEOs know that some problems are just not worth getting all bent out of shape over. They're the normal – that is, perfectly appropriate and even predictable – maladies, stresses, strains, and pitfalls of successful corporate growth and development. Some threats CEOs avoid by taking the available preventive vaccines. Most they treat – promptly and skilfully – lest the problems fester or fulminate.
Abnormal problems are abnormal only in their timing. They're normal problems that break out when they're not supposed to – like mumps, say, in middle age, or prostate trouble in adolescence. If CEOs do not or cannot deal effectively with the problems that confront a normally growing business, those problems will become chronic.
If leaders cannot handle a problem with the same energy they apply to other situations, that problem is abnormal. If the same type of problem repeats itself despite the founder having tried to solve it, that problem is abnormal. If the founder needs outside professional help to solve it, that problem is abnormal.
By contrast, normal problems are those that founders can resolve routinely or with the application of their energy. If a CEO can increase sales; create new markets; control cash, accounts receivable, and inventory; and design new products so that the company is able to make a smooth ascent (go in a direction) to Prime – the ideal stage of balanced creativity and discipline – then those problems are normal.
Before you can judge whether a problem is occurring at a normal time, you must understand the corporate life cycle. Once companies know where they are in relation to Prime, they can learn what they need to do to get there – either for the first time or on a return trip.
For each defining stage there is a set of actions: the steps required for a young company to reach Prime or for older companies to regain Prime. Again and again, real companies have lived through the process and validated the theory. In essence, successful organizations passionately nurture both their expansive, creative energy and their need for structure and discipline. That is the dynamic of Prime organizations.
Corporate life cycles are defined by the interrelationship of flexibility and control. They are not defined by a company's chronological age, sales or assets, or number of employees. The goal is to reach – and stay at – Prime.
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READY FOR GROWTH?
So now you have an idea where you are, you can corroborate this with some simple data. Circle one of 4 answers to each of the following 12 questions and use the scoring method to total your overall score.
For the best results, ask each member of your management team to complete this separately and then compare the results. This works best in an NM Holland-facilitated session but will give you, again, an idea of where to go next.
In reality, the outcome of the self-assessment here should correlate with your ‘gut-feel’ in the Adizes corporate life cycle. If you think you are in Prime but your results suggest ‘Start-Up’, there is an obvious and fundamental issue!
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TEN WAYS TO GROW YOUR BUSINESS
So, we now have a clear focus on where the business is. The next stage is to ‘go’.
Now, ‘go’ might be to maintain share in a diminishing market, grow share, ‘survive & thrive’ etc. – the choice is yours.
Here are ten easy-to-understand and easy-to-implement approaches for you.
These tend to sit in NM Holland’s Business Growth Framework with some of the examples coming from our work in the field.
By working at one of these, your business will start to feel as if it has a purpose – taking charge of your destiny as opposed to being dictated to by government, economies, legislation and the customer.
By discussing these ten points with your colleagues, you will probably get another ten ideas – and ideas are good as long as they are assessed, prioritised and implemented.
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