From startup to "going concern" -- don't forget what made you successful in the first place

The advice column written by Jack and Suzy Welch at the back of each Business Week is worth the subscription price of the whole damn magazine. The Dec. 11 issue is no exception. In it, they tackle two seemingly unrelated questions, one about growth and another about education, but there's a common thread and it contains implications for marketing departments of all sizes. In their answer to question #1 about going from a small company to a big one, they caution against a small company's tendency, as the company grows, to let the original mission and values go to seed. Not abandoned, per se, but allowed grow stale as more new people pour in. Anyone who's been associated with early-stage companies, especially those which have enjoyed sharp revenue growth, can cite chapter and verse about the surprising perils of success. How the kinds and types of people who are attracted to a proven success can be so dramatically different from those who were attracted to the start-up -- the unchartered territory. The risk. The Welch counsel: Stay "small", AKA young-at-heart, by getting back to the basics of your mission and values. Don't just talk about them, live them. As in putting rhythm to what was formerly an ad-hoc budget process: "Keep the planning down to a few slides designed to general lively discussion, and make sure budgeting doesn't devolve into a phony series of negotiations that culminate in a rigid number instead of exciting stretch goals." Any veteran of the marketing budget Kabuki will resonate to these words. Holding on to the informal, nothing-can-stop-us spirit that brought you to success in the first place does not allow you to "wing it" the way you could in the old days. Next, make sure "A" players hire only "A" players. There is unfortunate tendency among "B" players to want to drag in "C" players. The results are predictable. Finally, an appraisal system, twice a year, that identifies great, average and below-average (A,B,C) contributors. Badge numbers are irrelevant, and should never factor in to performance reviews. Unrealistic, maybe, but nothing undermines morale more harmfully that cutting a slacker more and more slack, just because he or she got on the bus early. Lastly, in question #2, a biz school prof asks how best to prepare student for global business. The Welch answer was a variation on the theme introduced in the growth question. The nitty-gritty of people management gets short-changed in the educational hierarchy. Hiring, firing, motivating and team-building are the building blocks of a successful organization. To the extent that managers know how to get the most out of human resources, they will manage successful growth -- from small to big, and big to bigger.