Fast Talk

Big question Saabira. Short answer -- Don't over-hire. Hire smart people on a probationary period as contractors. They'll see how much room their is to progess. Challenge them, and keep those that are enthusiastic and hard working and that see the opportunity ahead of them at your growing company.

Expanding for the sake of expanding... Where do you want to go? Why? Is your product or service needed where you want to go? How do you know? What does expansion do to your ability to deliver flawlessly to your existing customers? What will expansion mean to the Lifecycle of your current products and services and the P&S's in the pipeline?...

Be very clear about what you are expanding too! All too often business expands on a successful aspect of its operations and fails to 1) integrate all other aspects of its business in the decision making and direction taking process and 2) fails to involve ALL staff in the conception and creation phase, therefore leaving out practical operational savvy from staff who hear about where their company is going and wonder why a specific basic has not been accommodated - seen easily from their perspective and not at all by the now removed management. Recommend: Involve involve involve!

Saabira, you have some good recommendations. I would add that you should have the infrastructure in place to support the growth. Something I've see all too often is a company with a great product, great customers, and a lousy process to fulfill orders. Customers will find other places to meet their needs. -- Ask and you shall receive!

- Before expanding, make sure all systems and business processes can sustain growth. Do not expand too soon - Before considering an expansion, evaluate your current capabilities. Most likely you will find an area or an aspect of the company which you will need to improve on. - Never expand at the cost of quality whether it be customer service quality, product quality, or quality of personnel

Be realistic before you expand. Expend simply equal to high risk in term of the operating cost. When you expand economy of scale is the first thing will come in your mind, bulk production mean high cost which might lead to low quality to cut your cost down.

does it fit into the current business

Before expanding make sure you know Why you are expanding? and Where are you are going and finally When?.

When we look at expansion we look to what shape we want the company to be. Clearly the type of person you need to employ is dependent on the business you are in, but our business experience is to look at streamlining processes and "de-skilling" (terrible broad term) anything we need to do. By this we mean taking any of the technicalit out, in order to reduce the need to hire specialist people. Generally we look to ensure that the systems and processes are robust and simple to use prior to expansion. Going through this loop first can even avoid hires, expanding by getting efficient first is alot more cost effective.

Make sure you know the true potential before expanding. Do your homework. Ask probing questions of those who can and will affect expansion plans. Have a clear action plan...in writing. Avoid 'gut' decisions as much as possible. Look before you leap.

Make sure there is a well defined plan and the plan is being managed. Many times companies start in the right direction and then branch off in so many directions, they do not obtain their goals and end up frustrated. I think in his book "7 Habits of Highly Successful People", Steven Covey put it well (sorry if my words are not exact), when everyone is clearing the path, someone has to stop every now and then and climb the tree to ensure you are still in the right forest. William

Hire 'Smart People' as contractors with a probationary period??? That must be some kind of joke . . . it's hard enough to even recruit the best talent in the first place, so I wouldn't recommend a 'package' that says, "We really don't trust you, but we'll give you a shot."

Avoid taking discussions from the center of an organization into the back room. Too often individuals forge ahead based on past experience and these "white knights" often make the case to forge ahead without robust dialog with the business and operations sides of the business. These exploits often time produce tactical responses to strategic problems and companies can get lost in a sunk cost fog where the vision is fuzzy and the win is hard to grasp. These companies soon loose momentum and market share. There is new yet, unappreciated quality of business: The ability to bring the right people together to discuss a problem, strategy or solution.

Ensure you have a good vision of where you want the company to grow, the gaps between now and then, and a steady plan to achieve the vision. Many times a company grows quickly and gets mired in "process initiatives" which are expected to act like a light switch that will illuminate a new world. You must focus on one thing at a time, get it moving, find an owner and then move onto the next. That is for processes and for ramping up groups. If you can avoid it, try to stagger your new hires so that you can train one and have them train the others to get started. Then make sure when staffing a large group you have a solid on-boarding process with a clearly defined agenda and daily goals for each new employee to meet. Anything you implement must be done in a scalable manner, maintained and refined. When it comes into bringing new people into an organization, do not allow them to criticise the accomplishments of the current staff thus far. Many times it is easy to walk in and say "everything here is really messed up ... don't you people know what you are doing?". But people forget that small companies have to be concerned about agility and speed to market which means that trade-offs had to be made and usually the trade-offs come top-down. Unfortunately the criticism comes top-down and bottom-up which can kill the morale of an environment. The growing of an organization is to mature it to the next level so that less trade-offs can be made and evolution can be achieved. And yes ... infrastructure is the most important thing. Having been part of evolving a start-up to a mature public company I have seen a lot. For my next start-up, the one trade-off I would not want to make is infrastructure. Lay a good foundation because tearing down walls and remodeling are easy to do later down on in the future. The other trade off never to make is customer satisfaction --- never trade off one customer's needs for another's.

Don't forget the impact of expansion on company culture...Rick WEmmers