Crossing the Chasm

Successfully crossing the chasm* to your next phase of growth requires a different leadership style and organisation focus:

*The term ‘chasm’ was coined by Geoffrey M. Moore in his book “Crossing the Chasm” (2014).

This is a pivotal point at which the leadership style needs to adapt in order to deliver a different set of organisational priorities.

The first chasm is perhaps the most crucial – the typically entrepreneurial and autocratic style of leadership of a fluid, adhoc Start-up needs to shift to become more directive or delegative, and the initial focus on product innovation needs to change to an organisational focus on market development. This means the product technology teams need to start listening and responding more to the commercial teams and their understanding of their customer needs. This is a material shift in the power dynamic within the firm.

Leadership Challenges of Growth

What are the key leadership challenges of high growth firms?

OE Cam is based in Cambridge, the “unicorn capital of Europe” and has worked with senior leaders of organisations at various stages of the lifecycle.

We see firms grappling with scaling up and the diagram below summarises some of the key leadership challenges. ‘Managing growing pains’ is about building in new systems and processes whilst keeping the entrepreneurial spirit alive, and in shifting the power dynamic from the product to the market-facing teams. And this needs to be achieved without slowing down decision making, so that the firm continues to adapt to the marketplace.

A third leadership priority we see is ‘Being Ambi-dextrous’. This is about leaders keeping their teams engaged whilst at the same time disrupt how the organisation is working, all the while balancing the short, medium and long-term challenges and opportunities.

The ‘Being Human‘ segment is about the founding leaders developing and utilising other senior leaders around the firm – having ‘confidence with humility’ means acknowledging that they may not now know everything, and need to keep on learning themselves.

The final piece of the puzzle is ‘maintaining a strong culture‘ – keeping hold of what makes them different, as the firm expands into new territories or sectors, that risks diluting the core essence of what makes the organisation a success….

Taking People & Systems With You on Your Growth Journey

A focus on leadership development, organisation design and culture

These challenges require a deliberate focus on leadership development, organisation design and culture to ensure that the leader takes its people and systems with them on the growth journey.

The starting point in managing growing pains and successfully crossing the chasm is building an awareness of, and a plan for, what to focus on and change as you shift from start-up to grown-up. And if you’re already in the chasm or just about to enter it, how to address the most critical risk factors.