With the completion of MMVs credentializing rollouts in Asia Pac and the US, we are now feeling the constraints of our resources.  As a company, we live to fulfill our profit potential.  As a joint venture, our parent companies are often able to put strategic value ahead of profit.  With this context the venture is clearly moving into a new phase: Growth.

It is an amazing sight to watch your concept grow to a fully functioning company with product and customers for that product.  However it is in this phase when the company needs to prioritize well.  I would often say in the 90s startup days, “everything is a priority”.  I was stupid.

In any business that is experiencing serious growth the key issue is the complexity and number of issues that arise with each value generating opportunity. No business has the resources to execute on everything well and as the business landscape throws curve balls and variety there are limits to business planning and we have to basically go into the plate spinning mode.  Now consider these facts pertaining specifically to joint-venture management.

• Given a finite set of resources, the success of any decision is often predetermined by the ability to make it a priority that will consequently draw sufficient resource to achieve the intended outcome
• Startup managers and especially JV managers spend too much time working on the business rather than in the business
• Priorities differ from daily to monthly and perhaps yearly
• Good priority management will counterbalance a lack of people, dollars or time

In early stage business, the inability to set priorities with respect to deliverable quality, number of people, access to capital and time available, is a massive issue. This is often hampered by the board of management making decisions without consideration to the early venture’s top priority: revenue growth. No matter the perceived quality or strength of the founders or senior management, the requirement for a functional decision-making body at a board level, is a critical piece of the puzzle of how to prioritize. They are the only managers with ability to see the entire picture across company objectives.

The importance of a collegial, industrious, strategically aligned and experiences board only increases with the growth of the venture and greater opportunities.