It is a reality that start-ups can be exciting places to work. Like any new process or idea, tasks or actions can be implemented with an overflowing optimism that consolidated businesses do not usually count on. The latter already have business growth, therefore, have gone through and avoided all the crises that they inevitably go through when advancing towards success.

In the event that business growth is achieved, certain difficulties will inevitably appear as there are many variables to watch over. Learning to manage crises from the start is essential in the business world. Knowing the Greiner curve and each of its stages can help the founders of new businesses to predict and manage the crises that come up in the process of pursuit.

Greiner curve. Concept

All businesses of all sizes, regardless of their expansion needs, face stages of challenges and uncertainties. Larry Greiner named the stages of business or venture chaos, the  growth crises. He identified them in a curve that illustrates to those who want to start from scratch, the future that awaits them as an entrepreneur.

The first of these stages, and perhaps the most fun and exciting, is growth through creativity, which in turn leads to an inevitable leadership crisis.

Growth through creativity

When an entrepreneur creates a meaningful idea and makes it a reality, they start that small business with limited staff. Knowing and recognizing oneself as a business, discovery of the market and its characteristics, preparation of each product or service and its improvement, search and discovery of new suppliers and raw materials, the need to position itself and make itself known by all possible means, the company is nourished, above all, by the enthusiasm of its founders.

At this stage it grows with the use of renewing ideas and the dynamism and constant work of the founders. But in this dynamic growth journey, the company needs more staff, and therefore a budget. The first crisis, according to Greiner, is one of leadership. But why a leadership crisis? Coordination and internal control can no longer be done by a single person when a company is growing and needing more staff, along with a budget. The need for an improved structure then arises. It is that moment where the founders cease to have all the control to hire workers and specialists to manage other branches such as economic management, marketing, or other administrative obligations which, perhaps, they are not prepared to assume.

If your idea as an entrepreneur is in the category of Architecture and Engineering, take advantage and enjoy this stage where you will implement all your ideas and dreams. This is the stage of creating, innovating and boosting your company or venture. On that path, prepare yourself and perfect your soft skills along with your economic and administrative skills. These will be needed to achieve real business growth.  

Growth through management

Efficient business management is essential in a stage of growth by leadership. This is a more formal phase of greater management. There are more specialists to attend each branch of the business and therefore a mostly organized structure is needed. Following this phase, senior management emerges with intermediate departments.

When more people join, there are more ideas to implement, everyone wants to contribute their knowledge, their own creativity. An obvious crisis of autonomy appears. That is where management must know how to maintain a balance between control and allow that freedom to make intermediate departments. In essence, you need more freedom from the rest of the team to do and BE within the company or venture.

In your Architecture and Engineering Company you must learn to manage and to control while simultaneously releasing and allowing others to also take their ideas to the path, as long as they contribute to that business growth that is so needed. In fact, this is an excellent way for those who are hired after the company or business is founded to achieve a sense of belonging.

Growth through delegation

Once the crisis of autonomy has been overcome, that moment in which we are growing and learning to let go, we move to a phase of decentralization.

According to Genís Roca and his article: The Stages of Growth of Greiner, at this stage, important tasks are delegated to middle managers who will now be responsible for achieving results and to achieve tactical and operational objectives. Now the direction is moving to a more strategic level, with no intervention. This usually leads to a structure of divisions or sections, which will increasingly go on their own and will be more difficult to coordinate.

This growth by delegation leads to a crisis of control. In this phase the company or venture can limit growth and sacrifice it in order not to lose that control.

For an Architecture and Engineering company it is not an option to limit growth at this stage. It is the responsibility of management to learn to control. To do this, it is necessary to continue training, acquiring administrative skills and above all relying on technology to simplify control processes.  

It’s time to work with a technological, powerful and reliable tool such as PASconcept. It is THE TOOL with which you can plan, act and control all aspects of your company, no matter how many associated departments you own and how many projects are generated.  Its use becomes a definitive labor and competition advantage in the market. With PASconcept true business growth is guaranteed.

Growth through coordination

At this stage, more emphasis is placed on coordination between the different units. The responsibilities and objectives of the team are redefined, particularly the role of management positions, all for the purpose of improved coordination. In this phase, the organization departments gain a lot of strength, planning, and personnel. There comes a point when they take too much power, more than the areas of business or activity, and fall into a crisis of bureaucracy. The rules make the company too rigid and inflexible.

Growth by control ends in a crisis of bureaucracy.

Growth through Collaboration

After overcoming this crisis of bureaucracy, we return to informality, the flexibility of the first and creative stage. After achieving greater control and having overcome a multitude of obstacles, spontaneity along with greater and better teamwork are allowed. This leads to greater collaboration between departments where dialogue becomes essential. A lot of questions are asked and standards are largely abandoned.

Business growth through cooperation leads to a crisis of dialogue and internal growth, which if overcome, will allow us to move one step further and look at external opportunities.

Growth through partnerships

In this last stage, organization requires good external contacts and strategic alliances. It is the stage of not growing alone and relying on external factors and businesses to help the company move forward.

Mergers with other companies, joint ventures or partnerships will allow a different vision and a diversification of services and products to continue growing.

Business growth, a path of strategies

Creating, directing, controlling, delegating, dialoguing and collaborating are necessary transits for any company or venture to grow. Knowing in advance, crises that arise from each of the stages of growth, through which businesses naturally pass, will allow entrepreneurs to be prepared to assume the challenges that these crises impose.

Architecture in Engineering companies can also rely on PASconcept to manage all the processes, which will make these crises easier to manage and therefore, there will be a rapid and effective business growth.