The focus when talking about start-ups or any other form of entrepreneurial venture has largely been on the ideas and their validation, minimum viable products (MVPs), securing funding and go-to-market strategies. Once this has all been achieved (or more often rejected and restarted or scrapped completely) and the venture has a product out there, the venture needs to grow.
There is a lot of research and discourse about these early stages and about what makes a venture sustainable in terms of product offerings, marketing strategies and growth. However, little attention has been given to the internal issues within the organization that could contribute to failure.
At HBA our research and experience has shown the value Systems leadership theory can provide in preventing these issues from arising.
Here are three areas where we find new ventures tend to experience these issues, all of which can arise due to a lack of clear roles and responsibilities, ineffective communication, and misalignment of goals and objectives.
1 - Clarity of Work
Start-ups often face challenges in clarifying roles and responsibilities as they scale up. Systems leadership theory suggests that leaders should create clear expectations, communicate effectively, and provide feedback to ensure that everyone understands their roles and responsibilities. This can help in avoiding duplication of efforts, reducing conflicts, and ensuring smooth workflow. In start-up situations it often is not clear who has these leadership roles to begin with.
2 - Organizational Structure
As start-ups grow, their organizational structure may become complex and decentralized, leading to communication gaps and lack of coordination. Our approach provides the tools for creating an effective organizational structure that promotes collaboration, fosters innovation, and enables agile decision-making. This is achieved by aligning the structure with the overall strategy and purpose of the organization, and if done well this can enable employees at all levels to contribute their ideas and insights and perform work efficiently.
3 - Start-up Culture vs “corporate” culture
Start-ups often face challenges as their fast moving and agile culture begins to clash with the increased need for structure, clarity, and procedure as they grow. Our approach includes a culture change model that will allow start-ups to adjust to these changes in an intentional manner rather than letting the culture develop unintentionally. We provide tools to help leaders understand and influence the culture in the form of systems, symbols, and their own behaviour. If carefully thought out and understood this can allow start-ups to maintain their innovative culture that made them a success whilst adding the minimum layers of structure and systems needed to operate on a larger scale with consistency.
Whilst technical innovation risks being replicated, the right culture creates a unique and sustainable foundation for competitive advantage.
Systems leadership in your venture
By understanding and addressing these internally generated issues, start-ups can enhance their growth prospects and increase their chances of success in the competitive business landscape. By combining this organisational thinking with what makes a venture successful initially can greatly increase the chances of long-lasting success for any start-up.
Read more about systems leadership theory, our approach to consulting and how we might be able to help you on our website:
Thomas Barnett
Consultant at HBA
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