Article Contents:
Founder dilemmas
In my consulting experience of working with more than 150 SMEs, I have had many conversations with founders about the challenges they face while running and growing their businesses.
Quite often, during these conversations, founders express a dilemma.
- Should I continue to handle this myself or delegate it?
- Should I push for performance or protect the relationship with the person?
- Should I focus on growing sales or improving profitability first?
- Should I give my people more freedom or retain control?
These are not imaginary dilemmas. They are real situations founders face, and in many cases, both sides of the choice have some merit.
One thing I have observed is that these dilemmas become more complex as the business grows. What worked well when the organisation was small may not work as the company grows. The context changes. Earlier assumptions may no longer be valid. As more people get involved, expectations increase, and business complexity increases.
That is why I don’t think there is always one standard answer to these dilemmas.
The appropriate decision depends on the situation, the stage of the business and the people involved. It also depends a lot on the founder’s experience and how they view business, people, and growth.
Over the years, I have discussed many such situations with founders and shared my perspective on what they could consider before making a decision.
In this article, I have consolidated eight such founder dilemmas that I frequently come across in my consulting work. I have broadly grouped them into three areas:
People-related dilemmas – decisions involving performance, relationships, empowerment and people development.
Founder-related dilemmas – decisions about delegation, control and the founder’s own involvement in the business.
Business growth-related dilemmas – choices around sales, profitability, opportunities and building the business for the next stage.
For each dilemma, I will share how I typically approach the situation and what I would ask a founder to consider before making a decision.
The objective is not to give a standard answer. It is to help founders consider these dilemmas from a broader perspective and make a decision appropriate for their business and its next stage of growth.
1)How do you balance performance and relationships?
Relationships are important in any organisation, particularly in founder-led businesses.
Many employees may have worked with the founder for several years. There could be strong personal relationships with employees, suppliers and even customers.
The dilemma starts when performance expectations are not being met.
Should the founder protect the relationship or push harder for performance?
In my view, protecting a relationship should not mean avoiding difficult conversations.
When performance is below expectation, the leader needs to discuss it openly, understand the reasons, provide necessary support and agree on what needs to change.
Consistently tolerating poor performance in the name of maintaining relationships ultimately harms the business and may also create frustration among other good performers.
The challenge is to respect the person while being clear about performance expectations.
Good relationships and good performance need not be opposite choices.
2)Should you focus on sales growth or profitable growth?
Every entrepreneur wants to grow.
More customers, more orders and higher sales naturally create excitement. Growth also brings visibility and confidence.
But sales growth alone does not necessarily mean that the business is becoming stronger.
I have seen businesses where sales continue to increase, but profitability remains inconsistent. Working capital requirements increase, inventory grows, receivables go up and the organisation becomes increasingly difficult to manage.
Then the founder starts wondering:
“We are growing, but why don’t I feel the benefit of this growth?”
In my view, the real choice is not sales growth versus profitability.
The question is:
How do we achieve profitable growth?
Growth should strengthen the business, not simply make it bigger.
That requires founders to look beyond sales numbers and continuously pay attention to margins, cash flow, working capital, execution capability and organisational readiness.
A business cannot sustainably become bigger without becoming stronger.
3)Should you delegate or do it yourself?
Many businesses start with the founder doing almost everything.
In the early stages, this may even be necessary.
The founder knows the customer, understands the product, makes decisions quickly and personally ensures that things get done.
But as the organisation grows, the same strength can become a constraint.
The founder may continue thinking:
“It is faster if I do it myself.”
That may be true today. But if everything continues to depend on the founder, when will the organisation develop its own capability?
Delegation does not mean simply transferring work.
People need clarity about the expected outcome, appropriate authority, necessary capability and a mechanism for review.
Initially, the founder may need to stay closer. As the person’s capability and confidence increase, involvement can gradually reduce.
The objective is not for the founder to disappear from execution.
The objective is to ensure that the organisation does not depend on the founder for every execution decision.
4)How much should a founder get into details?
