Operational Scalability: Jerry Creighton of The Creighton Group On How To Set Up Systems, Procedures, And People To Prepare A Business To Scale
In my experience, not investing in Operational Scalability leads to growth stagnation, loss of competitive advantages and possibly bankruptcy. Business models (at best) have a limited lifecycle. Operational Scalability needs to be a continuous way for a company to be flexible / agile and relevant. These are activities necessary for delivering what I call believable transformative strategies and tactics. Operational Scalability initiatives are vitally important to business owners, investors and other interested parties who are looking for evidence of preparation to meet growth projections.
In today’s fast-paced business environment, scalability is not just a buzzword; it’s a necessity. Entrepreneurs often get trapped in the daily grind of running their businesses, neglecting to put in place the systems, procedures, and people needed for sustainable growth. Without this foundation, companies hit bottlenecks, suffer inefficiencies, and face the risk of stalling or failing. This series aims to delve deep into the intricacies of operational scalability. How do you set up a framework that can adapt to growing customer demands? What are the crucial procedures that can streamline business operations? How do you build a team that can take on increasing responsibilities while maintaining a high standard of performance?
My business practices and my book “The Quest For Durability” — The Business Puzzle Method™ are enablers that deal with scalability matters. I call this business Durability. It requires concurrently managing both short-term and long-term business matters to produce strategic and tactical continuity needed to be a year-over-year relevant, resilient and durable business.
In this interview series, we are talking to CEOs, Founders, Operations Managers Consultants, Academics, Tech leaders & HR professionals, who share lessons from their experience about “How To Set Up Systems, Procedures, And People To Prepare A Business To Scale”. As part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing (Jerry Creighton, Sr. MBA).
Jerry Creighton, Sr., MBA is the President of The Creighton Group, LLC and the author of “The Quest For Durability” — The Business Puzzle Method™. Jerry leads the organization’s approach to Business Development to “Future Proof” businesses and organizations of all sizes and stages of growth by emphasizing a methodology to systematically deal with opportunities, changes, challenges and risk management. Jerry draws his entrepreneurial ideas from extensive domestic USA and international experiences as an M&A specialists, business owner, adjunct professor and corporate executive plus over a decade as the executive director of a highly successful international incubator / expansion company commercialization center.
Thank you so much for your time! I know that you are a very busy person. Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?
I have always been interested in the accomplishments that are around us every day. People accomplishments, team accomplishments, organization accomplishments. My earliest eye-opening experience happened when I was a very young Cub Scout. Our pack visited an automobile assembly plant. What I saw amazed me! Who designed those different cars and how much coordinated teamwork had to transpire to assemble them? Multiple brands, models and colors were assembled simultaneously on a moving assembly line.
It occurred to me that this kind of collaborative activities was an example of the true formula for business success…focus, know-how & collaboration!
From that point on, I observed and studied and experimented to learn the reasons some businesses grow and survive while others do not succeed.
It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
The biggest mistake I made (and it was not funny then or now) was not pursuing some of my earliest business ideas. I procrastinated since I wasn’t comfortable that I knew what to do to develop a business idea. I wasn’t in a hurry since I was comfortable in my current job position. Procrastination is a success impediment.
I had prepared a conceptual presentation for remote meter reading. Some folks talked me out of spending time on such an endeavor. They said nobody would be interested. Today, almost all public utilities utilize remote meter reading as a way to collect utility usage information. I should have benefited from this idea! This was definitely a lasting learning experience.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
My company stands out because it is focused on a new differentiated methodology that helps businesses grow producing both short-term and long-term business viability, job creation / retention and economic / community develop. This is a credible business purpose very much needed today and in the future. It features a methodology that is applicable for all types of businesses in any industry and phase of growth from startup through expansion and mature stages. Adopting this approach will stimulate strategic actions that every CEO can use to develop durable competitive advantages.
You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
The character traits of any business leader are vitally important to a business since they are observed by everybody both inside and outside of the business. For me, I think my most important character traits are:
- Persistence and drive to complete goals
- Continuously learning to be more capable
- Willingness to adapt to change
In the world where I operated, these three traits produced noticeable accomplishments. However, they all need to be replicated throughout the organization. I most recently witnessed this in the incubator where I was the Executive Director. I saw examples in the progress reflected in the resident company business plans as they evolved and presented validated business models. The character traits of the team leadership members (throughout their organizations) was often the key influence to performance progress.
Leadership often entails making difficult decisions or hard choices between two apparently good paths. Can you share a story with us about a hard decision or choice you had to make as a leader? I’m curious to understand how these challenges have shaped your leadership.
I recall a situation where I was hiring a new employee. A senior leader in my company submitted a candidate with a suggestion for me to hire him. The candidate was clearly not qualified and would not have fit in my organization’s culture. I was in danger of being in a bad light from this particular senior leader if I did not hire this candidate. I chose to not hire him since I felt I was doing the right thing for the right reason. Some employees in my organization became aware of my decision and complemented me for turning him down. They were concerned that they would have to carry him. Clearly my decision to not hire him created a new level of respect and trust from my organizational team which I witnessed in attitudes and performance.
Doing the right thing for the right reason has always been an important part of my value system and leadership philosophy.
