Growing Against the Grain: Meet the Entrepreneur360 'Contrarians'

Through surveys and available data, we've examined hundreds of small businesses and come away with six archetypal sets of practices and characteristics that we believe are representative of most growth companies operating today.

The qualifications were simple: Companies had to be domestically owned, privately held, for-profit and have shown net capacity growth over at least two years, with an employee size in 2015 of 10 to 1,000.

Below, we examine the traits of Contrarians, one of the six archetypes of the Entrepreneur360™ Performance Index. To see the other five archetypes, click here.

These companies thumb their noses at management best practices. But unlike Controllers, Contrarians seem made of Teflon, blithely gliding over the bumps and pits that trip up other companies. They keep putting up the growth numbers, and they do everything their way.

Key characteristics

Contrarians’ employees have needed skills and are fully productive, and managers usually reach a consensus.
They maintain good profit margins, their departments are all able to adjust to growth and they time expansions well.
When it comes to planning and decision-making, they are less likely to turn to data, operational metrics or internal or external market research.

Takeaway

Most companies pay a substantial price for ignoring even some best practices, and it takes magic to thrive in the absence of all of those practices. What’s the magic? The success of Contrarians defies group analysis, emerging instead from whatever it is they’re doing at a micro level.

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