【观点】企业规模变大，问题不是相加，而是相乘

在商业世界中，企业规模的扩大通常被视为成功的象征。

“做大、做强、做久”，这九个字也是被很多企业领导者挂在嘴上，这其中“做大”往往都是排在第一位的。

我所接触的大多数企业里，有些老板还会这样说，“等我们企业突破100亿（也有说500亿、1000亿的），现在的很多问题就解决了。我们当前的问题，还是规模不够大。”

然而，我的观点是：企业不是做大了，就能解决当前问题，而是解决了当前问题，才能做大。当企业从小型走向中型，甚至大型时，所面临的不再是简单的线性增长问题，而是更为复杂的、多元的非线性问题。

说通俗一点就是，企业规模变大，问题不是相加，而是相乘。

因为，随着规模的增长，随之而来的问题不是单独出现，而是集中涌现，同时相互交织、相互影响，从而导致问题呈指数级增长。 CXO UNION-CXO联盟（cxounion.cn）

我们今天就来聊聊这个话题，探讨一下企业规模变大后，面临的问题和挑战，以及如何解决和应对。

一、复杂性的倍增：从线性到指数级

一家上市公司老板，曾和我吐槽说：“公司刚成立的时候虽然小，但感觉更有凝聚力，更好管理。现在公司2000多人，反而觉得效率慢、活力差，哪里都有问题，推动什么事情都比原来吃力，非常怀念公司创业的阶段。”

我说：“如果你还照着现在的方式做，就算规模能增长，等公司到了五千人、一万人的时候，你觉得你还能带得动吗？”

他毫不犹豫地摇了摇头。

就像人长大的过程一样，青春期的烦恼会远大于童年的啼哭，中年的压力也不是年轻时候所能理解和体验的。

企业在规模变大的过程中，其内部结构和运营往往变得更为复杂，哪怕只是几个单一的问题，也不再是简单地相加，而是相乘，从而形成了更为庞大的挑战。

● 首先，组织架构的层次和数量会变多，要涉及更多的部门。管理层需要面对的是一个庞大的组织架构，而不是一个紧密的创业团队，管理难度大大增加，使得问题无法简单地通过线性增加人员来解决。

● 其次，大量的员工，意味着更多的沟通环节和更复杂的信息传递路径，这就带来了内部沟通和协调的挑战，直接导致了沟通成本的增加，这使得信息流动变得更为困难。

● 再次，随着规模的扩大，企业通常会涉足更多的市场和业务领域。这导致企业需要应对不同地区、不同产品、甚至不同行业的差异。这样的多元化经营，使得企业需要处理不同的业务模式，面对不同的市场挑战，也必然增加了管理的多样性和复杂性。 CXO UNION-CXO联盟（cxounion.cn）

二、创新与协同的挑战

企业规模的扩大，一定还会带来创新和协同方面的挑战。

在较小规模的组织中，创新更为灵活，决策更为迅速。然而，当企业规模变大时，创新变得更为困难。

因为，所有大型企业通常都面临自身庞大机构的惯性，难以灵活调整以适应快速变化的市场需求，按部就班慢慢变成常态，创新就逐渐成为了稀罕之物。

此外，协同工作也变得更加复杂。

在小型企业中，员工之间的协同通常更为直接和高效。而当企业规模扩大时，团队分布在不同单元、不同地区、乃至不同国家，协同变得更加依赖技术和流程，“例行公事” 越来越多，而人与人之间的直接协同变得越来越少。

这对领导者提出了更高要求，也意味着更大的挑战。

三、文化与价值观的一致性难题

企业规模的扩大，还带来了组织文化和价值观的一致性问题。

在小型企业中，领导者可以更容易地塑造和传递企业文化，员工之间的价值观更容易保持一致。然而，当企业扩大规模时，文化和价值观的传承变得更为困难，这也是为什么很多企业一变大，就会动作变形、甚至连底色都会变掉的缘故。

