Reflections in Excellence

The Seven Ages: Growing the Big Idea ( 2002)

Is your organisation a hyperactive child, the lanky teenager, having a mid-life crisis or just a grumpy old man? In a recently published book, Robert Jones identifies seven phases in the life of an organisation and its ideals. Organisational growth and decline may not be pre-destined, but how do you know when your organisation has reached the limit of its potential?

It was not so long ago that getting a job with a credible organisation gave you the opportunity for employment for life. As your capabilities developed, so did the potential for your contribution within the organisation. But something has happened. Things have changed. As the life cycles of leading organisations have become increasingly short, the question in any lifetime guarantee of employment is now: Whose life?

The average lifespan of a Fortune 500 company is less than 40 years(1.). All workforces are now subject to forced change. Whether you are employed by a corporate icon, professional sage, public colossus or venerable institution; the prospect of major restructure, or even collapse, is highlighted daily. While we would all like to advance our careers, doing so by constantly changing employers was not what we had in mind. Even the CEO is now more likely to have a 3 year contract than a 30 year career. Can we really expect a promise of job security when management does not know if their own jobs, or even the company, will be here next year?

So why form and build an organisation at all? While one of the original reasons for creation of the company was to provide limited personal liability, another was to create an entity with perpetual succession. The 'corporation' provided a way of achieving business immortality. While some founders seek to take their businesses to their grave, creators of organisations that stand for something worthwhile usually hope that the toddler they nurtured to adulthood will outlive them.

But this does not happen. In 1987 Forbes revisited its original Top 100 list. Only 39 organisations remained and of those, only 18 had managed to stay in the Top 100(2.). Only one company from the original 1896 Dow Jones Industrial Average, General Electric, remains part of that market index today(3.). While acknowledging that millions of small and medium sized organisations disappear each year, it seems even the big players do not have an answer. The cycle of birth, growth, maturity, plateau and decline almost seems pre-destined.

What is it then that makes the difference? What determines whether your organisation will still be around to become part of the future? Management innovator, Charles Handy, believes once an organisation ceases to look constantly at whether it is adding value, it declines and dies - its original driving purpose having been fulfilled (and the day-to-day activity then becoming purposeless). The suggestion is that only organisations which have a sufficiently large reason to exist will find a way to continuously regenerate, constantly improving the way they do what it was they were created to do.

Robert Jones has encapsulated this concept in his book 'The Big Idea'(4.). He sees a distinct difference between the new corporate icons (IKEA, Orange, Virgin, Apple) and those of last century. These new leaders each have a Big Idea - one driving ideal that is more than 'lets make money' (being just the same idea). Jones suggests that organisations which treat their reason for existing - their Big Idea - as not the answer, but as the question, are the ones who will survive.

So can the normal cycle of growth and decline be avoided? The answer is 'Yes' if you keep the Big Idea alive through each of the stages of its maturity. Let this die and the natural forces that cause organisational decline take over, as always happens when the strategic management of growth is not a conscious management process. Robert Jones proposes seven ages (or stages) in the development of an organisation's Big Idea. To sustain an organisation requires a different approach in each 'age'. Let's examine each in turn so as to decide where your organisation is 'at' - and whether it has a sufficiently good reason to continue into the future:

1. The Hyperactive Child: Organisations with a big idea set off at a great rush. The people are passionate and the purpose that brings them together is instantly attractive. Success seems certain. The hyperactivity provides great opportunities for expansion but with it comes 'management by restlessness'. The leaders know they are onto something big, but with each new recruit the big idea becomes re-interpreted, diluted and potentially lost. The organisation is likely to lose its way before it begins and a management team which is divided between crystallizing the purpose and managing growth, will often choose the latter. The solution is to recruit the like-minded to create a shared culture and spend time developing and re-enforcing the original vision. This will provide sustainable growth.

2. The Lanky Teenager: In the second stage of development the organisation is now doing one thing well. Everyone 'gets it' and management by crisis has settled down. The initial translation of the big idea has defined itself into a single activity. However, it is now when growth stops, as management takes a breather. To keep the big idea alive the questions to ask are: What's next? How can we translate the initial concept into new channels? At this point the successfully created shared culture must move to the next level - being shared purpose, as the organisation expands its focus. The organisation must look a little deeper into its big idea if it is to continue.

3. The Grown Up: The organisation has now matured. Its original idea, which appeared radical, has now been followed by others. Having led the way it has created a new mainstream. It is the market leader, with a first mover advantage. However, the imitators are catching up and as the organisation relaxes, having achieved its initial goal, others will overtake it, learning and doing the job better. The solution (and a recurring theme) is to revisit the driving purpose and see where the big idea should extend to next. A choice becomes apparent: complacency and decline or innovation to leverage acquired strengths.

4. The Mid-Life Crisis: Having achieved and sustained success the organisation has now reached the age of maturity. What was once fun is now quarterly production figures, revenue statements and business administration. Our once dynamic organisation is now bored, tired and a little disheartened without an exciting challenge. The solution is find new energy and focus so as to stay young. The risk is that attention to the main purpose will be diverted by a flashy distraction. Instead we ask: What was it that gave the organisation that spark initially? Do not worry, it is still there (just buried under management reports).

5. The Over-Familiar Face: Our organisation has survived its own growth, changed with the times and stayed young. Its new idea has become respected, almost social property. It knows its current course and has a steadfast heading. It is becoming predictable. Where will the organisation be in the future? - probably right where it is now. If you are in this phase, the solution is to look once again at what the organisation does with new eyes. Find the essence within the functional and you will recreate that shared ideal for a new future. The familiar face can still surprise.

6. The Highly Mature: In the sixth age the organisation has become synonymous with orthodoxy. The organisation 'no longer stands out because it no longer stands for something distinctive'. The big idea has grown older and has turned from inspiration into dogma. The unquestioning nature of the business each day works to deny the reason the organisation has been successful. Asking the question why things need to be the way they are, and not accepting a 'because they are' answer, is the only salvation for the highly mature organisation. Did it need to come so far only to decline into obscurity?

7. The Venerably Wise: Organisations that make it to the seventh phase have a 'distinctive and resilient culture' that gives them an established place in the community. However the world has changed and the translation of the original idea that the organisation was founded on has become obsolete - a core competency that no one values, other than historically. The challenge is to scrape off the debris that has encrusted the big idea over time and, like a diamond, re-orientate it to discover a new facet. By looking again at what the organisation stands for in the bright light of today the organisation can re-find that special energy, linking the loyalty it engenders with the passion of the youthful to regenerate and start anew.

There is a recurring theme in Jones' seven ages. They all describe an organisation that has at the core of its culture a worthwhile purpose. However, some organisations hold onto the present with such force that, as the rest of us move into the future, it slips into the past. That essential quality which makes the organisation outstanding need not be destroyed. The core driving ideal that made the organisation stand out, the reason for its original success, need only be re-examined and re-defined. This is the challenge undertaken by organisations who seek to re-new and learn. Will your organisation be a part of the future or a statistic from the past? This question may be management's major role, if not its duty.

1. Charles Handy (1999) The Hungry Sprit, Arrow, Hammersmith
2. Richard Foster and Sarah Kaplan (2001) Creative Destruction Doubleday, New York
3. Mehrdad Baghai, Stephen Coley and David White (2000) The Alchemy of Growth, McKinsey & Company, Inc., New York
4. Robert Jones (2001) The Big Idea, Harper Collins, London

William Varey
Forsyth Consulting Group
www.fcg.com.au

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