Fred,
In my experience, symptoms appear;
1) When company reaches 15 and again at 65 employees and become fatal at
200 to 300 employees.
2) When company acquires more than a dozen customers (who then demand
stability and predictability and will not tolerate supplier
prerogatives).
3) When company needs second product.
4) When Founder has heart attack (usually within six months after 1, 2,
or 3)
Sorry, but I do not have electronic access to the California Management
Review but I recall an article in the 1995 time frame that gave
statistics from several venture capitalists on this topic.
Also suggest Google-ing (now a verb) Founder's Syndrome. Lots of
references.
----- Original Message -----
>
> Date: Sat, 19 Jan 2002 06:39:36 -0500
> From: Fred Nickols <
nickols@att.net>
> Subject: Looking for "Founder's Syndrome" Resources
>
> "Founder's Syndrome" refers to a condition at the stage in an
> organization's growth where it must shift from being an extension of
the
> founder to a becoming a professionally managed organization but can't
make
> that shift because the founder is unable to change his or her ways of
> leading and managing the organization. Clearly, not all organizations
> suffer from this syndrome but some do. I've been contacted by someone
> interested in locating resources (books, papers, articles) that shed
light
> on (A) this stage in an organization's development and (B) methods and
> techniques for dealing with Founder's Syndrome.
>
> Any and all leads greatly appreciated.