The Growth Rockets
Fast, smart and ambitious. But don't forget to refuel.
A culture that couples innovation with performance drive. Teams experiment with one goal: results. Fast switching is the norm.
What are the Growth Rockets?
The Growth Rockets combine the experimentation drive of the Visionary Lab with the results hunger of the Winning Machine. The result is an organisation that moves at breakneck speed: new products, new markets, new methods. All in service of growth. In practice these are the companies that go from five to fifty employees in three years. That is impressive, but the price is high. People get exhausted. Processes don't exist or are constantly rewritten. Knowledge sits in heads that leave. The Growth Rockets are exciting to be part of, but have an expiry date if structure isn't added in time.
Where do you recognise this?
Fast growing installation technology companies entering new markets
Logistics startups challenging traditional players with technology
Construction companies rapidly scaling for large projects
Industrial suppliers launching new product lines
Do you recognise this?
Check what you recognise in your organisation.
Strengths
- Extreme speed from idea to implementation
- Innovation directly linked to business results
- Attracts enterprising and driven people
- Can quickly seize new market opportunities
Blind spots
- People burn out from combination of innovation pressure and performance pressure
- No time to document processes: everything is ad hoc
- Speed comes at the cost of quality
- High turnover because the pace is unsustainable
- Growth without foundation leads to collapse
How to move toward Growth Rockets?
Link innovation directly to measurable goals. Every experiment must have a hypothesis and a deadline. Give teams the space to test, but demand results within an agreed timeframe. Reward both the daring to try and the delivering of results. But build in pauses: a growth rocket without fuel crashes.
Compare these examples with your own experience at work.
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