We gave up traction to create our own internal company growth team

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by Zak Dabbas, co-founder & CEO of Punchkick Interactive

I’m often asked about the incredible growth we’ve experienced at Punchkick over the past few years. And it’s a fair question, considering our humble beginnings. Punchkick was formed during a terrible recession. We’ve had multiple offers for purchase that we’ve turned down. And we’ve managed to grow the company without any venture capital. Yet we continue to thrive. We began as a small dog in a big pond (or however the saying goes) and we’ve never slowed down. And today, we’re exactly where we want to be.

But despite finding success in doing things our own way, for a short time last year, we tried our hand at a management style known as Traction. Punchkick had grown faster than usual, and it felt like it was time to incorporate a more formalized management style into the business. I still can’t quite explain why. Traction is an operating system for businesses—and a great one at that—but it just didn’t fit our needs. It requires the building of an organizational chart, classic-manager roles, and other non-Punchkick elements. We tried to make it work for a few months. And ultimately, instead of trying to fit our natural operating style into Traction, we just said enough—and went in a direction that was all Punchkick.

I introduced our new initiative in a company-wide email earlier this year. Continue reading