When I reflect on my experiences over the last several decades, the contrast between high growth companies and those that simply managed to exist, is worth some thought.
There are a few things that stood out I believe in one company I was part of. Newbridge Networks grew from a start-up to $1B in revenues in its’ first 10 years and then doubled that again soon after! What lessons can be learned from this? Many I am sure, but to keep this short, let’s look at just a few at a high level.
First and I believe foremost: We believed in ourselves and what we could achieve. We were led by someone who exuded success, something that was contagious. There is a clear parallel I believe with Team Sports Psychology here, where creating a winning attitude drives results on the field.
We invested early on developing leading products that addressed a high growth market – broadband networks in the 1990’s. We invested in a global sales team, adding regional sales presence before we had products to sell. That provided insights into regional needs and quickly established us in those regions – driving diversification of accounts and markets. We invested early in marketing – with trade events a key focus. All of this naturally led to a strong internal belief that we would succeed. So yes, we were funded well enough to do this, but there are many examples of well-funded companies that languish or even die. What was the difference here? After all, the markets we were entering had large, entrenched competitors.
There were many ups and downs of course, but let me try to capture succinctly what I believe were the foundations to success:
- We were led by a leader who believed we could win and win big. A strong communicator, he led by example and showed confidence in his team, throughout the ups and downs. He was not a micromanager which would have constrained growth, but rather trusted the team to make their decisions, which in effect allowed for the meteoric growth to come.
- We were funded adequately to invest and invest we did. Initially heavily in R&D, but early on in a Sales presence as well, and importantly also in manufacturing to ensure we could react to growth. Before our products were ready, we promoted them into some key telecom trade events. Note: There are of course limits to investment capital. If possible, focus your bets on those markets that support growth and healthy margins.
- We hired experienced team members who quickly became excited about the potential and provided the leadership to a team of carefully selected new grads who became energized themselves. Included with this was a sense of ownership early on as we all felt we had an important role to play if we were to keep growing. This team also brought a network of contacts to leverage. We would never have grown at this rate without the right team bringing their experience and networks to the challenges.
- Our investments in R&D provided leading products, often tied to our customers’ needs, but sometimes leading new products. This provided the fuel for our aggressive Sales and Marketing.
- We didn’t just attend trade events. We created energy that made us difficult to ignore.
- We deliberately made ourselves appear larger than we were. That was important as many of our early customers were telephone companies reluctant to buy from start-ups.
There is much more of course, but at a high level: Believe in yourselves and develop products (and services) that allow you to drive a position of leadership in your market(s).
Oh, I forgot to mention: Have Fun! That comes for free with the right team and leadership.