Dear Entrepreneur/CEO: Avoid The Fastest Route To Mediocrity

In The Beginning

When you set out on the journey of building a company, your intention is to light the world on fire with your ideas, products and services. You dream big dreams and upend your life to make them a reality. From the beginning, you know it's not going to be easy, but it's going to be worth it, and you're all in. Your company is going to be different. Like no other.

As you are blazing trails that you are uniquely qualified to blaze, your company starts to grow. The buildup of energy and excitement is felt throughout the organization as the engine starts to run at higher and higher speeds. Customers are signing on, the market is taking notice, people want to work with you, the product is evolving and money starts to flow. Great stuff!

Point of Inflection

Then comes the natural point of inflection. This marks the phase when the company is big enough in size and complexity to warrant adding a bit of structure, process and discipline (dirty words to most entrepreneurs who operate best on the fly). Here is where we discover that what once came very easily with 10 people --

decision making, communicating, product roadmapping, closing big sales, team leading, etc.

-- is now a challenge with 75 people who are in different geographic locations, which may simply mean being on two different floors in the same building (this can seem like an ocean apart).

As leaders, we understand that what we do during this period has the potential to either make or break our company, which is why much as been written about the storied inflection point. However, there's an aspect that has not received enough attention and it's the sure fire thing that will put your company on a direct path to mediocrity --- Best Practices.

Mediocrity's like a spot on a shirt—it never comes off. -- Haruki Murakami

When we begin to implement structure, process and discipline (all necessary to scale the company), the first thing we do is turn to industry best practices. After all, we have neither the time nor resources to reinvent the wheel. Plus, we want to be sure we are competitive. So, we benchmark ourselves...to death. Dramatic, but true.

By definition, best practices are methods, techniques and processes that are in use at other companies. Whether or not they are best depends on a wide variety of factors that may or may not apply or be relevant to your company. Regardless, the mere fact that they are used elsewhere means that any company that adopts best practices is following the herd, not leading it.

Implementing best practices provides no competitive advantage. Over time, your company becomes indistinguishable from the rest. When you are vying for top talent, this poses a real problem as your company needs to stand out from the crowd.

The Road Not Yet Taken

The alternative? This is where it's important to remember why you started on this journey. It wasn't to build a mediocre company. It was to be different. The best at what you do. To change the world in some meaningful way (to "make a dent in the universe" as it is said). So, apply the same innovative thinking you use to develop your game-changing products and services to other functions of your company - finance, sales, marketing, ops, etc.

Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

This may take you far out of your comfort zone, so surround yourself with people who are mavericks in their own right. If you are a tech wiz or product phenom and the task at hand is to introduce financial discipline, be sure to work with a finance pro who is as forward-thinking in their arena as you are in yours. Ask them to think blue ocean and push the envelope within the framework of your company's culture, values and vision. Question everything. Assume nothing. And begin every other sentence with "What if...?"

Once you've got something extraordinary (it must pass the "hell yeah!" test, also known as 10x), implement, test and tweak it at each new stage of growth as your company's needs will change as it continues to grow.

Go Your Own Way

When you are as purposeful and rigorous about how you lead and operate your company as you are about differentiating your products and services, you will forge a path that will be noticed by the right people...the ones you want on your trail-blazing team.

This is also how to ensure that your company will continue in the spirit that you enjoyed in the early days, which is fun, invigorating and super-charged. It will be the fast moving train that people what to jump onto regardless of where it is on the tracks (year 1 or year 10+).

Readers: Please share your experiences with companies that have been on the forefront of operational excellence. What do these companies do differently? What are the outcomes of these cutting edge practices?