Driving Growth Through Change: 7 Thoughts

There is much truth to the old adage “what got you here won’t get you there,” for individual careers as well as for companies. Among the…

There is much truth to the old adage “what got you here won’t get you there,” for individual careers as well as for companies. Among the best companies, leaders, and artists, change is their only constant — past practices are modernized, old assumptions are questioned and updated, and one’s past style is left in the dust of the future. But the more successful a product or company is, the harder it is to change.

Over the years, I have spent a lot of time with leaders of growing organizations discussing the challenges of scaling without compromising vision and productivity — whether it be early investments like Pinterest, my previous roles at Behance and Adobe, working with CEOs in Benchmark’s portfolio, or one-off consulting roles I’ve had for companies like Adidas, Twitter, and Facebook among others. Recently I’ve been thinking about how the insights I have observed relate to larger, successful companies that seek to reach new heights by transforming their products and practices (as ev…