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The consolidation phase that follows the Avalanche is tough on everyone. Your people are worried about keeping their jobs—and many of them are probably already looking elsewhere. You’ve tried to introduce new processes and patch your sagging IT, but nothing’s working the way it should. Morale has bottomed out. But look at it this way: Your business’s needs are pretty much the same during the consolidation phase that comes after an Avalanche as they were [...]

The Business Storm Cycle is never still; like all cycles, it’s constantly turning.  If you’ve weathered your first rapid-growth Tornado, in which your people and resources were stretched to the breaking point, you probably wondered when this crazy phase of expansion would stop. Now, as the Avalanche of shrinking margins and overstocked inventory hits, it has. As it turns out, it doesn’t matter all that much which side of the Business Storm Cycle you are [...]

No matter where you are in what I call the Business Storm Cycle, as a leader you’ve got to lead—even when the way ahead looks foggy. But even experienced leaders can be blindsided by what comes at them in the cycle—and can make mistakes that will make the phase they’re in that much rougher or even prove fatal to their business. If you’re hip-deep in the hypergrowth phase I call the Tornado, your company’s expansion [...]

We’ve all seen the heartbreaking news photos of people standing in the rubble of their homes or places of business after a tornado has passed through. While the devastation wreaked on your enterprise by the Business Storm Cycle phase we call the Tornado – that period of hypergrowth and tumbling margins—is more fiscal than physical, it can leave you and your staff with that same sick feeling of having barely survived a disaster, wanting to [...]

As the long, gray winter throws in the towel, at last, we’re treated to one of Nature’s finest shows – the arrival of spring – as the cycle of the seasons turns in its predictable and expected way. It’s always a thrill to see the flowers bursting up out of the ground along with the reappearance of butterflies as they come out of their chrysalises  – even though we know that winter will inevitably be [...]

Mistakes happen when you’re learning to ride out the ever-changing business cycle. In fact, most startup companies and divisions make the same ones. In the new product or acquisition phase, many departments get scant resources and little attention; unless they are doing something that actively hinders the growth product, they’re mostly ignored. This makes the people in those areas feel sidelined and left out. Resources and people may have been taken away from their departments [...]

With a title like that, you may be asking, “Is this going to be an adventure story?” Well, yes - and no. The kind of Avalanche I’m talking about doesn’t involve snow; it’s part of the life cycle of your business, but it can be nearly as overwhelming if you’re not ready for it. You’ve started a company, gone through the growing pains, and you’ve enjoyed a boom as your product or service took off [...]

Thinking in terms of cycles is a way human beings make sense out of life. Cycle Theory can be applied to just about every natural, social and historical concept there is, from world power cycles to international relations cycles to sociological and psychological cycles. What all these cycles have in common is that they form a circle that goes around and around, carried forward by a natural, ceaseless momentum - and they’re not easy to [...]