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When a company reaches the point where momentum alone can’t sustain growth, it often faces the hard truth: the systems, people, and leadership that got it here may not get it there. That’s where a growth interim steps in — to stabilize, realign, and set the stage for sustainable expansion.
Whether you’re running a manufacturing business or scaling an SaaS company, the principles of disciplined growth remain the same. You must assess what’s working, fix what’s broken, and put the right leadership in place to grow without losing quality or direction.
Below, veteran growth interim Charlie Shalvoy shares the four success stages that help organizations scale strategically — and what to do when the CEO can’t scale the company alone.
Phase 1: Taking Hold — Laying the Groundwork for Scaling a Company
The first 90 days are about diagnosis and stabilization. Before chasing more growth, the interim executive focuses on understanding what’s really happening inside the business.
Key actions in this phase:
- Conduct a full operational and financial assessment
- Identify weak links, bottlenecks, and talent gaps
- Prioritize “quick wins” to build trust and momentum
This phase is critical. It requires examining architecture reliability, customer onboarding, support capacity, product quality, and revenue predictability. Without this groundwork, every future stage magnifies the cracks.
“These are real serious problems that you have to address within the first 90 days,” Shalvoy says.
At this early stage, the interim executive often discovers that the CEO can’t scale the company effectively because too much institutional knowledge is locked in one person’s head. Establishing repeatable systems early helps the company expand beyond the founder’s capacity.
Phase 2: Immersion — Fixing Broken Processes During Growth
Between months three and nine, the interim executive dives deep into systems, culture, and workflows. This is where most organizations feel growing pains: what once worked now breaks under scale.
Common focus areas:
- Redesign processes to match current size and complexity
- Strengthen leadership cadence and accountability
- Implement reliable forecasting, reporting, and quality controls
- Review human resources to ensure people are in the right position
Many organizations stall here because they never commit to fixing broken processes during growth. They try to “run faster” instead of rebuilding. For example, an SaaS firm might keep pushing releases even though QA can’t keep up, leading to defects and customer churn.
The interim’s role is to rebuild the foundation while keeping growth on track — creating scalable systems that prevent chaos as volume increases.
Phase 3: Reshaping — Leadership for Post-Funding Stage Companies
After funding or rapid expansion, the organization enters a new reality from months nine through 18. Investors expect predictable performance. Customers expect reliability. Employees expect direction. This is when leadership for post-funding stage companies becomes the difference between success and burnout.
“You start making the changes that are really critical for the long-term success of the company,” says Shalvoy. “That’s the period of major change.”
Goals during reshaping:
- Transition from entrepreneurial to institutional leadership
- Define strategic priorities and measurable KPIs
- Build scalable infrastructure — from ERP systems to product pipelines
- Upgrade or replace roles that no longer fit the growth stage
At this point, founders often hit a wall. The leadership style that once worked — fast, informal, hands-on — now constrains progress. The interim leader provides structure, governance, and coaching to prepare the organization for long-term sustainability.
Phase 4: Consolidation — How to Scale Without Breaking Quality
By months 18 to 24, the organization is running on a new rhythm. Systems are in place, leadership is aligned, and the company is ready to grow without sacrificing quality.
The focus now shifts to scaling up:
- Monitor leading indicators for product, service, and culture health
- Optimize resource allocation for efficiency and impact
- Institutionalize processes so they survive leadership changes
- Identify what can be automated or delegated without losing excellence
This is where growth truly compounds — when teams can execute at scale without daily heroics or constant crisis management.
It doesn’t work for everyone, Shalvoy says.
“In certain stages of a company’s size, one set of skills and experiences may be perfectly adequate,” he says, giving an example of scaling to $50 million. “But then, to go from $50 to $200 million requires a much different set of skills, and from $200 million to $1 billion another again. Some people are able to add to their skillset and grow with the company through different stages. Some cannot.”
When the CEO Can’t Scale the Company: How Interim Leadership Helps
It’s a common — and fixable — challenge. A visionary founder builds something great but struggles to adapt as the company’s complexity outgrows their bandwidth.
An experienced interim or fractional leader can:
- Diagnose and repair the scaling bottlenecks
- Build a leadership bench strong enough to share the load
- Coach the CEO for the next growth horizon
- Or, in some cases, prepare the organization for a successful transition
Bringing in outside leadership isn’t a failure — it’s a strategy. Many of today’s top-performing companies have relied on interim executives to guide them through high-growth transitions.
Building Sustainable Growth
Whether you’re scaling a SaaS company, integrating after a funding round, or rebuilding operations for the next growth wave, the principles remain consistent:
- Assess before you accelerate
- Fix broken processes before adding volume
- Protect quality and culture as you scale
- Evolve leadership in line with complexity
These four stages — Taking Hold, Immersion, Reshaping, and Consolidation — form a proven roadmap to grow without losing control.
If your company is feeling the strain of success, a growth interim executive can bridge the gap between where you are and where you want to be — ensuring that your next chapter of expansion is sustainable, scalable, and built to last.
Read More:
- The Complete Guide to Interim Management
- Fractional vs. Interim vs. Full-Time CFO: What’s the Right Fit for Your Company?
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InterimExecs’ RED Team is an elite team of operations, technology, finance, marketing, and sales leaders who have built successful organizations and generated rapid growth. To explore how an interim can catapult your organization’s growth, call 847-849-2800.
