A model that may be useful is found in “Corporate Lifecycles: How and why corporations grow and die and what to do about it” written by Dr. Ichak Adizes. He describes ten stages of a business life. Think of the cycle as a bell curve…it begins with Courtship, peaks out in Prime and ends with Corporate Death.

Courtship is the stage when you are still sizing up the market. You don’t really know what you don’t know, but everything is exciting. Making decisions is more difficult because you are flying by the seat of your pants, still sizing everything up.

When reaching Infancy, the company is able to crawl and stands, however wobbly, for moments at a time. The GO-GO stage is just that…everything is happening fast, you are growing, but not sure how to handle it, you are adding people and facilities quicker than you should and making more than your fair share of mistakes. Adolescence is very similar, just more advanced.

When you hit your Prime, it is a wonderful feeling. The worries about making payroll and paying bills are reduced, your sales staff is performing well, operationally things are good, banks are now offering you more credit than you need, your industry knows who you are. You have time to be more involved in organizations outside of your own.

Heading down the curve, Stability is next. The term complacency is interchangeable. Everything is going well…growth is a little slow…but that’s okay…costs are drifting up…but life is good. You start to slide into Aristocracy. You can do no wrong. Others seek you out to get your advice. You are asked to joint corporate boards and industry best practices committees. However, internally, dissent is not an option…it is not tolerated. You believe in yourself so much that you rule!

Recrimination follows. In order to keep the order, a Bureaucracy is formed. Rules are set in place. Long, detailed procedure manuals are written, and everything is documented. Growth and innovation are stifled…and we are doing things the way we have always done them. HR makes all of your people decisions. Change becomes difficult to impossible. “It was good enough for my father…” becomes the refrain.

Corporate Death is imminent unless something drastic is done to ward it off.

Can you place your business in the life cycle? The optimal place in the cycle is between adolescence and prime…and you can loop back and get there. Here are some ideas for getting your business back into the sweet spot of growth and continuing prosperity. They are simple…yet very challenging. Good luck!

Take off the blinders! Be realistic about your business and where it is. Get outside help in assessing your business. Ask your employees, your customers, your vendors, your stakeholders. Understand where your gaps are. Be willing to open your eyes and see your business the way others do. When you always do what you always did, you always get what you always got…and that is not necessarily a good thing.

Take time to dream! Spend the time to envision the future you want to create. My experience is that so many owners of companies and professional managers get so bound up in the day to day they forget to dream. What does the business look like 5, 10 or 100 years from now? What are you hearing about the business in the future and who is saying it? Do you feel pride…what does that feel like? How do you want your family, employees and others to feel about the business?

Take time to plan! Once you can envision the future of your company, plan it! What are the 3, 4 or 5 critical success factors that are both necessary and sufficient for you to attain the future you have dreamt about? What goals will you set? What specifically do you need to do to get where you want to go?

Take ACTION! What specific actions will you take to get what you want? What different things, or what things will you do differently to go back to the prime stage?

If you know what you want and what it will take to get it…then why don’t you have it already? That leads to the only question left: WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO GET STARTED!