"The Path from Pleasure to Success...7 Stages in the Evolution of a Business."
By Hank Moore

Hank Moore has advised 2,000+ client organizations over 30+ years (including 80 of the Fortune 500). As the only Corporate Strategist™ , he speaks and advises companies about growth strategies, visioning, planning, executive-leadership development, Futurism and the Big Picture issues which profoundly affect the business climate. The Business Tree™ is his trademarked approach to growing, strengthening and evolving business, while mastering change.

Every business, company or organization goes through cycles in its life. At any point, each program or business unit is in a different phase from others. The astute organization assesses the status of each program and orients its team members to meet constant changes and fluctuations.

Strategic Planning facilitates disciplined thinking about the organization, its environment and its future. It identifies conflicts, reinforces team building and serves as a vehicle for monitoring organizational progress.

The planning process is then translated into a company Vision. With that Vision, the organization will evolve steadily toward success. Without any kind of Vision, management will continually apply corrective techniques ("band-aid surgery"), while the company stumbles and falls. The price tag for false surgery is six times that of front-end Vision...a concept that I call The High Cost of Doing Nothing™ .

I've talked with many entrepreneurs and founders of companies which rapidly grew from the seed of an idea they had. Most admitted enjoying the founding phase but lost interest shortly after giving birth. Over and over, they said, "When it stops being fun, I move on. "

After the initial honeymoon, you speak with them and hear rumblings like, "It isn't supposed to be this hard. Whatever happened to the old days? I'm ready to move on. This seems too much like running a business. I'm an idea person, and all this administrative stuff is a waste of my time. I should move on to other new projects."

When they come to me, they want the business to transition smoothly and still make the founders some money. They ask, "Are you the one who comes in here and looks after my interests?"

I reply, "No. After the caretakers come in and apply the wrong approaches to making something of your business, I'm the one who cleans up after them and starts the business over again." The reality is that I'm even better on the front end, helping business owners avoid the costly pitfalls attached to their losing interest and abdicating to the wrong people. Most companies enjoy the early stage of success...and wish things would stay as in the beginning. When "the fun ends," the hard work begins.

To "go the distance," the organization must complete all seven stages of evolution. There are no fast-forward buttons or skipping steps inn developing an effective organization, just as there are no shortcuts in formulating a career and Body of Work.

Stages in the Evolution of a Business

1. Transient Pleasure

• Glow of initial achievements.
• Excitement over mission and expertise.
• Instincts are satisfied. Egos are inflated.
• Character of the organization has not changed yet. Reflects the people coming into it, along with the excess baggage of previous corporate cultures.
• Founder projects his-her vision into others in the founding team.
• Exchange of egotisms from one person to the other.
• Pleasures are plentiful in the beginning because great responsibilities are to follow.

2. Big Letdown

• Machinery of the company must now perform on its own.
• Imperfections start to reveal themselves.
• Dissatisfactions, blaming of others for mistakes. The reality is that no fully compatible organization exists.
• Wish to return to the early moments of success, or at least the perceptions of victory.

• Recognize the end of the early illusions. Now, it's time to become more mature as an organization.
• Determine if you're willing to make more sacrifices, in order to go the distance.
• If management is willing to "stick it out," many strengths and an organizational character will be revealed.
• Reaffirm commitment toward self, the organization and the quest.
• Start seeing the company (mainly its people) as resources to be cultivated, not exploited.

4. Pain

• Some prefer the early experiences, not the current character of the organization.
• Take wrong courses of action. Pursue surface remedies for the pain.
• Many people want quick, easy, flashy fixes...without doing the things necessary to maintain staying power. Thus, they move from venture to venture.
• Realities of doing business for the longterm set in.

5. Semi-Permanent Joy

• After enduring the crisis and realizing pain, people start to see the reasons why they went through this process.
• Achieve knowledge and understanding that an evolution has transpired.
• Reinforce the will and zest to achieve further.

6. Assuring Future Success

• Give seeds enough time and nurturing to sow.
• Plan to grow. Grow according to the plan.
• Craft a Vision from the frustrations, mistakes, failures, missed opportunities, short sightedness and self-sabotage.

• Organizations do not set out to go bad. They just don't "set out" (little or no planning). Thus, they go off course.
• There is a difference between knowing a product-industry and growing a successful business. Understanding all seven components of a successful company is a concept that I call The Business Tree™ .
• Much of the wisdom to succeed lies outside your company. It must be called upon, sooner rather than later.
• Much of the wisdom to succeed lies within. It must be fine-tuned and utilized.
• People under-perform because they are not given sufficient direction, nurturing, standards of accountability, recognition and encouragement to out-distance themselves. That is a concept that I call The Organization Tree™.
• Anybody can poke holes at an organization. The art-skill is to create programs and systems which do something constructive. That is a concept that I call Three Rights Offset a Wrong.
• Communicate abstract principles in concrete terms.