The leap from startup chaos to structured scale is where most companies falter. But it doesn’t have to be that way. In this tactical and strategic deep dive, LAC breaks down:

Why 70% of startups fail trying to scale too early—and how to know if you’re ready

The VPSS™ shift from product–market fit to profit–to–market fit

Operational non-negotiables: centralized dashboards, integrated finance-ops stacks, documented SOPs, decision logs

The danger of founder-led chaos and how to shift from “heroic effort” to “scalable systems”

Key people strategies: culture codification, clear KPIs, values-based hiring, and team autonomy models like Amazon’s two-pizza teams

Leadership evolution: moving from star player to architect and roadblock remover

Lessons from Kodak vs. Fujifilm on reinvention, agility, and innovation during disruption

Risk factors to watch: financial distress, disengaged teams, weak capital planning, tech theater, and concentration risk

What happens when you get it right: turning your business into an invention machine capable of adapting, innovating, and compounding value

Whether you're building toward your first $10M or trying to break through the next plateau, this episode gives you the operational clarity and strategic mindset to scale smarter—not just faster.

📘 Read the full blog: The Scaler Phase: Building for Durable Growth
📩 Subscribe for weekly strategic insights via The Executive Briefing: Join the List
📞 Want to know if your business is ready to scale? Book a diagnostic

Leadership debt isn’t loud. It’s slow, silent, and devastating over time. In this episode, we break down:

- What leadership debt really is—and why most companies don’t see it until it’s too late

- The core drivers of leadership debt: low emotional intelligence, weak accountability, poor succession planning, ethical erosion

- Emotional intelligence (EQ) as the foundation of sustainable leadership—and what it actually means to apply it

- How to audit leadership health with 360° feedback, engagement scores, network reach, burnout indicators, and resilience factors

- Real-world examples: how detrimental supervision quietly destroys trust, productivity, and retention

- Trust: how it's built, how it's broken, and the rigorous steps for ethical repair when failures happen

- Why most succession plans fail—and how to build a Centered Succession Model that actually works

- Leadership paradoxes: slow down to speed up, streamline without gutting strength, balance tech with human connection

- Practical steps to turn leadership debt into leadership capital

If you’re serious about building a resilient, high-performing organization, this is the leadership lens you can’t afford to ignore.

📘 Read the companion blog post: Leadership Debt: The Hidden Cost Draining Your Organization’s Potential
📩 Subscribe for weekly strategy insights via The Executive Briefing: Join the List
📞 Need help diagnosing and reducing leadership debt in your company? Let’s talk

If you’ve ever asked yourself, “Should we scale now or wait?”—this episode is your answer. Drawing from Lauren Ashley Consulting’s deep work with scaling businesses, this episode covers:

- The early signals that it’s too soon to scale: unsustainable CAC, founder bottlenecks, leadership debt, and operational drag

- What happens when you wait too long to scale: missed market windows, slowed momentum, and shrinking market share

- The five internal indicators of true readiness: product–market fit, financial stability, operational maturity, cultural resilience, and leadership capacity

- Industry-specific growth challenges—from tech’s agility dilemma to healthcare’s compliance and leadership complexity

- The hidden value of your early employees and why they hold more organizational capital than you think

- Why planning matters—but the process matters more than the document

- How high-growth firms balance ambition with operational wisdom to avoid collapse

- The real tradeoff between short-term growth and long-term profitability—and how to evaluate it based on your market

This episode is your go-to guide for making the leap strategically—not reactively.

📘 Read the companion article: Scaling Smart: Avoiding the Hidden Dangers of Premature and Delayed Growth
📩 Get weekly strategy insights in The Executive Briefing: Subscribe here
📞 Need help assessing your growth readiness? Book a consultation