China Business Folly: Following Inc. Magazine to Bankruptcy?
Do you want to follow the plan to 5?
Never thought I would get advice leading to China Business Folly in Inc. Inc. Magazine has an article up that demands a response. See the whole crazy article here. It is called “Best Hires For Each Stage in Your Business Life Cycle. ” Everyone has a bad day and certainly this is a regrettable article for Inc.
INC. Wisdom or China Business Folly?
The writer is noting that you need to recruit different types of people for 4 different points of business development. He wants innovative people at the first stage and developers at the second stage and so on. This is madness as it leads directly to stage 5. Is his intent that we sell out in stage 4 knowing the result of our madness? I think we should not buy from him no matter how well he writes.
Surely a company has stages of growth and different needs, but we must never think we do not need all 4 people and abilities in each stage. A company must again and again find new life and the next stage of growth rather than plan for its demise. A company must manage details in every stage. I defy anyone to just hire rules followers in stage 4. What will be the result but stage 5! We need innovative people at all times. We need entrepreneurs at all times. We need managers at all times. We need expert technicians at all stages.
As a company grows, it has ability to hire more and more specialists but it should not give up its heart and lose the fire that helped it grow. There should always be a balance of strengths on the team like espoused in Michael E Gerber’s insightful The E Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What To Do About It. He notes that the managers, technicians and entrepreneurs should be in a delicate balance all the time. I so agree.
I also recommend a quick look at Jim Collin’s How the Mighty Fall for great insight on why companies are heading for stage 5.
So we do not need China Business Folly. We can succeed in China by defying Inc. Magazine.