Managing Explosive Corporate Growth [Hardcover]

Steven M. Bragg (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 9, 1998

As paradoxical as it sounds, one of the toughest problems facing many of today's most successful companies is success itself. Like living organisms, companies are complex networks of interdependent systems-and unless managers recognize and swiftly implement the changes to those systems required by a sudden surge in demand, a booming business can easily go bust under the strain. Recent history abounds with examples of companies whose overnight success led to morning-after failure because their managers, like most managers, lacked the training or experience needed to manage explosive growth. Yet, surprisingly, until recently there have been few expert guides devoted exclusively to this crucial change management issue.

Managing Explosive Corporate Growth is a practical guide to piloting your company through periods of explosive growth with minimum damage and maximum sustainable profits. Author Steven Bragg explores the reasons why companies succeed or fail to adapt to explosive growth. He identifies the warning signs of impending explosions or declines in sales volume and zeroes in on the key growth issues specific to each functional area of the company-including accounting, auditing, IT, customer service, distribution, engineering, finance, HR, manufacturing, and sales and marketing. He also presents clear-cut guidelines on how to balance the demands of all organizational areas while guaranteeing customer satisfaction.

In addition to proven strategies for planning, financing, and managing explosive growth, he provides you with valuable explosive growth management tools, including checklists of key explosive growth indicators; metrics and reporting systems for controlling cash flow; multioption budgeting systems that address all growth levels; and reporting systems that help you monitor and control rapid expansion.

Managing Explosive Corporate Growth is an indispensable working resource for corporate managers, internal auditors, and entrepreneurs. It will also be of considerable interest to institutional investors who would like to learn the latest techniques for tracking the performance of current or potential investments.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

Managing Explosive Corporate Growth As paradoxical as it sounds, one of the toughest problems facing many of today's most successful companies is success itself. Like living organisms, companies are complex networks of interdependent systems-and unless managers recognize and swiftly implement the changes to those systems required by a sudden surge in demand, a booming business can easily go bust under the strain. Recent history abounds with examples of companies whose overnight success led to morning-after failure because their managers, like most managers, lacked the training or experience needed to manage explosive growth. Yet, surprisingly, until recently there have been few expert guides devoted exclusively to this crucial change management issue. Managing Explosive Corporate Growth is a practical guide to piloting your company through periods of explosive growth with minimum damage and maximum sustainable profits. Author Steven Bragg explores the reasons why companies succeed or fail to adapt to explosive growth. He identifies the warning signs of impending explosions or declines in sales volume and zeroes in on the key growth issues specific to each functional area of the company-including accounting, auditing, IT, customer service, distribution, engineering, finance, HR, manufacturing, and sales and marketing. He also presents clear-cut guidelines on how to balance the demands of all organizational areas while guaranteeing customer satisfaction. In addition to proven strategies for planning, financing, and managing explosive growth, he provides you with valuable explosive growth management tools, including checklists of key explosive growth indicators; metrics and reporting systems for controlling cash flow; multioption budgeting systems that address all growth levels; and reporting systems that help you monitor and control rapid expansion. Managing Explosive Corporate Growth is an indispensable working resource for corporate managers, internal auditors, and entrepreneurs. It will also be of considerable interest to institutional investors who would like to learn the latest techniques for tracking the performance of current or potential investments.

From the Back Cover

As paradoxical as it sounds, one of the toughest problems facing many of today's most successful companies is success itself. Like living organisms, companies are complex networks of interdependent systems-and unless managers recognize and swiftly implement the changes to those systems required by a sudden surge in demand, a booming business can easily go bust under the strain. Recent history abounds with examples of companies whose overnight success led to morning-after failure because their managers, like most managers, lacked the training or experience needed to manage explosive growth. Yet, surprisingly, until recently there have been few expert guides devoted exclusively to this crucial change management issue.

Managing Explosive Corporate Growth is a practical guide to piloting your company through periods of explosive growth with minimum damage and maximum sustainable profits. Author Steven Bragg explores the reasons why companies succeed or fail to adapt to explosive growth. He identifies the warning signs of impending explosions or declines in sales volume and zeroes in on the key growth issues specific to each functional area of the company-including accounting, auditing, IT, customer service, distribution, engineering, finance, HR, manufacturing, and sales and marketing. He also presents clear-cut guidelines on how to balance the demands of all organizational areas while guaranteeing customer satisfaction.

