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For Subscribers

When Scaling Your Company, Here's How to Never Lose Sight of Why Customers Fell in Love With Your Business in the First Place Laura Ashley, Nokia and many others faltered while growing their company. Here's how to not make their same mistakes.

By Boyd Farrow

This story appears in the March 2018 issue of Entrepreneur. Subscribe »

Ezra Bailey | Getty Images

Your products are racking up five-star reviews on Amazon. Your services are bewitching Yelp. Street artists are appropriating your logo. Clearly, the next thing on your to-do list is to scale as fast as possible. And then maybe buy a Caribbean island, from where you can oversee your brand's world domination.

Related: 6 Ways to Handle Rapid Growth

But before you tap Richard Branson for his real estate agent's number, you may want to consider the other beloved brands -- from Firestone Tire & Rubber to Laura Ashley to Nokia -- that have stumbled over the years. These are all companies that, in their haste to grow, lost sight of why people liked them in the first place.

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