New Laws for Winners

Growth agile from StartUp to Mittelstand: How does transformation in companies work?
// By Simone Janson

Growth is the verdict of the death of many startups, because they are often spontaneous, disruptive, chaotic, but also flexible. But the drama begins when the company grows: how can companies grow and yet remain agile and maintain efficient structures?

Why do startups fail?

Laut Best of HR - Berufebilder.de®Author Eric Ries, who founded the lean startup method with his eponymous bestseller, fail startups for two reasons: First, they try too early to counter possible imponderables with a puncture-proof stragie that does not work that way. Because startups can not know what the future will look like due to lack of experience with their product and their customers; They thus take the opportunity to react flexibly to changes. Second, they surrender and do not even try to run their business - it will work out somehow. For Ries, however, it is anything but unsexy to deal with work and leadership processes at an early stage:

"Entrepreneurship is management. A startup is not just a product, but an organization and therefore requires leadership skills that are tailored to the context of extreme uncertainty. " (https://berufebilder.de/startup-methode-prinzipien-ueberblick/Ries also immediately defines how that should look like: "The basic activity of a start-up is to convert ideas into products, to measure the reaction of customers and to learn from this whether the path taken should be continued or whether adjustments require. All successful startup processes should aim to speed up this feedback loop. " For Ries, the true purpose of a startup lies in such validated learning processes: learning how to build a viable business model.

React quickly to crises

This also includes reacting quickly to crises and accepting alleged setbacks - like the Berlin online job exchange Absolventa. Christoph Jost, Henning Peters and Pascal Tilgner were partly still students when it was founded at the end of 2007. Thanks to venture capital and a cooperation with studiVZ, the three had 50.000 registered users and 300 corporate customers after just a few months and was even named Startup of the Year. But in the economic crisis they had to lay off employees for the first time, adapt the revenue model to the market and renegotiate with investors. "2009 was no picnic, but for us it was the most instructive year ever," says managing director Jost. As a result, previous department heads were brought into management, which now consists of a team of five: "We are still euphoric, innovative and flexible, but we may approach new projects in a more structured and less chaotic manner," says Jost, summarizing the learning effect. And makes the common goals clear: "Today we have a healthy base with over 4000 corporate customers. Our team does not want growth at any price, but rather to be profitable in a niche. "

Defining realistic and measurable goals is a surprisingly difficult task for many startups. They have to be at the beginning of every start-up and not only be clear to the founders, but also communicated to the investors and employees. How should a company without clear values ??and goals find suitable employees who can fully identify with its vision? No wonder, then, that many startups are looking for "particularly flexible employees who can quickly familiarize themselves with new, not yet clearly defined topics and processes", as journalist Jan Thomas Otte reports.

Fatal impact on employee motivation

That can be fatal. Charles Margerison and Dick McCann from the Institute of Team Management Studies in Brisbane showed that a company's future viability depends primarily on the energy of motivated employees. They evaluated the statements of 151 executives and teams in Australia, Europe, the USA and Southeast Asia and identified eight characters: They include, for example, the discovering promoter who inspires others for ideas, the determined organizer who creates framework conditions or the creative innovator as a classic lateral thinker. A team performs optimally when all eight functions are represented and work together towards one goal. "Many managers hire people who are like them. That's human. Especially startups with their scarce resources should find complementary characters who fill their role with enthusiasm in order to achieve optimal results ", says communication consultant Katharina Daniels, who reads the book" differently. What successful make better "has published.

The success of the online marketer plista from Berlin, which was launched in 2008, is also largely based on the different characters of its three founders: Andreas Richter is the visionary and technician with foresight and love for the product. Dominik Matyka is a gifted salesman, networker and industry expert. Christian Laase takes care of organization and finances, but also emotional matters. Since autumn 2013 Jana Kusick has also been holding the strings together as a strategic all-rounder in management. For plista it is important "to find absolutely suitable employees who support the development," says Laase. Therefore, the employees not only do yoga together, but also compete against the bosses in summoning or go on team trips twice a year. "Of course, we also use 'normal' recruiting channels, but we set targeted incentives to inspire a certain type of person," says Laase. His team found new members straight away: "We won some of our best minds through recommendations, because our people enjoy the job and they believe in the company." In the meantime, plista has 106 employees, has been able to convince investors such as DuMont or the NWZ-Verlag and won 2013 new customers in 100 alone. Enthusiasm can be contagious.

Motivation depends on leadership qualities

Motivation, as a study by the Institut der Deutschen Wirtschaft shows, depends not only on the harmony in the team, but also on the leadership qualities of the superiors. All employees' expectations can be merged into the key qualifications recognition, predictability and clarity. Markus Hornung, head of the training and consulting company EQ Dynamics, gives a simple example: "Bosses who say: 'I would suggest we might start the project in autumn' make employees despair. With the statement: 'The project starts in September under the condition that ...', however, there are clear procedures. " (https://berufebilder.de/fuehren-mitarbeiter-chefs/) Employees can also be frustrated as follows: A survey by Comteam among 250 specialists and executives proves that the decision-makers in 70 already have a solution in mind from the outset that they want to enforce. Often the problem is even discussed only in the team. (http://studie10.comteam-ag.de/ComTeamStudie2010.pdf)

"Communication is 'annoying' for many executives: You have to explain something to others that you have already understood yourself. You are already thinking in the future while the employees are still in the deep present or even the past, "describes Christian Brauner, managing director of the Detego management consultancy, the problem and recommends executives to always ask themselves the question: which target group should which content for which When will be communicated in what form? (http://leadership-in-change.de/stellhebel-im-change-was-ist-eine-angemessene-kommunikation/) Not a few executives do not want to give any information or even responsibility. Especially in startups, the Jung bosses often encounter the uncertain situation with control anger. If the company then grows, all the decisions jam in the congested boss and inhibit the entire company.

Autocracy is the rule rather than the exception

Autocratic decision-making structures are a rule rather than an exception, even in startups, even if they like to propagate missing hierarchies. To overtake the opinions of the whole team or even give a say, fear will make the company sluggish. How can the much-discussed swarm intelligence be used without sacrificing flexibility? An agile, pragmatic organizational method from the USA helps. Holacracy does not look for universally perfect solutions. It is always about the appropriate action alternative at that time and for the occasion, which changes something, but definitely does no damage. The goal is easy to continue working with a new idea. Any decision can always be replaced by a better one. This allows quick reactions, reduces pressure and reduces the fear of mistakes. Employees and customers act as early warning systems for problems. And because they can always bring in ideas, they feel responsible.

John Oringer, founder of the New York online photo agency Shutterstock, recognized early on how important co-determination is for the ability to innovate: "Management only specifies a general topic such as 'new content types' or 'globalization'," he explains. The product development teams then use this to independently develop ideas, for example for image searches, for mobile applications or to localize offers. Management only intervenes if the results deviate too much from the corporate strategy. "In addition, we are constantly testing the website and making the data available to everyone in the company. So everyone can always develop new ideas, "reports Oringer, who wants to motivate people to think along. The 24-hour hackathon, in which the entire team takes part once a year, also serves this purpose. A jury of employees and photographers decides on the winning idea, which is then implemented. "Many product innovations have emerged from this over the years, most recently a search tool that can be used to filter the images by color," reports the managing director. The tech teams also...