This business maturity model exercise helps you to gain an understanding of which stage your business is in. Continue reading below to understand how to use this business maturity model exercise
I have fond memories of my childhood days going along with my father on bicycle rides.
If you are in the 70s or 80s born, do you remember traveling in the small seat on the front handlebar?
Yes
Sitting in that small seat on the front bar, clinging to the bell, enjoying that sound, seeing the world for the first time with the warmth and care of a father is a lovely experience
Every trip on the way back home, the only question I ask my father, Appa, how do you remember the routes?
Appa will say, once you become big you will also remember the routes, not a big deal
But I don’t want to wait till I become big; I persistently ask the same question
My father once said,
If you know where you are going, understand where you are, and continue your journey, you will reach the destination.
I don’t know how much I used that advice in my life, but this is a golden word in business. If we understand where we are, it’s easy to reach our goals.
But how do I understand where my business is, in what stage of the growth curve I am in
This business maturity model exercise helps you to gain an understanding, this checklist exercise is customized for small &medium businesses (SMB ) in mind with inputs from domain experts, thanks to Amrith Lal of KRT & Co on Finance, Ms. Shanmugapriya of Hale consultants on People, and Selvakumar founder of GreatWorks.
Before doing the exercise, let us understand a bit about the stages of business growth
Same like human beings, business is also born out of a dream, takes baby steps, explores like a childlike enthusiasm, settles on a direction, grows steadily, at some point in time gets stagnant, then refreshes itself to grow further, finally finds its purpose and grows further strongly.
Each business takes its time to grow and reach its full potential. , some businesses just peak in 6 years, some in 30 years. There is no comparison, the process of becoming is more important than the result here.
But the ultimate aim is to grow, when an organization is not growing, then it’s failing in its mission, so growth is no compromise in business
So what are all the stages of growth?
The steps are:
- Initisl Stage- Level 1
- Managed- Level 2
- Scalable (Capable)-Level 3
- Enterprise –Level 4
Stage 1: Initial:
This is the formative years of the business. Survival is the priority. Everyone handles things on ad-hoc basis,
For example, a CEO goes to the bank to deposit the cheque. A service person goes to the sales call or common in this stage of business
Over a period of time, the organization needs to move ahead of this level, else the organization is running at risk to become stagnant or extinct
To move to the next level of the business owner’s responsibility is to focus on bringing in people and processes.
Level -2
In this stage, the business is managed and self-sustaining, but still there are dependencies with owners on a day to day actions
To move to the next level few recommended actions:
- Establishing processes across the organization
- Scheduled training for employees
- Focus on innovations
Level-3:
Organizations are well set to meet the challenges of the market; it’s time to scale up the organization, in terms of revenue market share, geography expansion
To move to the next level few recommended actions:
- Connecting the silos of the organization
Level- 4
The organization at this level has found its purpose; a business often at this level becomes a brand.
Staying at the top is always challenging. There are competitors always fighting to get your place . Enterprises need to constantly innovate to retain the position.
The purpose of the organization moves beyond the business causes and looks into social causes.
Now let us do the exercise.
You can download the business maturity model assessment excel sheet which has an 18 point checklist,
Here is the step-by-step guide:
Step-1 _ download the excel and save a local copy
Step-2 – In the excel sheet there are four parameters asked for functions like Finance Marketing, culture, etc. Choose the best one which fits or is applicable to your organization and fill in the Your Score column.
That’s the only box you can enter, the rest the cells are blocked.
Step-3–After filling in; check your overall score then come back to the website, and have a quick read of the stages of the business.
The awareness of understanding where your business is, is the first step in moving in the right direction. As my father said, understand where you are, start your journey, and you will reach your destination soon.
January may be the season for personal transformations, but April is the season for business Transformations.
The journey is not going to be easy, Changes are hard to implement and even harder to sustain to it, but you are not alone. We are here to guide you.
Before leaving this page, comment below at which stage your business is at and what steps you are going to take to move forward your organization.
Wishing you good luck in this new financial year.
You can click and download the worksheet Maturity levels of an Organization work sheet
