If a start-up has one advantage over large companies at the beginning, it is its own flexible team. Generally, startups tend to work together as a team and also make decisions together. But what happens when your startup scales? Your team grows rapidly, so that it becomes increasingly difficult to maintain the familiar mindset?
The challenge with the scaling start-up
If you are still a small team at the beginning and have not yet reached your product market fit, you are much more agile. You try out ideas, experiment and want to convince potential investors with your innovative business idea. This flexible mindset and pulling together is what puts your team ahead of many companies. New ideas are decided on by the team, and they are implemented and tested just as quickly. That’s why long-established companies often make statements like: „Start-ups can do this too, because they’re still at the beginning“ when it comes to implementing new, bold ideas.
This wrong view is exactly the reason why long-established companies neither differentiate themselves, innovate, nor manage to build a community behind their brand. Anything that breaks through the familiar or could represent a risk is rejected. No wonder, then, when such statements are made in relation to start-ups. Of course, these companies have different organizational structures and, in some cases, still have a blunt hierarchy. But the truth is that even these companies can manage to establish a start-up culture.
How to maintain the culture in growth
At the latest when your start-up scales and becomes a scale-up, you will face similar challenges as a long-established company. Organizational structures have to be adapted and things that you previously did as a team now have to be handed over. On top of that, new employees will have to be found due to the rapid growth and they will have to be managed within a culture.
In other words, of course, with scaling comes change, but the real key is to maintain your startup culture despite the growth. So what’s the real difference between a startup and a long-established company? One word: culture.
But how do you maintain your start-up culture? The first important step would be that the brand is lived and that new employees identify with the brand and see a purpose in their work. The second step would be design. Design doesn’t mean a logo, colors or shapes, but design stands for so much more. Design is about being innovative and staying innovative. A culture where every person becomes a designer.
The goal is to become a „Designful Company,“ as Marty Neumeier aptly describes in his book, The Designful Company. A culture that participates in brand development, develops new solutions for its own customers and designs bold new ideas. Your goal should be to continuously develop your business strategy and the experience your customers should have with your brand (customer experience) as a team. If you want to be innovative and different in the future, you have to design.
Create a culture for innovation
Through a strong brand culture, where every employee experiences the brand, tells others about it and is responsible for the further development of the brand. As mentioned in previous articles, you can, for example, hold regular brand workshops, form a brand team where other employees can participate and contribute their ideas. Because every person in your company is a designer. Every person has ideas that you haven’t thought of yet. Keep your brand agile, evolve it to create a unique experience for your employees and your customers.
You need support with this?
We are happy to help you build such a brand culture. With our Brand Strategy Sprint, we are able to position and develop your brand quickly and with focus. With this foundation, you can establish your brand in a targeted manner, so that a strong culture emerges that carries your brand outwards to your customers. Book an appointment here to get to know each other.
