Growth Characteristics and Sustainable Profitability

As growth businesses go though these challenges, they start to move toward the following charactistics. Think about these in light of your business and how to move it forward toward these and how each will be managed.

• Critical mass in their chosen markets
• Establishment customer base
• Stability in their infrastructure
• Stability in their product development
• Suitable qualified and experienced managers
• Strategies focused on long term sustainable success
• Consideration of exit strategies and succession planning
  Characteristics
• More formal management team

Common sustainable growth challenges faced by growing, larger middle market organizations include the following:

• Cashflow and working capital management
• Managing and working with new shareholders
• Changing structural needs including the Board of Directors, management teams and formal organisational structures
• Maintaining customer service
• Building a robust finance function to support the organization, starting with the CFO
• Recruiting the right people at the right time
• Managing and investing in enabling technology
• Strategy
• Managing a more complex environment, which the founders are not always familiar with, or enjoy
• Developing an exit or partial exit strategy for the founders

If you are recognizing these characteristics, congratulations, you have made progress and are getting somewhere. Read more on growing organizations.