Organizations are born, develop, achieve success, weaken and eventually cease to exist. Few of them exist indefinitely; none lives without change. New organizations are formed every day. At the same time, every day hundreds of organizations are liquidated forever. Those who can adapt thrive, those who are inflexible disappear. Some organizations develop faster than others and do their job better than others. The manager must know what stage of development the organization is at and evaluate how well the adopted leadership style corresponds to this stage. This is why the concept is widespread life cycle of organizations as predictable changes with a certain sequence of states over time. By applying the concept of the life cycle, it can be seen that there are distinct stages that organizations go through and that transitions from one stage to another are predictable rather than random.

The life cycle of an organization is directly and closely related to product life cycle– a time interval that includes several stages, each of which is distinguished by the special nature of the process of changing production volume over time. It is necessary to distinguish: the full life cycle of products; product life cycle in the manufacturing sector; life cycle of products in the consumer sphere. The full life cycle of a product includes the time of creation, duration of production and time of use of products by consumers. This concept is used to plan marketing and supply and sales activities, organize after-sales service of products, select adequate forms of management and create the necessary structural links.

The life cycle concept has received much attention in the market research literature. The life cycle is used to explain how a product goes through the stages of birth or formation, growth, maturity and decline. Organizations have some exceptional characteristics that require some modification of the life cycle concept. One of the options for dividing the life cycle of an organization into appropriate time periods involves the following stages.

1. Entrepreneurship stage. The organization is in its formation stage, the product life cycle is being formed. Goals are still unclear, the creative process flows freely, and progress to the next stage requires a stable supply of resources.

The organization must establish connections, establish itself, create a certain image for itself, and become attractive to consumers or new members. The founders of the organization direct all their energy to technical activities and try to produce as many products as possible. Young organizations are informal and non-bureaucratic. Working hours are unlimited. Control is carried out through personal observation of the founders over the work of the organization. Growth is ensured by the creation of a new type of product or service.

A crisis. When an organization begins to grow, increasing the number of employees creates problems. Creative, technically oriented company owners are faced with the need to organize the management of their organization. But they must continue to increase production growth rates. During this crisis, entrepreneurs must adapt their organization's structure to the demands of continued growth, or bring in strong managers who can do so.

2. Collectivity stage. The innovative processes of the previous stage are developed, and the mission of the organization is formed. Communication within the organization and its structure remain essentially informal. Members of the organization spend a lot of time developing mechanical contacts and demonstrate high levels of commitment.

Collectivity stage. If an organization overcomes a leadership crisis, it acquires strong leaders and begins to develop clear goals and directions for development. The organization is divided into divisions. A hierarchy of power is established, certain people are assigned to certain jobs, and the FIRST SIGNS OF DIVISION OF LABOR APPEAR. Employees of an organization identify with its objectives and spend long hours on the job trying to help the organization succeed. Each employee feels part of the team and communication and control are exercised at an informal level, although a small number of formal systems are already emerging.

A crisis. The need for delegation of power. If a new business is developing successfully, workers at the lower level of the hierarchy may at some point feel constrained by the restrictions of a rigid vertical management system. Lower-level managers gain experience and confidence in their abilities and want more freedom of action. When senior managers, who have so far achieved success through their rigid management style and control over the entire organization, refuse to transfer some of the responsibility to other hands. A crisis of autonomy arises. Senior managers want to ensure that all parts of the organization are moving in the right direction. The organization must find mechanisms for coordinating and monitoring the work of departments without the direct participation of lower managers.

3. Stage of formalization and management. The structure of the organization is stabilized, rules are introduced, and procedures are defined. The emphasis is on innovation efficiency and sustainability. Decision-making and decision-making bodies become the leading components of the organization. The role of the top management of the organization is increasing, the decision-making process is becoming more balanced and conservative. The roles are clarified in such a way that the departure of certain members of the organization does not pose a serious threat to it.

At this stage, new rules, formal procedures, technical guidelines and control systems are introduced and introduced. Communications become less frequent and more formal. The organization's staff is expanded to include engineers, human resource specialists and other support workers. Top managers begin to deal only with strategy development and planning, leaving direct management of the company to middle managers. To improve coordination, product development teams or other decentralized work units may be formed. Managerial compensation systems based on company profits can be implemented to ensure that managers work together for the benefit of the entire organization. As long as the new coordination and control systems remain effective, they allow the organization to grow further by establishing communication mechanisms between its top management and production units.