当然，这一问题在企业出海之后，成为跨国企业之时尤为明显，由于不同地区的文化差异，统一的企业文化变得更为复杂。因为作为跨国企业，其文化必须适应不同国家和地区的需求。 CXO UNION-CXO联盟（cxounion.cn）

在这种情况下，保持一致的文化和价值观，就成为一项艰巨的任务。

四、如何应对挑战？

说完了企业规模变大后，所面临的三大问题和挑战，我们还是将更多的笔墨放在如何应对上。

如果非要用一句话，先来概括一下，我认为四个字就够了，那就是：升维应对。

为什么说是升维应对？

因为，我们前面说了，企业规模变大后，问题不是相加，而是相乘。这就意味着，问题已经从量变走向了质变。

原来10亿规模的企业，到了100亿的时候，所面临的问题，肯定不会是用原来10个10亿的方式就能解决的。

而对于100亿规模的企业，在冲击1000亿时，所面临的问题，也肯定不可能是用原来100亿的方式，重复10次就能解决的。

就如同在计算机领域，巴贝奇想用数量增长的方式来解决微积分的数学问题，但是其复杂度远远超出想象，耗费十年光阴才造出第一台差分机，最终还是以失败告终。当然，他在计算机领域的贡献毋庸置疑，不过这和本文的主题关系不大，我们在这里就不展开了。 CXO UNION-CXO联盟（cxounion.cn）

我只是想说明，对于企业领导者来说，要想解决数量级变化后的问题，就要摆脱旧的维度，而要从新的维度上去解决，而且往往是提升维度后才能更好的解决，这也像小说《三体》中所描述的那个场景，面对三体人的“水滴”武器，原来所有的三维攻击方式都无济于事，而从四维角度却能轻易破解。

再说回企业规模变大后，如何升维应对？升维，又是升什么维？

主要是三方面的升维：理念升维、管理升维、工具升维。

● 理念升维

首先要升维的，就是理念。

也就是说，要在思想意识上和思维方式上，进行升维。

要做到理念升维，先要能做到否定自己。

至少要能做到，时刻提醒自己：走老路到不了新地方。

每次面对公司老大难的问题时、面对新出现的问题时，先不要急着凭经验下结论，更不要一味认为是下面的人不行。

而是暂时停下来，先问问自己：是不是我原来的固有思维，才导致老大难问题成为公司顽疾？

然后，再去外面多取取经，跨专业、跨行业、跨领域，看看是不是别人在用不同的方式解决同样的问题，问问已经突破规模瓶颈的标杆企业，是如何思考和解决的。 CXO UNION-CXO联盟（cxounion.cn）

● 管理升维

理念升维之后，就要进行管理升维。

我非常佩服那些“晴天修屋顶”的企业家，因为他们不是事到临头才被逼无奈地采取动作，而是极具战略眼光地提前行动，我自己也有幸参与推动了不少管理升维的工作，也体会到他们企业的发展后劲之大。

我在企业内训时常常说，有的企业看上去规模超百亿，但管理底盘只是20亿的水平，而有些20亿的企业，已经提前打造了200亿的底子，剩下的就是长期主义来发挥作用了。

所谓管理底子，不是指拉开的架子，而是指其内核的一些东西，也就是管理升维要做的内容，至少包含机制建设、组织变革、领导力提升、文化和价值观重塑等。

o机制建设

是指企业不是靠老板个人在推动，而是通过相对固定的一整套管理方式，形成企业不断向上的力量。

o组织变革

我非常倡导，“小企业要做大，大企业要做小”。

小企业做大是指规模做大，但是大企业做小，不是指规模做小，而是指组织做小，包括组织的层级和数量要不断精简优化，也包括组织的分权和放权要不断下沉。 CXO UNION-CXO联盟（cxounion.cn）

