Company in a rush for strike (7)
I believe the answer is:
scourge
'strike' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'company in a rush' is the wordplay.
'company' becomes 'co' (abbreviation).
'in' indicates putting letters inside.
'a rush' becomes 'surge' ('surge' can be a synonym of 'rush'**).
'co' inserted into 'surge' is 'SCOURGE'.
'for' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for scourge that I've seen before include "One causing great suffering; whip" , "Pest" , "cat" , "Afflict" , "Person/thing causing great suffering; whip" .)