Organisation Design between 50 and 500 People
Companies between fifty and five hundred people are the hardest to lead. The instincts that worked at the start no longer scale, and the structures that work later are not yet earned.
What changes at fifty
At fifty people the founder cannot still hold every relationship. The first real layer of leadership has to take ownership of outcomes, not coordinate them. Most companies stall here because the founder cannot let go.
What changes at one hundred
At a hundred people the operating system has to be written down. Not in policy, but in cadence: who meets when, what gets decided where, how performance is reviewed. Companies that skip this step pay for it later in attrition.
What changes at three hundred
At three hundred the second layer is doing most of the work. Senior leadership has to be ruthless about which of them are now ceiling and which are still scaling. Replacing the wrong person at three hundred costs less than tolerating them at five hundred.
https://niklaslindahl.com/essays/org-design-between-50-and-500-people