想做到这一点，要通过多次的组织变革，才可能实现。

所以组织变革，应该成为常态。

o领导力提升

不断培养和提升中高层的领导力，使其能够更好地传递和执行组织的各项决策。

o文化和价值观重塑

重新明确组织文化和价值观，提高文化和价值观的统领和牵引作用。

● 工具升维

在黄山的缆车入口处，有一块显眼的牌子，写着10个字，“步行两小时，缆车5分钟”。

不同的工具，带来的效率差异就是这么大。

当然，热衷爬山的，不以效率为优先，不在我们这里的讨论范围。

但是，对企业来说，处于不同的规模阶段，就要采用不同的管理工具。

数字化、智能化的工具，越早应用越好，充分利用技术工具来简化和加强业务流程，提高组织的运营效率。

面对林林总总的工具，我们不提倡小马拉大车的全套配齐，但是不断尝试、逐步用工具改造企业的做法，还是要坚持。

五、最后的话

企业规模变大，问题不是相加，而是相乘。

带来的问题和挑战，有三个方面：复杂性的指数级增加、创新与协同的挑战、文化与价值观的一致性难题。

面对三方面的挑战，我们要做三方面的升维应对：理念升维、管理升维、工具升维。

希望这三个升维，能为你站上更高维度，提供一些启发和帮助。

你的企业是否正在面对规模变大后的问题？又是如何应对的呢？ CXO UNION-CXO联盟（cxounion.cn）

欢迎在后台留言，和我们交流。

翻译：

When companies get bigger, the problem is not adding, but multiplying

In the business world, increasing the size of a company is often seen as a symbol of success.

“Bigger, stronger, and longer”, these nine words are also on the lips of many business leaders, of which “bigger” is often ranked first.

In most of the companies I contact, some bosses will say, “When our company exceeds 10 billion (there are also 50 billion, 100 billion), many problems will be solved.” Our current problem is not big enough.”

However, my point is that companies do not solve current problems by getting bigger, but solve current problems in order to get bigger. When enterprises go from small to medium-sized, or even large, what they face is no longer a simple linear growth problem, but a more complex, multivariate nonlinear problem.

It is common to say that the size of enterprises becomes larger, the problem is not to add, but to multiply.

Because, with the growth of the scale, the ensuing problems do not appear alone, but emerge in a concentrated way, while interweaving and influencing each other, resulting in exponential growth of the problem. CXO UNION-CXO联盟（cxounion.cn）

Let’s talk about this topic today, and discuss the problems and challenges faced by enterprises after they become larger, and how to solve and cope with them.

Multiplication of complexity: from linear to exponential

The boss of a listed company once joked with me: “Although the company was small when it was just established, it felt more cohesive and better managed.” Now the company has more than 2,000 people, but I feel that the efficiency is slow, the vitality is poor, there are problems everywhere, and everything is more difficult than before. I miss the stage of the company’s founding.

I said, “If you continue to do it the way it is now, even if the scale can grow, when the company reaches 5,000 people, 10,000 people, do you think you can still move?”

He shook his head without hesitation.

Just like the process of growing up, the troubles of adolescence will far outweigh the cries of childhood, and the pressures of middle age are not understood and experienced at a young age.

In the process of expanding the scale of enterprises, their internal structure and operations often become more complex, even if it is only a few single issues, it is no longer a simple addition, but a multiplication, thus forming a larger challenge.

● First, there will be more layers and numbers of organizational structures, involving more departments. The management needs to face a huge organizational structure, rather than a tight entrepreneurial team, and the management difficulty is greatly increased, so that the problem can not be solved simply by linear increase of personnel. CXO UNION-CXO联盟（cxounion.cn）

● Secondly, a large number of employees means more communication links and more complex information transmission paths, which brings challenges in internal communication and coordination, and directly leads to the increase of communication costs, which makes information flow more difficult.

Third, as companies grow in size, they typically enter more markets and business areas. This results in companies having to deal with differences across regions, products, and even industries. Such diversified operation makes enterprises need to deal with different business models and face different market challenges, and inevitably increases the diversity and complexity of management.

