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Spotify CEO Daniel Ek worked with
co-founder Martin Lorentzon to build
a large but agile company. It avoids
Greiner’s growth problems by working
in small squads overseen by “tribes.”capabilities, and the capacity of
its core markets, and seek
external growth.
The actual rate of growth—
in terms of customer numbers,
revenue, or profits—within each
phase of the Greiner Curve will
vary, depending on the individual
company. Organizations such as
Facebook were already large by the
time they started to face crises of
delegation and control. Others may
remain small for many years,
perhaps never even reaching
the leadership-crisis stage.
Using the Greiner Curve
Knowledge of the Greiner Curve
can help start-up founders to
predict and manage the inevitable
crises of growth. Even when
enjoying the heady days of early
growth, entrepreneurs need to be
mindful of the steps required to
build the business further. They
must put structures in place as
soon as possible; the earlier that
formal systems and professional
management are introduced, the
less they will be resented and
resisted, and the stronger the
foundations for continued growth.
In this regard, the various crises
identified by the Greiner Curve can
be seen as natural transitions. An
organization must manage its way
through such transitions and
growing pains as it continually
defines and redefines the scope of its
operations, its values, and its overall
purpose. As Benjamin Franklin
observed, “without continual
growth and progress, such words
as improvement, achievement, and
success have no meaning.”Large but agile
One company that seems to have
heeded the lessons of the Greiner
Curve is the Internet music-
streaming service, Spotify. The
organization’s Swedish founders,
Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon,
knew at the company’s inception
in 2008 that their aim was growth.
They also knew that they were not
willing to compromise the benefits
that accompany the excitement
of a start-up business.
Spotify organizes itself around
project-based teams, called
“squads.” The organization is
divided into small clusters of
squads, with each squad runningSTART SMALL, THINK BIG
as a start-up business. Mirroring
the benefits enjoyed by companies
in Greiner’s first stage, every squad
is fully autonomous, has direct
contact with its stakeholders,
and operates with minimal
dependency on other squads.
To deal with the various crises
of growth (such as autonomy and
red-tape), related squads are
grouped into “tribes.” The function
of the tribe is to support and enable
the activities of each squad, in
essence mirroring the role of
venture capitalists in incubating
new start-ups. The operation is
kept small and agile by limiting the
head count for each tribe to 100.
Spotify appears to have managed
to maintain a balance between the
benefits of growth and the feel-good
elements of a start-up. The founders
nevertheless admit that the system
is not flawless, and as the demand
for an organization-wide strategy
grows, it may be that even Spotify
will not escape the crises of growth
predicted by the Greiner Curve. ■All growth depends upon
activity. There is no
development physically or
intellectually without effort,
and effort means work.
Calvin Coolidge
US former President (1872–1933)