In addition to proven strategies for planning, financing, and managing explosive growth, he provides you with valuable explosive growth management tools, including checklists of key explosive growth indicators; metrics and reporting systems for controlling cash flow; multioption budgeting systems that address all growth levels; and reporting systems that help you monitor and control rapid expansion.

Managing Explosive Corporate Growth is an indispensable working resource for corporate managers, internal auditors, and entrepreneurs. It will also be of considerable interest to institutional investors who would like to learn the latest techniques for tracking the performance of current or potential investments.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (November 9, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471296899
• ISBN-13: 978-0471296898
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,256,198 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

The primary question I receive is, why would anyone write so many accounting books? The story began in the early 1990s, when my former boss, Jan Roehl-Anderson, asked me to assist in taking over a book called Controllership from Jim Willson (correct spelling), who had been maintaining the book since the early 1950s. I liked the experience, and even found it relaxing (I must have issues!).

So... I had an idea for another book, called Just-in-Time Accounting, which the publisher accepted, and which got me on the track of doing management accounting books. Most accounting books up to that point had primarily dealt with accounting principles and not how to management the department, so this was a rich area for new books.

The Accounting Best Practices book, which is one of the top-selling accounting books in the country, started when I was bouncing around ideas for new books with one of my editors, John DeRemigis. He suggested the accounting best practices idea, and I said, "nah, there's not enough material." Four editions later and over 400+ pages long, it appears that he was right and I was wrong.

Writing became more intense in 2005, when John Wiley & Sons recommended me to the authors of the Wiley GAAP Guide as a new co-author. This is a seriously technical high-end accounting principles guide, and so was nothing like what I had written before. My first assignment was adding a hundred or so new examples to the book, which was absolutely frantic -- imagine becoming an expert on a really far-out accounting topic in one day, writing an esoteric example, and then hurrying on to an entirely different example the next day.

I have just finished writing Accounting Controls Best Practices, which is chock-full of control points for the most common accounting systems, as well as for best practices upgrades to those systems. And now, it is time for a break, if only for a week.

So... I am heading to the Western Pacific for some serious diving off a live aboard dive boat.

Steve Bragg

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Fine Commentary, December 18, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Managing Explosive Corporate Growth (Hardcover)

This is an exceptional book! It covers the impact of fast growth on every single corporate function (even internal auditing, of all things), as well as budgeting, control systems, management, and (of course) cash flow. Am using it now as a guideline for running a small business.

4.0 out of 5 stars Not Bad, for a Business Book, December 8, 2006

By 

a reader - See all my reviews

This review is from: Managing Explosive Corporate Growth (Hardcover)

I read business reports and books all the time for my work, and I am familiar with the mom-and-apple-pie genre of business writing. This is not it.

Bragg does mention bringing in experienced managers to help cope with fast growth (p. 54), but that is just one among a plethora of recommendations, most of which, if common-sensical, are not necessarily obvious. Indeed, I would say Bragg actually eschews "management-speak," as in the following discussion of beginning to delegate authority in a growing company. The parenthesis is his:

" . . . managers should consult with their subordinates before completing their budgets. This is not because management has any need to "empower" employees (one of the more overused and suspect words in the business vocabulary), but because employees are the ones who are now routinely using budget information . . ." (p. 62).

The book covers over a dozen distinct topics (as you can see in the Table of Contents, above), from cash management to outsourcing to distribution and manufacturing to human resources. At the very least it gives you a good framework for thinking about growth issues ("what am I neglecting?"), which, if you think about it, is really all even the best book can do. With all the terrible management/business books that do get written, it would be a shame to write off one like this, which can actually be of some use. Recommended.

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars All motherhood and apple pie, December 13, 1999

By 

"bcc2" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Managing Explosive Corporate Growth (Hardcover)

Here is what you need to know from this book: to grow quickly you have to have a great team that has experience growing quickly! Honestly, that is the main and only point. Don't waste your time or money on this one.