The Business Life Cycle

Version of 27 August 2007

I have been drawing the Business Life Cycle Chart on napkins for long enough so I decided to create a published version and share it with my clients and alliance partners.

Stages in the life of a business can be compared to stages in the life of a person. From gestation through birth , childhood, adolescence and old age, businesses have similar stages of growth. The BLC chart consists of eight parallel bands divided into 10 columns, each numbered column corresponding to a phase in business life.

Phases 2.1-2.3 correspond to the Gestation period for a person is what takes place in an Innovation Hub. In contrast Business Incubators begin when the plan for a business is well established (no earlier than phase 2.3) and usually fit best in the Post Launch/Pre-Profit phases 4.1-4.3. Growing and Mature businesses at their own locations are in phases 4.3-4.5.

Along with the 8 rows: Revenue; Investment; Profitability; Innovation Activities; Investors; Siteing and Analogy, there are 5 rows below the chart which identify the Business Metamorphosis products most appropriate at that stage of business life. Color codes in the bands indicate positive (Green) or negative (Red) cash positions.

The chart is based partly on my experience as a member of an innovation hub.. Innovation Hubs are something new. There are about 12 hubs in the nation, mostly in large corporations. Hubs fill the gap between government and university research which mostly develop new technologies and new product incubators which commercialize new products based on those technologies.

Hubs are about streamlining the processes which turn new technologies into new products. To learn more about hubs go to my blog http://bizmorph.blogs.com and checkout the book list for “Radical Innovation” a study of the hub process by the Lally School of Business at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

The Surrounding Squares

Surrounding the chart are 26 squares of Mini –Ads from various vendors who supply services needed by businesses at these life stages. (To see these squares you will need to get the FREE, PDF version or order one of the printed versions of the chart.

Injectors

There are also 2 “Injectors” on the Grey band below the Analogy row. These indicate that a business can be started at a later stage by A) Buying a Franchise and B) Buying an operating business. These “injectors” allow you to skip the earlier stages of business growth at a cost in capital and flexibility.

Get your own copy:

You can get a FREE, PDF version of the chart on my website. Or we can mail you a 12x18 sharply printed version for a nominal price

Printed versions of this chart.