Make Better Management Decisions In a High Growth Business

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The most common issue that business owners and managers face in a high growth business is the lack of time to make decisions or consider situations. As I have repeated on many occasions business owners as managers find ways to make time not by working harder but by working smarter. We all know that high growth puts relentless pressure on a business and it will seek out any weakness in management or the business and mercilessly exploit that weakness until it is fixed or it ruins the business.

The problem for management in this environment is that decisions and problems arrive all to frequently and they can't be left to fester. How does management cope with this onslaught. The answer is to try to grade the importance of the decisions they have to make. The problem with many firms is that the management team will tend to deal with the issues with giving much thought to priority. This often that means the easy decisions are made quickly but those more difficult and complex decisions are left, this results in a backlog, of often, very important issues.

Having faced this problem myself I have of found this simple chart has enabled me to get to the most important decision first, and not to get distracted by the constant stream of the quick and easy.

I give this diagram to all my clients although it is most relevant to those managing high growth businesses. The objective is to get you to think about the type of tasks you undertake and if they are really necessary.

Taking the two left hand boxes it is obvious that undertaking urgent and important tasks are necessary, and it should also be clear that items that are neither important or urgent should be ignored. However we commonly find that a surprising number of people are doing work in this category; because it tends to be full of quick, easy and repetitive tasks so that it can appear that you've got through a lot of work, unfortunately they are of little value. You should avoid these type of tasks at all costs as they are time wasters.

Of the two right hand boxes the Urgent but not Important quadrant is where we spend too much of our time. We tend to assume that if something is urgent it is naturally important. This is not the case. You should try asking yourself “what are the consequences if I don’t do this”? In a surprising number of cases the answer is not much. If that’s your conclusion then focus on tasks that are really important.

The Important but not Urgent category, is by contrast, where we spend less time than we should. A typical example is creating a strategic plan or a marketing or business plan. Yes it’s important but somehow we never get around to it soon enough because it is rarely urgent, and so we fill our time up will urgent tasks instead.

I have had many clients who have found that using this analysis before launching into their activities has transformed the effectiveness of their effort enabling them to make a much stronger contribution to the business by focusing on what is really important rather an what is urgent.

Exigent Consulting provides specialist services for High Growth Business , Business Turnaround, and Mentoring to the Small and Medium Business. We help business owners improve the profit performance of their business. 

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The 6 Signs of Dysfunctional Company Boards

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I have written in the past few weeks about the problem with board meetings and the problem with sales meetings. It was suggested to me that it might be helpful if I explained what particular issues with a dysfunctional company board and how a well run company board would operate. In this article I intend to concentrate on dysfunctional boards or boards in crisis. 

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So lets remind ourselves what issues should be addressed at board meetings? They’re the meeting that set the direction for the company, confirm policy, and directs the business response to unforeseen events either external like for example a significant change in market conditions or the arrival of a new or stronger competitor. The unforeseen events maybe internal like the loss of key staff or a major issue with sales or production. To get the best out of these meetings they should be held regularly and it should involve a review of the company’s performance.  

So, if that's what a Board meeting should cover what do we typically see in a dysfunctional or crisis board.

Number 1 is not understanding the importance of a board meeting. As individuals and owners we tend work and think at an operational or detail level and it takes some effort and often some training to start to look at strategic and policy issues at a high level. Because operational issues tend to be more immediate and therefore urgent they get in the way of longer term but no less important considerations. Boards meetings are vital to the long term health of a business and are a necessary condition if you want a business to be successful over the long run. I have seen many situations where Board Meetings have gradually been dropped because well meaning owners and managers confuse them with operations or management meeting. Often its only when a crisis hits the business that the management team understand its importance and by then it can be too late.

Number 2 is where day-to-day operations dominate meetings. This is the most common situation and is a result of the first symptom.   Typically the meeting will have no agenda and the participants will have made little or no preparation, consequently what gets discussed is what is on peoples minds at the time (management issues).

Number 3 is not having external advisers. In order to understand and address strategic issues, and probably any issue, it is beneficial to get external advice from people who are not intimately involved in the business. These people can be Non Executive Directors or external advisers.  This separation gives them the ability to make key insights  about the business and its relative performance that would not be possible from internal managers and directors, who often "cant sees the woods for the trees".


