S7 E48 Delivery Helper has grown to a $22B business, its success has lessons for all entrepreneurs with Jeremy Gray

While we may not all be aspiring to be a multi-billion business the fundamental drivers of growth are the same whether we are aiming for $100,000 turnover life style business, or as in the case of Delivery Hero a $300 billion corporation. You start from nothing and scale up. In this episode I will share the observations of Delivery Hero’s CEO Niklas Ostberg when he talked with McKinsey & Company. Published as Scaling from start up to blue chip company lessons from Delivery Hero.

As Mr. Ostberg explains rapid scaling requires delegating authority, promoting accountability, and executing business efforts quickly. Today, ten years after its launch, Delivery Hero is a $22 billion corporation handling 8 million orders a day, with 43,000 employees. Ten year from now Mr. Ostberg believes it could be $300 Billion Plus. To do this Delivery Hero will need to retain the start up qualities that got it to where it is today. Mr. Ostberg explains how the organization continues to experiment and expand.

Believe in your business When critics asked “Will this company ever be profitable?” it provided the motivation to prove them wrong. Success feels better when no one believes in you.

When things are going badly Maybe your competitors are strong in a marketplace, maybe your spend rate is higher than expected, or the product is not evolving. In tough times it is important to stay calm.

Rather than ask what is going wrong? Ask what specifically can I do? Eat an elephant one mouthful at a time

When you have a monster problem and do not know where to start; make a list and solve the problem one step at a time. As you make progress confidence will build.

Balancing competing goals – stock market expectations, high growth and covid

Mr. Ostberg admits that when things were not going well, he used to keep this to himself, not tell anyone the true status.

Be open with your team ‘Here is the good and the bad, here are my weaknesses and here is our current status. People were supportive. Stand by and fight alongside. Being open kills stress as you share the challenge with others

Niklas is still highly involved in hiring. Looking for fit – passion, capability and to execute. Important to have people who can be open and honest when things are not going well. Provides resilience and time to breathe

Learn to let go. Niklas used to do everything himself, even when he had hired people to do the work. But eventually that level of involvement was not possible.

Dedicating 1% of time to every topic is much less effective than spending 100% of your time on one thing

As leader focus on vision, values, strategy and structure takes more time as the company grows. Do the things that you and only you can do.

Continue to look at numbers – to frame questions – Why does this market work? Why is this market not working? Why are we not growing as fast in this area or region? Asking questions help your team to focus and infuses energy into their efforts.

Support and Protect New Projects. As businesses grow some bureaucracy is bound to creep in, although he believes that Delivery Helper has very little bureaucracy, Niklas shields new ideas from the organization to protect them from being killed. Trust the person you discuss the idea with. Hire people with expertise. Provide context and information, ensure resources are available and the let them do the work. If it is a success it will be integrated into the company, if not it will be killed off.

Build an empowered organization. Give your team the authority to make decisions. This provides ownership, people with ownership fight hard to make things work. Your team can focus on the project, not second guessing what the boss wants, or how to present the idea to him. Avoid steering committees, these drive a different mindset around ownership and accountability.