8 steps to scale a business

Last week, I attended a really cool “Scale your business” workshop in Bali, organized by Tarush Aggarwal, CEO of 5x Data, and ex-Director of data at WeWork and Salesforce.

I found the approach quite interesting and worth sharing.

The steps are taken from the workshop, the content of the article is a mix of what I’ve learned during the workshop and my personal experience and research. 

1. Find your North Star

“A single well-defined goal that you can look up at, and see if you’re heading in the right direction. All other goals are milestones taking you closer to this final goal.” diversifyyourselfesteem.com

A lot has been said about the importance of setting goals. They offer a direction, a purpose and a source of motivation. Finding your North Star will set your path and guide you through challenges, doubts and lack of motivation. Make it big and bold!

2. Define your strategy

“A vision without a strategy remains an illusion.” Lee Bolman

Once you have found your North Star, you need to figure out how to reach it. You need to create your strategic roadmap.

3. Set up your goals and metrics

“A vision and strategy aren’t enough. The long term key to success is execution. Each day. Every day.” Richard M. Kovacevich

To measure the success of your strategy, you need to decline it into key goals and metrics. They will allow you to track your progress and adjust your strategy and course of action when needed.

Ones of the most popular approaches to goal settings are:

• SMART: goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely
• OKRs: “Objectives and key results (OKR) is a goal-setting framework for defining and tracking objectives and their outcomes.” This approach is widely used by Google and other big companies.

4. Be ready to face different phases

It takes time to reach your North Star, and it can feel overwhelming. So break down your goals into actionable steps, celebrate small wins and move forward with tougher objectives.

A phase should take about three months to complete. If you read some of my other articles, you know that I am a big fan of the 12 weeks plan approach when setting goals:

• Instead of having yearly goals, set quarterly ones
• Define the 3 most important ones, the rest will be taken care of later
• Define sub-targets to be achieved every month and every week

5. Hire the best talents

“In all creative roles, the best is easily 10 times better than average. When teams are exclusively made up of exceptional-performing employees, the managers do better, the employees do better, and the entire team works better — and faster.” Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix

Amazing people don’t usually apply for jobs. You have to go out there and look out for them. How to do that? Some tips from Tarush:

• Ask people from your industry how they find their best talents
• Understand how to assess high potentials
• Connect with the people you would love to work with, one day, they might want to join your company

Now is a great time to hire talent.

6. Create the right culture and mindset

It is important to cultivate a common culture within the organization, for people to share the same vision, to follow the same North Star. Hiring the right team is one of the most important factors of the success of an organization.

Ever heard about Zappos? They are famous for putting customer satisfaction at the centre of everything they do. They sell shoes, but if you call them to order a pizza, they will do it for you. Check out Tony Hsieh's book, the founder of Zappos: Delivering Happiness.

7. Set incentives

You need to figure out the right metrics to judge the work of someone. A salesperson will not be evaluated on the same criteria as an engineer or an accountant.

Ask around in your industry what are the standards and search for inspiration in companies that are well known for retaining top talents.

Relying only on a bonus plan to reward and motivate employees has many loopholes: people will focus on their KPIs only, it can trigger unethical behaviour (Enron case), and it can even harm performance!

Look further than just financial compensation and figure out other ways to motivate people: 

• Offering great freedom and responsibility at work
• Unlimited vacation time
• Regular recognition of accomplishments
• Fast career track 

8. Use data & tracking

“If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.” Peter Drucker

If you don’t measure the impact and the success of your actions, you are running your business blind and you are likely going to miss your North Star.

By now, you should have your metrics and OKRs in place and a strategic plan to achieve them:

• Create a dashboard to track data related to these metrics. Don’t use an existing dashboard or a template as they have been designed by others, with their own strategy in mind. Use Google sheet and create your own.
• Update it on a weekly basis (at least)
• Share with your team so everyone is on the same page
• Learn and improve; adapt your strategy if needed

Food for thoughts:

Thank you for reading and please don't hesitate to share your comments below :)