快公司如何破解速生速死的詛咒

這個月，成百上千心懷抱負的創業者參加了西南偏南大會（SXSW），為自己的初創公司尋找資金。有些人會成功，并繼續創建增長迅速、前途無限的公司。但多數公司無法長久。

考夫曼基金會（The Kauffman Foundation）和《Inc.》雜志（ Inc. Magazine），對五至八年前曾經入選該雜志5000家增長最快的公司榜單的公司，進行了一次后續調查。調查結果令他們大吃一驚：曾經上榜的公司當中，有近三分之二遭遇了規?？s水、破產歇業或低價出售。

原因何在？因為他們未能成功渡過企業成熟度的第四個也是最后一個階段——即公司最終實現自我維持。

在第一個階段，初創公司為自己的想法找到真實的客戶。在第二個階段，他們確立流程，以可靠的方式交付產品和尋找新客戶?！禝nc.》雜志榜單內的5000家公司幾乎全都成功通過了前兩個階段，因為如果沒有確立基本流程，它們可能根本無法維持該榜單要求的高增長速度。

而在第三個階段出現了新的挑戰。要實現財務上的可行性，企業必須依靠更為成熟的流程，不能再依靠某個人的特殊才能，將公司命運交給某個人來決定。但即便公司成功渡過了第三個階段，多數公司依舊無法解決第四階段的核心挑戰：創建新的流程，為新客戶開發全新的產品。如果沒有對自身進行持續改造的流程，一家公司會逐漸與市場脫節，最終走向失敗。

這些增長最快的公司的領導者，通常會犯下面一種或多種錯誤：

? 公司日常運營的某些方面，依舊離不開他們；

? 錯誤地假設實現財務可行性便是創業的終點；

? 僅將研發用于對現有的工藝和產品進行漸進式的改善；

? 收購具有創新力的公司，卻將創新人才趕走。

如果領導層能夠有意識地創造一種文化，同時重視創新與效率這兩個相互矛盾的理念，便可以避免這些錯誤。

當然，對于有些公司而言，說起來容易做起來難，因為它們一直依賴流程的效率，來獲得快速增長所帶來的短暫的情緒高潮。公司要開發新產品、拓展新市場，就必須進行創新，但與創新有關的風險和干擾，似乎與迄今為止給公司帶來成功的經營理念背道而馳。

注重效率與增長的公司文化，無法承受創新所帶來的風險，除非有一位強勢的領導者，能夠提出一個激動人心的愿景，描繪基于創新實現的長期成功，并且能夠說服關鍵利益相關者。長期生存與繁榮，需要一位領導者創建一種公司文化，對于帶來效率和帶來創新的員工，給予同樣的獎勵。這樣的領導者非常罕見，這也是許多公司增長失速并最終陷入衰退的原因。凡事預則立。（財富中文網）

本文作者德里克?李都是iSuppli公司創始人和前任CEO，著有《初創公司領導力》（Startup Leadership）。他目前在普林斯頓大學教授創業、創新與創造力課程。

譯者：劉進龍/汪皓

Hundreds, maybe thousands, of aspiring entrepreneurs show up this month at the SXSW festival in search of funding for their startups. Some will succeed and go on to create fast-growing, promising companies.Most of those companies won’t last.

The Kauffman Foundation and Inc. Magazineconducted a follow-up study of companies five to eight years after they had appeared on the magazine’s list of the 5,000 fastest-growing companies. What they found was startling: about two-thirds of the companies that made the list had shrunk in size, gone out of business, or been disadvantageously sold.

Why? Because they failed to make it through the fourth and final stage of enterprise maturity, where a company finally becomes self-sustaining.

In stage one, startups find a real customer for their idea. In stage two, they establish processes for reliably delivering their product and for finding new customers. Virtually all Inc. 5000 companies are past stage two since, without basic processes in place, they would have been unable to sustain the high growth rates required to make the list.

In stage three, new challenges appear. To become financially viable, the enterprise must rely upon even more sophisticated processes, and it can no longer risk having the company’s fortunes depend upon the special talents of any one person. Even having successfully passed this point, most enterprises are then unable to solve the central challenge of stage four: creating processes for developing entirely new products for new customers. Without processes in place to continuously reinvent itself, a company is on a slow trajectory to irrelevance and failure.

Typically, leaders of our fastest-growing companies make one or more of these mistakes:

? Remain essential to the day-to-day execution of some aspect of running the company

? Falsely assume that financial viability is the end of the journey

? Use R&D to produce only incremental improvement to existing processes and products

? Acquire innovative companies and then drive their innovative talent away

Ultimately, these are all failures of leadership that can be avoided by consciously creating a culture that simultaneously values the competing ideals of innovation and efficiency.

Of course, this is easier said than done in companies that rely upon the efficiency of their processes to achieve the fleeting emotional highs that come with rapid growth. The risks and distractions associated with the innovations required to develop entirely new products and markets seem to run counter to what has brought success to that point. A culture dedicated to efficiency and growth will not tolerate these risks unless a strong leader has an exciting vision of long-term success based upon innovation that critical stakeholders find convincing. Long-term survival and prosperity requires a leader who can also craft a culture that rewards equally those who bring efficiency and those who innovate. Such leaders are rare and that is why so many companies see their growth evaporate and decline. Forewarned is forearmed.

Derek Lidow is the author of “Startup Leadership” and teaches entrepreneurship, innovation and creativity at Princeton. He was the founder and former CEO of iSuppli Corporation.