Tool Box
Issue No. 40 - April/ /
What to do when small becomes big?
by Rudy Pieck
An overhaul is called for when a small business gets
big argues Rudy Pieck and Rupert Merson
It often comes as a surprise for a business to realise it has become big. There are several common reactions – most inherently negative.
After years of being smaller, nimbler, ‘alternative’ and growing, some managers react to the accusation that they now have a big business on their hands by going into denial.
The reaction of others is to accept the accusation and to reinforce it by seeking to sweep away all vestiges of small-business-mindedness and embrace the big business culture.
Others see the realisation as the end of the road. For some managers it is time to jump ship and start again.
For others it is time to sit back and let the business work for them.
But it is only the really ambitious managers who see the accusation “you’re now a big business” as a platform for yet another transformation – an attempt to keep taking risks to shift the organisation up to another plane.
For the business with serious ambitions to push an already successful enterprise still further, this phase can smack of fixing a machine that is not broken.
This is the ‘overhauling’ phase and it is likely to test the stamina, ability and ambition of the management team severely.
One common manifestation of the overhauling phase is the business attempting to recapture something lost as it has evolved.
For example, in the early stages the leaders of a young business have to be masters as best they can of everything, from staff management to finance.
As the business develops, one of the earliest changes is to professionalise the senior team by adding specialists – enabling the business founders, for example, to pass on responsibility for human resources and information technology to specialist directors.
When the business professionalises itself further, the new directorates are...
