STiR coffee and tea magazine

20 STiR coffee and tea | 2024 Issue 5 (October / November) W By Emily McIntyre Good Growth: Framework for Success hen studying Good Growth, the "how" of growth is just as im- portant as the "why", and in two industries with a sharp (often ignored) divide between "grassroots" or "Mom and Pop" busi- nesses and corporations of scale, the methodologies of growth take on a new importance. Particularly in countries of origin, many coffee and tea business owners inherit their business models, along with other assets such as their land, mind- sets, and even generational employees, from their parents. The farm may even have been in the family for a century or two. Access to modern business resources such as finance, and the type of business education usually only accessed in business schools or in the upward trajectory at large firms, is lim- ited. While there is a charm and liveliness to businesses that aren't cut from a standardized pattern, there can also be inefficiency and unnecessary struggles as the owners are forced to rediscover—frequently the hard way—what they could have learned elsewhere if they'd known to look. On the other side of the divide are large, often multinational corporations, which recruit top graduates from business schools and are built to modern organizational theory. Some of the owners of these organizations have also inherited their businesses, but are often the descendants of colonists, and therefore continue to reap the benefits of such heritage. These businesses at scale have enormous potential to positively impact not only their sharehold- er's returns, but also the industry they lead at large. And, as has been proven over and over again, they also have a proportionate ability to cause harm. These firms are likely to already be using business growth methodologies as part of a larger initiative, since it is impossible to scale an organism of that size without the skeleton structure of models. This article focuses on the whys, hows, and wherefores of adopting a busi- ness growth methodology for the smaller, independent coffee or tea business. A Case for Methodology–As a Starting Point Nate Murphy, COO for leading Michigan specialty coffee roaster Schuil Cof- fee, says, "If you want to move your business away from constant firefighting Business growth methodologies make success easier for small, independent coffee and tea businesses. A business doesn't have to strictly adhere to one methodology; sometimes, it's best to sample different approaches until the right one is found. mode, if you as a founder want to get away from always being reactionary, always being on call, then you have got to embrace the discomfort of using a structure to get there." Schuil Coffee uses EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System), and Nate is the company's implementor, meaning that he is responsible for converting the vision from the CEO into action steps, procedures, and goals us- ing methods like Quarterly Rocks, L10 Meetings, and Scorecards. It's a rigid system that requires full buy-in from the managers and staff to render the promised benefits (which include claims like "take your business from chaos to clarity"). Whether EOS is the business growth meth- odology of choice or not, evidence is strong that starting (or improving) a project with a structure in mind, even if ultimately the structure is replaced or modified, yields much better results than building it ad hoc. "The world simply can't be made sense

• Cover