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  • Writer's pictureWolstonbury Hospitality Consultant

❍ Awareness of the founder-organisation relationship is vital.




Study the diagram showing each stage.


It’s crucial to understand the founder-organisation relationship through maturity, as the restaurant or hospitality company grows.


This helps the founder navigate through each growth stage.


The organisation will likely benefit from: 

‣Increase brand value quickly and effectively

‣Maintain/improve quality while scaling

‣Grow sales channels effectively

‣Attract and retain customer, team and investor loyalty

‣Attract and retain top talent

‣Smoother journey to exit

‣Deploy resources appropriately

‣Develop a high performance culture


A difficulty for founders in a growing hospitality business is knowing which strategic and practical levers to pull and crucially, when.


Too early could be irrelevant/overkill, too late means opportunities already missed.


‣When does the organisation move to a divisional org structure? And how?

‣Do foundations properly exist to enable divisional leadership?

‣Which foundations need to be laid next?

‣Are key roles correctly defined and filled with future needs in mind? 

‣What even are our future needs? Especially when we’re 2x or 10x current size?

‣ Do our operating systems also meet these future needs?


These are only a few examples.


Growth is a fluid journey.

The organisation should be moving with the fluid’s tide, not across or against it.

Trouble is this tide is invisible, and every org is different.


It’s common for organisations and founders to become lost as they try balancing volume demands with organisational development needs (which often become neglected). 


They might be unaware of it.


Often senior leaders and key team members can become frustrated, mis-directed and silo’d.


Productivity suffers as the organisation becomes a mish-mash of outdated ways of working, mixed skill levels in the team with mixed agendas, and founders clinging on to directive leadership style (their comfort zone).


The organisation is too big for this approach now, senior leaders and key team members don’t thrive in this environment at all.


Performance and quality levels diminish.


The founder and organisation reach a stalemate.


An understanding of future operational and organisation pains requires experience, technical ability and time to execute.


Identified early, the transition of founder-organisation relationship through maturity cycle can be a real strength.


Talent and resources can be channelled correctly leading to extraordinary outcomes. 


More time focused on growth instead of on so-called ‘growing pains’.


👥 If you’d like help to proactively plan for such transitions please get in touch.


🌟 Key Takeaways

‣See attached diagram first

‣Having an awareness of founder-org relationship yields huge benefits

‣Creating a roadmap prevents growing pains and enables growth in team and org

‣Investing in help is a good idea if this is a new area to your organisation

‣Don't believe me? I've proved it several times over.


💬 What do you think? Share your views in the comments.

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