Many founders are visionaries by nature. Their company was started because they envisioned a future that didn’t yet exist and pulled together a team to make it a reality. As the company scales, it becomes critical that the founder/CEO also recognize that they are ultimately responsible for the integration of every aspect of the business. For visionary founders, this is not obvious, natural, or easy.
Someone needs to make sure that all parts of the business are working in concert to ensure that customers are being served, revenue is being collected, expenses are being managed, and the business is growing in a healthy manner. Everyone — investors, customers, and employees — will look to the CEO when those things don’t happen, so ultimately the CEO is the chief integrator. If that’s not his strength, then he needs to make sure someone else is playing that role on his behalf.
In the article linked below, I lay out fourteen specific tasks that a founder/CEO can tackle to drive effective integration across the growing business.