On the fast track: tackle hyper-growth without going off the rails.

• Author: Stewart, Heather

Over the years, as we've interviewed companies on our annual Fast 50 list of the state's fastest-growing companies, many founders have said dealing with strong, rapid growth can feel a lot like clinging to the wheel of an out-of-control semi-truck careening down a canyon. The ability to get that speeding truck under control makes the difference between massive success--and a spectacular crash.

Here, execs from a few of this year's Fast 50 companies (listed in our September issue), describe how they kept their rapidly growing firms moving in the right direction.

Focus, Focus, Focus

Entrepreneurs tend to be dreamers with lots of grand ideas. But success often requires keeping a laser focus on your mission--even if that means letting opportunities fall by the wayside. The biggest challenge that comes with rapid growth is "saying no to opportunities when they don't fit with our company's vision," explains Scott Abbott, CEO of Five Star Franchising.

To overcome this same challenge, CLEARLINK assembled an internal team of business development experts that winnows down the list of various business opportunities. "Prioritizing opportunities and industries for expansion continues to be a challenge alongside growth. There are dozens of industries and companies we can drive meaningful business with," says Ben Henderson, president of CLEARLINK. "As a way to focus our attention and efforts, we built a team of business development experts [that] focuses on growing and prioritizing opportunities."

Cultivate Culture

Every company has its own unique culture, and often that culture is the pivotal difference between a successful business and its competitors. But bringing on new people at a rapid rate can dilute or even overwhelm a corporate culture.

"Ensuring each employee is connected to the business and our culture has been a challenge," says Henderson. "To scale our culture we have created a culture statement to put words around what we stand for so employees can relate. We have also created a 'culture ambassadors' program to ensure each team has dedicated employees who help build team culture and connect their team to larger CLEARLINK experiences, opportunities and events."

Preserving its culture has also been a challenge for Pluralsight, a provider of online training for IT professionals. The company experienced triple-digit growth in 2013 and worked to integrate new people into its culture.

"We've confronted this challenge by hitting it head on rather...