Growing a business involves more than adding employees or marketing products and services to a new audience. Often, scaling a company comes with a number of operational challenges, many of them centered around adapting legacy systems and processes to new realities.
One of the major hurdles business scale unlocks is a breakdown in communication and misaligned departmental goals. However, these issues don’t need to last forever, especially when following the examples of successful businesses that have proven their resiliency over the years.
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The Challenges of Growing a Modern Business
No form of business growth comes without a series of challenges to get through to maintain it. Many of these challenges are unique to each organization but are often associated with increased spending and difficulties maintaining the same level of team passion and motivation.
Below are some of the common challenges organizations experience as they begin to scale:
Siloed Communications
Most people have heard that effective communication is one of the most important features of a successful business. Still, so many organizations struggle to maintain the quality and frequency of communication necessary once they start to experience sustained periods of growth.
One of the common reasons for this is when information silos begin to emerge, where some teams have the information they need to complete their objects while others are left in the dark. This tends to happen more often in businesses with distributed workforces, where departments are physically separated from one another, and it’s harder to coordinate.
This can be incredibly detrimental to a business and potentially derail entire projects. No different than how in the home renovation industry, contractors, landscapers, and plumbing and electrical teams all need to work together to see a renovation project through to completion; businesses that keep critical information in silos will hinder their growth.
Lack of Trust
Another common problem that companies experience as they scale is a gradual loss of shared purpose and a sense of community among staff members. As new personalities merge and employee expectations for the organization change, some may feel disconnected from the company’s overarching vision, and distrust can set in.
When employees start to lose trust in a business for whatever reason, it often produces toxic attitudes, making it incredibly challenging to attract and retain talent. High turnover rates can be very disruptive as a business grows, potentially making the organization take steps backward instead of moving forward.
Loss of Company Direction
Gaining new revenue sources doesn’t always equate to long-term success for a business. The more a company grows, the harder it can be to keep it aligned with its original goals. While the short-term increase in profitability may blur this reality, eventually, this misalignment can catch up with the organization and be challenging to regain.
Departmental misalignments are like a sinkhole for organizations. While it may not be apparent at first how employees are losing track of their primary responsibilities or critical objectives are starting to be missed, at some point, it can all create significant disruptions in business operations. Duplicated team efforts, delayed company projects, and missed opportunities can quickly mount and jeopardize the company’s viability.
How Successful Businesses Have Overcome Their Growth Challenges
Although growing a business will no doubt introduce a number of new challenges for organizations, these hurdles can also create new opportunities to improve and show resilience over time.
Below are some well-known brands that also experienced setbacks over the years but have proven that with patience and determination all growth challenges can be surpassed.
Zappos
Zappos is a well-known online shoe and apparel retailer that has been around for years. Zappos has successfully differentiated itself in the e-commerce world and is known for its exceptional customer service and fast delivery service. However, building and maintaining this strong reputation wasn’t always easy.
As Zappos began to grow in popularity, it struggled with departmental silos as new branches opened up and the business expanded. To overcome this, the former CEO of Zappos, Tony Hsieh, introduced a new concept of incorporating a “Holacracy” into the organization.
By decentralizing the traditional authority and decision-making responsibilities for upper management, it helped to empower more self-organized and driven teams. Employees gained more autonomy in their day-to-day work and helped the business to avoid unnecessary bureaucracy and operational bottlenecks.
Ford Motor Company
It’s hard to imagine that an automotive giant like Ford Motor Company ever experienced growth issues, but the business’s history is riddled with scaling challenges. Many of these setbacks were caused by fierce competition in the market while constantly being under the microscope from investors and consumers to continuously innovate their products.
With massive expansions in their assembly automation, major disconnects began to appear between their engineering departments in plants around the globe. However, rather than allowing this situation to go unchecked, Ford implemented cross-functional teams in all of their factories, which were made up of engineers, designers, and marketing teams.
By prioritizing better collaboration with its employees, Ford was able to significantly improve its production and distribution capabilities.
Apple
Apple is a global brand known for its innovative designs, including the iPad, iPhone, Apple Watch, and various other technology products. Over the years, its products have consistently pushed the boundaries of innovation and continuously used the latest next-generation technologies.
However, instilling and maintaining this creative spirit and risk-taking culture hasn’t always been easy. Over time, Apple realized that its complicated company structure could potentially hinder the creativity of its development and marketing teams. To help counteract this, Apple highly prioritizes cross-functional collaboration and open communication formats.
Rather than limit design work to specific departments, Apple encouraged all employees to share their ideas openly and assigned them to smaller, more agile teams to manage projects. This helped instill a sense of ownership over projects and is integral to their business success today.
Lead Your Business Effectively
Effective team building is critical for long-term business success. While it may not always be smooth sailing, by following the examples of some of today’s well-known brands, you can help ensure you maintain healthy levels of communication and collaboration while keeping your business ready for continuous growth.
Author Information
Author Name: Dalip Jaggi
Author Bio:
Entrepreneur, technologist, and passionate business leader sum up the core of Dalip Jaggi, co-founder of Revive Real Estate, a PropTech company with a goal to democratize house flipping. Since its 2020-inception, Revive has since become the smartest solution for homeowners to maximize their home’s sales value across the nation.
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