A crisis. Too much paper. At this stage of the organization's development, new systems and programs arise in abundance, which can create a suffocating atmosphere for mid-level workers. The organization seems overly bureaucratic. Attempts by specialists to interfere in the decision-making process irritate middle managers. Innovation is slowing down. The organization becomes too large and complex for formal management to be successful.

4. Structure development stage. The organization increases product output and expands the service market. Leaders identify new development opportunities. The organizational structure becomes more complex and mature. The decision-making mechanism is decentralized.

Resolving the paper crisis is only possible through a new vision of the concepts of cooperation and teamwork. Each manager develops the ability to deal with problems and work together with others. Bureaucracy reaches its natural limits. Social control and self-discipline reduce the need for additional formal control. Managers learn to work within a bureaucratic system without making it more complicated. Some formal systems may be simplified and replaced by management teams or ad hoc task teams. To achieve coordination and facilitate collaboration, teams are often created from representatives of different functional units. In addition, the organization can be broken into many small departments in order to internalize the philosophy of a small firm.

A crisis. The need for a second wind. After an organization reaches maturity, it may enter a period of temporary decline. The need for renewal may arise every ten or twenty years. The organization finds itself out of sync with its environment, or perhaps becomes too sluggish and overly bureaucratic, and must go through a phase of rationalization and innovation. Senior management often changes during this time. However, if new management manages to breathe life into the company, this is not enough. The leader must consolidate success and keep the company afloat. If a mature organization does not undergo periodic renewal, it will inevitably decline.

84% of new businesses that operate normally for a year fail in the first five years of their life due to the fact that they are unable to make the transition from the entrepreneurial stage to the collective stage. As an organization enters later stages of its life cycle, such transitions become even more complex. Those organizations that cannot successfully solve their problems associated with the transition to a new stage of the life cycle thereby limit their growth and may even fail.

5. Decline stage. As a result of competition and a shrinking market, an organization faces a decrease in demand for its products or services. Leaders are looking for ways to retain markets and seize new opportunities. The need for workers, especially the most valuable specialties, is increasing. The number of conflicts is often increasing. New people are coming to management to try to stem the downward trend. The mechanism for developing and making decisions is centralized.

When creating an organization, when the creative process flows freely, the desire for stable and sustainable development is manifested. In this case, two tasks are solved - providing access to the necessary resources and mastering the mechanism of competition. The key role here is played by analyzing the situation and obtaining objective information.

Moving on to creating conditions for economic growth and ensuring high quality goods and services, the organization must choose a type of management that meets the characteristics and objectives of this stage. The main criterion when choosing the type of management should be maintaining a stable balance between consistency and innovation, carrying out effective activities in the present while simultaneously planning for the future. The maturity of the organization is manifested in the fact that the emphasis is on the efficiency of innovation and stability, product output increases and the service market expands, managers identify new opportunities for organizational development. All this is aimed at ensuring the strategic viability of the organization, maintaining and strengthening a stable position in the market. At the maturity stage, it is especially important to periodically and timely adjust the management structure of the organization, abolish bodies that have completed their task, timely introduce new divisions into the structure, create temporary targeted structural units to solve certain problems, allocate specialists to analyze the state of affairs and develop development prospects and so on.

The life cycle concept points to the most characteristic symptoms of organizational collapse that appear during the decline stage. These include, in particular:

A decrease in demand tightens competition and complicates its forms;

The competitive power of suppliers increases;

The role of price and quality in competition is increasing;

The complexity of managing the increase in production capacity is increasing;

The process of creating product innovations is becoming more complex;

Profitability is declining.

The stages of an organization's life cycle can be presented in more detail Childhood. This is a dangerous period because most failures occur during the first years after the organization's inception. From world statistics it is known that a huge number of small-scale organizations fail due to incompetence and inexperience of management. Every second small business fails within two years, four out of five businesses fail within five years of its existence. The goal of this period is to achieve quick success, and its goals are healthy existence and development, and not simple survival. Often all the work is done to the limit of capabilities, so as not to lose the momentum of increasing success. Management is carried out by an active and trained leader and his initial team.

