Bigger better faster
Beyond the Bottom Line
Most people want results that are bigger, better, and in the shortest time possible. But it does not happen this way. Other people tend to want to make good things bigger and faster. Too much too soon, too fast. A good idea on steroids quickly becomes a terrible idea. Warren Buffett once joked that you can’t make a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant.
Morgan Housel, author of “Same As Ever: A Guide To What Never Changes,” observes the dynamics of companies, businesses, or investments that desire to grow too much, too soon, and fast.
You’d be surprised, though, how common it is for people to attempt to speed up a process beyond when it comes. Whenever people discover something valuable, particularly a lucrative investment or a particular skill, they tend to ask, great, but can I have it all faster? Can we push it twice as hard? Can we make it twice the size? Can we squeeze some more juice out? of it? It’s a natural question and understandable.
Most things have a natural size and speed and backfire quickly when you push them beyond that. A company that gets business too quickly acts like a boy who gets money too quickly. Corporate mergers often fall for the same trap. Growth by acquisition usually occurs when management wants faster growth than customers think the business deserves.
A management style that works brilliantly at a 10-person company can destroy a 1,000-person company, which is a hard lesson to learn when some companies grow that fast in a few short years. Here is an example from nature: Most young tree saplings spend their early decades under the shade of their mother’s canopy. Limited sunlight means they grow slowly; slow growth leads to dense hardwood. But something interesting happens if you plant a tree in an open field. Free from the shade of bigger trees. The sapling is gorgeous in sunlight and grows fast. Fast growth leads to soft, airy wood that never had time to densify, and soft, airy wood is a breeding ground for fungus and disease. A tree that overgrows rots quickly and, therefore, never has a chance to grow.
Take two groups of identical baby fish. Put one in abnormally cold water and the other in abnormally warm water. There’s a specific temperature on either end that does something interesting. Fish living in cold water will grow slower than usual, while those in warm water will grow faster. Put both groups back in regular water temperature, and they’ll eventually converge to become normal, full-sized adults. But then something astounding happens – fish with slowdown growth in their early years go on to live 30 percent longer than average; those with artificial supercharged growth early on die 15 percent earlier than average. Supercharged growth can lead to tissue damage, and as the biologist put it, it may only be achieved by diverting resources away from the maintenance and repair of damaged biomolecules. Slowdown growth does the opposite, allowing an increased allocation to maintenance and repair.
As I continuously emphasized in my Level Up Leadership training, “Pursuing growth for growth’s sake alone becomes a very perilous pursuit. Growth should be a natural by-product of doing the right things consistently well.” Some participants seek to be promoted quickly and soon without understanding that they need to have their basic leadership skills right and effectively.
A business that seeks to scale and grow without taking care of its support system leads to the inability of customers to engage the company with their needs and care, thus rendering the company a mercenary and
money-oriented reputation.
A faith-based organization (i.e., churches) in their pursuit to grow through the increase of “memberships and numbers” leads to their leaders or pastors being inaccessible to and for the needs of their flock at their most important moments (bereavement, crisis counseling, etc.) that tends to create an impression that their leaders are guilty of committing spiritual malpractice. Any organization, whether for-profit or not-for-profit, may have rushed to grow and scale without proper training for its leaders and thus discover, to their dismay, later on, as attrition arises, chaos ensues. Operations are paralyzed because they want to scale too fast too soon.
Sustainable and replicable growth benefits from being gradual, and you need to have an efficient system of back office support and leadership training that prepares them to handle the new size of business. Forced growth, accelerated growth, and artificial growth tend to backfire.
Most great things in life, from love to careers to investing, gained value from patience and non-dramatic but consistent growth and improvement. Patience to let something grow and scarcity to admire what it grows into. And yes, Warren Buffet was right about the birth requiring nine months before delivery.