We are having a great time growing our company and are doing well but we don't have any discipline. Does it matter?

We have great products and great brands, but we are not as disciplined as we need to be. Is it possible for us to change this so late? How?

-Founder of a late-stage company

Dear Founder,

This is a great problem to have. You’re a market or industry leader with a great vision now striving for operational excellence. Some companies are very disciplined, and yet don’t ever find product market fit. I’d take your problem any day!

In good times, or early days, a company is like the ocean in high tide—there are rocks under the surface, but they’re not getting in anyone’s way. Once the tides change, however, the rocks appear and cause trouble. Similarly, as companies grow, challenges that were always there become more obvious and onerous. Onboarding a new employee at a startup is a lot of work, but what happens when there are 50 new people? 250? Or, what about when you add your first international branches, and to date every employee has lived and worked in a single geography? Instead of ignoring “rocks” you have to identify them and turn them into smaller and more manageable pebbles.

Operational excellence is about becoming relentless at getting better and better. There are many tools and methodologies to use. I personally use Capabilities Maturity Model (CMM), to see where we are and determine where we need to be. All companies move throughout these different levels on their quest for success. All companies go up or down the maturity model based on market conditions that are very fluid.

Let me walk you through the levels.

-Level 1: This is the disaster scenario. You didn’t do what you said you would do, and people are running around with their hair on fire (metaphorically). On any given day you can slip into Level 1—a meeting runs late, you miss your window to get to your next meeting, and you don’t gain pertinent information. When things start to spiral out of control, take measures to correct the situation immediately.?

-Level 2: You didn’t yet achieve what you set out to do, but you have a clear plan in place. The plan is credible, you know who owns which tasks and goals, but you’re not effectively implementing the plan yet.

-Level 3: You don’t have a lot of crises at this point. Your organization’s “say-to-do” ratio is close to one.?You are predictable and reliable, but you are not achieving all the potential that you have. Your growth is healthy, but you need to build on this to make things better—and get ahead of the curve.

-Level 4: You are operating efficiently. You can do more with less, and the feeling of winning is palpable.?For example, when we got ahead of the scaling challenges at eBay, our community members were happier, most of us got more sleep and we all loved it so much we vowed to stay.

-Level 5. Your team can operate without you, and it’s taking less time to get things done. You are now a resource for others. At this point you are now able to chase new and additional opportunities. This is the holy grail where you’re working on what matters most.

Remember, achieving success will mean having to continuously level up your company, and each division, over time.?That’s why it’s so important to not just tread water (Level 3), but to crush the rocks that could block you in the future (Level 4). Also, important to note, none of this framework is static. You can be doing a Level 5 activity (a great project that will be important in the future) while living in a Level 3 world (where you are stable, but not yet secure for the future).?And, you can be in a Level 5 world and have a Level 1 issue (losing a key employee) limit you and take time and cycles from where you want to be.

As hard as it is to put more rigor around scaling, there’s no alternative because in business and in life all of us ultimately have the same job: to keep growing.

Every week I respond to a new question. Ask me your question in the comments section.