Tag Archives: Align

How Do You Boost the Performance of a Life Sciences Company? Six Suggestions

Situation: The CEO wants to improve the performance of her life sciences company. She has questions about the business plan and roles within the company. She is also looking for better ways to connect with current and potential customers. How do you boost the performance of a life sciences company?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Assess both your own role and the company to ensure that there is good alignment between the business plan and the roles within the company.
  • Be strategic after assessing the company’s needs and situation. Too often companies jump to tactical considerations because they are action oriented. To be effective, tactics must align with the broader company strategy.
  • Build a foundation based on value and compliment this with effective models to communicate and leverage this value base.
  • Think outside the box. Consider options to use or increase the effectiveness of social networking. This has growing dramatically in importance as a way to reach and communicate with key current and potential constituencies.
  • Perception is important. Be aware of what others think of the company and work creatively to present the company in a light that will support objectives.
  • The visual cortex represents 75% of sensory awareness. Leverage this on web sites and in marketing campaigns.

[like]

How Do You Foster Productive Communication Within Your Company? Six Suggestions

Situation: A CEO is concerned that communication between employees is often non-productive. Individuals can be abrasive in their comments. This leads to loss of productivity because the individual criticized feels hurt and distracted. It also results in the formation of “subgroups” which conflict with each other. How do you foster productive communication within your company?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Encourage tolerance of and sensitivity toward individual styles.
    • Identify the particular style of each individual. Assessment tools are helpful.
    • Admit that different individuals have different styles and that this is OK. Have a conversation with them so they are aware of this.
    • Always allow an individual one “charm” that is uniquely theirs.
  • Identify the motivations that drive each individual within the company.
    • Communicate with each individual in a way that recognizes and aligns with their motivation.
  • Focus on constructive communication aimed at helping the individual to strengthen performance. Build a foundation of fact to reduce the risk that what is said will be taken personally or interpreted as critical. Become the model for how others can effectively communicate with each other.
  • Meet others half-way.
    • Outline, test and agree on basic assumptions to get the conversation rolling.
    • Weigh the pros and cons of each suggested alternative.
  • Use employee reviews and compensation decisions as motivators.
    • Explain the company’s marketplace and plans vs. market practices. Get the facts. Know what each job typically pays and market balances between salary and incentive compensation.
    • Align the rewards offered with each individual employee’s motivations.
    • If an employee is not a 5 (on a scale of 1 – 5), explain what they need to do to become a 5.
  • Keep the annual retreat alive when everyone returns to the office.
    • Generate follow-up plans as part of the retreat. Include measurable objectives, responsibilities, accountabilities and timelines.
    • Identify solutions, not just problems.
    • When asking for recommendations, acknowledge each suggestion. Be prepared to implement what is suggested – in whole or as part of a larger strategy.
    • Recognize that the environment is in constant flux and that the company must continually adjust to adapt to changes.

[like]

How Do You Interview New Tech Hires? Four Necessities

Situation: A CEO wants advice on hiring new technical staff. Important considerations are cultural fit, identifying the characteristics of effective people, assuring that the right people are hired, and evaluating people for specifics tasks. In the past hiring technical people has proven challenging and poor hires have inhibited company growth. How do you interview new tech hires?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • It is critical to be clear on the factors necessary to be successful in the enterprise. Once these have been identified, align the factors with existing individuals in the organization as role models. Also align these factors with those who will be involved in candidate selection. This facilitates identification of good candidates.
  • Develop clarity on candidate evaluation. Identify and develop questions that will allow candidates to describe what is important to them and what they want to get out of their career choice.  In addition to specific knowledge, candidates should demonstrate a personal value system compatible with the company’s culture. They must also demonstrate a high energy level.
  • Once there is clear articulation of desired characteristics of candidates work with others such as college placement organizations, friends of the firm, Craig’s list, and so on to assist with candidate identification. A well written position description not only describes the type of individual desired, but also why someone would want to join the firm.
  • It’s imperative to be able to give a sales presentation on the company including specific reasons why people should join it. Avoid getting so wrapped up in the selection mode that you fail to recruit. Some who have done this were stunned to find that after they have made their selection the candidate was no longer interested.

