7 Business Strategies to Foster Scalability and Sustainability

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7 Business Strategies to Foster Scalability and Sustainability

By Martin Zwilling | Inc Magazine | May 8, 2024

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According to the author, as a business adviser, he is no longer surprised that every new business founder believes the hard part is creating the first product and the business. Perhaps luckily, they have no idea that scaling the business and maintaining vitality as a mature business is even harder. What most often kills a business is the illusion (or delusion) that all is now self-sustaining and everyone can relax.

The challenge is to retain the same sense of urgency, energy, commitment, and readiness in a mature company that you felt during the early stages. The importance and reality of this need have been detailed well in the classic book State of Readiness, by Joseph F. Paris Jr. The proper support structure can only be built if you commit to and implement his following strategy elements:

1. Learn from the past, build for the future. New and existing companies today need to press beyond what was, through what is, to what will be. Most important, this is not just in the products and services you offer, but also in the way your company operates.
2. Create and cultivate a leadership culture. The best leaders are mentors to their team, and they are stewards of a company’s assets and vision. They build trust, integrity, and respect for everyone.
3. Communicate the vision, and then execute. People will follow only if they know where they are going. Connect the dots to the vision to gain alignment and commitment. Set a course for the destination, but also establish intermediate checkpoints to assess progress along the way. Adjust as prudent and necessary, communicating all the way.
4. Set up for success and don’t set up for failure. Delegate with accountability and responsibility, and keep your focus on the future. Let those to whom you delegate do their job, without micromanaging. 
5. Make innovation the requisite for long-term viability. Maintaining the velocity and flexibility to keep up with the market and competitors is a requirement for survival. Your team culture needs to expect failed attempts, but never to fear failure, only not trying. Fail quickly, fail small, learn, and move on. Change should be expected as the norm.
6. Construct a program for rebuilding capability. Continually redefine what success looks like in the future. Then you need to identify the talent, skills, and resources your company will need to succeed, as well as when and where they will be needed. Work hard at finding and filling the gaps. Hire and retain the best and build the rest.
7. Prepare for sustainability in the long haul. The journey will be long and difficult, so prepare accordingly. Build rock-solid processes first, then increase the throughput and accuracy by introducing the right technologies where they make sense. Capture your own best practices and replicate them across your company. Constantly strengthen the team.

3 key takeaways from the article

1. Every new business founder believes the hard part is creating the first product and the business. Perhaps luckily, they have no idea that scaling the business and maintaining vitality as a mature business is even harder. What most often kills a business is the illusion (or delusion) that all is now self-sustaining and everyone can relax.
2. The challenge is to retain the same sense of urgency, energy, commitment, and readiness in a mature company that you felt during the early stages.
3.  The importance and reality of this need have been detailed well in the classic book State of Readiness, by Joseph F. Paris Jr.  The proper support structure can only be built if you commit to and implement his following strategy elements: learn from the past, build for the future; create and cultivate a leadership culture; communicate the vision, and then execute; set up for success and don’t set up for failure; make innovation the requisite for long-term viability; construct a program for rebuilding capability; and prepare for sustainability in the long haul.

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Topics:  Entrepreneurship, Growth, Startups, Expansion, Creativity, Innovation, Complacency