Grow to Greatness: Smart Growth for Entrepreneurial Businesses PDF
Preview Grow to Greatness: Smart Growth for Entrepreneurial Businesses
g r o w t o g r e a t n e s s g r o w t o g r e a t n e s s Smart Growth for Entrepreneurial Businesses edward D. Hess stanford business books an Imprint of stanford University Press stanford, California stanford University Press stanford, California © 2012 by the Board of trustees of the Leland stanford Junior University. all rights reserved. no part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system without the prior written permission of stanford University Press. special discounts for bulk quantities of stanford Business Books are available to corporations, professional associations, and other organizations. For details and discount information, contact the special sales department of stanford University Press. tel: (650) 736-1782, Fax: (650) 736-1784 Printed in the United states of america on acid-free, archival-quality paper Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Hess, edward D., author. grow to greatness : smart growth for entrepreneurial businesses / edward D. Hess. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 978-0-8047-7534-2 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. small business—growth. 2. small business—Management. 3. Industrial management. 4. entrepreneurship. i. title. hd62.7.h483 2012 658.4′06—dc23 2011051604 typeset by newgen in 10/15 sabon This book is dedicated to the memory of Frank Batten, Sr., whose vision, leadership, and generosity founded the Batten Institute at the Darden Graduate School of Business, University of Virginia. c o n t e n t s Acknowledgments ix 1 the roadmap to smart growth 1 part i: whether to grow 2 the “truth” about growth 21 3 Preconditions to growth 45 part ii: how to grow 4 the Four Ps: Planning, Prioritization, Processes, and Pace 69 5 the Four ways to grow Your Business 101 6 Creating three growth Plans 132 part iii: growth requires the right leadership, culture, and people 7 growth Is Much More than a strategy 155 8 the entrepreneur Must grow, too! 184 viii contents 9 the silver Bullet: Highly engaged employees 210 10 Building an effective Management team 239 Reminders for the Entrepreneur 265 Notes 267 Bibliography 275 Recommended Reading 279 Index 283 a c k n ow l e d g m e n t s with each book, I am humbled because this work builds upon my earlier eight books with the unifying focus of illuminating how to build endur- ing, high-performance organizations. My research has examined public companies, family businesses, start-ups, and now private growth compa- nies. I again thank and acknowledge the continuing contribution of all those acknowledged in previous books--too many to be named here. no one writes a book alone. this book began with a research question: “what were the major man- agement challenges faced by leaders of high-growth private companies?” Professor Jeanne Liedtka, who at the time of my research was the execu- tive Director of the Batten Institute, Darden graduate school of Business, and Professor sankaran Venkataraman, research Director of the Batten Institute, supported my curiosity and agreed that the Batten Institute and the Darden Foundation would fund this research. Fifty-four high-growth private companies located in 23 states gener- ously participated in my study. a special thank you goes to the Ceos who agreed to participate in developing Darden cases with us and sharing their learning experiences. a special thank you to my research assistant, Cassy eriksson, for her research, critique, good ideas, and perfectionist production of this book.
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