Founders are often advised to “focus on the big picture.”
That is important, but I don’t believe it means staying away from details completely.
Sometimes the details reveal what dashboards and presentations do not.
A founder or CEO needs to understand where deeper involvement is required and where it is unnecessary.
If an important customer is repeatedly affected, a strategic project is slipping, margins are deteriorating or a major operational problem keeps recurring, getting into the details may be necessary.
But getting involved in every routine operational decision creates dependency and consumes leadership bandwidth.
The question, therefore, is not:
“Should I be strategic or operational?”
It is:
“Where does my involvement add the greatest value?”
Stay connected with the big picture, but selectively go deeper where business risks or performance gaps demand leadership attention.
5)How much should you control and how much should you empower?
One dilemma many founders face is how much to control and how much to empower their people.
In my view, today’s generation cannot be managed by continuously dictating what they should do and how they should do it.
People perform better when they understand the purpose, feel trusted and have the freedom to contribute.
People can be managed only by inspiring and influencing, rather than by controlling every action.
But empowerment does not mean that everything should be left entirely to the team.
The founder or business head needs to decide what requires control and what can be empowered.
For example, if the company has decided on an important strategic initiative such as entering a new market, improving profitability or implementing a major business transformation, the leader cannot simply delegate it and wait for the result.
The direction, milestones and expected outcomes need to be clearly defined and regularly monitored.
But consider something like organising a customer event. Does the founder really need to decide the venue, seating arrangement, food and every small detail?
Once the objective, budget and broad expectations are clear, the team should be empowered to handle it.
The same principle applies to many routine operational decisions and micro-level execution.
Control the direction, boundaries and critical outcomes. Empower people to achieve them.
As capability and trust increase, the boundary of empowerment can also expand.
6)How should you balance loyalty and professionalisation?
Loyalty is something every founder values.
This is particularly true when someone has travelled with the organisation for many years and stood with the founder during difficult times.
But as the business grows, expectations from key roles also change.
A person who was highly effective at one stage of the business may not necessarily be capable of managing the next stage.
If the person is willing and able to upgrade, the organisation should certainly provide that opportunity.
But what if the capability gap continues?
I experienced this situation in one of my client organisations.
A senior person had been with the founder for many years. He was sincere and loyal and had stood with the founder through difficult times. Over the years, he had grown into an important role and was heading the plant.
But the business had changed.
Customer expectations on delivery had increased. The organisation had become more complex, and the plant needed stronger leadership to drive production and the team.
The person, who was also nearing retirement, was finding it difficult to cope with these changing expectations.
Instead of simply removing him, we had an open discussion.
We explained the role’s expectations and the current performance gaps. He also understood the situation and acknowledged that, at his stage, upgrading himself to meet all the new requirements would be difficult.
The founder respected his years of contribution and gave him a different responsibility, where his experience and sincerity could continue to add value — taking care of statutory compliance and other important non-core responsibilities.
At the same time, the company brought in an experienced professional from outside to lead production.
The employee retained his dignity and continued contributing. The organisation gained the professional capability it needed.
This is where founders need balance.
Loyalty should be respected, but it should not become an entitlement to a particular position.
Similarly, professionalisation should strengthen the organisation without unnecessarily disrespecting people who helped build it.
Respect the person. Recognise the contribution. But protect the role’s requirements and the business’s future needs.
7)Should you pursue every attractive business opportunity?
Entrepreneurs naturally look for opportunities.
In fact, seeing opportunities others may miss is one of a founder’s strengths.
A new customer approaches. A new product looks promising. Someone suggests entering a new market. A large order becomes available.
The immediate temptation is:
“Why should we miss this opportunity?”
But every opportunity consumes something — management attention, people, capacity, working capital and leadership time.
So the better question is not merely whether the opportunity looks attractive.
It is:
“Does our organisation have the capability and bandwidth to pursue this opportunity without weakening our existing business?”
Imagine a manufacturing SME already struggling with delivery performance and working capital.
A large new customer offers significant business but requires additional inventory, tighter delivery commitments and new product development.