[like]

How Do You Enhance Teamwork and Leadership? Six Suggestions

Situation: A CEO wants to enhance teamwork and improve leadership at all levels within the company. Occasionally there is an attitude of “not my job” in response to a request. Differences in direction from leadership within the company has led to confusion of priorities. A common issue is the need to assure that priorities are aligned and consistently communicated across teams and the organization. How do you keep everybody on the same page? How do you enhance teamwork and leadership?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Conduct daily and/or weekly meetings to assure that everyone is aligned and on message. This has the additional advantage of bubbling up more ideas from deeper down in the organization.
  • Develop clear action items within these meetings. Confirm at least verbal understanding and agreement on each item.
  • Involve all team members in team meetings. Enforce participation.
  • As facilitator, take charge of the meetings.
    • Reduce long, drawn-out meetings to short, concise meetings.
    • Prep ahead of the meeting – let all participants know that they are expected to come prepared as well.
    • Stay on focus during the meetings.
    • At the end of important discussions, and again at the end of the meeting, summarize action items and responsibilities, and confirm understanding.
  • Other things that help:
    • Reduce the use of buss words during meetings. Speak in language that all understand.
    • Speak in terms of outcomes, not tasks. If the discussion is derailed, refocus on outcomes.
  • This works effectively in meetings with all levels of employees.

[like]

Can Outside Board Members Help a Struggling Company? Four Thoughts

Situation: The CEO of a family-owned company has struggled to align family members with the business plan. When difficult decisions must be made, established personality patterns and family history hinder consensus on what should be done. The CEO seeks advice on whether the addition of one or more outside Board Members can help to build consensus. Can outside Board members help a struggling company?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • The CEO of another closely-held company brought in an outside Board member two years ago. This has added considerable focus to the Board discussions. The addition of a fresh and respected perspective has helped to clarify decisions and reduce conflicts among the founders.
  • First, have a conversation with the team. Give them the opportunity to straighten out things themselves. Present the addition of an outside Board member as an option. Get their support. This will make the addition of an outside Board member a company decision, rather than the CEO’s.
  • The experience of other companies is that compensation can range from free – a retiree who wants to help – to expensive. Arrangements and expense will depend on what the company leadership wants to achieve.
  • Investigate SCORE – a well-established source for outside board members for small and family businesses.

[like]

How Do You Strengthen Internal Incentives and Ownership? Four Points

Situation: A technology company has established a leadership position in their niche. Nevertheless, they struggle with individual performance and buy-in to company performance. The CEO asks whether increasing ownership through stock incentives in a non-public company is an effective incentive for employees. How do you strengthen internal incentives and ownership?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • In the past, employees voiced a strong predilection for share ownership as recompense for the personal risk and sweat that they have put into the company.
    • It may be advisable to revisit this, particularly given the increased risk that comes with share ownership as a result of regulatory changes of the last 10 years.
    • As a substitute for share ownership, they may be open to some proxy that will provide them with value and the opportunity to have their opinions heard in the case of a buy-out.
  • Another company looked at this closely at the time of formation. They decided that proper recognition for contribution did not equal ownership. Ownership also entails personal liability and risk, which many don’t realize and, once they understand the implications of owners’ liability, don’t want. As an alternative they adopted a liberal profit-sharing structure that has met with employee enthusiasm.
  • Think about this discussion in terms of incentives:
    • Short Term – Annual-type incentives
      • Make sure that incentives align with desired behaviors so that individuals’ contributions contribute to business plan objectives and the next step for the company.
    • Long Term – consider the trade-offs
      • Share Ownership
        • Broadly distributed share ownership not only complicates future flexibility but may also complicate a buy-out or merger opportunity. Consider the implications of a situation where most shares are in the hands of past rather than current employees.
        • Strategic Partners wishing to invest may be reticent to work with a company with broadly distributed ownership.
      • ESOPs, while frequently referenced, tend to eat their children. They have several complications:
        • They are governed by ERISA, so you cannot discriminate. All must be able to participate.
        • Ownership is prescribed – with a maximum of 10% per employee. Will a future CEO candidate be happy with 10% when the admin assistant gets 3%? In this way ESOPs can impair succession and recruitment plans.
        • Annual valuations can be expensive.
      • Phantom or Synthetic Equity Programs
        • A company can tailor these to meet changing objectives.
        • Valuations are cheap and valuation metrics are easy to monitor.
  • To work through the options, sit and talk with the employees, and listen. Ask what concerns them. Don’t try to come up with a solution until their concerns are understood. There is an array of options available.

