As one of my past managers used to say "YOU CAN'T SCALE CHAOS"!  This is one of my all-time favorite quotes as it says so much with so few words.  Chaos is defined by Dictionary.com as "a total lack of organization or order." The quote "you can't scale chaos" defines a big picture concept that moves me to think PROCESS and chaos avoidance.  When I think of scalability, I think of process definition,   process implementation and process control.

As a small to medium sized company, you started out focused on the product or service that drove you to go into business.  As you grew, whether fast or slow, you probably didn't think too much about defining how things are done, why they're done and how to get them done repeatedly, with consistent  quality and by anyone available.   There's also a good chance that your intellectual property is held only as common knowledge by your key employees.  You may not realize how great a risk this could pose to your organization.

Once you've realized that you are risking your ability to grow with ease and consistency, you will begin your path to security and consistency by defining your processes throughout the enterprise.  Start by identifying who the players are in your organization and visually defining the real communication channels with an organization map.  Next, define each position's broad tasks (can be used for quick reference checklists) and, if possible, the detailed specifics of each task as work instructions .

Now that your operations are on paper, you can move to the implementation phase.  This is a bit ambiguous, because if you're already a running business, you've probably documented where you are now.  To get everyone to an even starting point, you must distribute the new process documentation, clearly communicate how the information will be used and managed, why it's beneficial and critical to the organization and how each person can be an integral part of the process control and improvements.

Once you have your you have your documentation, everyone is on track to go forward and on the same page, how do you give the concept of PROCESS its real value? - through process control.  The control phase makes your processes repeatable and if managed properly (that's another story) can put your operations into a light form of auto-pilot so you can focus on new ideas, customers and process improvements.  Process management, feedback and follow on improvements will keep the process cycles moving smoothly and in the right direction and will allow the greatest potential for PROFIT improvements. 

Defining and managing your processes removes the CHAOTIC tendencies of most companies allowing the daily activities to be repeated and to grow - SCALABLE. Other key reasons for putting in the efforts, time and money needed to make process performance happen is to consistently develop products, services and operations, lower costs, happier, confident and more consistent employees and ultimately - GREATER PROFITS!