When you are an entrepreneur or business leader, who is responsible for innovating within an organization, there comes a time when you take a significant leap across the chasm. 

How do you know when you are there?   The signs exist.  The data backs it.  Now what?  It is time to determine your future strategy and how to handle the many new challenges coming your way.   

• Teams are grown and built
• Responsibilities change
• Team members become more specialized
• Products launch and evolve
• Some things simply fail
• Customer needs change and diversify
• Processes are established and built out
• Service requests increase and so don’t the channels they come through
• Feedback is more frequent and requires a response
• Technology becomes critical as infrastructure needs grow
• __(Insert here – list goes on, and on, and on___________

What is my point?  Well, I have heard a lot of great news recently about business starting to pick up for a number of environmental consultant members of commonground.   There are many more companies hiring now than there has been in a long time.  See the Environmental Jobs Board if you are in the market.  Are we out of the woods? No, but things just seem to be a bit more positive.  

Given that, are we thinking about how to capitalize on the momentum by taking some educated risks and stepping outside our comfort zones?  Are we delegating enough, focusing on the things that can have the biggest impact, and focusing on innovation? 

For many member companies that have wanted to jump into social networking, perhaps evaluate your corporate and personal presence on the web, or maybe even upgrade your current systems, now might be as good a time as any.   It is always easier and more comfortable to stay status quo, but we all need to ask ourselves - are we doing what we need to to position ourselves to maximize our growth potential in 2011?   

"In business or in football, it takes a lot of unspectacular preparation to produce spectacular results."
-- Roger Staubach