At BESCAP we’ve seen mediocre ideas succeed and terrific ideas fail. It turns out that ideas are just the starting point of any venture. Making it work is the hard part. We’ve learned a few things about what works and doesn’t work (at least when we’re involved) along the way. Here’s the principles we’ve extracted from those experiences:
Be Transparent and Build Trust: Nothing can torpedo a great plan like a lousy team. No matter their innate talents, a team full of a secrets and lacking trust can’t make good decisions. The mistakes in the plan, or the mistakes in execution, are the things that will kill your venture. If you have an environment where you can quickly identify and resolve those problems, you’ll do well. If those problems stay hidden, you won’t. If you have a team that brings out the best in each other, you can overcome terrific odds. If you have a team that limits each other’s potential, you can fumble even the simplest tasks.
You Have to Roll Up Your Sleeves: Regardless of what skills you bring to the table, if you’re sitting in your office sending emails, or having meetings where you do nothing but make great pronouncements, you won’t be anything but a windbag – no matter how right you are. We’ll take a hard worker of average skills over a brilliant bum any day. And we love to get our hands dirty – it’s the only way to obtain a meaningful understanding.
Be Efficient and Economical: Ramping up an enterprise means you get results quickly. What kind of results you get, however, are determined by the quality of your systems and processes. Dumping money and effort into a bad process will lead to a high volume of bad results. And cleaning up the mess will only get harder the larger you get. So plan for the scale you want to be, then double it. Or triple it. When you’ve grown 1000% and things are humming along, you’ll be glad you took the time to make it work. Because you’re not going to have the time later.
Right is Right, Regardless of Rank: Never assume that someone has the right answer because of their position in the org chart (especially when that person is you). Encourage healthy conflict, and make sure everyone knows they can – and should – speak up. This will get harder to do the larger you get, so practice hard now and make sure it’s part of your culture. That way you have a shot at convincing your 200th employee that you really mean it.
Be Ruthless About Your Values: If your values are only something that you talk about when it’s convenient, they will quickly degrade to nothing more than another piece of corporate propaganda. There are dozens of great phrases-to-live-by out there. Choose carefully. Make sure you can actually live by them. Be hardest on yourselves as leaders, and on your managers, when sizing up your commitment to them. Don’t ever forget one of the reasons you’re an entrepreneur is because you got sick of being fed crap from the top, and you promised yourself you would do it differently. If you’ve never had the benefit of that experience, work the line in your own business just to figure out if it sucks. Because you’re the person who can do something about it.
For Crying Out Loud, Have Fun: The difference between a job you love and a job you hate is often the people you’re with and atmosphere you’re in when you’re working. Make that atmosphere challenging and exciting. Encourage others to do the same. Have a good time. Laugh. It will make a huge difference to your productivity, your health, your bottom line, your employee retention, the perception customers have of you, and how you treat others, even when you’re not at work. You only live once; choose to enjoy it.