s any leader knows, past glory does not guarantee future success. Organizations prosper only as long as they provide value to those they serve. And pro-A viding long-term value for customers is especially difficult for enterprises that deliver services. Services are performances, which means they are usually labor intensive. Service providers are the product, and sustaining their energy, commitment, and focus is never easy. Leaders who sustain success do so by managing three equally important but sometimes conflicting pressures: operating effectively when growing rapidly, operating effectively when managing costs, and remaining entrepreneurial.
Operations Versus Growth
or many, growth is synonymous with success. But balancing growth with the need F for consistent delivery is one of the biggest challenges. Ironically, the greater the involvement of people in the process of serving customers, the more difficult the challenge. The organization must protect its principles whde selecting, orienting, and educating new managers and employees. Effective internal communications, vibrant vision and culture, and excellent service quality-essential success factors-all are tested by expansion. The process requires greater leadershp and discipline than exist in many companies.
Service companies like ValuJet and CompUSA stumbled by placing growth ahead of execution. Even while receiving accolades for its rapid growth-well before the tragic crash that led to an FAA shutdown-ValuJet was a deeply troubled company with lax controls. In the early 1990s, computer retailer CompUSA was the fastest-growing retail company in America. However, by early 1994 the company's survival was threatened as a result of weak financial controls, undisciplined merchandising practices, and poor in-store operations. Rapid growth had outstripped the small-company systems
Copynghi 1997