1. The mismatch between available jobs and available talent continues to widen. Companies are growing and hiring but they’re looking for people who have current skill sets, an ability to fit into an entrepreneurial culture, and are willing to be flexible with employment status. Needless to say, it’s hard to find a good blend of those three characteristics.
   
   The job market is flooded with people from large companies whose skills and experiences were not continually developed, either by them or their former employers. Many small firms hire partially or significantly on “fit” and when applicants lack small company experience, it’s hard to gauge how well they’ll adapt to a faster pace, greater ambiguity, and changing work responsibilities. And in addition to unpaid internships for younger talent, companies are “trying out” people through contract arrangements, consulting engagements, and part-time statuses.
   
   What other second-stage firms are doing – going to organizations that provide the skills training they’re seeking; talking to peer firms about employees they have who may no longer be a good fit; recruiting constantly, not only when they have job openings; hiring people on a project basis to do one thing and seeing if they can increasingly do more.
    
2. Business owners are increasingly challenged by modern marketing. Whether it’s adopting Twitter and Facebook in a meaningful way, deciding if they should develop a mobile app, or understanding how blogs and video can help drive leads, owners and CEOs continue to seem paralyzed by the rapid pace of technological change. In our opinion, these modern marketing methods are not a fad – they’re here to stay, and in a big way.
   
   Simply put, the world of marketing has changed – how companies identify and attract their target market, how they communicate with customers, how they service them, etc. All of these activities will incorporate, if not be dependent on, digital strategies and tactics.  So if you’re still waiting on the sidelines, get in the game because your competitors surely will…if they haven’t already.
   
   What other second-stage firms are doing – earmarking some of their R&D or marketing budgets to invest in new strategies; hiring a digital agency to understand their business, craft a strategy, and execute it; hiring a student or recent graduate as an intern to get their company’s “feet wet”.
   
   Editorial note – the Coleman Center will be holding a seminar on social and digital marketing next March.
    
3. Growing firms are basically ignoring (but remain keenly aware of) the continued uncertainty and ambiguity.  It appears that after holding their breath during 2009, waiting to see what would happen, these firms started taking action this year. They realized that the world was changing around them, and that the rules of their business were also changing.
   
   Rather than wait for another stimulus plan or economic growth, these firms (many of whom are now experiencing double-digital growth) have taken matters into their own hands, like true entrepreneurial firms do. They are using business basics, creativity and ingenuity, and a strong work ethic to drive sales growth.
   
   What other second-stage firms are doing – taking market share from large, slow-to-adapt competitors by stressing their agile and flexible capabilities; using technology for automation and to create operational efficiencies; funding growth through internally generated cash flows rather than debt; building closer relationships with current customers; crafting short-term operating plans rather than long-term strategic plans.

We’d love to hear what other trends and developments are occurring out there. Please share your experiences, strategies and tactics, and new ways of doing business by commenting below.

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Raman Chadha, Executive Director & Clinical Professor

After an uncomfortable career in the corporate world and getting an MBA in entrepreneurship, Raman found his life's calling. In 1995, he started a consulting firm focused on strategic planning and growth management, working with over 200 clients from start-up to $15 million in revenues. He joined DePaul in 2002 as an adjunct professor, and then helped launch the Coleman Entrepreneurship Center a year later. Since then, he has helped guide the Center's strategic direction, develop its programs, and build the spokes of its community. He continues to teach in DePaul's highly-ranked entrepreneurship program, bringing his experience, energy, and enthusiasm to the classroom. He earned an MBA in Entrepreneurship and Marketing from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, and a BA in Economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Outside of entrepreneurship and his family, Raman’s interests include baseball, beer brewing, the outdoors, southern BBQ, and indie rock.