We’re preparing to add three new divisions to our company. They were born on a napkin at Panera during an amazing company retreat last November.
Growth’s exciting, but it can – ironically – also be devastating. If you climb too fast, you touch the sun, and you burn. Then you fall. Ask Icarus.
We measure success quarterly using the Net Promoter Score system, and our last three quarters have yielded perfect 100s. We don’t want to jeopardize the client delight that helped us grow to where we are today.
How can you manage growth while maintaining your current levels of customer delight?
By saying “no,” and not just to bad things, but to good ones! Warren Buffett, in the quote above, wasn’t the only one to give this advice. Steve Jobs famously said innovation was saying “no” to a thousand things – including some really good ideas.
Sound familiar?
Just as Ryan discussed yesterday, our company’s values won’t allow us to grow at the expense of our current clients, and it won’t let us do superficial work for new ones.
So these three new divisions? They’ll only be available to our current clients.
Yep.
We’re going to launch three major additional marketing services (with a couple more hopefully by year’s end), but we’re only making them available to the clients we already serve.
Want to take advantage of these new services once we announce them?
Great! Become a consulting client. We have to get to know you first. We have to know your goals and values and help you build a strategic plan before we can help you with the stuff at the top of the pyramid.
Are we losing out on opportunities?
Maybe. I guess it depends on your definition of “losing.”
That’s how we’re managing growth… by taking a long, hard look at our business model, and by saying “no” to short-term gain at the expense of long-term value.
How about you?
When was the last time your company said “no?” Why? How are you managing growth?
When was the last time you took a look at your business model?
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