Mapping Out the Plan to Achieve Your Goals With Clear Processes

Mapping Out the Plan to Achieve Your Goals With Clear Processes

What do you consider the most important thing in business? Now, I get asked that question all the time, and I actually ask business owners, founders that question all the time, and you do get a mixed response because people get a little bit confused sometimes, particularly in the start-up to scale-up journey there's a lot more complexity and a lot of things to be considered. Some people say its customers, and I think that's a really great answer, in fact, when you think about it, having customers, predictable flow of the right customers coming into your business, that's going to drive both revenue and profit. But the other answer that comes up quite a lot is people, having the right people, having the right capability, having the right teams. And that is also a stunning answer. As I've been working through the six peaks of value creation, which is the lens that I look at valuable businesses in terms of 10 years of working in private equity and seeing which businesses have the characteristics to drive significant scale to drive significant value, people is the one thing that most organisations struggle with the most.

You see, people think a lot about how they bring in business. They think a lot about sales and marketing, but quite often they don't think enough about the people, the capability. And I've seen so many organisations hire quickly, hire incorrectly, not think about things like values and standards that underpin culture, and when they get the decisions wrong, then it can be really, really damaging to the stage the business is in, in terms of where it's trying to get to and trying to grow. And I go as far as saying, I've seen some businesses, particularly at those precious stages, make the wrong decisions and as they've made those decisions, the businesses have gone back dramatically, and some have even closed.

Now, it doesn't have to be that way, but you do need to understand that this is an intentional, precise thing in your business that needs your thought, it needs your consideration. It's not something that I think a leader can effectively delegate, certainly in that pivotal stage when you're going from start-up to scale-up, because you need to be focused that everyone coming in needs to be the right person for what you are trying to achieve.

So, the first part really is you've got to hire the right talent that is going to work for you, they believe in the mission, they believe in the values, they have the same standards, they don't have to be like you, in fact, I'd go as far as saying that you don't want people to be like you, you want people who are better than you at different things, different things that the organisation needs, but they have to be there with the right motivation.

The second thing is you've got to put those people in the right roles. You've got to make sure that they are set up to succeed, and in line with that, you've got to make sure that you have the right structure around those roles, be that incentivisation, it can be a reward, it can be how performance is measured. Like anything in business, what you measure is what you get, and it's no different when it comes to people, to talent, and to culture. You've got to make sure you create an environment really where people can thrive. And, you know, there are different characteristics, different businesses need different things, but one of the keys to that is definitely communication and having a culture where people can kind of effectively be able to say what they think and feel like they're contributing. You'd be surprised how many people come to work because they want to believe in something bigger, more so than just getting a paycheck, and that's exactly the type of people that you want to have in your organisation.

And the last thing, which sounds simple, but doesn't often happen is, you've got to treat everybody with respect. You know, if you go back and look at some of the biographies of some of the magnates of business back in the sort of 1900s, there was this us and them mantra that went around the place, and I have to say that back in the ‘90s I experienced that in some of the organisations that I was in, but that doesn't cut it anymore. You’ve got to really make sure that you respect everyone for what they bring, what they consider, how they then make an impact.  And you'd be surprised how many times that, if you spend more time in this place, not only are you going to be able to attract the right people to come into your organisation, you're going to be able to grow and develop those people, have this kind of ethos of continuous learning, and you'll be able to transform not just your business and not just your life as a result, but the people who come and join you on that journey.

Rajesh Malhotra

Property Consultant I Sales Coach | Real Estate Solutions |

3 年

Hi Nick, another very informative,incisive,illuminating and insightful article and thank you for posting.

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