Challenges of innovation and collaboration

The increase in the size of the enterprise is bound to bring innovation and collaboration challenges.

In smaller organizations, innovation is more flexible and decisions are made more quickly. However, when companies get bigger, innovation becomes more difficult.

Because all large enterprises usually face the inertia of their own large organizations, it is difficult to adjust flexibly to adapt to rapidly changing market demands, and gradually become the norm, innovation has gradually become a rarity. CXO UNION-CXO联盟（cxounion.cn）

In addition, collaborative work has become more complex.

In small businesses, collaboration between employees is often more direct and efficient. As companies scale up and teams are spread across different units, regions, and even countries, collaboration becomes more dependent on technology and processes, with more “routine” and less direct collaboration between people.

This places greater demands on leaders and means greater challenges.

Third, the problem of consistency between culture and values

The expansion of enterprise scale also brings about the consistency of organizational culture and values.

In a small business, it is easier for leaders to shape and deliver corporate culture, and it is easier for values to align among employees. However, as companies scale up, it becomes more difficult to pass on culture and values, which is why many companies change their behavior and even the background color will change as they get bigger. CXO UNION-CXO联盟（cxounion.cn）

Of course, this problem is especially obvious when companies go overseas and become multinational enterprises, because of cultural differences in different regions, uniform corporate culture is further complicated. As a multinational enterprise, its culture must adapt to the needs of different countries and regions.

In this case, maintaining a consistent culture and values becomes a difficult task.

Fourth, how to respond to challenges?

After saying that the scale of the enterprise has become larger, the three major problems and challenges faced, we will still put more ink on how to deal with it.

If you have to use a word, first to summarize, I think four words are enough, that is: rising dimension response. CXO UNION-CXO联盟（cxounion.cn）

Why do you say it’s an upward dimension response?

Because, as we said before, after the size of the enterprise becomes larger, the problem is not to add, but to multiply. This means that the problem has changed from quantitative to qualitative.

The original scale of 1 billion enterprises, when 10 billion, the problems faced by the original 10 billion will certainly not be solved by the way of 1 billion.

And for the scale of 10 billion enterprises, when the impact of 100 billion, the problems faced, it is certainly impossible to use the original 10 billion way, repeat 10 times can be solved.

Just like in the computer field, Babbage wanted to solve the mathematical problem of calculus by increasing the number, but its complexity was far beyond imagination, and it took ten years to build the first difference engine, and finally failed. Of course, his contributions to the field of computing are indisputable, but this is not relevant to the topic of this article, we will not expand here.

I just want to explain that for business leaders, in order to solve the problem after an order of magnitude change, they have to get rid of the old dimension and solve it from the new dimension, and often can only be better solved after upgrading the dimension. This is also like the scene described in the novel “The Three-Body Problem”, in the face of the “water drop” weapon of the Three-body Problem, all the original three-dimensional attack methods are useless. But it’s easy to crack from four dimensions.

After the scale of the enterprise becomes larger, how to upgrade the dimension of response? What dimension is it?

It is mainly three aspects of upgrading: concept upgrading, management upgrading and tool upgrading.

● Concept dimension

The first thing to raise the dimension is the idea. CXO UNION-CXO联盟（cxounion.cn）

In other words, it is necessary to raise the dimension in ideology and mode of thinking.

To achieve the concept of elevating dimension, we must first be able to deny ourselves.

At least be able to do it, and always remind yourself that old roads will not lead to new places.

Each time in the face of the company’s old problems, in the face of new problems, do not rush to conclusions based on experience, let alone blindly think that the following people can not.

Instead, pause for a moment and ask yourself: Is it my original mindset that has led to the company’s chronic problems?

Then, go outside to learn more, cross-professional, cross-industry, cross-field, to see if others are using different ways to solve the same problem, ask the benchmarking enterprises that have broken through the bottleneck of scale, how to think and solve.

