Further critical discussion of "Growing Pains"...

To elaborate more on the previous topic, I totally agree that entrepreneurial firms have to make transition to a professionally managed firm at some point during their life cycle. But how easy it is for the entrepreneurs to engage in such a process and jump from one type of organizational structure to another. Moreover, are entrepreneurs willing to change? Even though, transition is necessary for their firm’s success. From my viewpoint, most of the entrepreneurs simply are not willing to change because do not want to give up doing what they think should be done only by them. Moreover, they might not trust others or “outside managers” the fate of their company. Entrepreneurs might have different perception about the growth, responsibilities and success of their companies. Another thing I would like to comment on is that even though managers perceive the importance of having trained employees or “subordinates”, they might not be willing to train and develop them with the threat of loosing the position. From my personal experience I can tell that one of the criteria people use to assess and describe managers is if they are willing and trying to develop their subordinates. Once, when I talked to one of the employees (friend of my family) of a particular company about internship opportunities in their company, she did not recommend the marketing department and drew attention to the nature of marketing manager. She pointed out that marketing manager did not like when her subordinates over performed and she felt in danger of loosing the position. Besides, from my point of view the competence of “outside managers” is the matter of discussion. Most of the entrepreneurial firms are based on ideas and beliefs of entrepreneurs. Employees who “grow” with the company, share those ideas and beliefs and carry them forward. Even if company faces rapid growth and needs transition to successfully overcome “growing pains”, how long will it take “outside manager” to learn the company, share those beliefs and start “curing”? My subjective opinion is that bringing outsiders into the company might not be the best solution to the “growing pains” facing the company. As a final point, desire of entrepreneurs and nature and willingness of managers are most critical issues while discussing transition process from an entrepreneurship to a professionally managed firm. In addition, bringing “outside managers” to fix the problems or “growing pains” might not be efficient tool.