In partnership with MT Sprout - Sales are going through the roof, new markets are warming up for your product. But what if the 'back' of your company can't keep up with the 'front'? What if your organizational structure does not match that growth? In this article, you can read what signs indicate this.

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When can you take off your startup coat and call yourself a scaleup? There are countless discussions about this, as Paul van Bekkum and Dolf L'Ortye know. Together with Lidia Swinkels, they are the founders of Summiteers: a consultancy firm that, among other things, helps scaleups who are on the verge of (or are in the midst of) strong growth. “For us, you are a scaleup when you have a product-market fit you found. Your product or service has proven itself among a group of customers and there is growing demand. As a company, you often get a lot of new customers in a short period of time. The number of employees grows to around thirty to fifty people. And that really requires a different way of organizing. ', says Van Bekkum.

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The symptoms of growing pain

The transition from startup to scaleup often involves growing pains. Managing a scaleup is really different than a startup. This can lead to growth problems that can prevent a scaleup from achieving further growth, Summiteers sees in practice. Van Bekkum mentions a few examples of “what it takes to transition from startup to scaleup:

• From a small team where everyone knows each other, knows the history and what the other person is doing to a larger team with many new people;
• From experimenting & trying to choosing & scaling;
• From being flexible and often 'pivots“to do something in a disciplined manner and stand your ground;
• From focus on product development and sales to focus on sales and fulfillment;
• From one product or service to various products & services that all require maintenance and development;
• From a few customers with unambiguous wishes to a wider group of customers with a wide range of requests;
• From one country/language area to multiple countries and languages.”

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Scan of the organization

L'Ortye adds: “We help companies by exposing, which increases the complexity of their organization. This is why we developed the scaleup organization scan. Using our scan, we clarify the company's bottlenecks for the transition to scaleup. And then have a conversation with them about the best buttons for them to turn. '

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The signs of growing pains

It is therefore important to recognize the signs of growing pain. It may indicate that the organization is not designed for growth. These are four signs that you, as a scaleup, should be alert to:

1. Feeling of loss of control

You have as founder /management team the feeling that they no longer have control over your activities. “You feel overwhelmed. You don't know where to start, so you're going to work harder and harder. When we do our scan, we often hear: I don't have time to fill out that checklist at all! So that's very illustrative. '

The frustration and impotence are amplified by a high level of pressure. “He or she experiences urgency and doesn't want to miss the boat now that the company is (finally) successful. He wants to take chances now. Investors also sometimes want to exert pressure, says L'Ortye. “Sometimes there is foreign money in the company and those lenders, yes, they want to go on the gas.”

2. Do I have to explain that again?

Another sign that things can go wrong is het sense of repetition. “As a management, you think: do I have to explain that again? You have the idea of delay, that there is sand in the cogs,” says L'Ortye. This is often due to a lack of overview. “Activities are done twice, or not taken up. Actions fall between shore and ship. Adding a little more structure and formalizing activities a little more can be a solution. '

This noise can also be related to communication. “The management team is often mainly busy broadcasting. This is our vision and this is where we want to go. But have you ever asked if it's all clear? And what your employees need to be able to implement the strategy properly? Listening is just as important as transmitting. That is sometimes underestimated. That is why, when processing the results of the scan, we also distinguish between the answers of the management team and the employees. '

3. High staff turnover

When it comes to staff, you see that a high workload leads to more dropouts. Van Bekkum: “Management believes it's up to the employees, but that's often not the case. You just employ good people, but they can't do their jobs because of a lack of direction or clarity about what is expected of them. As a management team, you have to work on that with the entire company. '

4. Unable to make choices

Entrepreneurs who are experiencing enormous growth in a short period of time are often busy with a thousand things at the same time and do not always know which buttons to turn. “We help them get the right one,” says Van Bekkum. “In one company, it is necessary to professionalize sales. For the other, it's about leadership and relationships with the rest of the team, or the KPIs are not in order. ' That transition is not always painless. “After all, they just came out of the startup phase where you could experiment, didn't have to choose and just throw out a lot of lines at the same time. Suddenly, you have to be founder do the opposite: be disciplined, make choices and prioritize tightly. That is difficult. But it does create the space that is needed to grow in a healthy way,” concludes L'Ortye.

A subsequent article will provide a step-by-step plan to successfully address the growing pains.

Would you like to explore, in consultation with an advisor, whether the scaleup organization scan might be interesting for your scaleup? Click here.