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 Posté le: Lun Sep 30, 2013 6:40 pm Sujet du message: Business growth: Do you know where you're growing |
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{Business growth: Do you know where you're growing?}
Natalia Venida of MNP Consulting points to the Oppenheimer Group when advising companies on how to plan for growth|PHOTO © Dominic SchaeferBy Nelson BennettTue Sep 10, 2013 12:01am PSTAt first blush, the Oppenheimer Group and Avigilon Corporation don't seem to have a lot in common.The former is a fresh-produce distributor that was founded in 1858; the latter, founded in 2004, makes high-definition surveillance cameras.But both are success stories about companies that experienced rapid growth in recent years – growth that was planned for and managed in ways that avoided some of the growing pains that some companies may experience, like high employee churn rates and financing issues.Natalia Venida, a human resources specialist with the businesses consulting firm MNP Consulting, spent 11 years with Oppenheimer as senior HR adviser when the company doubled in size and tripled its revenue, and now uses the company as a model of planned growth.Headquartered in Coquitlam, Oppenheimer now has revenue of $550 million and distribution centres throughout North America. Venida credits Oppenheimer CEO John Anderson for his consultative approach to strategic planning."He had input from everyone in the company as far as what the strategy should be," Venida said.The company held a planning session every year – followed up quarterly – that involved a group of about 10 employees representing different areas of the business sitting on a planning committee.Anderson personally visited all offices to talk to employees, giving them updates on the company's strategy to make sure they understood what the grand plan was.For some small companies, a major barrier to growth is access to capital, so for them, the best growth strategy might be to position themselves for acquisition.Premium Brands was a $100 million company in 2001 and now has a market cap of $400 million. The company grew by buying small specialty-food companies,[url=http://www.moncler-sale.org]moncler outlet[/url], with the view of helping them grow their own brands. To date, Premium Brands has bought 41 Canadian and American companies."We had a lot of success buying smaller companies and working with the existing management team to grow them,[url=http://www.moncler-sale.org]moncler on sale[/url]," said Premium Brands CEO George Paleologou. "They're good companies, they know what they're doing, it's just that they lack the capital to grow."We never want to lose the intellectual capital of those companies, so we're not likely to make an acquisition and go in and change the management and get rid of everybody. We help them with capital and other resources to help them grow."Paleologou adds that successful companies don't grow by accident."You have to have a clearly defined strategy," he said.Avigilon CEO Alexander Fernandes agrees. He credits his company's success to identifying the right product for the right market, having well-defined five-year plans and bringing in the right senior executives at the right time.When he founded the company in 2004, Fernandes set out with a plan to first identify an untapped market, then started developing proprietary technology for it. The company had its first commercial sales in 2007,[url=http://www.moncler-sale.org]discount moncler jackets[/url], and went public in 2011."I'm a five-year planner," Fernandes said. "Most people over-estimate what they think they can accomplish in a year. But most people under-estimate what they can achieve in three years. Five years is that sweet spot."The objective (in the first five-year plan) was to get to $50 million in revenue and become profitable as quickly as possible, and we achieved that in 2010. We created a new five-year plan, which is to be at $500 million by 2016, and we're well on our way to achieving that."Avigilon had $100 million in revenue in 2012, a year after going public. It now has a headcount of 367 and had $32 million in revenue in the first quarter of this year.Some companies have been known to hit a psychological wall when they hit the $100 million mark,[url=http://www.moncler-sale.org]moncler on sale[/url], the point where they realize that the tools they used to build a $10 million company don't work in a $100 million company."A lot of entrepreneurs, they work hard, they beaver away and then they got to $100 million and they're not thinking beyond,[url=http://www.moncler-sale.org]moncler down jackets[/url]," Fernandes said. "There is no actual real wall – it's a [self-created] wall. It's important to set measurable goals, otherwise you never know if you're achieving it or not."For Avigilon, getting in front of the growth included hiring executives with experience in billion-dollar public companies in anticipation of getting to the $500 million mark."There are a lot of things that bigger companies have as challenges that little companies don't," Fernandes said. "And the danger is, if the entrepreneur or the CEO hasn't had big company experience and doesn't surround himself with seasoned executives,[url=http://www.moncler-sale.org]moncler sale[/url], you're going to walk right into all these traps, and some of them are unrecoverable. By the time you realize you're hitting the rocks, it's too late."Within the year of the IPO, I recreated the executive management team. I rebuilt the executive management team to be a billion-dollar business. I made some changes and brought in some people that have had a string of success going from $500 million to $1 billion and beyond." •Don't throw new hires into the deep endOne of the biggest pain points for a rapidly growing company is human resources,[url=http://www.moncler-sale.org]moncler down jackets[/url], and all too often companies that are growing quickly spend all their HR energy and capital on hiring, but not enough on training, integration and retention.It's a bit like tossing employees into the deep end of the pool without swimming lessons, and it can lead to high turnover rates,[url=http://www.moncler-sale.org]moncler sale[/url], according to MNP consultant Natalia Venida.Between 1998 and 2010, Oppenheimer's workforce grew from about 140 people to 300."Having to onboard [and] train people – get them on board and on the same page really quickly – was important and it was a challenge,[url=http://www.moncler-sale.org]moncler outlet[/url],[url=http://www.moncler-sale.org]discount moncler jackets[/url]," Venida said. "We had to find ways to get them trained really quickly."Oppenheimer introduced an orientation program, a buddy system that paired new hires with experienced employees, and a company intranet to help new employees understand the business and their roles in it.The company also established a corporate university that offered in-house training courses on things like produce business fundamentals and self-development. Part of its retention plan was to offer profit sharing and long-service recognition programs."I think a lot of the companies that are experiencing growth need to have a training strategy in place," Venida said.Tags: George Paleologou, John Anderson, human resources, management, entrepreneur
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