As organizational advisors, we regularly help entrepreneurs achieve growth and improve the scalability of their organization. Because we want to share our knowledge about effective growth, we started this article series about the 6 focus areas for successful growth among scaleups. In addition, we draw on our experience in helping entrepreneurs and our own experience with the growth of Summiteers. In this article, we will elaborate on the third focus area: 'The organization. ' We are talking about improving the organizational structure of scale-ups. Dolf L'Ortye, one of the founders of Summiteers.

‍

The 6 focus areas for effective growth

In the previous article of this series, we took you into the importance of describing and improving processes. In this article, we zoom in on the following focus: The organization. Where describing processes is essentially about “this is how we do things here”, the organization is about clarifying questions such as: who does what, who is responsible for what, who gets to decide what, who consults with whom and what and how do we keep everyone informed?

When your team grows strongly, it's crucial to have clear answers to them, L'Ortye knows. “In the software world, you sometimes see that a sales employee independently decides on an extra feature or addition to a product. Without consulting with the person who builds or implements it. The sales employee often has no idea of the impact that such a commitment can have on the system and the underlying processes.” And then things can go really wrong!

Why your organizational structure needs to grow with your company

The growth from startup to scaleup is often accompanied by a shift in focus from 'the product' to 'the product and the organization'. For example, founders then go from an all-round product or business development role to a management role. “Suddenly, you have to do what managers do, namely manage things,” says Dolf. “And then you need structure, because if you don't have structure, it's much harder. Then you actually have a car with all buttons, but no steering wheel.”

We often see that the growth of a company is accompanied by an increase in complexity on various axes. Think of multiple products or services, customers with different needs, multiple countries/languages, various locations, larger teams with their own specialties and needs, etc. All of this must be managed in conjunction. To get a grip on this, you need a different organizational structure. This is not so much about hierarchy (“who reports to whom”), but primarily about determining “who is responsible for what”. If that is clear, it acts as a lubricant for your scaleup.

In the beginning, everyone knows who does what about each other, especially if you spend a lot of time together. With rapid growth, that overview can disappear. “The roles and tasks are often broadly divided, but there is often still some grey area and hobbyism. To a certain extent, that's fine, but at a certain point, you just get too busy,” says Dolf.

For example, we once had a scaleup as a customer, which turned out to have three different organizational structures, depending on the subject matter.” It was this way because each new task was attributed to an existing team member, but not enough thought was given to the whole thing. This made consultations on various topics unnecessarily complex and led to a loss of speed,” says Dolf.

What happens then is fascinating. You can see that two different teams are working on exactly the same project, but don't know it about each other. “Or the opposite” adds Dolf. “That one person completely assumes that the other is doing something, while the other thinks that one person is doing it.”

It is therefore important that you decide who is responsible for what, so that no things get done twice and nothing falls between chairs. You can then also communicate more effectively along those axes.

‍

Make sure all roles, tasks, and responsibilities are properly organized

You can make this as complicated as you want, but always remember that 'the structure' is not a goal in itself. It is a tool. “At Summiteers, we regularly adjust structures, such as the composition of our MT meeting recently,” explains Dolf. “We asked ourselves: are we still using our people's brainpower effectively with these numbers?” When you structure something that is constantly moving, it helps to repeat this relatively simple exercise regularly in your MT, without the shape having to take a lot of time:

Write down on a piece of paper what activities you do. You start at the highest level while looking at your company as if it were a factory. Something comes in, something happens to it and something goes out. You put that one below the other on the vertical axis. Preferably, everything starts with a verb: recruit staff, store inventory, produce product, sell product, provide service, things like that. Write this down. Then, on the horizontal axis, you put the names of your management team and put crosses after everyone's name: who is responsible for which process? That already provides some clarity. Then everyone knows exactly who to go to if something goes wrong when purchasing, for example.

So you first do this exercise at the highest level and then you descend into the organization. In that team, you do the exercise again. Who manages suppliers, who records contract administration, who is responsible for the invoice flow? And so on. This is the basis of your organization design. “Writing down means that you can talk to each other about it,” says Dolf. “That conversation also allows the person responsible to indicate each time whether that is correct and whether these tasks may need to be reinvested given new circumstances.”

‍

Who gets to decide what?

When everyone is aware of the mutual responsibilities, you can also decide who can decide what. A few examples: who sets prices, who can give away discounts, who prioritizes product development, who can enter into agreements on behalf of the organization?

There is a good chance that the mandate for the same decision lies with several people. That goes well until it goes wrong. If you think carefully about who has which mandates, you can avoid annoying problems. “For example, if you promise customers all kinds of things that you can't deliver on the back end, that's killing your business,” says Dolf. “For example, the mandate may lie too much with sales. Sales decides what to sell, even if it doesn't even exist, in what form and when it's delivered.” If that process is not properly organized, you will get unpleasant situations. Agreements are not kept, it leads to customer noise, to frustration, to 'the blame game'. “All that takes energy that isn't going to make your business better or your customers happy,” says Dolf. And this occurs in many companies that do not have a clear organizational structure. Even when everyone is, in principle, highly skilled.

‍

Adapt your consultation structures and information structures

When everyone knows what they are responsible for and has more logic, clarity and structure, you can take the next step: who consults what with whom, for how long, how often and based on what information? “You can also do this very pragmatically, along the axes of responsibilities,” says Dolf. “We make a table and in it you say: we have an MT here, they should meet once a week, who is there, what should they discuss each week and what actions should come out of that? That's how you do it for all teams.”

Fixed meetings with thorough preparation and good communication afterwards often significantly reduce ad hoc meetings to coordinate, 'rework' and/or extinguish fires.

‍

Repeat what you have agreed to each other

You may have all the discussions clear and it's all on paper, but does everyone know that? Ensuring that everyone is and remains up to date with all agreements is a major challenge, but not unimportant. “Unfortunately, repetition plays a major role in this,” says Dolf. “You'll wonder, do I have to explain this again? Yes, you have to explain that again!”

‍

Want to know more about the challenges of effective growth?

In the next 3 articles, we will discuss the other areas of focus in order to grow effectively. In the next edition, you'll learn more about 'The People', where we'll discuss how roles change when you scale, how to put people in the right place, and how to attract and retain talent.

The six-part model that this article series is based on results from the scale-up organization scan developed by Summiteers. The scale-up organization scan helps companies to zoom out, quickly identify possible pain points and reveal any noise between founders and the organization. If you want to exchange views on your challenges to grow effectively or explore whether the organization scan is interesting for you, please contact Paul whether Casper.

Of course, you can also get in touch with us via LinkedIn and our website.

‍