Adolescence. During this transition period, the growth of the organization occurs, as a rule, unsystematically, in spurts. The organization is increasingly gaining strength, but coordination is below optimal levels. More organized procedures are gradually replacing the risky passion for success. Planning, development of budgets and forecasts are being established. The hiring of new specialists is expanding, which causes friction with the existing staff. The founders of the organization are forced to play more of the role of immediate managers rather than entrepreneurs, carrying out systematic planning, coordination, management and control.

Early maturity. The hallmarks of this period are expansion, differentiation and possibly diversification. Structural divisions are formed, the results of which are measured by the profit received. Many generally accepted methods of performance assessment, job descriptions, delegation of authority, performance standards, examination, training and development are used. However, tendencies towards bureaucracy and the struggle for power, localism and the desire to achieve success at any cost are beginning to appear.

The flourishing of strength. Having shareholders on the board, the organization sets the goal of balanced growth at this stage. Structure, coordination, stability and control should be as important as innovation, improvement of all parts of the organization and decentralization. The concept of structural divisions is adopted, the performance of which is measured by the profit received. New products, sales markets and technologies must be managed and the qualifications of management personnel must be more honed. As the rate of growth accelerates compared to previous stages, an organization often overestimates its successes and capabilities.

Full maturity. Having competent, but not always responsible leadership, the organization acts practically on its own. Quite often an undesirable state of general complacency is established. Despite the fact that income levels are quite acceptable, growth rates are slowing down. An organization may deviate from its original goals under the influence of public opinion. At the same time, the weaknesses are too obvious. These symptoms are often ignored by management.

Aging. This stage would never have occurred if the leadership of the organization was constantly aware of the need for renewal. Competitors invariably compete for an organization's market share. Bureaucratic red tape, not always justified strategy, ineffective motivation system, cumbersome control system, closeness to new ideas - all this, taken together, creates conditions for “clogging the arteries.” As practice shows, it is very difficult to stop and stop doing unproductive work. As a result, the organization gradually begins to disintegrate. It is forced to either accept a rigid system of renewal, or perish as an independent structure, merging with the corporation that acquires it. The organization rolls back, and the struggle for its survival begins again.

Update. The organization is able to rise from the ashes like a Phoenix. This can be done by a new management team empowered to carry out the reorganization and implement a planned program of internal organizational development.

Numerous studies show that organizations throughout their life cycle confidently are developing when they have a sound strategy and use resources effectively; are being rebuilt when they cease to meet the chosen goals; die when they find themselves unable to perform their tasks.

On creation stage The head of the organization must:

Thoroughly study consumer demand for a given product or service in specific markets;

Collect and evaluate information about the activities and intentions of competitors, compare it with the capabilities, available resources and strategy of the company;

Weigh the need and feasibility of increasing the company’s potential and making appropriate adjustments to its strategy;

Take the necessary measures to attract additional resources from internal and external sources;

Rationally organize the management process, including the placement of personnel, the creation of a system of responsibility, a reliable decision-making mechanism, a system of motivations and incentives.

On growth stages Organizations at the forefront in the activities of the leader are:

Solving social problems of the team, allowing to consolidate and develop the interest of employees;

Ensuring a balance between current and innovative future activities, between improving the quality of products and services and searching for new areas of investment of capital;

Optimizing the relationship between centralization and decentralization in company management, introducing progressive management structures, information technologies, etc.

On maturity stages The head of the organization must:

Systematically and as a matter of priority, monitor the behavior of competitors and, if necessary, make changes to the organization’s long-term plans;

Analyze the need and possibilities for technical re-equipment of production, increasing the level of technological and design preparation of production;

Together with consumers, determine the production, scientific and technical policy of the organization;

Create the necessary conditions for maintaining and strengthening the intellectual potential of the organization, the effective work of target teams, the use of matrix structures, etc.

On stages of decline organization there is a certain centralization of company management and in these conditions the manager:

Considers the possibilities of saving all types of resources and focusing the company’s activities on the area that promises the greatest return in the shortest possible time;

Explores the possibility of merging with other companies, narrowing the range of products, if this will allow maintaining and effectively using the existing potential with minimal losses;

Begins to implement changes in the organization and methods of enterprise management, in establishing relationships with new markets and suppliers.

Undoubtedly, all stages of creating your own business are extremely important, but the decisive one is the justification of entrepreneurial ideas, since it is at this stage that the economic interest (motives) of entrepreneurs in carrying out specific types of activities (specific goods, works, services, information, technologies, etc.) are revealed. , but the main thing is that the idea must be implemented into results that will be recognized by the market. The idea should be based on a simple and most important market principle: find a need and satisfy it.

