Overcoming the scalability challenge

Any business has faced or will face the challenge of being scalable. This obstacle is even more persistent for companies experiencing rapid growth. Expansion is dependent on stability and continuity of business operations. An effective and scalable business operation will have the following characteristics:

1. Standardization

A company needs to establish repeatable processes that new employees can learn and implement. Repeatable experiences across all customer interactions and the elimination of complexities are equally important. Customer interactions should be:

• Straight to the point and easy to understand

• Best practices must be documented

• Measurable, including relevant milestones and tollgates

• Contain clear handoffs and transitions between functions and teams

2. Defined ownership and controls

The individuals within an organization must have clear process ownership to streamline effectiveness. To enable that, the following must be in place:

• Definition of necessary roles, skills, and responsibilities

• Hiring and resource development plans that support broader sales and service objectives

• Reasonable measures to track performance

3. Customer journey management

Customer engagement relies on how well an organization understands and facilitates the customer journey. Interactions should be meaningful and valuable. Proactive customer management programs share the following traits:

• Repeatable end-to-end processes

• Methods to harvest information for optimization of sales, delivery, support and product operations

• Processes for enabling customer success from acquisition to renewal and expansion

4. Innovation

Below are key attributes to maintain an effective innovation model capable of generating customer insights to enhance product roadmap and cross-selling.

• Active feedback loop from service engagements and customer interactions to support innovation lifecycle

• Asset harvesting that furthers adoption and success (ROI, OCM, etc.)

• Validation of new concepts and ideas with customer advocates

To fully enable the scalability of your business a lot of planning and prioritization is required. You must define areas to focus on and invest time on establishing repeatable processes that carry the four characteristics mentioned above. Streamlining these changes depends on the maturity of the organization and product, as well as the market and customer dynamics. Remember that business scalability is a process that requires time and energy. Always implement a careful balance of tracking, controls, management and innovation to minimize risks.