Let go to Grow
Let go to Grow:
why some businesses thrive & others fail to reach their potential
By Doug and Polly White
Doug and Polly White, Partners at Whitestone Partners, Inc., guide small and midsize business through profitable growth. Together they have more than 50 years of experience in the areas of people management and human systems, strategy, operations, and finance.
Immediately in Chapter 1, the authors relate the story of a furniture/cabinet maker who started working out of his basement. As the demand for his products increased, he moved the business into rented space, purchased equipment, and hired employees. Life was good. But, despite its initial success, the company developed difficulties in meeting delivery schedules, which created reliability issues with contractors who eventually took their orders elsewhere. The business slowed and profits diminished. The business was in trouble, trouble which could be traced directly back to the owner who “simply couldn’t get to everything that was on his plate.”
With this backdrop, the authors move on to classify businesses:
Micro – The principal does the primary work of the business.
Small – The principal manages employees who do the primary work of the business.
Midsize – The principal manages an enterprise.
And, they tell us, “for a business to grow successfully, the principal must develop a new and very different set of skills at each transition (from micro to small, and from small to midsize).” The chart below (taken from the book) shows what skills are needed by the principal for each size of business, as well as those which should be relinquished as the business grows.
| Principal’s Responsibilities | Micro | Small | Midsize |
| Doing the work of the business | Do | Let go |
|
| Make tactical decisions | Do | Do | Let go |
| Develop strategy | Do | Do | Do |
| Get the right workers in the right jobs | Do | Let go | |
| Manage workers | Do | Let go | |
| Delegate Authority and Hold Accountable | Do | ||
| Get the Right Managers in Place | Do | ||
| Establish Systems and Document Processes | Do | ||
| Develop Robust Metric | Yes |
The authors spend a lot of time on each of these skills, on how to transition from one size business to the next, and more
. The information presented is not only from their personal business experience, but from interviews with more than 100 key decision makers in a broad range of small and midsize businesses. No matter the current size of your business, Let go to Grow can be a guidebook to which you can refer over and over again as you move forward.