Managing a rapidly growing company is the dream of many an entrepreneur, but that’s not to say that it’s easy and without challenges.
Whether it’s struggling through cash flow ups-and-downs
or finding ways to maintain the company culture established when times were slower, leaders in such organizations often struggle to deal with those issues while keeping the business on track.
Nurturing a supportive and collegial workplace, keeping an eye on the future while juggling the present and ensuring that human resources demands are covered were among the talking points at a workshop, co-sponsored by Rick Brimacomb’s Club E and Upsize magazine at the Minneapolis Club in January, where four business professionals shared lessons they learned while either growing their own businesses or helping others do the same.
Supportive employee culture
When John Long was CEO of Avionté
and the company was in growth mode, it made the Inc. 5000 growth list six consecutive years, but he says he’s more proud of the company’s “Best Places to Work” awards.
“That is such a fun time when you are in the growth stage,” he says. “I encourage you to enjoy it. Part of what we did on the culture side is just embrace the speed. It’s fast.”
As part of doing that, he says, the company adapted a “fail fast” mentality where employees were encouraged to make quick decisions they thought were in the best interest of the business and its clients. Sometimes they didn’t work out, but Long, now co-chairman, says “a lot of that is where you build trust with each other.”
“If you get your team to start thinking in solutions mode, not just saying ‘hey, here’s the issue,’” he says,
“If they are coming to you and saying ‘this is what I want to try,’ that’s great. If it doesn’t work, great. Support them. Those are the keys to that culture side. We had energized, enthused people.”
Business owners and advisers agree that maintaining a positive workplace for employees and maintaining as much of the existing culture through rapid growth times is vital toward maintaining success.
Micah Thor, president of Tech Guru, says the company’s executive team was stressed out about how rapidly the business was changing in its first years of rapid growth.
He and his business partner came across the Simon Sinek book “Start with the Why: How great leaders inspire everyone to take action.”
From it, Tech Guru established a new tagline: “the caring technology company.”
“We looked at ways we could create a culture of caring alongside the growth,” Thor says. “No matter what happens, our primary concern is the team. We are going to take care of the employees and we are going to take care of the clients.”
Thor says once they made that commitment, Tech Guru’s started growing even faster.
“In retrospect, it seems like a small shift for us to make but just being really deliberate about that and sticking to it has made a world of difference for us,” Thor says.
Human resources need attention upfront
And keeping employees happy, especially in times of low unemployment, is vital, says Kristen Baas, a certified business performance adviser at human resources consultancy Insperity.
It’s important to create and maintain a culture where employees love their jobs and want to stay, she says, because they’re likely going to have opportunities elsewhere.
To that end, one hiring mistake growth companies often make is bringing on family members or friends, many of whom sound just like the owner.
“They talk like you, they’re your friend, they agree with you, you are hiring someone just like you, which is not good if you want to have somebody who has a different idea or an opposing opinion who can offer other ideas on where to take your business,” Baas says.
Insperity works with a wide range of businesses.
Emerging companies, says Baas, often fail to acknowledge the evolving human resources needs that arise with rapid growth. An outside voice can often lend an unbiased perspective that will protect the company in the long run.
“Using outside resources that are not reading their own headlines or drinking their own Kool-Aid, you have someone else who is looking at it from a professional eye,” she says.
Brendon Dennewill, the co-founder and CEO of sales and marketing consultancy Denamico, agrees with the importance of establishing a professional HR foundation. He says emerging companies often struggle with putting together a proven sales process, in part because they struggle to hire and onboard new sales and marketing employees “which is an HR deal,” he says. “The challenges we’ve typically seen in this drowning versus starving challenge that businesses have is it’s very much around not having a proper sales process and not having a proper onboarding process for sales and marketing people.”
Inexpensive ideas build relationships, drive growth
While pay, benefits and job satisfaction are important factors in keeping employees happy, panelists say there are a number of inexpensive perks that can help with retention.
Thor’s business partner at Tech Guru toured Google, and upon his return, he declared that going forward there would be food in the office. It costs a few hundred dollars a week for pizzas, lunch meat and maybe some healthy snacks, but the return comes in the form of employees staying in the office over lunch and connecting on a personal level.
