Where does your organization sit in the Corporate Life Cycle and what should you expect next? Are you balancing entrepreneurialism with management disciplines effectively?
There are generally accepted to be ten stages in an organization’s life cycle:
When an organization comes into being it usually does so as a result of someone’s BRAINCHILD. If the idea doesn’t take off, then in a sense, the brainchild is stillborn and the business never gets off the ground. BIRTH of the idea however is usually the next step.
Stage three of the life cycle is INFANT. Once an organization comes into being its immediate need is to survive. Keeping it alive is the main requirement as it begins to get stronger and grow its physical attributes. The main threat at this stage is a shortage of funds to sustain its early growth. If the organization doesn’t succeed at this stage it becomes an infant mortality.
As an organization survives infancy it begins to see success. Classically customer numbers increase, sales volumes grow and so do costs. The organization begins to take on a personality of its own and with increasing self-confidence...