The Hidden Cost of Growth: Why Scaling Kills What Made You Great

Jan de Vries · 2026-09-23

Every organization has a growth metric. Bigger than last year. More sales. More hires. More of whatever it is you build. But here's the uncomfortable truth: growth is exactly where your culture problem begins. That's according to Erik Vermeulen, a behavioral strategist and Managing Director of Ridgeline Consulting. He's spent over 20 years advising organizations on culture, leadership, and performance — and he's also led expeditions through some of the most unforgiving environments on the planet. That combination gives him a unique lens on why companies lose their edge as they scale. In this exclusive interview with Tabish Ali of the Motivational Speakers Agency, Erik breaks down what expedition leadership teaches us about uncertainty, what separates great teams from groups of talented individuals, and why rapid growth so often dilutes the very culture that made a business successful in the first place. ### Uncertainty Is the Only Certainty Erik's first insight comes from an unexpected place: the definition of adventure itself. "For a long time, we thought adventure was defined by a set of activities — climbing a mountain, crossing a desert," he says. "But we found that adventure actually refers to any undertaking where the outcome is uncertain." That reframing matters more than it sounds. Because if adventure is simply uncertainty, then business is adventure. Life is adventure. And most of us spend our days trying to mask that uncertainty with rituals, routines, and structures that create the illusion of control. > "We have no certainty about whether we're going to be around tomorrow, next week, next month, or next year to meet our sales targets or lead our teams." For leaders, the takeaway is simple but hard to practice: stop pretending you have all the answers. Operate like an expedition leader — scan the environment, adapt in real time, and keep the team moving even when the path ahead isn't clear. ### What Actually Separates High-Performing Teams Erik points to two things that distinguish genuinely great teams from collections of talented individuals. - **Culture — the unwritten rules.** Great teams are crystal clear about what's tolerated and what isn't. What behaviors move us toward the goal? What takes us away from it? There's no ambiguity. - **A clear beginning and end.** This one is more controversial. Most corporate teams work together year in and year out, chasing the next target indefinitely. But truly great teams set a specific goal, follow the process to achieve it, and then reset. They have a definite endpoint before tackling the next challenge. That second point challenges the way most companies operate. But Erik argues it's essential. Without a reset, teams lose the intensity and focus that made them effective in the first place. ### Why Growth Quietly Erodes Culture Here's where it gets personal for anyone running a scaling business. Erik uses a simple metaphor: cordial and a glass. The glass is the structure that allows you to do business — your processes, your org chart, your systems. The cordial is your culture — the thing that gives the business its flavor, its identity, its soul. As you grow, you add more glass. More structure. More layers. More processes. And if you're not careful, you dilute the cordial. The taste changes. The thing that made you distinctive starts to fade. "Growth is where your problem starts in terms of culture," Erik says. So what should leaders watch for as they scale? - Are new hires absorbing the unwritten rules, or are they just following the handbook? - Has decision-making become slower and more bureaucratic? - Do people still feel ownership, or are they just executing tasks? - Is the team still clear on what's accepted and what isn't? If the answers start shifting, that's your early warning sign. ### The Bottom Line Growth isn't the enemy. But unchecked growth without cultural intention is. The businesses that scale successfully are the ones that treat culture as a deliberate asset — not something that happens by accident. As Erik puts it, adventure is any undertaking where the outcome is uncertain. Scaling a business is exactly that. The leaders who thrive are the ones who embrace the uncertainty, protect what makes them distinctive, and build teams that know when to reset and when to push forward.