As Product companies grow - steadily or rapidly - they invariably face headwinds to growth. They try to buck the trend using various vehicles - financial, commercial and innovation (M&A, expansion into new geographies, new product/ product line and new technologies). Surprisingly, they overlook an area of process innovation, that is available to companies of all sizes. However, this channel of innovation is only available to those that pause to focus on their cross-functional operations - Sales/ Sales Ops, Supply/ Supply Chain Ops, Product Ops and Financial Ops - to understand what's missing from their capability set.
Contrary to widespread management wisdom, well-run younger companies, or contrarian older ones and Startups often have this salient set of capabilities in spades, which starts to atrophy quite rapidly as companies grow larger.
This capability set is Responsiveness -
the ability to understand and quickly capture signals that can convert to customer demand (orders).
The ability to process the signals at time-bending speeds, to convert the signals utilizing all relevant data, into actionable information (plans, decisions) that can be utilized to provide the "right" supply response, no matter how often the signals change or where in the world (Sales Geos) they come from.
And follow-through with impeccable execution.
Startups and younger companies being smaller and leaner, have inherent advantages, but it is short-sighted to think that Responsiveness is simply a function of size (i.e., smaller = more "Responsive").
It is not. The best companies develop and hone interconnected-processes and systems that ensure their responsiveness remains razor-sharp as they climb up, indeed even race up, the growth ladder.
Responsiveness requires careful design, planning, implementation and rapid re-planning and re-implementation energies as changes take place.
It behooves companies to find and work with a partner that is committed to and has demonstrated operational success in this area.
For the last 15+ years, as a part of a startup, the author has worked in the trenches alongside operations leaders and their teams at some dynamic startups and large companies to help them design and develop this capability-set, with high-impact results. Before that he worked with larger, well-run enterprises as they redefined competitiveness by utilizing operations and systems.
In this Report, he shares an outline which contains the kernel of what this capability-set is, and how it can set companies apart from their competitors - giving them an unassailable lead, no matter where they are in their growth and development cycle.
However, this capability-set is elusive.
So, sign up and dive into the Report!