John Cradden on the difficult balancing act between quality and growth that scaling businesses face.
As you embark on the challenge of scaling up your business, it’s probably absurd to think you would tolerate any reduction in the quality of your product or service while things expand.
But the road to scaling up is lain with a variety of risks ranging from supply chain capacity issues to process breakdowns to customer dissatisfaction.
“With so many new things to deal with, there is the natural temptation to cut corners, speed up production or streamline processes”
Indeed, one of the trickiest balancing acts involved in scaling a business is managing rapid growth while continuing to preserve the standards that made it successful in the first place.
So when it comes to balancing quality and growth, what are the areas and corresponding issues to watch out for?
Operations
The first relates to operations. Processes that were easily managed on a certain scale can become more cumbersome and inefficient unless there is fine-tuning of every step.
For instance, scaling up operations might require dealing with new suppliers, the use of automated systems or even outsourcing.
Anything that adds complexity needs requires meticulous oversight to preserve quality that customers expect.
Talent
A company that is scaling up rapidly may well experience a change in culture where there is a move away from the fast-moving, agile and informal workplace environments that typify many small start-ups, and towards one that is a bit more impersonal and possibly distant from the leadership.
This can result in issues with employees more used to the former, but also in ensuring that newer members of staff who have been hired on the strength of their talent or potential will gel with longer-serving colleagues who may have been hired for specific technical experience.
Time and resources
There’s also the pressure that growth brings to time and resources thanks to new customers to deal with, more sales to pursue, and larger volumes of work to process. With so many new things to deal with, there is the natural temptation to cut corners, speed up production or streamline processes.
This, in turn, can lead to the use of sub-standard materials, undertrained workers or insufficient testing. This is particularly true if you are in a sector where customer demands are time-sensitive.
Branding
If your company expands through diversification of product or service offerings, this risks diluting your brand’s core identity. For instance, it could makes it difficult for you to manage customer expectations across different regions or product lines arising out of your company’s marketing and branding.
So how can scale-uppers navigate the tightrope between maintaining quality and maximising growth?
1. Refine and improve operational processes
There is an extensive library of information and advice these days on improving operational processes, but the most popular structured approaches include Lean, Six Sigma and Agile. Lean focuses on cutting out activities that don’t add value in order to improve flow and speed. Six Sigma uses data to reduce defects and any variations in quality, while Agile prioritises flexibility, adaptability and rapid customer value delivery. You can combine two approaches – even all three.
2. Invest in people
Equip your employees with the appropriate and ongoing training and development to uphold quality standards. The quality mantra can also be reinforced through a strong company culture and clear communication of expectations.
3. Customer first approach
Losing sight of what appealed to and attracted your current customers, even as you scale up with a view to attract new ones, is all too easy. Open and maintain as many reliable communication channels to your customers as possible, including through customer service, surveys, online feedback and social media. Strong customer service teams and ensuring that customer issues are handled quickly can help mitigate any quality-related challenges.
4. Robust quality controls
Design quality control systems that can scale as your company expands is critical. This should incorporate standardised procedures, automated quality checks and monitoring tools to keep tabs on things in real-time and maintain consistency.
5. Be choosy about opportunities
It can be tempting to take all opportunities in the pursuit of growth, but the key to choosing the right ones is not just whether if fits in with your current offerings, but it can measure up to your quality standard. Sometimes saying no is the right thing to do.
Top image: Photo by Casey Horner on Unsplash
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