Who wouldn't want their company to develop quickly and easily? What could possibly be a disadvantage to fast completing new transactions and gaining easy wins? Fast-growing trees may reveal four possible problems of rapid development. And that's what this episode is all about.

When we originally moved into our present house, our yard was barren. We needed to handle landscaping quickly since the house had a strong western exposure on the front and a steep rear suitable for twisting ankles.

We planted Arizona Ash on the recommendation of our landscaper at the time. Because it's a deciduous tree, it preserves its leaves throughout the year, making it ideal for our hotter months. It reaches a width of around 30' and a height of about 30'. It seemed to be ideal for providing enough of shade in a hurry.

It's not quite ideal. In compared to other trees, it turns out that Ash has a limited lifespan. Thankfully, we also planted slower-growing trees, which, although taking longer to mature, have stayed strong through the years and seasons.

What was the reason of the Ash's death? It, like other fast-growing plants, has structural issues. It was prone to disease and cold, much like many other fast-growing trees. Not only did they have a brief existence, but their aggressive root system also wreaked havoc on other areas of our terrain.

What Can We Learn About Customer Growth from Fast Growing Trees? growth, company growth, customer-centricity, customer-centric, competitive intelligence, customer insights, market insights, data, insights, ecosystem, processes, operational excellence, planning, frameworks

Companies that expand swiftly may face some of the same difficulties as our Ash. When your firm is experiencing rapid development, there are four areas of worry to be aware of, as well as suggestions on how to solve each.

There are structural issues at the root of the situation. The limbs of fast-growing trees are often found to be unable to endure the stress of severe winds. The last thing you want is for your business to start losing consumers because of a flaw in your infrastructure.

Under stress, some of the systems and procedures you originally implemented may begin to fail. To keep your company functioning effectively, fast expansion requires frequent attention to procedures.

Take the effort to identify and construct frameworks that will help you maintain business continuity and expand as your company grows. Invest in frameworks and procedures as soon as can because, like a fast-growing tree, it's frequently impossible to go back and make adjustments after you've reached a particular size.

Roots that are shallow. Tree roots securely tie a tree to the ground and allow it to pull nutrients and water up into the tree from the soil. The roots of fast-growing tree species are often shallow.

Shallow roots are difficult to mow around, may cause cracks in roads and sidewalks, and can obstruct underground sewage pipes and other vital utility lines. Improving the soil quality so that the tree has access to oxygen may be beneficial.

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Increasing the competition's vulnerability. Rapidly growing trees have an unfortunate propensity to acquire illness and be infested with life-threatening bugs and fungus.

The same thing may happen to fast-growing businesses that achieve rapid success. Fast-growing companies may overlook rivals who are making strides in the industry. Our microprocessor, digital signal processor, and microcontroller businesses were booming while I was at Motorola.

We used to be concerned about rivals like Intel, Zilog, and Hitachi. TI was scarcely visible on our radar. It was a blunder. The TMS320 family of digital signal processors was launched by Texas Instruments in the early 1980s.

The 320 DSP family and variants were a huge hit, accounting for approximately half of TI's sales. It propelled Texas Instruments into a competitive position in the hunt for embedded CPU systems on a chip, a market that Motorola coveted. Chip sales for baseband modems, disk drive controllers, and a variety of other applications produced billions of dollars for the DSP family. Motorola was given a "run for its money" by TI.

This new family boosted TI's market share and elevated it to the top of the semiconductor industry. Motorola had become a target. Your company, like the fast-growing trees in your yard, is part of an ecosystem. "It's super important to maintain a 360-degree view, or an up-periscope, in order to be able to adjust quickly, or as close to real-time as possible," says colleague Becky Taylor.

The ecosystem gives important information on the health of all of the plants in your garden as well as competitor movements. To learn more about your competitors, establish strong communication channels with suppliers, partners, and influencers in your company environment.

Complacency is a vulnerability. Trees need attention. While slower-growing trees need patience, the problem with fast-growing trees is to prevent complacency.

Fast-growing trees need extra care since their weaker wood has a propensity to form forks and crotches with tight angles more rapidly, resulting in an early death. "Visionary companies install powerful mechanisms to create discomfort–to obliterate complacency–and thus stimulate change and improvement before the external world demands it," stated James C. Collins, co-author of Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies.

Regular vigilance is required to keep complacency at bay. With customer-centricity, you can thwart complacency. Client-centric businesses put the customer at the center of their business model, with all elements of the company being influenced by or tailored to suit the customer's demands.

Keep your purpose, objective, emphasis, and goals centered on your consumers and their success. Customers are not all created equal. From the start, focus on bringing in the proper consumers. Customers that stick with you over time become your supporters and suggest others to you.

The disadvantage of trees that grow quickly is that they are unhealthy and have a limited lifetime. A property's value is enhanced by the presence of healthy mature trees. Rapid growth may seem to be the way to go if your objective is to establish a business that can be sold quickly.

A wise buyer, on the other hand, will be able to identify trees that will not survive the long haul on their own or via an examination. Better to invest in long-term growth initiatives that will benefit your consumers, suppliers, and you.

You can assist slow-growing trees grow faster with appropriate care, and they can last for decades, if not hundreds, of years. Every firm is in the same boat.

Thanks to Laura Patterson at Business 2 Community whose reporting provided the original basis for this story.