Dando Advisors

Are Core Values Overrated?

I recently had the privilege of working with a company that is wildly successful by anyone’s standard. Even in this economy, it’s growing rapidly, has a culture that attracts the best talent, is winning award after award in its industry, and has a CEO who was named local business leader of the year. 

This company is clearly on its way up The Business Lifecycle™ (an approximation of how successful businesses scale and some of the problems — The 12 Warning Signs of Success™ — they encounter).

However, after meeting with several of the company’s key leaders and employees, it occurred to me that although they had some very clear short-term objectives and were driving the company toward iconic levels of short-term success, the core values, or what I call the  SOUL, and ultimately the long-term success, of the company was in danger of being compromised, due, ironically, to its hyper-growth.

When I say SOUL, I’m not talking about the “soul” that is drenched in marketing jargon and marched out to the… Read More >

How The Warning Signs of Success™ Will Help You Take Your Business to the Next Level

Is your company at a strategic crossroads due to growth, changes in management or shifts in the market?

These strategic tremors often introduce a whole new set of challenges. Are you ready? Do you still have the passion and motivation to keep climbing the highest mountains? Do you have a “sherpa guide” to help you find your way?

It’s common for a company to experience subtle but very troubling growing pains as it matures along The Business Lifecycle™.

Leaders at the top must be ready to work with the flow of the tide rather than against it; and they should be watchful because it is easy to diagnose the symptoms and miss the onset of the disease.

Why you should read The Warning Signs of Success™ blog:

• You will understand why it is critical that you know exactly where you and your business is on The Business Lifecycle™.
• You will learn why the solutions and systems you implement today eventually sow the seeds of decay as your company grows.
• You will learn how to abandon past practices and to implement the systems needed to

… Read More >

Are The 12 Warning Signs of Success™ Holding You Back?

As a company matures, it often experiences subtle but very troubling growing pains (Warning Signs of Success). As you might expect, these growth tremors are amplified in a depressed market. Compounding the situation, management, in its haste to maintain growth, often fixes its gaze outward on the environment and toward the future, hoping perhaps that more precise market projections and better ‘relational selling’ tactics will provide the organization with the impetus it needs to go to the next level of performance.

All the while, the company may overlook the Overly Obvious and Embarrassingly Simple repairs it needs to mature and stabilize.

The current market dynamics offer the perfect time to refocus and redefine you and your company’s success strategies. Generally, companies tend to pass through a series of developmental phases (The Business Lifecycle™) as they mature. Transitions between these phases do not always occur naturally or smoothly, regardless of the strength or expertise of top management.

Unfortunately, as a company reaches the point where it needs to move into the next phase of development, it can become vulnerable… Read More >

Where’s your company on The Business Lifecycle™?

Part 1 in a Series of 4

The Business Lifecycle™ is a model that enables business leaders to identify the level of performance at which their business is operating and to determine exactly what needs to be done to move that business to the next level.

The Business Lifecycle™ is based on my and many other’s years of experience and is an approximation of how successful businesses grow and some of the problems (The 12 Warning Signs of Success™) they encounter in their efforts to become what I call a mature, financially stable, professionally managed and led business (Level III).  From my experience this should be the objective of all growth hungry businesses.

By having a sensitivity and general understanding of the stages of develoment in The Business Lifecycle™ managers  will be in a position to predict problems and thereby prepare solutions and coping strategies to help the company go to the next level before a crisis gets out of hand.

Companies tend to pass through a series of predictable developmental phases as they mature.  Transitions between these phases do not always occur naturally or… Read More >

The Level I Company: "Entrepreneurial Startup"

Part 2 in a series of 4

Below are the characteristics and warning signs of a Level I Company, the Entrepreneurial Startup. This is the first of three defined company stages as part of The Business Lifecycle.™
 

CHARACTERISTICS

• The founders are usually actively involved in running the company.
• Initial capitalization consists of credit card debt, loans from Mom and Dad and angel investors.
• The primary emphasis is on developing a product or services and selling them and securing additional funding.
• Management, systems and planning receive minimal emphasis.
• Communication is informal.
• Employees work long hours and are paid modest salaries with promises of future wealth through equity.
• Management reacts more to customer needs than to employee needs.
• The founders are either technically oriented or market builders and are usually not skilled managers.
• The growth is greater than inflation but usually slow to moderate.

As a company matures, it often experiences subtle but very troubling growing pains.  Compounding the situation, managment, in its hast to maintain growth, often fixes its gaze outward on the environment and toward the future, hoping that more precise market projections and higher sales will provide the… Read More >

The Level II Company: "Rapid Growth"

Part 3 in a Series of 4

Below are the characteristics and warning signs of a Level II Company, the “Rapid Growth” stage. This is the second of three defined company stages as part of The Business Lifecycle™.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
CHARACTERISTICS

• A capable leader is at the company helm (Level I growing pain resolved).
• The business has secured its first round and is preparing to secure additional funding.
• Number of employees increases significantly.
• More detailed attention is given to areas (in addition to developing a product or service and selling them) such as:
  • Marketing and sales
  • Inventory management
  • Culture and Personnel
  • Accounting, budgeting and finance
  • Systems support
  • Departmentalization
• Employee jobs are more specialized.
• The company becomes more impersonal due to having more employees.
• The growth rate is faster than Level I; sometimes accelerating at a very fast rate.

Usually one or more problems block a successful company’s transition to a higher level of performance.  If company leaders fail to address these problems (actually The 12 Warning Signs of Success™!), the company will fight the same battles… Read More >

Welcome to The Warning Signs of Success™

My hope is this blog will become a must-read guide for you and other business leaders at all levels, from the boardroom to the mailroom.  It is a distillation of more than 20 years of my hands-on experience, including:

* Serving as CFO/COO for a business we quickly grew to over $1 billion dollars in annual revenues and eventually sold,
* Personally interviewing thousands of business executives and their teams about how they grew their businesses and the difficulties they faced,
* Spending years in one-on-one meetings with hundreds of CEO’s and their teams, counseling them on issues they felt they could not share with anyone else,
* Sitting on and chairing several high-profile boards of directors,
* Learning from my own successes that grew out of BIG and PAINFUL failures
* Building a thriving coaching practice focused on helping business leaders (at all levels) take their company, themselves and their career to the next level, and
* Reading everything I could get my hands on about scaling a business and successful leadership.

My goal is to help you maintain (or rekindle) the excitement and motivation for passionately… Read More >

The Level III Company: "Market Leader"

Part 4 in a Series of 4

Below are the characteristics and warning signs of a Level III Company, a Market Leader. This is the third of three defined company stages as part of The Business Lifecycle™.

CHARACTERISTICS

• The company’s business niche is clearly defined and its products and services fit the niche.
• An aligned management team is in place (Level II crisis is resolved).
• A clearly defined organization is in place.
• The company has an identity beyond the founder(s) and the current leader (CEO).
• Efficient financial control and work process systems which produce quality end products are in place and operational.
• Short and intermediate term plans to focus the company are in place and followed.
• Managers are doing more managing than technical work.
• Profit centers are established.
• Growth rate remains rapid, however it is under control.
• Profitability is strong or trending towards positive EBITDA (Earnings before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortizaton).
• Cash flow works well.
• Equity capitalization is sufficient for the company’s size, revenue model, and burn rate.

Benefits of Becoming a Level III Company

• Survival and continued development of the company are not dependent on one or

… Read More >