An entrepreneurial idea is a reflection in the mind of an entrepreneur of the consumer’s inherent desire to have a particular product that will be produced by the entrepreneur. Thus, an idea is a clear idea of ​​how and through what specific actions of an entrepreneur the need of a potential buyer can be satisfied.

The activity of an entrepreneur involves creating a base of ideas that could form the main or additional profile for the production of services or intermediation. The accumulation of ideas can be both current and prospective. For each idea, the entrepreneur makes a decision - to proceed or not to begin its practical implementation.

The following stages of development of an entrepreneurial idea are distinguished.

Stage 1. The birth of an entrepreneurial idea. The main role is given to information flow, and not necessarily in any specific area. Of course, experience in a certain field will also contribute to the emergence of a new entrepreneurial idea, based on knowledge about the needs of the target group of clients.

Stage 2. First expert assessment of the idea. It is expected to collect a variety of opinions on the need to develop the emerging entrepreneurial idea, its market demand, taking into account future prospects.

Stage 3. Obtaining market information (identifying the relationship between supply and demand, determining prices). The most complete overview of competitors and detailing of existing analogue or substitute goods (services) will allow the key parameters of the products of the future enterprise to be determined as accurately as possible. A wide selection of marketing tools provides an assessment of the market according to various indicators (Appendix D).

Stage 4. Cost calculations for implementing an idea. This stage corresponds to the beginning of business planning, namely, determining the required amount of investment to further determine sources of financing and the possibility of earning a profit. At this stage, it is necessary to separate and predict the costs necessary to launch an entrepreneurial idea (start-up capital, capital investments), and current income and expenses for the operation of the business. Taking into account the gradual launch of the enterprise, it is possible to additionally take into account the maintenance of the business in the first period of operation (several months, years) in the amount of starting capital.

Stage 5. Expert assessment of stages 3 and 4. The expert assessment at this stage differs significantly from the previous one, since it assumes a more professional view based on the results of collecting marketing information and assessing costs. At the same time, this expert assessment aims to establish the compatibility of the idea with the capabilities of the entrepreneur.

Stage 6. Making an entrepreneurial decision. Preparation for the practical implementation of the idea. This stage is a transitional stage for the implementation of detailed business planning, in case of a positive decision by the entrepreneur. That is, an entrepreneur’s decision-making comes down to continuing to work on an idea or discarding it and moving on to thinking about another entrepreneurial idea.

So, an entrepreneurial idea is a new form of economic activity identified by an entrepreneur, which combines potential or real market needs for certain services (or goods) with the entrepreneur’s ability to produce these services (goods) and receive additional income from innovation (innovation).

In accordance with the modern market approach, the following basic principles of organizing modern entrepreneurial activity and, accordingly, choosing a business idea are distinguished:

1) produce only what the consumer needs;

2) enter the market not with an offer of goods and services, but with means of solving consumer problems;

3) organize the production of goods after researching needs and demand;

4) concentrate efforts on achieving the final result of the enterprise’s production and export activities;

5) use the program-target method and an integrated approach to achieve the goals;

6) focus the activities of the enterprise in general and the marketing service in particular not on immediate results, but on the long-term perspective of effective communications based on strategic planning and forecasting the behavior of goods on the market;

8) take into account the social and economic factors of production and distribution of goods at all stages of their life cycle.

Any idea can be implemented into business practice with varying degrees of effectiveness. At the same time, each entrepreneur chooses and develops his own technique for implementing the idea. To implement an idea, it is necessary to draw up a general diagram that includes the main stages and processes of interrelated actions aimed at achieving a specific result (business planning).

An entrepreneurial idea is an identified possible interest of a manufacturing company that has the visible outlines of a specific economic form. Identification of such interest can be carried out by combining the capabilities of the entrepreneur with the needs of the market or, conversely, by combining the needs of the market with the capabilities of the entrepreneur.

Acting as a special type of economic activity, entrepreneurship at the initial stage is associated only with an idea - the result of mental activity, which subsequently takes on a materialized form.

Generating your own ideas or borrowing others involves creating an entrepreneurial project in which an algorithm for the entrepreneur’s actions has been developed.

