A business growing faster than its owner is like a little kid taking a big fast dog for a walk. Sometimes, we wonder who is walking whom.
Several years ago, I worked with Elizabeth Lake Ledoux of
Denver Co. on some consulting concepts relating to business development. Elizabeth, along with her business partner
Dr. Mel Wernimon developed a methodology of moving a business through seven
different ‘strata’ with the ultimate goal of developing a sustainable,
transferable enterprise.
When I looked at it, I thought it was great, but that it
needed something. That something was the
development of the entrepreneur. This
later became the Entrepreneur’s Strata in their highly successful
Entrepreneurial Flight™.
The eighteenth law emphasises the need for the entrepreneur
to develop ahead of their enterprise.
When the businesses’ development outpaces the development of the
founder, the results are disastrous. The founder / owner is quickly in over his
or her proverbial heads. If the
ultimate goal of a business is to become transferable, then it must have the
systems in place that allow it to operate successfully without the founder’s involvement. This allows for a successful
succession plan… through either sale or a family member operating the
business.
Businesses develop through three stages as they become
‘mature’ enterprises:
Nascent:
This is the foundational
stage of the business. The founder is
usually an expert in the field, and is now learning about operating the
business. Many founders never develop
the business past the nascent stage and are happy to remain self-employed. They
own a business that provides them a job.
Developmental: When
the business owner begins to develop the business, they spend less time in
operations or production and more time managing the business. At the same time, there are more specialist
positions that develop within the company.
If the business founder cannot develop managerial skills, the business
often stalls in this area.
Sustainable: A sustainable business is a systems based business not dependant on
any one individual…even if there are essential positions within the
company. The business is often both scalable and
duplicable increasing the growth potential.
The founder must now develop even higher level skills called executive
skills… thinking about the long term future of the business.
Matching these levels of business
development are levels of entrepreneurial development. These three roles are:
Operational: In this role, the founder is an essential part of selling the product
or service and producing or providing the same.
She works in the store, provides the legal services or helps
construction of the products. The time
frame at the operational level is next week!
Managerial: In this
role, the founder is actively managing the business. Although she is not necessarily producing or
providing, she is actively recruiting, hiring and directing the operations of
this company. This stage becomes a
trap…with a larger enterprise requiring constant attention. The time frame is one month to one year.
Executive: In this role, the founder is
directing the long term vision and direction of the company. She is thinking ahead, and ensuring that the
development of the enterprise is consistent with her pre-determined vision and
values. The executive time frame is beyond
one year.
The eighteenth law is a warning…
if you want to develop your business you must develop your skills before you enter the next phase. You must develop managerial skills before you
leave the Nascent stage and enter the Development phase. To develop a sustainable business, you must develop your executive skills before you get there. To use a football analogy you ‘the passer
must lead the receiver’ allowing him to run into the ball.
When I am working with my clients,
I am constantly using the term ‘move
north’. I get the owners to spend
less time working on ‘today’ and more working on the future of the
business. This inevitably means that
others must also ‘move north’ in
order to fill in the space left by the owner.
This creates a chain reaction, of people moving north and fulfilling
more executive and managerial positions.
The result is a business reliant on positions rather than
individuals.
If you want to develop your
business, ask yourself, how much time you are spending on operational,
managerial and executive tasks. The more
time you are able to spend in managerial and executive tasks, the better ready
the enterprise is poised for business growth.
If you are interested in more on
the Entrepreneurial Flight, purchase Accelerate Your Entrepreneurial Flight:
How to Energise Business Value and Entrepreneurial Growth, by Elizabeth
Lake Ledoux and Dr. Mel Wernimont, Ph. D. It is available from Amazon. Alternatively, contact them through their
website at: http://www.vnacelleconsulting.com/
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