“It’s done two things — its boosted productivity because a lot of times they’ll eat at their desks, but it’s also created this really great culture in the office in that people are spending more time with each other on breaks,” Thor says. “It’s turned into this really cool cultural thing but also given us a major productivity boost.”
Long agrees with having food on premises, and adds that his company also provides employees with about $75 so each of them could pick a computer screen or keyboard that fits their workspace needs.
“We got pretty good buzz on that,” he says.
Another option for building relationships between employees is establishing mentoring programs, Baas says. They require a bit of time, but they don’t cost much money and they can be tailored in a number of ways, adds Baas.
“People have made new friendships, they care more about their business,” she says. “It’s one of those things that help them when they come across the door every day.”
At Denamico, Dennewill says when sales and marketing staff get a question from a prospective customer, they are encouraged to write up or record an answer and post it to the company’s website.
“It’s so simple, but so effective and powerful,” he says.
That online presence, he adds, is vital to a company’s ongoing growth. “Some 20 years ago, if a consumer had a question, they would call a sales person who would help them through the process.”
Today, with Google and other search engines, “that customer is already 70 to 90 percent of the way through making their decision before they have ever spoken to the sales person,” he says. “If your business is not the one who Google is serving up to answer that question, your sales person is not going to get to answer that question.”
Keep some perspective
While there are challenges, Long reminds business owners to keep the long view. If they are showing substantial growth over a period of time, they are doing something right — even if they are experiencing struggles.
“I would encourage you to keep that front and center in your mind,” Long says. “What are you doing that is right? That flows right to your customers. You keep your customers happy, you are not losing them. That is going to end up a long-term benefit.
He acknowledges that when Avionté was growing, he got wrapped up in the short-term while forgetting to think about the medium-term.
“I focused too much on the speed of what was today as opposed to … having your head up a little bit more,” he says, adding that having a long-term strategy, an understanding of your mission and knowing the company’s key performance indicators are important. “That’s where KPIs come into play,” he says. “If you can’t answer the question ‘what are the top five KPIs that you look at right now that actually do something,’ you’ve lost.”
Closing thoughts
When asked by Brimacomb for closing thoughts, Baas reinforced the benefits of addressing and investing in human resources upfront before problems arise rather than waiting until a reputation-damaging event occurs.
“If you do that well on the front end, your odds of continuing the growth and success of your company are so much greater,” she says.
Dennewill says business owners need to be cognizant of their online reputations and monitor reviews of their work or product.
“Make sure you are getting all the good ones and you are addressing the bad ones,” he says. “Because that can really undo a lot of the good work you do. … If you aren’t engaging with your audience, that’s kind of where your whole online reputation can unravel pretty quickly.”
On the negative side, Long says don’t get focused on one aspect of the business. Fast-growth company owners often latch on to the area in which they have a strength. They need to remain nimble and make sure they focus on all KPIs.
“The more pressure that comes to you, the more likely you are going to be to get myopic on a certain area,” he says. “The faster that goes, the rest of it goes south.”
On the positive side, he emphasized again that fast growth companies are doing something right and they need to embrace that and empower their workers. “The business is bigger than you,” he says. “It’s not going to be just you that is going to get you to $150 million or whatever. Empowering your people is absolutely imperative.”
And so is treating them well, adds Thor. It’s easy to get focused on financials and forget to take are of “the people who actually make the thing work,” he says. Remember, they have challenges and problems outside work that you may be able to help with.
“There is someone in your company right now who has something going on in their life that you can have a positive impact on,” he says, adding that if you can help them deal with a stressful situation, you may be repaid many times over. “Stay in tune with how people are doing. If you can create an environment where you are able to help people, they’ll help you back.”
CONTACT THE EXPERTS
John Long is founder and co-chair of Avionté: 651.556.2121; john.long@avionte.com; www.avionte.com.
Brendon Dennewill is the co-founder and CEO of Denamico: 612.605.3800;
brendon.dennewill@denamico.com; www.denamico.com.
Kristen Baas is a certified business performance adviser at Insperity: 952.960.5360; kristen.baas@insperity.com; www.insperity.com.
Micah Thor is president of Tech Guru:
micah@techguruit.com; www.techguruit.com.
By Andrew Tellijohn
Photographs by Andrew Tellijohn
