What is necessary for the top of a company that has entered the "scale-up" of rapid growth mode after leaving startup?

In terms of "scale-up" where companies begin to grow at a stretch from "start-ups" that have just started their businesses, the qualities, accommodations and attitudes required for management differ. Develop marketing softwareHubSpotMr. Brian Harrigan, who served as Chief Executive Officer for nine years from startup through scale-up, has summarized what is necessary as a manager at the time of scale-up based on his own experience.

Scale-up Leadership Lessons I've Learned Over 9 Years as HubSpot's CEO - ReadThink (by HubSpot) - Medium
https://readthink.com/scale-up-leadership-lessons-i-ve-learned-over-9-years-as-hubspot-s-ceo-39521f5b7567

◆ Placement of team leaders


Unlike at start-up, at scale-up, the organization grows steadily, the number of employees increases, and the number of teams that carry out the project also increases. Therefore, it is important that the CEO of the scale-up should do the management to ensure that each team demonstrates the maximum power.

According to Harrigan, it is nearly impossible to regain it if the team leader's trust is lost. At the same time, just by replacing the leader of the team, the morale of the team often recovers quickly. Therefore, if team members feel dissatisfied with the leader and feel that morale is going down, Mr. Harrigan says that the leader's placement will be changed as appropriate.

Since it is natural that there is something you are good at and difficult for any person, even if one team can not fulfill its role as a leader successfully, even if the size of teams and teams changes, you can demonstrate their abilities It seems there is. Mr. Harrigan, who did not place much emphasis on organization management at startup, says that at the time of scale up it is a really important job.

◆ Priority awareness


Mr. Harrigan prioritizes what the administrator should emphasize on scale-up, first of all, the value of the company, then the team, and finally it should be himself. However, ironically it seems that there are many administrators who prioritize diametrically opposite to this, and in that case they usually have big troubles. Therefore, as CEO, the administrator including himself said that thorough awareness should be given to the priority of corporate value, team and self.

◆ Choose options
Mr. Harrigan thinks that there is a number of choices in one of the management styles that is significantly different in startup and scale-up. Since the size of the organization at the start-up is small and mobility is abundant, you can try various ideas, but in the scale-up where the organization grows up, the cost of adjustment among teams and members expands It is said that it can become harmful because it is too much. So what you need as a top is to narrow down the options and concentrate the power of the organization there, Mr. Harrigan says.

And the style of the meetings in the team should also change according to the size of the organization, and we will have a lot of healthy discussions, but finally it is a good team to put together a single conclusion and to unite it It seems to be the style of the meeting.

◆ Measures against pitfalls


While doing corporate management, unexpected "pitfalls" are inescapable, there are cases in which minor frills become big and sometimes compromise the company's existence. At the time of scale up, it is requested to carefully observe whether such a "pitfall" has not occurred, Mr. Harrigan said.

And when you discover the "bud" of the pitfall, you need to pick it up, but at this time it is important not to take countermeasures but to take measures to prevent the same trouble again. The work of filling up this pitfall seems to be disgusting, but Mr. Harrigan thinks it is very important.

◆ Do not compromise
Mr. Harrigan said it is "compromising" to kill enterprises entering the scale-up stage. Administrators want to take conservative and safe paths that are hard to dissent as organizations grow, but it is not the most popular way to make decisions to make as managers, but hurghig "He says.

◆ Correctness than speed


Speed ​​is important for startup anyway. Even if judgment is wrong and fails, it is because you can switch quickly. However, in scale-up, "correctness" becomes more important than the "speed" of decision. In scale-up, the importance in decision making gradually changes from quickness to correctness, so management needs to adjust the balance accordingly.

◆ Long-term perspective
Likewise, the range of prospects is mentioned as the importance is different from startup. It was effective to concentrate the management resources focused on profitable look in the short term in the start-up, things that we should determine the field of investment from rather a long-term perspective in the scale-up. Unlike the start-up that is required to issue the results immediately from investors, in the scale-up margin begins born in management resources, we believe Harrigan said that we should have a more long-term perspective.

Indication of intention to "thrown away"


Companies that have reached the scale up point out that it is important to clearly decide "things to throw away" in deciding investment in new projects and new fields, Mr. Harrigan says. Especially, it is important to document the projects that you have not invested, decided not to work on, and share them internally. In the case of Mr. Hurrigan, he said he was clarifying what should be discussed by distributing resumes that clearly stated what they should not tackle what should be addressed by the board of directors of HubSpot.

◆ Chief Information Officer


According to Mr. Harrigan, the CEO of the scale-up should be not only responsible for corporate management but also a person who is responsible for "explanation" more than anyone else. As organizations grow larger, it is difficult for everyone to work in the same direction and to work, so the top of the company should transmit corporate policy to all employees through every opportunity, Mr. Harrigan said I will think about it. HubSpot said that all the employees participated in a quarterly meeting and explained the vision that the company should go through.

At the same time, it is important to have a vision, to align people who sympathize with and empathize with the direction, and secure enough cash to empathize and cooperate enough for employees to work together It is said.

◆ Excellent corporate culture
Mr. Harrigan thinks that "good corporate culture" is an important key to nurture excellent employees, create excellent products and services, and love customers. If you are planning to make a unique and wonderful service, we need a wonderful employee who creates a service, and that's why we should devote much time and effort to creating a wonderful corporate culture.