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I believe many technology SMEs, given the stage of maturity at which they are found, the challenge to become large companies with staffing numbers had not suspected to start business.  And here are some pitfalls that are worth considering, because the traditional response to the need to “formalize” professionalize organizations or may not be suitable for technology companies.

Here are some tips to consider:

1.  Technology companies, the dynamism of its business and markets in which they operate, they require more leaders than managers.  To clarify, I put two counterexamples:
* If we consider an auto parts company a sole proprietorship, which substantially increased the capacity of its owner to find an interesting niche, it is likely that during the explosive growth, has requested to shore up the leadership of the original owner, with managers able to  properly structure the financial, human resources, technology and even institutional relations.  These managers act as a counterweight to the owner, who may be considered a visionary or leader, but executives will probably need to lower the dreams strategic and operational plans.

2.  Another fundamental guidelines for technology companies is supporting far fewer inter dependencies than other companies.  Put another way: in an organization whose product changes every 20 years, is tolerable (increasingly less) prior to innovate with a client or product, employees should consult half a dozen departments and three hierarchical levels.  In a technology firm, this is suicide.

If a company, an employee has to ask permission to more than three people to do something, you probably already suffering and this is directly affecting the results.  This is not a subject of analysis when companies are born, as it handles everything with a certain informality and organizations grow in spite of having few controls, taking risks that are only tolerable for small business.

3.  Losing control in faith.  The business growth is idealized.  Of course it’s rewarding to see that the organization grows and the entrepreneur dreams are made, but in parallel, it is almost inevitable that the entrepreneur begins to feel a loss of power over your product that you lose sleep at night.  “The project leader sought XX customer like never before treated, the product has flaws that are unacceptable to me”, etc.

4.  Develop information systems relevant measure results!  This is a much more common in technology companies, with its natural orientation processes in the rest of the companies.  In fact, it is more common in a growing organization has weaknesses in all measurements, while the technology in what usually happens is that is measured, but what matters is not measured.