When it comes to growth, most of us focus on what’s next: the next opportunity, the next hire, the next big milestone. But I’ve learned that before you can grow well, you have to really understand what you’re growing from.
That foundation, the core identity of your business, is the part that’s easiest to lose sight of as you expand. It usually doesn’t happen all at once. It slips away slowly, buried under new systems, new people, and new habits that may make your company look more sophisticated but less like you.
One of the best examples of this comes from an old Harvard Business Review article by John Peterman, the founder of the J. Peterman Company. I’ve had new employees read it over the years because it perfectly captures what can happen when success starts to drown out the story that made you successful in the first place.
Peterman built a business that was imaginative, original, and deeply personal, and then, through growth and well-intentioned decisions, lost the very essence that made it special.
That lesson has stuck with me ever since.
Know Who You Are (And Protect It)
Every organization has a DNA, a combination of values, instincts, and beliefs that define who it is and how it operates. The tricky part is that those same values can get diluted as you grow.
Startups, for instance, often begin with something deeply unique: a niche product, a bold philosophy, or a team united by shared purpose. But as they expand, they bring in new people, new investors, and new systems. If they’re not careful, they also bring in the habits and assumptions those people carry from past experiences.
That’s how a scrappy, innovative startup turns into yet another company run by the same old playbook.
Over the years, I’ve told new hires something that tends to make them raise an eyebrow: “Part of my job is to protect the company from you.”
It’s not meant to sound adversarial. It’s a reminder that protecting what makes a company great sometimes means pushing back, not against people, but against the slow drift toward conformity. Every decision, every process, and every new hire should build on the very foundation that made you successful in the first place.
“We had come up with a very engaging concept for a business…In 1989, we did $4.8 million in sales, and in 1990, we did $19.8 million. Our staff grew even faster. We went from 15 people in 1989 to probably 75 or 80 in 1990, and we were all working well together toward a common, if unstated, goal. The road ahead looked exciting.
We had also, without realizing it, planted the seeds for serious problems later on. All the thinking about the brand, the niche, the target market—it was intuitive for a very long time. I wish now that we’d written down our ideas, our concept—in detail—at the start. It was a long time before we put anything into words in that way, and by then I think it was too late.
The theory of our business was in my head and in Don’s head (as creative director, he concentrated on writing and producing the catalogs), and until 1996, we took the time to make sure that it was also in the heads of everyone on staff. But in 1997, when we laid our plans for retail expansion and we had to recruit many more people quickly, it got lost.
In the face of success and rapid growth, it’s easy to assume that people joining the team know what the game is. Failing to make sure that everyone knows what you stand for and why—that can come right back and ambush you much sooner than you realize.”
- The Rise and Fall of the J. Peterman Company, by John Peterman
Growth Without Erosion
Peterman’s story is a great example of how easy it is to erode your own identity in the pursuit of growth. The moment you start operating by other people’s definitions of success, you start losing the edge that sets you apart.
I’ve seen this happen more times than I can count. A company finds its footing, starts growing fast, and suddenly leadership is spending more time maintaining structure than nurturing creativity. New systems appear, old processes are replaced, and in the process, the spark that made the company different starts to fade.
Growth done right doesn’t replace your identity, it reinforces it.
The best way to make that happen is by grounding your decisions in principles rather than rules. Rules are rigid; principles are flexible but consistent. They help you navigate change without losing your direction.
That idea is one of the cornerstones of my book, How-to IQ: A Principle-Based Approach to Smarter Decisions in Complex Times. Because whether it’s a compliance challenge, a growth plan, or a people issue, the key to making better decisions lies in understanding your why.
When your team understands that (when they know the principles that guide decisions), they can move faster, think smarter, and stay aligned even when the path ahead isn’t perfectly clear.
Being the Advocate and the Adversary
That’s one of the reasons I have new employees read Peterman’s article. It helps them understand my leadership philosophy: I’m your biggest advocate, and sometimes, your most constructive adversary.
I see part of my job as protecting the company from unnecessary change, but also protecting people from stagnation. Growth requires both.
It’s easy to think of leadership as choosing sides, where you’re either supporting your people or defending your organization. But the truth is, it’s not about choosing one over the other. It’s about making sure both sides stay aligned to the same purpose.
When that happens, you don’t just protect the culture. You strengthen it.
Building on Bedrock
Before any company hires, scales, or expands, I think it’s worth asking a few simple questions:
- What’s the foundation we’re building from?
- What makes us unique — and how do we protect that as we grow?
- Are our systems and strategies helping us grow stronger, or just bigger?
Peterman’s story might be about fashion and storytelling, but its lessons apply to every business I’ve ever worked with. Growth is exciting, but if you lose your identity along the way, it’s hollow progress.
At MKP Strategies, I work with companies across industries to bridge that gap between who they are and who they’re becoming, whether that’s aligning compliance and operations, building decision-making frameworks, or strengthening leadership teams.
Because when you know who you are at your core, growth doesn’t threaten your identity. It amplifies it.