● Manage updimension

After the concept is upgraded, it is necessary to upgrade the management dimension.

I admire those entrepreneurs who “repair the roof on a sunny day” very much, because they are not forced to take action at the last minute, but take action in advance with strategic vision, and I have also had the honor to participate in promoting a lot of management upgrading work, and also realize the development of their enterprises. CXO UNION-CXO联盟（cxounion.cn）

When I was training in the enterprise, I often said that some enterprises seemed to exceed 10 billion, but the management chassis was only 2 billion, and some 2 billion enterprises had built a base of 20 billion in advance, and the rest was long-term doctrine to play a role.

The so-called management foundation does not refer to the shelf, but refers to something in its core, that is, the content of management upgrade, at least including mechanism construction, organizational change, leadership promotion, culture and values reshaping.

o Mechanism building

It means that the enterprise is not promoted by the boss personally, but through a relatively fixed set of management methods, forming the upward force of the enterprise.

o Organizational change

I’m a big advocate, “Small businesses should be big, big businesses should be small.”

Small enterprises to be big refers to the scale to be big, but large enterprises to be small, not refers to the scale to be small, but refers to the organization to be small, including the level and number of organizations to continue to streamline and optimize, but also includes the decentralization and decentralization of organizations to continue to sink.

In order to achieve this, it is possible to achieve it through multiple organizational changes.

So organizational change should be the norm. CXO UNION-CXO联盟（cxounion.cn）

o Leadership development

Continuously develop and promote middle and senior leadership, so that they can better deliver and implement the organization’s decisions.

o Rebranding of culture and values

Re-clarify organizational culture and values, and improve the leading and leading role of culture and values.

● Tool dimension increase

At the entrance to the cable car in Huangshan, there is a prominent sign with 10 words, “Two hours walk, five minutes cable car.”

That’s how much efficiency can vary from tool to tool.

Of course, those who are keen to climb mountains and do not prioritize efficiency are not within the scope of our discussion here. CXO UNION-CXO联盟（cxounion.cn）

However, for enterprises, at different stages of scale, different management tools must be adopted.

Digital, intelligent tools, the earlier the better, the full use of technology tools to simplify and enhance business processes, improve the operational efficiency of the organization.

In the face of a variety of tools, we do not advocate a full set of small horses and carts, but we must continue to try and gradually use tools to transform the enterprise.

Five, last word

When companies get bigger, the problem is not adding, but multiplying.

There are three aspects to the problems and challenges: the exponential increase in complexity, the challenge of innovation and collaboration, and the problem of the consistency of culture and values.

In the face of three challenges, we have to do three aspects of dimensional response: concept dimension, management dimension, tool dimension.

I hope these three ascending dimensions can provide some inspiration and help for you to stand on the higher dimensions. CXO UNION-CXO联盟（cxounion.cn）

Is your business facing the problems of scaling up? And how to deal with it?

Leave a message in the background and talk to us.

由CXO UNION-CXO联盟（cxounion.cn）转载而成，来源于卓越运营实战；编辑/翻译：CXO UNIONCXO联盟小U。

如需加入CXO UNION（CXO联盟）高管社群，请联系社群小伙伴哦~

免责声明: 本网站(http://www.cxounion.cn/)内容主要来自原创、合作媒体供稿和第三方投稿，凡在本网站出现的信息，均仅供参考。本网站将尽力确保所提供信息的准确性及可靠性，但不保证有关资料的准确性及可靠性，读者在使用前请进一步核实，并对任何自主决定的行为负责。本网站对有关资料所引致的错误、不确或遗漏，概不负任何法律责任。

本网站刊载的所有内容(包括但不仅限文字、图片、LOGO、音频、视频、软件、程序等) 版权归原作者所有。任何单位或个人认为本网站中的内容可能涉嫌侵犯其知识产权或存在不实内容时，请及时通知本站，予以删除。