A mandatory component of an entrepreneurial project is a feasibility study (business plan) for transforming an idea into an enterprise that allows the idea to be realized. To determine the demand for a product idea and its viability, expert assessments are carried out. After generating an entrepreneurial idea, the entrepreneur at the first stage independently examines his idea for compatibility with his capabilities. If the first expert assessment of the idea is positive, then, as a rule, external experts are invited for the second examination. Then the business environment is studied for the compatibility of the entrepreneurial idea with the external environment and possible forms of its implementation (individual entrepreneurship, creation of an enterprise, intrapreneurship, etc.). When entering the market, an entrepreneur affects someone's interests, so it is always necessary to calculate the risks inherent in both the entrepreneurial idea and the process of its implementation in the specific external environment of entrepreneurial activity. To make an entrepreneurial decision, it is necessary to have information about the relationship in a particular market between demand and supply of the product that is included in the entrepreneurial project. Identification of such a relationship allows the entrepreneur to make a decision on the feasibility of implementing the idea.

If the analysis shows that the demand for a given product exceeds supply, then a business plan is drawn up with accurate calculations of resource needs and identification of the effect of implementing the experimental idea. After determining the size of the initial (starting) capital, that is, those financial investments without which the process of implementing the idea is impossible, the investor is selected. When an entrepreneur implementing a business idea is an investor, then there are no difficulties in choosing the organizational and legal form of a commercial organization. If an investor is attracted from outside, then it is necessary to agree on the degree of participation of the entrepreneur and investor, as well as their status. If necessary, the intellectual capital (in the form of an entrepreneurial idea) invested in creating an enterprise is assessed. Next, the form of investment of resources is determined, the needs for the formation of working and fixed capital and the assessment of the investment project are identified.

Before making an entrepreneurial decision to implement the idea under consideration, an experimental assessment of the information received must be carried out. If the entrepreneur is psychologically convinced of the adequacy of the available information, the entrepreneur makes a decision at the mental level about the feasibility of implementing the idea. But other solutions are also possible: refusing to use the idea or delaying the start of the project until certain conditions or circumstances are resolved.

The sequence of probable actions of an entrepreneur from the birth of an idea to the adoption of an entrepreneurial decision is shown in Fig. 1.3. (the origin of a business idea – the first expert assessment – ​​obtaining market information – calculations of production costs – independent expert assessment of the previous 2 stages – making a business decision – preparing the implementation of the idea – implementing the idea).

The variety of sources for obtaining secondary information and its significant volumes make it necessary to carefully analyze documents containing information. In practice, two main types of analysis are used: traditional (classical) and formalized (quantitative). Thus, the release of a new product may involve exposure to a new risk. The entrepreneur’s task is to identify these risks and to determine exposure to losses from the risk (see Fig. 1.9) 60 Recognize the possibility of losses Investigate the facts Determine the size of the maximum possible losses Frivolous Serious Take a risk Stop Analyze the dangers Eliminate some Reduce some Avoid activities, dangers dangers generating danger Stop Recognize significant, but not Recognize catastrophic losses catastrophic losses Take a risk Take a risk Transfer the risk to others Insure property and professional liability Insure property and Self-insure professional (reservation) liability Figure 1.9 - Scheme for determining exposure to loss from risk Thus, entrepreneurial risk is an economic category, quantitatively and qualitatively expressed in the uncertainty of the outcome of an entrepreneurial idea intended for implementation, reflecting the degree of success of the entrepreneur. Tasks 1. Draw up a diagram of the development of forms and types of entrepreneurial activity in Russia in the 19th-20th centuries. 10. The identified possible interest of the manufacturing company, which has visible outlines of any specific economic form, is: a) business income; 22. Is incompleteness and inaccuracy of information about the conditions for implementing entrepreneurial activities, including associated costs and results – this is: a) uncertainty; 21. Explain the essence of entrepreneurial risk. 2.1. External and internal business environment The business environment (BE) is understood as the presence of conditions and factors that affect business activity and require management decisions to eliminate them or adapt to them. When studying the microenvironment, it is important to remember that it not only experiences some influence from a particular business organization and adequately responds to its behavior in the market, but also has a noticeable shaping influence on the style and nature of entrepreneurial activity. The microenvironment is, as it were, the focus of market 1 From gr. heterogenes – heterogeneous in composition.