We give attention to large enterprises like Amazon, Google, and Apple because our collective retirements and the forces of culture depend on them. And we pull for small businesses because, in our hearts, we want people who look like our neighbors to succeed.
But there's a large population of companies that rarely get a lot of attention: midmarket/midsize companies. Yet making midmarket companies successful should be a significant focus for solution providers. These are the ones that have the means to be potentially disruptive enough to grow into the next unicorns.
When I speak of midmarket companies, I'm talking about private, high-growth businesses between 50 and 5,000 employees. They're likely not public, but they're going to be one day or find their way to a successful exit. And generally, these companies have unique challenges associated with their growth. Challenges faced by fast-growing, midmarket companies almost always revolve around some aspect of:
- The need for effective, low-churn hiring.
- The constant drumbeat for process and operational improvement.
- Identifying and adopting scalable systems and technology.
But these companies need to employ both people and solutions that support their growth, without significant implementation headaches that larger enterprises absorb just by being big. Time to market is imperative, as is making the right decision quickly.
Hiring The Growth-Oriented Team
Believe it or not, it's uncommon to find and hire a person who wants to be part of a rocket ship. There are plenty of positions at companies where you can expect predictability and stability. But jobs at fast-moving companies require people who are adept at problem-solving, not problem-reporting — people who understand no one will hand them perfection.
You need people who can envision issues and offer tactical or strategic steps to fix them now and for the long term. Midmarket companies can't use people who throw up their hands and capitulate to their situation.
While larger organizations can afford to protect these people, for a midsize company, it's a lot harder to hide the ineffectual and those lacking passion and pride. And as a manager or senior executive, you don't want to spend your headcount on the uninspired. When you add someone, they need to be growth-centric as well — not just a body that is content to do a single task and then clock out.
Scalable, Intelligent Back-End Technology
In addition to committing to hiring A-players, midmarket companies need to establish a back-end technology stack. While that idea may seem secondary, unburdening people from menial processes is vital to attracting superstars. Relying on software that has built-in AI to handle the mundane can scale operational processes. That means more time available to spend on real problem-solving.
We're in the golden age for software solutions. For every corporate operation, there is technology to aid the business of doing business. Marketing, sales, support, finance — so many of the most common tasks are ready to be automated.
And while more recognizable software serves either large enterprises (think Oracle and SAP) or small companies (such as QuickBooks or MailChimp), software applications that specialize in the midmarket often seem opaque — much like the customers they serve. Industry folks know them (in the case of ERPs, NetSuite, Intacct, Workday, etc.), but they're brands that don't get Super Bowl ads. Even less recognizable are those products that connect to these systems for various organizational functions.
Yet it's these technologies that are fueling the midmarket economy. They're designed to have lower implementation efforts and be more flexible than their big-enterprise brothers. They're also more often built on newer technology, and almost all are cloud-based.
The Execution Advantage
Operationally, the combination of scalable technology and a growth-oriented team is what's needed to ignite takeoff. This strategy ultimately allows higher per-person productivity and the ability to take on new business.
For example, if you have a multisided business model, the challenges of building out operations to support both sides can be complicated. Add in any form of globalization, and the degrees in difficulty increase.
The high-growth employee, leveraging well-suited technology, can do the job of multiple teams or handle larger volumes. Larger enterprises can hire at will or can afford to wait a year to roll out plans. Conversely, private midmarket businesses need to factor in time to market and execution with realistic budgets.
In short, it's these technologies that enable smaller companies to act and execute enterprise-sized ideas.
