Managing Life Cycle Influences in an OrganizationFor everything in life there is a season, and the same goes for business. There is a life cycle that successful companies inevitably go through. They endure the perils of starting up, often with little money; they grow to greater size and stability, allowing owners to think about creating wealth for themselves and their employees; and progress to the point where owners need to think about valuing, succession or selling the business (Forbes p9). Your information gathering – what you need to know and when you need to know it – will vary depending on the cyclical speed of industry life cycles. When you recognize cyclical trends you will be able to determine effective intelligence strategies. If you're in a relatively new industry, you'll want to identify potential surprise (new or potential) competitors. Towards the end of the growth phase, you will need information that will help you maintain market share during the eventual decline of the market (Inside R & D, p NA). Startup Phase The startup phase is the most challenging phase. A newly formed company is still testing the waters. The expense is high and usually greater than the revenue from startup costs and other startup fees. This is the time when you need to have a strong management staff that will remain loyal to the company during the not so lean times. They must have clear and defined objectives that they can convey to their department. Each stage also requires different talents and perspectives, and new leaders usually need to be brought in as the company progresses. The visionary who is suited to lead a new venture in its early experimental stages is often poorly equipped to guide the enterprise through the expansion and integration phases, when sales and organizational skills become more important than bold thinking and creativity (Garvin , 2004). The manager's job is threefold. They must: 1) decide what needs to be done and how it needs to be done; 2) continually react to market conditions, 3) ensure that your and your employees' efforts support this ever-evolving vision. Without a strong leader at the helm, the company's vision will quickly become obsolete and the company will be overrun with rising costs and declining sales (Osheroff p21). Management's goal is to see that rules are followed, budgets are met, and metrics are met.