Thank you for all that. Let’s now turn to the main focus of our discussion about Operational Scalability. In order to make sure that we are all on the same page, let’s begin with a simple definition. What does Operational Scalability mean to you? Scalability
I define Operational Scalability as the ability to simultaneously handle challenges, changes and infrastructure modifications needed to grow a business. This requires people resources, technology capabilities, supply chain services and support services to enable growing revenue and expansion initiatives. To me this is done via 1) Perpetual Planning and validation of strategies and tactics, 2) Perpetual Prospecting of marketplace developments and 3) Continuous Improvement of core capabilities. These three activities together serve to make a business continuously (year-over-year) relevant, resilient and durable…in the short-term timeframes and continuing into the long-term future.
Which types of business can most benefit from investing in Operational Scalability?
All businesses that are looking to be considered viable beyond initial or current times have to demonstrate what I call lifecycle longevity during all stages of growth (startup, expansion and maturity). Operational Scalability should be evidenced by actionable expansion plans (business models) needed to stimulate business performance confidence, reduce risk concerns, attract investors / funding sources and substantiate rationale for valuations. This is best accomplished by preparing product / service Migration Plans and Contingency Plans to get ready for strategic expansions and / or course corrections should existing business models not prove out as anticipated.
Why is it so important for a business to invest time, energy, and resources into Operational Scalability?
Performance growth cannot occur without the infrastructure and resources to support a growth plan. Every growth strategic plan needs actionable tactical implementation programs to deliver and service business models in the marketplace. Ongoing Operational Scalability actions represent a value-added Business Development practice imperative for your business to produce confidence that it can continually be ready to pivot when necessary or as planned. It is best accomplished through a Continuous Improvement process addressing those operational requirements needed to support growth.
It is not a fragmented process! It must include multiple synergistic parts such as people resources, technology know-how, marketing and sales approaches, channel customer delivery systems, backroom services and every other part of your business that functions to design, develop, manufacture / source and deliver customer solutions. It is the enabling practice I call Just- In-Time Transition Planning (JITTP).
In contrast, what happens to a business that does not invest invest time, energy, and resources into Operational Scalability?
In my experience, not investing in Operational Scalability leads to growth stagnation, loss of competitive advantages and possibly bankruptcy. Business models (at best) have a limited lifecycle. Operational Scalability needs to be a continuous way for a company to be flexible / agile and relevant. These are activities necessary for delivering what I call believable transformative strategies and tactics. Operational Scalability initiatives are vitally important to business owners, investors and other interested parties who are looking for evidence of preparation to meet growth projections.
Can you please share a story from your experience about how a business grew dramatically when they worked on their Operational Scalability?
I believe Apple is a great example. They not only buildout their product / service portfolio to satisfy evolving customer desires, but they also built out their delivery systems and sales models to meet customer purchasing preferences in a timely manner.
Here is the primary question of our discussion. Based on your experience and success, what are the “Five Most Important Things A Business Leader Should Do To Set Up Systems, Procedures, And People To Prepare A Business To Scale”? If you can, please share a story or an example for each.
Five Most Important Things To Do
1 . Establish clear business purpose, vision, mission, goals, strategies and implementation tactics
2 . Identify resource needs (employees, technology)
3 . Prepare budgets and programs for sourcing of funding before it’s needed
4 . Hire employees / support services to fill existing and planned gaps
5 . Communicate intentions, organizational responsibilities & results measurement goals
Preparing a business to scale is an on-going activity. It requires:
- Perpetual Planning to ensure business models are relevant, resilient and durable in target markets
- Practice Continuous Improvement of core capabilities to facilitate strategic implementation while improving efficiency
- Perform Continuous Marketplace Prospecting to keep in touch with target customer desires, wants, needs and preferences
It is all about keeping people resources and infrastructure capabilities current as needed to handle growing revenue and servicing demands.
What are some common misconceptions businesses have about scaling? Can you please explain?
As previously stated, I believe successful scaling requires Perpetual Planning and Continuous Improvement to be operationally efficient in developing, marketing and servicing business model offerings. Often businesses place too much emphasis on short-term business requirements (such as daily customer servicing & quarterly performance reporting) ignoring longer-term Continuity objectives and business year-over-year durability needs. They view long-term planning as an activity that can be deferred to a later date.
This leads to not spending adequate time on actions needed to have timely access to future strategic needs requirements and / or not budgeting or sourcing funding for future needs. Businesses should have a balance between short-term requirements and longer- term goals to produce what I call business growth stage Lifecycle Longevity.
How do you keep your team motivated during periods of rapid growth or change?
Periods of growth and change are times of significant stress due to the amount of daily demands placed on people resources. Stress can often be the cause of a decline in productivity.
Some Actions I Recommend:
- Outsourcing certain functions to relieve workload pressure on people resources
- Operate in agile teams to share performance pressures
- Emphasize establishing a work environment with a balance of personal and job related daily activities. This could include encouraging work breaks, adding recreational facilities and wellness programs
- Constant recognition of appreciation for jobs well done
Constant management of stress will improve morale, decrease turnover and make your business a desirable place to work.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
My favorite “Life Lessons Quote” is from Bear Bryant, a football coach from the University of Alabama.
“It’s not the will to win, but the will to prepare to win that makes the difference”
I adopted the practice of preparing to win during my work and personal life and included the principle of Perpetual Planning as a foundational theme in my book “The Quest For Durability” — The Business Puzzle Method™.
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
If I were able, I would start a Foundation with a focus on entrepreneurial advancement for the creation / retention of jobs, economic development and the betterment of society.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Readers can easily contact me online via my website:
They can purchase my book titled “The Quest For Durability” — The Business Puzzle Method™ and contact me for speaking engagements.
Thank you so much for sharing these important insights. We wish you continued success and good health!
Operational Scalability: Jerry Creighton of The Creighton Group On How To Set Up Systems… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.