Scale-up to the Next Level

We see this the first question to ask. Scaling up comes in most of the cases with important changes in the organization, but also with changes affecting individuals, getting them out of comfort zone. Having a healthy company culture can ease the transformation process and make people less reluctant to embrace the change.

The second important factor is the level of ambition. How much scale up is acceptable by the key stakeholders? The higher the level, the higher the required change.

A third factor is where is the ambition focused. Consider that you are at a crossroad, are all the key stakeholders consider taking the same road forward?

By answering this question, you will determine what you need to do from positioning and portfolio perspective. It might be that both aspects are fine, and scaling up is limited by internal reasons (see the next question), or that you need to rethink, or at least adjust the positioning (e.g. consider new markets, new go-to-market approaches) and/or portfolio (e.g. diversification, focusing, etc.).

Scaling up the business will most likely come with additional internal challenges. Whether we are taking about increased complexity of the business requiring updated processes, larger or more organization units, or just increased volumes of work, requiring process optimization and IT infrastructure adjustments, it is most likely that you must start a transformation program to keep up with the business growth.

Let’s assume you found your answers to the previous questions. This means you identified already what you need to do to scale up. It is now the moment to put it into a transformation plan. Since there might be changes in different aspects of the organization, a proper structure for planning and steering will help throughout the entire execution.

This is the most difficult part of the Journey. You decided the direction, set the new roadmap, and you leave the current crossroad.

Like in any situation, deviations from the plan will occur. And since dealing with a complex transformation program, measuring the progress and the deviations is important, so having all the necessary tools at hand will give you the right input for steering the company on track.