Musings at Altitude

In a startup or early growth company, defining moments occur constantly.  It’s that contract that is signed that provides just enough money to make payroll.  It’s that key individual that agrees to join the company at a reduced salary knowing how precious cash is and near instantly delivers that special spark to accelerate momentum.  It’s landing that special partner or client that feels so strongly about the quality of the products, services or team in your company that opens that door that wouldn’t have been opened otherwise and launches a new line of business or provides that desperately needed referral.  It’s that anxious trip to the client site to pick up the payment on an invoice that’s paid in days not weeks and goes straight into the bank to cover the overdraft and fund the company for another short period of time.  It’s that pre-beta demo that wows the client or that cash on delivery of a beta system that provides that proof of possible revenue and ensures that desperately needed investment round occurs.

That euphoria that comes with every defining moment fuels the passion of the team and sparks the fires of entrepreneurial momentum.

But somewhere in the path from small and nimble to big and methodical, defining moments change.  Payments of those critical invoices or winning those much needed contracts or signing those very special team members don’t seem to mean much anymore.  Those incredibly important issues in a small company become routine and mundane in a big company, thus denying the team that much needed elation that comes from achieving those very important successes.

Big is bad when this happens…at least for the team that desperately seeks a feeling of accomplishment or lives for those moments where their individual and collective efforts contribute mightily to the success of the company.

But it doesn’t have to be this way.  Big business can be broken down into growth pods, and growth pods can be challenged to deliver with the same anxiety and tenacity of a startup.  Understandably, each pod contributes to a greater cause in this case, but every pod has the opportunity and expectation to deliver with tactical urgency, achieving near real time success.  In this scenario, defining moments are rampant at the micro executing level, giving all those doing the real business of the company that much needed sense of elation as success is achieved.

To make this work though, those that are managing the bigness need to have great passion and a desperate longing for the smallness.  Otherwise the defining moments are lost in the macro level focus of corporate bureaucracy.