In each piece I write, I often draw from the challenges faced alongside our clients or from my own encounters in the ever-evolving business landscape. Today I am drawing the narrative in my field of consulting and the struggles of the Big 4 consulting giants—EY, Bain, McKinsey, Deloitte—as they navigate the turbulent post-COVID era. This period has seen a pivot from these big firms to smaller, more specialized firms like ours.

But even with that, the pandemic disrupted our trajectory; the strategies we had meticulously planned as a consulting firm encountered unexpected roadblocks. This necessitated a return to the drawing board—a fundamental reassessment of all our methods, ensuring alignment with the current market demands. It’s a journey many businesses such as yours are probably familiar with, whether it’s been spurred by economic uncertainty, the loss of a key client, or entanglements in supply chain complexities. Yet, we persist, united in the pursuit of that elusive prize: growth. Each step forward is a lesson learned, embracing vulnerability as a springboard for innovation, continually reshaping ourselves to thrive – it is part of what makes the work challenging.

As we all know, growth is the lifeblood of a business, but it’s an elusive goal that seems to slip through the fingers of many ambitious companies. Despite their best efforts, the stark reality is that growth remains an unattained dream for most businesses. Recent data suggests only about 5% of companies exceed the $1 million revenue mark, and a mere fraction of those—roughly 12.5%—advance to $10 million. However, not every enterprise will scale to the heights of Google, Amazon, or Facebook, but there is a tangible middle ground: becoming a thriving, mid-market entity.

Drawing from our own growth journey and insights from our client engagements, we’ve identified seven critical barriers that must be navigated for a business to scale successfully. See if you have or possibly could fall into any of these rabbit holes:

1. Sloth (Complacency in Leadership Development):
In the seed stage, with a founder, an assistant, and an idea, complexity is manageable. But as the team grows, complexity doesn’t just add—it multiplies. A third member doesn’t triple complexity—it explodes. And with each addition, the complexity grows exponentially. To combat this, invest in the leadership team’s development. A company cannot outperform the collective effectiveness of its leaders.

2. Greed (Overdependence on Leadership):
True success in scalability is when leaders are not the smartest in the room but the most inquisitive. Holding all the answers can bottleneck progress and intensify blind spots. The most valuable businesses operate with autonomy, not reliant on a single leader’s knowledge.  Committing to a culture of psychological safety which breeds innovation is key.

3. Lust (Attachment to Vanity Projects):
Scaling might reveal pet projects still funded out of sentiment rather than strategy. Leaders must objectively assess and be willing to divest from projects that do not contribute to growth. The diversity of thinking on the team is what is important here – people being able to push back and leaders being able to look through a different lens is imperative. While it can be painful to let go of a cherished initiative, growth necessitates tough choices.

4. Envy (Internal Competition):
While competition in the marketplace drives innovation, within a leadership team, it erodes value. The behavior that propels a business against competitors can sabotage internal cohesion and effectiveness.  Ensure your leadership team is operating at the highest level by taking time to make the implicit, auto-pilot norms morph into rich discussions which lay things out and make things explicit in order to help grow the team.

5. Gluttony (Inefficient Scaling of Systems): 
Organizations must refine their systems to manage the increased complexity that accompanies growth. A lack of scalable processes can lead to disaster, with the business throwing personnel at issues, breeding frustration and inefficiency.  Leaders can sometimes overlook this, but since it is one of the cornerstones of Kaplan and Norton’s balanced scorecard (Processes, Finances, Customers, and People/Culture) including systems in all your strategic planning is a must.

6. Pride (Resisting Team Evolution):
The founding team might bring the start-up to the cusp of scaling, but they may not be the best to lead through it. Companies poised for growth build scalable teams early, focusing on cultural fit and leadership skills for an evolving business landscape.  Hiring in the right people includes using assessments as the “x-rays” to ensure a good fit for the future.  The team that got you here, doesn’t always mean that they are the team that will get you there.

7. Wrath (Failure to Plan for Transition): 
Success as a start-up founder does not always translate to success as the CEO of a growing enterprise. Many partnerships falter without a proactive approach to succession planning. Founders must envision their exit for the company to thrive beyond their tenure.  If you want to leave a legacy, do this as your company is scaling, not when it is contracting towards the end of your time at the helm.

Overcoming these “sins” is not just a strategic imperative—it’s a leader’s responsibility to clear the path for growth. It’s about transforming what holds a business back into the momentum that propels it forward. Scaling a business from a small team to an industry leader is a monumental task, but the rewards are equally grand. It’s a challenge that demands vision, adaptability, and a relentless drive for excellence.  Lots of work, but the peak is, hopefully, worth the climb!