How to Scale a Service Business to 2,500 People | Jim Weiss | Strategy & Leadership Podcast

So what was it like? You know, you started off at one person.

You went to, to 2,500, obviously, like, over such time.

What do you think were some of the keys to your success to being able to grow and scale like that? Was it great product? Was it good timing with customers?

Um-

Was it, you know, what were some of those secret ingredients?

You know, I, I think that probably, you know, the simplest one, and we've talked about it, is, is really finding people with similar values, right? So there was, the, the important thing, and you talk about strategy, you've gotta have strategic and philosophical and, I would say, ultimately, um, uh, you know, I think financial alignment.

You know, alignment is what ultimately gets everybody moving in that formation.

You know, they talk about the great flying formation of geese and, and, you know, um, flying formation of, of sorties, you know, the, the military, you know, air force sorties, and those work because we're all aligned.

We're all working, you know, with our strengths, you know, our given strengths and what.

So my very small talent, I don't have lots of them, is how to get people to work together, and that was something I did as a kid, as a student council president.

Um, you know, my kind of superpower is getting people to do some things they didn't think they would do.

Mm.

And that is really important when you're leading.

It's, it's really not so much about telling people what to do.

It's, it's really creating the foundation and the framework that they can flourish in and fly in formation together in.

So that, it took me some time to, to perfect that, and maybe that wasn't what was happening in the beginning of the company, but as I evolved it and scaled it, it became much more important.

The more people you add into any company, you've got to create coordination, otherwise you're gonna have the Tower of Babel.

Yeah.

And it's gonna be trouble

troubleSo can you tell me about some, you know, practical... 'Cause I, I heard, you know, in terms of the company and the product and the mission, you know, as a for-profit organization, the mission of what you're doing was very clear, and so finding the right people that buy into that mission right away, it makes it so much easier to, it's not just selling a product, it's delivering an outcome.

I imagine there's a core component of the company values, you know, hardworking, uh, just, you know, getting it done, focusing on making progress, having real measurable impact on the human side of things.

But then I also heard, like from a role perspective and from a leadership perspective, your ability to coach people, to support them through that.

Like take me back through maybe like, you know, as you're going to 50 to 100, maybe 100 to 200, what were some of the conversations you were having with your leadership team to be able to unlock some of that capacity within your organization?

Well, I think it was, you know, clarity of roles and responsibilities.

So, you know, I'm, I'm not a biggest fan of org charts.