Rapid growth and high performance: The entrepreneur's “impossible dream?”

Executive Overview Although few in number, rapidly growing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) make a disproportionate contribution to employment and wealth creation in the North American economy. Unfortunately, periods of rapid growth are usually short-lived. The strains associated with managing a fast growing venture often produce performance problems. This article explains how these management challenges can be addressed by coupling complex systems thinking with illustrative examples from a series of interviews with CEOs of high growth companies. I identify five management practices that are built on the concept of self-organizing that can help firms cope with the continuous and unpredictable change that characterizes daily life in a fast-growing enterprise.