Steve McKee: When Growth Stalls

McKee Wallwork Cleveland hit their peak in 2002 when it was named the fastest growing  private company at the Inc 500, one of the most prestigious advertising awards. On the exterior, the company seemed to be at the top of their industry however, there was trouble in paradise when the company’s growth hit a screeching halt. “During the weeks leading up to the conference, I started to feel like a fraud,” said Steve McKee president of McKee Wallwork Cleveland of Albuquerque, NM. “We were in the death spiral and didn’t know it.”

 

After months of intense research, McKee’s company discovered that they were in the middle of a death spiral, characterized by four main issues. In McKee’s recently released book “When Growth Stalls: How it Happens, Why You’re Stuck & What to Do About It,” he describes these key issues as: 

 

• Lack of Consensus: McKee found that without addressing internal issues and inconsistencies within a company’s staff, there was no way to move away from stalled growth. “You will loose people if you have a lack of consensus on what the company must look like in the future,” said McKee. “Growth will stall and you will never move forward.”
• Loss of Focus: McKee found that the old saying “Jack of all trades, master of none,” caused many problems within the company. He realized that if they re-focused their business’s specialties they would be more successful.
• Loss of Nerve: As seen with Starbuck’s reaction to McDonalds $100 million dollar café campaign, it is never a good idea to steer away from what you stand for as a company. “If you decide to not react to issues at hand, whether it be competition or loss of a hold on your industry, your business will stop. Don’t become numb to your problems,” said McKee.
• Lack of Consistency: Public relations, advertising, Web site; it all must be consistent. McKee saw that the company had inconsistent ideas of who they were. “Today we have an amazing public relations team that keeps our messages consistent. Without consistency people will never know who you are or what you stand for,” said McKee.

 

McKee found that the first way to solve a problem is to discover what it is.  By assessing the company issues based on these four topics, McKee and his partners were able to address their lack of consensus, loss of focus, loss of nerve, and inconsistencies.  McKee advises that a company must focus on internal problems before it blames its issues on the external.  “It is so easy to blame our companies problems on the economy when we don’t realize these things are going on,” said McKee. “Addressing and recognizing the problem is where the recovery starts.”

-Emily Coleman, Skylar Stetten

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[Dovya]

Thank you! You can find out if your company is looking at stalled growth by visiting http://www.whengrowthstalls.com/selfdiagnosis.html.