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Modeling Language Spotlight Stages
of an Enterprise
September 30, 1996 |
Like the other models of the MG Taylor Modeling
Language, the Stages of an Enterprise Model is protected by copyright.
You can use it only by meeting these
four conditions.
Here's the model
Green stands for times of stability and success. Orange
stands for warning. Red indicates behavior far from homeostasis, which if allowed
to continue, will lead to the death of the system. Blue represents times of
flux around the entrepreneurial button.
Now let's look at the stages:
glyph info |
Stage |
Activity |
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1. Conception |
This is where ventures and enterprises originate. Scribbles
on napkins, nagging dreams, a persistent or alarming push by the external
or internal rate of change. |
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2. Looping |
Most ideas go through a roller coaster ride of peaks
of success followed by valleys of near collapse before they become viable--capable
of separate existence. |
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3. Success |
At this stage, the enterprise is viable. This means
it understands as an organism how to maintain its metabolism from month
to month, and how to grow. |
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3a. Overshoot and Collapse |
If the enterprise does not learn how to maintain homeostasis,
it may overshoot its envelope of healthy growth and then rapidly collapse
upon itself. This stage is sometimes called the "Hollywood Star"
syndrome. |
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4. Entrepreneurial Button |
Newly conceived ideas within an existing Enterprise,
even if tested through the looping stage, cannot become viable unless
the Entrepreneurial Button is pushed. There must be an overt recognition
of the need for and value of the new idea or it will not be allowed
to grow. |
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5. Maturity |
The Enterprise passes through probably its longest
and most stable stage. This is also the most favorable time for spawning
new enterprises although many ventures fail to do so until it's almost
too late... |
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6. Turnaround |
Ventures lose their ability to maintain homeostasis
and begin to collapse. Usually this is due to a lag time in the organization's
ability to respond to or anticipate external or internal rates of change:
it falls behind or leaps too far ahead and is exposed. Careful crafting
allows the organization to return to the Maturity stage. |
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7. Death |
Eventually all organizations reach their demise. Usually
this is good. Sometimes it's the easiest way for the enterprise to allow
new ideas to escape and try for viability. And even if the name of the
corporation does not change, sometimes, its old self dies and a new
one is born in its place. |
The Mystery Axis
This is a familiar model to most people in the MG Taylor network. So here's
a tricky question for all of you experts. Let's assume that the model is plotted
against an "x" and "y" axis. The x axis represents time.
The diagram below shows the model plotted in this fashion. [Note that the turnaround
stage has been changed to a deep dip in the Maturity curve in order to fix the
somewhat disconcerting idea that the turnaround takes you back in time.] The
question is, what label might you place on the y axis?
Any guesses? Productivity? Not really. Start-up teams can be very
productive but they're depicted way down on the curve. How about homeostasis?
That would be closer and would work if we assumed the homeostasis of the enterprise
to be the x-axis, and moved it up level with maturity. Anything above the axis
would be like a fever, and anything below it like hypothermia. But this still
doesn't feel quite right. What property of Enterprises begins near zero, rises
to a peak in success, falls of in maturity, dips in the turnaround, and then
dives to the x-axis in death?
I'll leave you hanging and return to the problem later. Better
yet, e-mail me with your ideas. Maybe
even do a Personal Journal page on the question!
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Journal Assignment: Let's say that
the Stages of an Enterprise model represents the behavior of the enterprise
in state space. The horizontal axis is time. What are some good candidates
for the vertical axis? If you wish, you may adjust the position of the
origin (zero point) on the y-axis by moving the x-axis up or down. |
Pushing the Button: Innovation vs Improvement
Below is another modification of the model. In this case, instead
of showing a peak at the Success stage which falls off to a lower Maturity plateau,
the curve continues upwards at a gentle slope (the blue line). This represents
continuous improvement in the enterprise. The y-axis in this case can be roughly
termed "quality of product/ energy expended"--a sort of hybrid of
quality and efficiency.
To make a big leap of innovation, however, the Entrepreneurial
Button must be pushed. This means one of several things:
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An entirely new entity is born, unencumbered by the structures
and culture of its parent. Perhaps the company spawns a subsidiary, or a
venture with a partner. Or enterprising employees go off on their own with
better ideas that were not being heard. The result is the zone of innovation
(the green line) for the new entity. The parent may go on to struggle for
quite a while, unable to transform itself from within.
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The parent organization undergoes a metamorphosis or rebirth,
shedding its inhibiting cultures, philosophies and policies. The result
is the intergenerational enterprise trajectory (the red line) which shows
the parent organization making steady improvements and then leaping to a
new level of innovation.
In either case, the Entrepreneurial Button is not simply a zone
where transformation just happens. The button doesn't occur at some predetermined
location in the model, although there are more or less favorable times--one
of the most favorable being the period of maturity, just after success.
Pushing the button is a conscious decision. Much of the conceptual
work will already have been done. The new idea will have passed through some
looping already before the decision is made to launch it. The people making
the decision are not always the executive management. An idea can be so powerful
that it may "seek out" other people to launch it if no one in the
parent organization is interested. The classic, if overused, case is the visit
by Steve Jobs to Xerox PARC where he saw the system that would later be born
as the Macintosh. In this case, Xerox management did not push the button, but
Jobs did.
Pushing the button may be a trigger point in moving the new idea/organization
from Scan into Focus [see the Scan Focus Act
model].
The Entrepreneurial Button can be thought of as a membrane of
sorts. It's both an incubator and crucible within which the new idea will be
nourished and also besieged. It's most vulnerable at this point. Before entering
the button, the idea is just an idea, but pushing the button sanctions it, making
it a real opportunity or threat to some. Once it's out of the top side of the
button's membrane, the idea has become a viable enterprise, capable of fending
for itself. Only while it's in the membrane does it need special support and
defense.
Several other articles on this website address this model and
its variations directly. For a metaphorical comparison of the model with quantum
mechanics, click here. To read about the act
of consciously invoking the overshoot and collapse path in the quest for increasing
returns, click here.
Copyright © 1996, MG Taylor Corporation.
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