Pattern 04
Commercial Complexity Creep
Saying yes to great opportunities built the business, but now the portfolio of bets has grown more complex than the organisation can execute well.
Founder feeling
“Everything feels important, but we can't seem to focus on the things we said we wanted to.”
What quietly stopped scaling
Intentional focus.
Most growing companies start focused. There is a clear product, clear direction, and a relatively clean strategy. Then opportunities appear. Customers pull in different directions. Revenue opportunities appear. Survival matters. Traction matters. Commercial reality kicks in.
Many of those choices are right and rational in the moment. But at some point the company becomes a mix of intentional strategy and accumulated opportunity.
Over time, the company quietly outgrows: “We will serve any opportunity that gives us growth & traction”
What this often looks like
- Everything feeling important
- Teams working on things that don't feel fully connected
- Old initiatives never quite dying
- • Products or customers that no longer fit the core direction
- • Constant internal debates about priorities and resources
- • Revenue streams that feel hard to walk away from
- • People protecting “their” area of the business
- • Leadership struggling to explain what the company really is now
- • Growing complexity without corresponding clarity
The hidden dynamic
This is often survival mixed with success. Commercial reality started shaping direction more than deliberate choices did.
You said yes to opportunities for good reasons. And because many of those opportunities paid salaries, brought customers, or showed traction, they were hard to say no to. But over time, complexity compounds. What was once focused can quietly become fragmented.
Leadership didn't step back often enough to ask: “Is this still serving where we’re actually going?”
What you can do about it
This can feel overwhelming, and it might require some tough trade-offs where some products or teams need to be cut or repurposed.
But it can actually start out simple. As an exec team, sit down with your strategy (if you have one) or just ask yourselves: 1) "Where do we want to be in 1-2-3 years?" (timeline depending on growth rate) 2) What are the three most important products / commercial activities to get there? 3) What do we do today, that does not bring us closer to that goal, or even pulls away from it?
Being intentional doesn't mean not pursuing opportunities. It just means doing it with open eyes, and knowing how it will affect the rest of your list of priorities. And knowing when to stop doing it again.
A quick exercise: List the top 5 things your company is spending time on. For each, ask: "If we started the company again today, would we still choose this?" If the answer is no, it deserves a discussion.