The Entrepreneur's Minute Blog
Tag: Jim Collins
There is no amount of strategic planning that will eliminate all risk. There is no magic spreadsheet. Planning is meant to identify risk so you know about it.
If you wait for the perfect plan with zero risk, someone else will beat you to the market; someone who was able to take action. You can’t do everything everyone wants you to do. You have to make a decision and then go to there.
Read Beyond Entrepreneurship by Jim Collins.
BloggingGazelle is published daily by Shawn Carson
At some point, you have to have policies and procedures. It’s usually because there are a lot of people to manage and it’s easier to point to a set of rules than it is to effectively communicate the desired outcome. It’s certainly easier than going through a complex hiring process to find good people.
And of course, we are people and we don’t always get along.
I remember counseling three employees who were at odds with each other. They wanted me to issue a decree that defined how everything was supposed to turn out. I replied by saying I could do that…create a new rule, but it would come with a price. That rule would apply to everyone regardless the circumstances and I assured them that in the long run it would be a net negative. In the end they took my advice and worked it out.
Before you make a policy, question why it’s needed. If you bump into problems with a rule or policy, question why you have it. Is there another, better way to solve the issue? And above all, don’t resort to creating a rule that affects everyone just to get out of dealing with a specific situation with specific individuals.
I’ve been in corporate “brainstorming” sessions organized for the goal of developing a mission statement. All too often, these exercises are about developing a marketing position or a tag line for an annual report to shareholders. The statement usually becomes so generalized as to not tip off competitors and obscure enough as to avoid criticism. The result is nobody knows what you do or why.
As soon as you hire your first employee, it is very important for you to communicate the purpose for your company to exist on the planet. This purpose must be concise and memorable but it must encapsulate a vision that inspires and captures the imagination.
Simple and clear!
It’s never too early to develop your core ideology. Your company culture starts with you. For a start, read or re-read “Good To Great.”
Blogging Gazelle is published daily by Shawn Carson
Unmotivated employees are looking for the least amount of effort to exchange for the money you pay them. It’s also a sign that they are not aligned with your core ideology. This is either because they don’t believe, OR that you have not communicated it effectively.
Either way, it’s time to get them off the bus.
Jim Collins on Discipline – part 3 of 3
Everything a startup does should be pointed at getting the product in the customer’s hands and then getting the next customer.
There will be a time for processes and middle management… perhaps.
Perhaps you will be acquired by then and not have to worry about it.
Your objective is not to win the next grant or to have a detailed research and development plan. In fact, your financials will be totally unpredictable so don;t spend hours tweaking the spreadsheet.
Spend the hours getting the product ready to ship.
Jim Collins on Discipline – part 2 of 3
Rules generally mean one thing: people can’t be trusted to do the right thing. Their presence also indicates ineffective leadership. It’s easier to make rules for everyone than it is to deal with to root cause of a problem.
When you have rules, you have to enforce them and keep track of them and update them. Before long, you have people whose job it is to enforce, keep track and update the rules.
Then it’s the rules that become the main thing. Then we have the Federal Government.
Hire the right people. Make sure they know the mission and their contribution. Fire the wrong people quickly.
This is “Collins on Discipline, part 1 of 3”
I’ve been in middle management and I found that I spent most of my time explaining to the troops what upper management was doing and why. On the other hand, I tried to spend time letting upper management know what the troops thought. That never went very far. Somehow, I came to believe this was deliberate.
If the mission is simple and clear, if there is an open line for brutal honesty and creative debate, and if the right people are in the bus, then there should be no need for a complex org chart.
Jim Collins claims it takes no more time or effort to create a great company than it does a mediocre one. It’s all a matter of making the right choices early on. The blue print is in “Good To Great” and it involves simplicity, maniacal focus and discipline, the right people and leadership at the 5th level.
Remember, “good is the enemy of great”.
At some point you are going to have to hire someone, or even better, sell something. Things change when that happens. Up to that point, your dream, strategy, and purpose are safe inside your head and everyone there understands and embraces it. What’s more, no one challenges it and it all makes sense. As a Boy Scout, we opened every meeting by reciting the Scout Oath and the Scout Law. It is to remind us of the values, ideals and the purpose of being a Boy Scout. After a few decades, I still remember them clearly.
You can’t just write down your mission statement and be done with it. The leader of the organization must constantly find ways of reinforcing the message with employees, customers, stakeholders and the general public. It’s like the downbeat of the bass drum in dance music. It’s the center; the reference point and it is constant.
J&J is a very successful company. You should check out their credo: http://www.jnj.com/about-jnj/jnj-credo
40% of the CEO’s time…. must be important
We often use “To Do” lists to keep up with all the stuff we have to get done. It’s never ending. To make it worse, entrepreneurs are typically wired to get things done.
Jim Collins suggests that having a “stop doing” list is perhaps more important than than our “to do” list. Learning to say “no” is vital for making time to get the important things done.
Sometimes this happens automatically because we tend to gravitate toward the things in our minds that are the most important. But this can based on emotional responses. Even worse, we let the agenda of others manage our activities.
A deliberate process of identifying the things that are strategically important and the things that are not can go a long way to helping you get things done.
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