The Unexpected Downside of Fast Growth 

Downside of Fast Growth, Business Intelligence

Once upon a time you had an idea for a business. That idea germinated into a name, a product, and you were on your way. Along the path, though, there were many obstacles and high hurdles to leap over and sometimes you found yourself colliding with them instead. There were the wrong and costly turns along the way before you developed and perfected your product and found your “right” customers. More times than you care to admit, you wondered where you would find enough time, money, or resources to make it happen as you emptied out your savings and maxed out your credit cards. Let’s not even talk about the blood, sweat, and tears that went to building your website, eCommerce, and backend systems that would actually work. It could be overwhelming, but you grew stronger, you pressed on, and it paid off.

Here you are. The day of sales you could only see through a microscope are behind you. Customers are coming to you, and orders are pouring in at a pace you could only imagine not so long ago. You are actually hiring those employees you used to just daydream about, and you are suddenly in a position of strength when it comes to dealing with suppliers and investors. So, what could possibly be the problem?  As it turns out, you’re finding success breeds a whole new set of business challenges. All those systems you hastily put into place to support the urgent demands of your infant business are now breaking under the weight of what is now a much larger and needier enterprise. Those orders? Well, you’re now fielding customer complaints as fulfillment lags and your pipeline is more clogged than flowing. You’re still overwhelmed – not by failure, but by success. Welcome to the downside of fast growth – when you suddenly need to scale your backend to effectively manage substantially higher sales and a more complex organization.

The encouraging news is that virtually every successful business faces this downside to success. What distinguishes them is not the challenge, but how effectively they pivot and intelligently implement the needed business processes and data management to grow and scale effectively. Unlike those early days, you just can’t rely on your personal knowledge or memory. Think “business intelligence” that captures, organizes, integrates, and delivers you the data you need to make the right decisions and put the processes you need to pave the way for growth unimpeded by a limited organizational structure. With effective business intelligence, you can leverage this super power to make your organization more productive, ensure the right processes are in place to efficiently capture and process orders, gather vital sales and market intelligence, and stay ahead of the demand curve through continued product innovation. All this means increased ROI and the means to achieve those new, audacious goals. Implementing the right backend solutions takes analysis and planning. It’s also the time to bring in experts who can help you develop that strategic technology plan that bests aligns your company for the scalability, competitiveness, and growth it needs to succeed for you, your customers, and your employees. It’s what we do. To find out more about how we partner with companies like yours to develop responsive business intelligence solutions, contact us for a conversation.

As experts in technology strategy and database development, we are happy to share our knowledge.

Subscribe to our email newsletter!

Ready to Transform Your Business?