As your company moves through key stages in its growth, you will realize two important truths:
Truth #1:
You have outgrown the skills of key people that you have relied on to get you to this point.
Truth #2:
You are missing whole new skill sets that you did not need in earlier stages of growth.
Before you start firing people and jumping into the recruiting process, take some time to create an org chart of what you think the company’s leadership team will look like when your Huge Outrageous Target (HOT) is realized.
In other words, if you have a two-year HOT, then create an org chart—with role titles and function—for what your leadership team looks like two years from now. Then, take it a step further and number the order in which you will hire the people on your chart.
The Organization of the Future tool featured in our new book, Making BIG Happen, challenges leaders to take a close look at what their ideal organization will need to look like to reach their next HOT. This disruptive way of looking at the organization challenges you – the CEO – and your key executives to accelerate key hires and upgrades immediately so these A-players can drive your team to achieve your next HOT more easily.
Our clients, including Yi Li (find her story below), have found BIG success using the Organization of the Future tool to determine the title, function, and profile of the people they need to get their company where they want it to go.
I encourage you to consider how hiring the right leaders before your company is ready may be just the disruption you need to drive the BIG results you’re looking for.
Meet Yi Li
“The Make BIG Happen System has helped me grow my company from $25 million to $200 million in revenue in four years. My coach has helped me conquer my weaknesses and it has been amazing! Thanks to Mark and his whole team at CEO Coaching International.”
—YI LI, PRESIDENT, RENOGY
Yi Li came to the United States from China with a BIG vision—she wanted to make a lasting impact on the world, and she would stop at nothing to do that. Her entrepreneurial journey started from her dorm room at Louisiana State University, where she was pursuing a doctorate in physics.
Though Yi had never run a business before—she was already crystal clear on Make BIG Happen Question 1: What do you want? Her vision? Create a solar energy business to help people live off the grid and reduce their carbon footprint.
The young entrepreneur found early success designing, sourcing, and bringing her products to market via an e-commerce strategy. Before long, she had gained early success on Amazon. It was clear the young leader’s vision had legs and the potential to grow BIG.
At that time, Yi’s leadership team consisted of people she was able to find—Her VP of operations was the employee who formerly packed boxes in the warehouse. Her VP of HR got the job by being the warehouse employee’s sister. With her budding company flourishing, Yi knew she needed to get the right people with the right experience and skills in the right seats to achieve her next big goal. She hired top talent and revenue jumped by $17 million in three short years.
As her company continued to grow, then plateau, Yi, worked with her CEO Coaching International Coach to utilize the two steps in the Org of the Future tool time and again as she continued to set new, BIGGER goals:
Step 1:
Map out the organizational structure that is necessary to achieve your long-term HOT. Focus on the roles required rather than the people that will fill them.
Step 2:
For each position in the org chart, map out key considerations to prepare for an effective recruiting and hiring process including: necessary experience, probable challenges, potential opportunities, and potential constraints.
By acknowledging key truths and building out her Org of the Future chart as many times as required, Yi was able to work with her recruiting team to update the roles she needed to get where she wanted to go.
The result?
Renogy grew from $25 million to $200 million in revenue in just four years.
Yi’s vision has continued to expand and grow since its inception in an LSU dorm room. She continues to Make BIG Happen by evaluating and redesigning her org of the future again and again.
About CEO Coaching International
CEO Coaching International works with CEOs and their leadership teams to achieve extraordinary results quarter after quarter, year after year. Known globally for its success in coaching growth-focused entrepreneurs to meaningful exits, CEO Coaching International has coached more than 1,000 CEOs and entrepreneurs in more than 60 countries and 45 industries. The coaches at CEO Coaching International are former CEOs, presidents, or executives who have made BIG happen. The firm’s coaches have led double-digit sales and profit growth in businesses ranging in size from startups to over $10 billion, and many are founders that have led their companies through successful eight, nine, and ten-figure exits. Companies working with CEO Coaching International for two years or more have experienced an average revenue CAGR of 31% (2.6X the U.S. average) and an average EBITDA CAGR of 52.3% (more than 5X the U.S. average).
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