On paper, it looks like an excellent growth opportunity.
But if planning, capacity, supplier and cash-flow capabilities are already stretched, accepting the business without strengthening them may increase sales while making the organisation more difficult to manage.
That does not necessarily mean saying no.
The founder could pursue it in phases, build the required capabilities first, allocate a dedicated team or consciously postpone it until the organisation is ready.
The founder’s role is not only to identify opportunities. It is also to decide which opportunities deserve the organisation’s limited resources and attention.
Sometimes saying “not now” to a good opportunity may be as important as saying “yes” to the right one.
Growth comes from opportunities. Profitable growth requires opportunity, focus, and organisational readiness.
8)Should you solve today's problems or build tomorrow's capabilities?
Every business has daily issues.
A customer delivery gets delayed. Quality problems arise. Materials do not arrive. People fail to coordinate. Decisions get stuck.
Naturally, the founder or CEO gets involved because today’s commitments have to be met.
But there is a question leaders need to ask:
If I spend most of my time solving daily issues, who is building the organisational capabilities that will prevent these issues from coming back?
In my experience, many recurring daily problems are symptoms of underlying capability gaps.
Repeated delivery problems may indicate weaknesses in planning, capacity management or the plant delivery system.
Frequent people issues may point towards leadership, competency or role-clarity gaps.
Coordination problems may indicate weak communication.
Repeated surprises during reviews may mean the review mechanism itself needs improvement.
Solving today’s problem is necessary.
But solving the same type of problem every week should make a leader think.
For example, if deliveries are repeatedly missed, the CEO can personally intervene every week, push production, call suppliers and expedite materials.
The immediate problem may get solved.
But the better leadership question is:
“Why does the CEO need to intervene every week?”
Perhaps the organisation needs a stronger planning process, better capacity visibility, supplier management, clear ownership and a disciplined delivery review mechanism.
Building these capabilities may require more leadership time initially. But eventually, firefighting starts reducing.
Who else will continuously invest time in building these organisational capabilities if the CEO and senior leaders do not?
Address today’s problem, but invest leadership time in building the capability that prevents tomorrow’s problem.
That is how an organisation gradually moves from firefighting towards predictable execution.
Founder self-assessment
After going through these dilemmas, take a few minutes and reflect on your own business.
- Am I avoiding difficult performance conversations because I value the relationship with the person?
- Is our sales growth actually improving profitability and strengthening the business, or merely making the organisation bigger and more complex?
- What am I still doing personally that someone on my team should gradually be able to handle?
- Am I spending too much time in operational details, or am I staying so high-level that I miss important business realities?
- Where am I controlling decisions that my team is already capable of making?
- Which problems keep coming back despite our repeated attempts to solve them? What organisational capability is actually missing?
- Are any critical positions being occupied primarily because of loyalty and history rather than today’s capability requirements?
- Which opportunities are consuming our resources and leadership attention without sufficiently contributing to our strategic priorities or profitable growth?
You need not have a perfect answer to every question.
But if the same question makes you uncomfortable every time you revisit it, it may be pointing towards an area that deserves your leadership attention.
When founders discuss such dilemmas with me, I usually ask them to consider a few things before deciding.
- What am I really trying to achieve?
- What happens if I go to either extreme?
- Is this really an either/or decision?
- What capability is missing?
- Which decision will make the business stronger tomorrow?
In my experience, these questions help founders see the dilemma more clearly and make an appropriate decision for their situation.
How does this connect with Profitable Growth Capability Framework?
The way a founder handles these dilemmas reflects the maturity of Founder and Business Head Capability.
As the business grows, decisions become more complex and increasingly involve trade-offs between people, performance, growth, profitability and organisational capability. The founder’s ability to make these choices with the larger business in mind becomes critical for sustainable growth.
This is why Founder and Business Head Capability is an important part of the Profitable Growth Capability Framework (PGCF). Stronger founder capability enables better leadership choices, which in turn influence how effectively the other organisational capabilities are built and strengthened.