[like]

How Do You Manage Multiple Priorities? Six Suggestions

Situation: A company has developed a number of initiatives and priorities which are important to the success of the company. All of the initiatives are daunting.  What do they need to do to get all of these accomplished? How do you manage multiple priorities?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Start with corporate level objectives and set these independently from your initiatives. Pick your top corporate goals and objectives – financial, performance, and so on. Once this is in place, rate your initiatives in terms of how they help to meet your company objectives.
  • Create an initiative list. Measure the upside and risk for each initiative. Based on the results of your analysis classify each initiative: critical, important, or nice to have. This, plus alignment between initiatives your corporate objectives will indicate which initiatives are most critical to company success.
  • Every company needs long and short term goals. Use these to align and prioritize initiatives. Only and your team you can tell what is important and importance is a matter of your strategic focus and objectives.
  • They key to accomplishing multiple objectives is focus. Focus on your top 2-3 initiatives first – if you can reasonably handle this many. Once these are accomplished, focus on the next 2-3, and so forth.
  • Look at your competitors – where are the opportunities in the marketplace. How will your initiatives make you more competitive?
  • What does your leadership development plan look like? If you plan to add new leadership, include in your thinking a transition plan to new leadership, taking into account your multi-year timeline.

[like]

What Have You Done to Manage Rapid Growth? Five Foci

Situation: A company has experienced rapid growth. This is creating stress for the staff and CEO, who finds it difficult to break away from the day to day to focus on strategy. Employees are not keeping pace with the evolving needs of the company and turnover has increased. What have you done to manage rapid growth?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • The first task is to improve forecasting of business growth, and the infrastructure needed to support this growth. This includes:
    • Regularly updating your sales and production forecasts.
    • Updating staff and training plans to meet growth forecasts.
    • Updating infrastructure and support plans.
    • Without these, the organization will whipsaw in response to market demands.
  • Take a critical look at your staff development plans and staff training.
    • Look at those areas that are most impacted by business growth. Determine whether you have the right managers and support in place.
    • Evaluate whether you have the right people and whether they have the skills to handle new demands of their positions.
  • Critically evaluate each now job that you take on. Assure that you have the staff and infrastructure to meet client demands.
    • Always assure that you deliver on your company’s integrity, reputation and core values.
  • In addition to addressing immediate needs, look at long-term plans strategically. Ask where you will be in 10 years. Articulate this vision in detail, and drive plans down through the organization. Make sure that everyone is on the same page, aligned with the same values, aiming at the same targets.
  • Also differentiate your vision from your mission:
    • You vision is a 10 year time frame, not one year.
    • Your mission is what you will be doing this year and in 5 years – the activities you will undertake to realize your longer term vision.
    • Fine tune your vision and mission and drive these through the organization. This will give you clarity on how you wish to do business and will help you to make hard choices as you handle rapid growth.

Key Words: Growth, Rapid, Stress, Focus, Turnover, Forecast, Infrastructure, Training, Support, Values, Staff, Development, Skill, Plan, Align, Vision, Mission

[like]