Lessons in Scaling Excellence

In his business presentation, Robert Sutton talks about five lessons people need to be aware of if they want to expand their company and scale excellence. One subject the speaker keeps returning to is a center or pocket of excellence that must be spread from those who have it to those who don't without messing up. The core message of the business presentation revolves around successful scaling and how to not just about create the biggest footprint, but spread a mindset.

The first lesson mentioned is figure out where your business stands on the spectrum of standardization versus local customization. Scaling is a problem of more or less, which relates to shedding certain practices. Thirdly, have a culture that scales. People need to put pressure on each other and address problems together. The fourth lesson is not to but too much cognitive load on employees as you expand. Having a good hierarchy and process involves smaller teams consisting of only six or seven people. The fifth is to transfer best practices get rid of contagious bad behavior.