Professionalisation

Growth may never stop, but the time will come when the business needs to face up to some questions that will lead to changes in how the company operates. Rapid growth often reveals, inevitably, that the operating processes and financial controls that worked at start-up are no longer adequate for a much-changed business. The greatest challenge to the leaders of the company is how they can keep hold of the initiative at this time so that as structure and process become more important, the culture and values are not hijacked.

Professionalisation typically requires a business to come to terms with questions of:

• roles and responsibilities
• planning and resource allocation
• formalising operating processes
• financial control and management information
• recruitment criteria and processes
• communication
• founders' roles and future involvement

Professionalisation can be a difficult time for founders and entrepreneurs, as they recognise the need to change the business and, possibly, their relationship to it. We will help you to plan for and manage the onset of the professionalisation phase in a way that secures the necessary process and discipline whilst maximising the company's ability to hold on to its soul. We will work with you to identify how to protect and develop the culture and values, and how to use them as a basis for proactively leading the business into the professionalisation phase of its development. We will also help the early players in the business, whether founders / owners or employees, to face up to the impact that change is having on their own relationship with the business and to take decisions about their future roles.

We'll help to sharpen up your act:

• introduction of key processes and controls
• maintenance of entrepreneurial culture
• preparation of founders for possible changes in role
• managing impact on key people
• assessing senior people's contribution and future roles