Number 4 is hearsay management. This is a situation where the business owner/ CEO makes decisions based on their gut instinct or impulse and without proper evidence. In these situations boards are often seen as a hindrance because board meetings are a forum where   members can question and review key decisions. This type of situation is often coupled with number 5 where the CEO/MD has a low opinion of the management team and doesn't see great value in their input or they don't want to be challenged. I have found this later situation common in family run businesses where the control is kept within the family irrespective of capability and the unwanted scrutiny of a board meeting is something to avoid.


Number 6 the  festering issue/disruptive director. These two often go hand in hand and the disruptive director is often a result of a long running issue that has been ignored, where he or they consider that a poor or no decision has been taken on a subject of great importance to them and despite numerous attempts the problem is avoided leaving a disgruntled board member. The result is that they will go to great lengths to try to raise the issue whilst everyone else will do their best to avoid it, as a result issue and those connected issues are not properly discussed and frequently board meetings are delayed or cancelled as part of the avoidance process. This situation is especially common where you have strong characters who will be persistent in the cause to the point of absurdity and in the long run is very damaging to a team. Often a climate of distrust will develop and worsen team relations the longer the issue is not openly discussed and some form of conclusion reached.


Whilst there are many issues surrounding board meetings don't let this list put you off, many companies have a well functioning board. My next blog post will look at what a properly functioning board look like. I would also like to take the opportunity to give my thanks to Ivor Middleton who assisted in the preparation of this article.

Exigent Consulting provides specialist services for High Growth Business , Business Turnaround, and Mentoring to the Small and Medium Business. We help Business Owners improve the profit performance of their business. 

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Managing Fast Growing Businesses: The Planning Process

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Managing Fast Growth

Whilst planning is important for all businesses it is vital in a high growth company. More importantly planning needs to be more thorough and detailed than in companies where growth is at a more leisurely pace. Its obvious really, issues come at you faster and more frequently in a high growth scenario and you and your management team need to be ready to deal with it. You can’t do this in a purely reactive mode, you and your management team need to have explored in detail the key linkages in your business and have some understanding of the potential stress    points as well as solutions for different scenarios.   If this seems a bit of overkill, it isn’t. Having been in the senior management team of a business that grew from 250 to 3500 staff in less than 10 years I know the pressures consistently fast growth puts on an organisation. One of the key reasons why so few businesses can consistently manage a high growth rate is because of this management commitment. It also demands that owners/directors have confidence in their management team and that they are able to properly delegate responsibility to this team.

So How Much Detail is Enough?

The answer is as much detail as you can get. The more detail you can obtain the better. I’m not just talking about P and L information but key metrics that drive the business, for example production metrics, recruitment metrics, detailed overhead costs, detailed variable costs, machine performance, average earner income, average earner output, recruitment costs, sales cycle length, average order value, and so on.  The benefit of this information is to provide you with a very detailed understanding of your business. It also offers you a broad range of levers to use in guiding your business through the inevitable ups and downs of life. Most importantly it gives you a number of early warning indicators that if acted upon will require only a gentle nudge on the tiller, rather than a last minute heavy handed yank.

So Now You’ve Got it What Do You Do With It?

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Managing Fast Growth

Once you have all this information, you develop a reporting mechanism/model which requires all 
key members of your management team to understand report and manage their functions or business using this standard. This is vital to provide the management team with the same business information where ever they are in the organisation, it also means that whatever job they do they can quickly get to the key information because they will be familiar with the format. In a high growth business, management regularly move around a so need support of model so they can quickly get to grips with their new position as the information and its format will be the same. 

In a personal example I was relocated from the UK to Australia. When I arrived I was able to get up to speed very quickly because the model used down there was exactly the same as that which I used in the UK! 

It should become the basis of your regular management meetings as your knowledge of the model increases you will be able to more accurately predict company performance and be better able use the information to avoid difficulties.

Exigent Consulting provides specialist services for High Growth Business , Business Turnaround, and Mentoring to the Small and Medium Business. We help Business Owners improve the profit performance of their business. 

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