Two Must-Haves for Growth: Entrepreneurial Spirit and Focus on Core Competencies
Maintaining an entrepreneurial culture while focusing on core competencies is key to sustainable growth.
When the market dropped precipitously in the fall of 2008 and businesses suffered, our customers rapidly began mass layoffs of employees. ComPsych, the world's largest provider of employee assistance programs, was ready with a new service that helped transition those departing employees and guide them in launching a successful job search. This is an example of our entrepreneurial culture in action - anticipating and meeting customer needs with innovation - while sticking to our core competencies of the provision of information, resources, tools and expert guidance in the context of employee assistance programs, behavioral health and outsourced HR services.
We are living in unprecedented times, with double-digit unemployment, an uncertain economy and enormous challenges ahead. It is my belief that an organizational culture of entrepreneurship and a commitment to core competencies are keys to sustainable and profitable growth, if not survival.
All too often companies make the mistake of pursuing growth regardless of whether that expansion leverages core competencies. Whether through an unwise acquisition or by chasing loosely related revenue streams, growth that does not capitalize on core competencies is at best unsustainable and at worst dangerous. In the case of acquisition, a company may be hamstrung by mismatched corporate cultures as well as a shift away from their original mission. When chasing additional revenue streams, companies may also reach too far from their true abilities. In both scenarios, core competencies lose importance and the results can have long-lasting negative impact upon the organization.
Growing companies also face another obstacle - they tend to become rigid and bureaucratic as their size expands. The negative impact of this is obvious: stifled creativity and inability to react to customer needs in a swiftly changing
When the market dropped precipitously in the fall of 2008 and businesses suffered, our customers rapidly began mass layoffs of employees. ComPsych, the world's largest provider of employee assistance programs, was ready with a new service that helped transition those departing employees and guide them in launching a successful job search. This is an example of our entrepreneurial culture in action - anticipating and meeting customer needs with innovation - while sticking to our core competencies of the provision of information, resources, tools and expert guidance in the context of employee assistance programs, behavioral health and outsourced HR services.
We are living in unprecedented times, with double-digit unemployment, an uncertain economy and enormous challenges ahead. It is my belief that an organizational culture of entrepreneurship and a commitment to core competencies are keys to sustainable and profitable growth, if not survival.
All too often companies make the mistake of pursuing growth regardless of whether that expansion leverages core competencies. Whether through an unwise acquisition or by chasing loosely related revenue streams, growth that does not capitalize on core competencies is at best unsustainable and at worst dangerous. In the case of acquisition, a company may be hamstrung by mismatched corporate cultures as well as a shift away from their original mission. When chasing additional revenue streams, companies may also reach too far from their true abilities. In both scenarios, core competencies lose importance and the results can have long-lasting negative impact upon the organization.
Growing companies also face another obstacle - they tend to become rigid and bureaucratic as their size expands. The negative impact of this is obvious: stifled creativity and inability to react to customer needs in a swiftly changing