A Focused Fortress

Focusing—not Hedging
The first step in restoring growth momentum in a scaleup company is to focus the
energy. Focus on the one product-market that the company has the biggest chance
of dominating.
This focus is not self-explanatory. Most scaleups have entered five to ten
markets, but have only obtained a weak position in any single one of them. This
dissipates growth momentum, energy and traction.
Restoring growth potential to a scaleup is all about rebuilding market power.
Leadership needs to focus on building one big, defensible stronghold. This means
divesting from all other areas, except those that vitally protect the primary
franchise.
Hedging is for Established Enterprises
Many CEOs and scaleup executives are reluctant to place all their eggs in one
basket. They would prefer to be active in several markets at the same time. This
allows them to hedge future growth potential and feel less exposed to risk. This
mindset is especially common with executives that have come from large
companies.
In large established enterprises, hedging is the name of the game. Unlike in
scaleups, the strong franchise at the basis of all cashflow is already given.
Most management attention goes to market and product expansion.
The established enterprise needs to be present everywhere. Whether for growth
potential or to prevent others from building up new strongholds. But you can
only find success in so many markets in parallel with a vast number of people at
your disposal. As we said before, the technology may scale, but the go-to-market
doesn’t. So only giant enterprises like Oracle, Microsoft, SalesForce and IBM
can afford to be present in many different markets. And manage a portfolio of
several business units that each have their own peculiar go-to-market and
products.
For Scaleups, Hedging is Too Risky
Trying to mimic this hedging structure in a scaleup company is folly. Geoffrey
Moore explained that in a scaleup company, hedging is far riskier than putting
all your eggs in one basket. This is because a scaleup’s speed and agility are
the only ways it can compete with large enterprises. Speed and agility are a
direct function of how simple the decision structures are. The more complexity
it embraces, the faster it will lose its competitive advantage. Different
go-to-markets, channels, products, geographies etc. etc. all add to this
complexity.
So the more the scaleup tries to mimic a large enterprise, the faster it will
lose. After all, every scaleup still has factors fewer people than the large
competitors in their field. Some founders will challenge this with the superstar
quality of their hires. But these superstars are unlikely to thrive when their
work adopts as much complexity and bureaucracy as corporates have.
Taking the First Steps to Focusing
So what is a scaleup founder to do? The first step is for the executive team to
commit to focusing on one stronghold. That means stepping away from the hedging
strategy. And from all the sales or product “tries” that have taken the company
into new territories.
It means defining the core purpose of the scaleup company. The core customer
that it wants to serve. And the core value proposition the scaleup will compete
with. How to do that will be the subject of the next post.
Roland Siebelink regularly speaks and writes about leadership in fast-growing
tech startups. You can find more of his insights, including free chapters of his
book “Scaling Silicon Valley Style.”