Established Growth Stage

Stay Agile

The company is well established going through the ups and downs every business faces. Your market position is clear and customers are loyal. Sales are still growing, but in a manageable way. You have a range of money sources—profits, banks, investor and government programs—to draw on as needed. Yes, you’ve earned a rest, but complacency is a luxury no business can afford. Success has attracted competitors, and you must remain alert— unexpected shifts in the market, the economy or both can upset everything with little or no warning.

The Direction

In some ways, just maintaining business as usual is the hardest thing a company can do. The key is to keep all operations running smoothly— incorporating necessary changes, improving efficiency and keeping a close eye on your markets, on the economy and on the competition. New choices continually present themselves, and a whole new direction may be in order. You might decide to expand aggressively, you might simply stay the course or you might consider exiting altogether. Regardless, you need to stay agile, flexible and ready for anything the market throws at you.

The CFO Function

As the eyes and ears of top management, the CFO function is both strategic and tactical—looking ahead while making sure no balls are dropped in day-to-day operations. In this stage, as you get into the intricacies of compliance and regulation, you must be attuned to their on-going effects. Now is the time to take stock, to determine which of the company’s goals are realistic and which need adjustment. Upgrades will be needed—to infrastructure, to IT capabilities, to entire processes and workflows—and the ability to remain agile and responsive may depend on deciding which upgrades to make and which processes would be better outsourced. It is at this point that the CFO needs to guard against complacency. Silos need to be broken down. Inefficiencies need to be identified and articulated. Improvement plans must be drawn up, shared and communicated throughout the organization.