Strategic Planning to Navigate Growing Pains

When it comes to finding a way out of the growing pains part of a company’s lifecycle, I would argue that a strategic plan is one of the key elements. As has been discussed previously in this newsletter, making sure that you have clear communication channels internally and externally is probably the most crucial step and should definitely occur first. Additionally, there will be other issues to address, some of which might be bigger and more urgent. While all of this is going on, developing a strategic plan to get through everything should remain towards the front of your mind.

There is a very good chance that a lot of what has been worked on so far will likely factor in some way into your strategic plan, likely as a section of it. Therefore, a strong case can be made that you actually are working towards your strategic plan development as you try to sift through all of the issues in play and find adequate means of addressing them.

In addition to all of this information, follow the plan for developing a strategic plan as laid out in last week's edition of the Scaling Newsletter. Much of what was written there is applicable here, but as we will see here shortly, much of it will require some slight modifications to be effective. This is because instead of scaling, right now, the company is trying to work through a crisis.

What is important is that when it comes to identifying goals, what needs to also take place is to add the category of identifying issues. Here, do not focus on the nitty gritty issues. Instead, focus on what problems come into focus at the 30,000 foot view. At this point, pretty much all of the issues that different levels are talking about will coalesce into something larger that you will be able to address quickly and efficiently.

Most likely, at this point, you will probably need to start developing long term fixes for these problems. When developing this list, take note of what all of the costs will be, focusing on budgeting on the high side. At this point, it is hard to say what you could expect to see on this list, especially since each company will have its own set of challenges. From a list of physical assets to possibly one of almost entirely technology upgrades, the variety to be found on this list is almost unlimited. In fact, it is even possible that you will have on it the need to create new positions (or eliminate current ones.)

Once you have assessed all of this information, then you are ready to begin crafting your plan. If you recall from what was mentioned earlier, it is important to have your goals listed here. Most likely your goals will be unaffected by growing pains, especially since this is only a short to medium term situation (unless mistakes are made that completely alter the course of your business.)  The reason that it is important to have your goals present is to make sure that your goals as well as any of the solutions that are on the table align properly. The last thing that you want to do is to choose a potential solution to a current crisis that, while it does solve the problem, will not line up very well with your long term goals as an organization.

In conclusion, a strategic plan is a necessity for a company to escape the crisis portion of its life cycle as manifested in growing pains. This is a crucial time in the company’s life, because if you can plan well and execute, you will be able to escape this situation. The incentive for developing and executing a great strategic plan could not be any greater: failure on this point could greatly set your company back, possibly even causing it to enter a death spiral. Therefore, not only should you plan very carefully during this stage, but also realize that an even bigger incentive awaits you should you be successful here: if you can succeed, you have a very good chance of being able to position your company for long term success as a mature institution that can easily hold onto the gains that it has worked so hard to achieve.