I’ve done a few startups. The biggest lesson I have learned over 20 years is that you cannot build a successful startup business without the right people. I have met many entrepreneurs who believed capital was the most critical factor in building a prosperous startup. No doubt, capital is a big deal. The benefits of great beginning capital to a startup are obvious. With cash, the business can more aggressively pursue revenue-generating activities like marketing and off-site prospecting. More importantly, startup capital allows you to pay salaries. And, believe me, it is much easier to find people when you can pay salaries. While it’s very difficult, I’d rather do an underfunded startup with the right people than a cash-cow startup with the wrong people.
So, what are the four aspects to having the right PEOPLE?:
Internal and External Customer focus… having the right people will keep the right people.
Organizations depend on their customers and therefore should understand current and future customer needs, should meet customer requirements and strive to exceed customer expectations. Increased effectiveness in the use of the organization’s resources to enhance customer satisfaction. Improved customer loyalty leading to repeat business. All of this leads to:
• Researching and understanding customer needs and expectations.
• Ensuring that the objectives of the organization are linked to customer needs and expectations.
• Communicating customer needs and expectations throughout the organization.
• Measuring customer satisfaction and acting on the results.
• Systematically managing customer relationships.
• Ensuring a balanced approach between satisfying customers and other interested parties (such as owners, employees, suppliers, financiers, local communities and society as a whole).
Leadership being in power and the art of empowering the right people.
Leaders establish unity of purpose and direction of the organization. They should create and maintain the internal environment in which people can become fully involved in achieving the organization’s objectives. People will understand and be motivated towards the organization’s goals and objectives. Activities are evaluated, aligned and implemented in a unified way. All of this leads to:
• Considering the needs of all interested parties including customers, owners, employees, suppliers, financiers, local communities and society as a whole.
• Establishing a clear vision of the organization’s future.
• Setting challenging goals and targets.
• Creating and sustaining shared values, fairness and ethical role models at all levels of the organization.
• Establishing trust and eliminating fear.
• Providing people with the required resources, training and freedom to act with responsibility and accountability.
• Inspiring, encouraging and recognizing people’s contributions.
Involvement of the right people for the right jobs.
People at all levels are the essence of an organization and their full involvement enables their abilities to be used for the organization’s benefit. Motivated, committed and involved people within the organization. Innovation and creativity in furthering the organization’s objectives. People being accountable for their own performance. People eager to participate in and contribute to continual improvement. All of this leads to:
• People understanding the importance of their contribution and role in the organization.
• People identifying constraints to their performance.
• People accepting ownership of problems and their responsibility for solving them.
• People evaluating their performance against their personal goals and objectives.
• People actively seeking opportunities to enhance their competence, knowledge and experience.
• People freely sharing knowledge and experience, openly discussing problems and issues.
Your business must have a “Process” approach and the process needs the right people.
A desired result is achieved more efficiently when activities and related resources are managed as a process. Lower costs and shorter cycle times through effective use of resources. Improved, consistent and predictable results. Focused and prioritized improvement opportunities. This will inevitably lead to:
• Systematically defining the activities necessary to obtain a desired result.
• Establishing, analyzing, and measuring of clear responsibility and accountability for managing key activities.
• Identifying the interfaces of key activities within and between the functions of the organization.
• Focusing on the factors such as resources, methods, and materials that will improve key activities of the organization.
• Evaluating risks, consequences and impacts of activities on customers, suppliers and other interested parties.
Working with the right people is very important. Finding them is hard. Very hard. Over the last 20 years, I’ve made mistakes in selecting partners and team members. And you will make mistakes as well. In those instances, it is best to move quickly to correct the problem. I have found it was sometimes OK to have an empty seat than a seat filled with the wrong people.