You might recall the commercial a few years ago:

A company was launching their company to sell a product over the Internet.  Everyone gathered around to look at the site metrics and started cheering wildly as the first customer placed an order and as orders began to climb. 

Then the cheers turned to fears as the orders exploded.  The orders were coming in far faster than they could handle it.  We all laughed at the commercial, but it brought up a good question-

Could your organization handle hyper-growth?

Or would you have to say no and send business away to your competitors?  Would it do you more harm than good, hurting your reputation, casting you as someone who can’t deliver?

I have blessed to have been involved with 3 hyper-growth situations in my career:

1.       As head of finance/operations for a toy manufacturer that grew 400% in one year from $5 to $22 million.

2.       As CFO for a pharmaceutical manufacturer that went from $8 million to $52 million in 2 years.

3.       As consultant for a telecom firm that went from startup to over $200 million.

As I look back there were some common threads:

·         Capacity to produce.  Each company had the capacity to produce much more.  It was the biggest challenge at the toy manufacturer, where we had to double our tooling capacity to keep up.

·         Infrastructure.  At each firm we made major investments in systems.  At the toy company I put in a new computer system.  At the pharmaceutical firm, I revamped a dysfunctional system.   The telecom firm made major investments in systems and towers.

·         Lean mentality.  Our companies had lean mentalities with light overheads.  We didn’t have to bet the farm by needing to add a lot of people ahead of time in order to handle growth.

·         People.  We had the right mentality with people who could move fast on their feet and get excited with the results.

·         Financing.  We had the financial capacity to take on growth rather than get tapped out.  The biggest challenge was the toy company.  We would have hit the wall had we not made a major change and shortened the terms on a new product line to net 30 from net January 15.

Are you ready for hyper-growth if it came your way?  How do you stack up on the 5 areas?  What would be the soft spot that might hold you back?