There are two information-related walls that a young company hits while trying to grow.
The first wall is what I call “spreadsheet suffocation.” It is that stage of information sharing pain that causes people to start cussing. Where did you save the Johnson calculations? Who has the orders spreadsheet locked? Where did my new inventory list go? Did someone write over it? There was 2 days work in that spreadsheet!
When a team of people reaches this point – whether they are a small company or a department within a larger enterprise – they need a central collaboration solution built. They may be able to buy it, or they may have to build one depending on their specific needs… but the pain of trying to collaborate is now so high that they are suffocating – a significant growth bottleneck has set in.
The second wall that hinders a small company’s growth is similar but another rung up the ladder. The system that supported five people is starting to break down under the strain of 30 people. A new type of thinking must be applied to streamline the company’s operations and automate them – again. This time, the system will be larger, will take longer to design (or purchase), and cause more of a disruption in company operations when it is implemented.
What happens internally when a system no longer meets the needs of the busy employees? They start creating work-arounds to get their job done… and often their solutions involve spreadsheets. And so, the spreadsheet culture is reborn and the cycle begins again.
The need for new and/or different systems to support a company’s growth is not avoidable. Just plan to address them before the pain at each juncture is so great that your people start leaving for a company that has better, more efficient systems in place.