NEW YORK, NEW YORK - November 16, 2001 - Although
most companies facing difficulties believe that the scarcity of cash is their
major problem, a study of early stage companies indicates that they actually
face a multitude of life-threatening problems, making infusions of more funds
unlikely to heal these deeper, more intractable issues. Conversus Group, a New
York based business consulting firm that uses a unique S.W.A.T. team approach to
help early-stage companies identify key problems and come up with quick,
achievable solutions, interviewed executives at 55 such companies in a variety
of industries. They discovered sixteen "deadly sins" that cause most
of the real problems facing many start-ups. Six of these deadly sins occurred in
up to one-third of the companies studied.
"Of
the early-stage companies that we studied, all exhibited symptoms of at least
two of these sixteen deadly sins, and most suffered from several more,"
explains Emory Winship, a managing partner of Conversus. "Over and over
again, we see companies that are two or three months away from burning through
the last of their cash come to us assuming that a quick capital infusion will
solve all their problems. Their venture backers are often not so sure, however,
and these days are quite reluctant to put in another round of money until they
have a better picture of the real prospects. The companies themselves are so
focused on cash that they fail to recognize or address the true self-generated
problems that more money by itself won't fix. I refer to these companies as
wearing 'cash blinders.' Like the racehorse that only sees what is in front of
him, the executive wearing cash blinders only chases the finish line of more
money." Winship notes.
Among
the 55 companies included in the study, six most common problems identified by
Conversus colloquially were: Blinded by the Light, The Four Too's, Cowboys, Dead
Right, Say When, and The Blue Angels.
Blinded
by the Light (in evidence in 33% of the companies) - In this syndrome,
management believes so much in the wonder of their product or their own talents
that they fail to see the realities of the marketplace. Typical permutations
include ignoring the market, misunderstanding the market and believing one's own
PR.
The
Four Too's or "42" (also operative at 33% of the companies) -
According to Winship, "The first of these syndromes is 'Too Little, Too
Soon,' which generally happens to innovative technology companies with a product
that is still really just interesting science and some preliminary execution
elements. Eager to make it big, these companies rush out into the market, spend
all their remaining funds on sales and marketing and finally discover that what
they have is not yet a product, so no one will buy it." He continues,
"The other three 'Too's' - 'Too Much, Too Soon'; 'Too Much, Too Late'; and
the old stand by, 'Too Little, Too Late' - are all similar in their errors of
excess."
Cowboys
(27%) - Fun to watch in the wild, wild west, but not much fun when they are
running your company. Cowboys are basically pure opportunists - shoot from the
hip artists who can often mask their ultimate short comings with lots of action
in the early phases of a company. The problem is they can't scale. Planning and
organizational development not only escapes them; it bores them. To death.
Dead
Right (21.8%) - With this syndrome, and opposite to the Cowboys, too much
emphasis is placed on analysis and reporting to the point that critical
decisions get made too late or not at all. This is most common with
financially-oriented CEO's who drown decisions with quantification rather than
qualification and insight. Winship notes, "Sometimes companies work so hard
at being right that they end up being dead right - - or just plain dead."
Say
When (21.8%) - This syndrome, common to threshold companies, occurs when a
young, visionary founder is simply too inexperienced in business to take a
company beyond a given size, and unable to recognize his or her limitations.
"Ironically," notes Winship, "This syndrome often emerges from a
company's initial success. The human capital and other infrastructure elements
needed to grow the business to the next level become more and more inadequate.
Ultimately the company begins to collapse under its own weight."
Blue
Angels (20%) - "We named this syndrome after the very real hazard that the
Blue Angel pilots face - blindly following a leader to their demise," notes
Winship. Erstwhile competent managers blindly follow a charismatic leader, who
is often himself suffering from Blinded by the Light syndrome. "A similar
fate befalls companies that follow their competitors into the ground on the
assumption that their competitors are doing the right thing," explains
Winship.
Other
syndromes identified by Conversus in its study include, the Elephant in the
Boardroom (16%), in which management ignores problems until they are so big that
they cannot be solved; the Mouth That Roars (14.5%), in which management lacks a
clear marketing strategy but relies on prominent PR instead; Too Big to Think
Small (9%), in which executives trained in large companies fail to understand
that the economies of scale that help create momentum in a large company simply
don't exist in an early stage company; Swiss Watch (14.5%) in which management
falls so in love with its company's own methodology that it refuses to consider
buying outside technology or services that can get the job done faster and
easier; Opportunity Knocks (9%), in which management thinks opportunistically
rather than strategically and seizes every opportunity to sell anything to
anyone - with major effort going into specific deliverables that can only be
sold once; White Knight (10.9%), in which management pursues every possible
"big deal" or "strategic partnership" they can find to
rescue what is actually a flawed idea or enterprise; Patron Saint (10.9%), in
which investors doom their own company by unquestioningly funneling money to
once successful entrepreneurs and their
companies, despite their obvious problems. And finally, All in the
The
solution for many companies struggling in this "new reality," Winship
concludes, is simple, but not pain-free. "Companies dealing with an
unacceptable burn rate should aggressively seek outside help in identifying the
true issues underlying their cash crunch. The burn rate isn't the problem - it's
often just a symptom of deeper issues. These companies will be in a much
stronger position to raise funds to grow if they first address their other
underlying problems and establish a more survivable fiscal outlook. For many, it
is time to take an old-fashioned approach to our new-fashioned world and get
'back to bootstraps.'"