This chapter highlights the essential role that organizational culture plays in enabling startup scalability. It contrasts the proactive cultural strategies of successful companies like ThreadUp and Netflix with the often-overlooked cultures in larger enterprises, underscoring the importance of fostering a positive culture from the outset.
Managing rapid growth is a huge challenge for young businesses. Even start-ups with glowing reviews and skyrocketing sales can fail . That’s because new ventures and corporate initiatives alike must sustain profitability at scale, according to Harvard Business School senior lecturer Jeffrey Rayport.
He has researched some of the biggest stumbling blocks to long-lasting success and he explains how to successfully transition out of the start-up phase. Rayport argues that success has a lot to do with an organization’s cash flow and its ability to meet growing demand. But it also involves something he calls “profit market fit,” which is when an enterprise becomes financially sustainable.
Key episode topics include: strategy, start-ups, entrepreneurial business strategy, customer strategy, growth, scaling, demand, cash flow, sustainable business.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the full HBR IdeaCast episode: Why Some Start-Ups Fail to Scale (2022)
· Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org