Tag Archives: Cover

How Do You Delegate on a Team Basis? Four Options

Situation: A CEO wants to develop a collection of skills within her team as an alternative to just having individuals with skills. For example, her role means that she must travel frequently, often for over a week at a time. How can she develop a system to temporarily reallocate the time of the team to cover her responsibilities while she’s away. How do you delegate on a team basis?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • If the team functions on a high level, this is not really a problem. They will step up.
    • Plan for the time frame during which the CEO will be away.
    • List all responsibilities to be covered and set priorities for response. Focus on the highest priorities first. Delegate them or use them as cross-training opportunities for team members.
    • Meet with team ahead of time. Go over what has to be covered. Ask who can cover this, and delegate first, second and third responders – not just a single individual. This is important so that they know that they are backed up as well. Ask: What concerns or questions do you have? Have the team develop solutions.
    • Where processes are involved, break down the process. Create a decision tree and work with the team on how to make decisions with resources available.
    • Set priorities for the time away before leaving. Ask the team how they would handle situations and coach them if they are not sure. Identify resources for them to use if needed.
  • Use the model that a special forces team uses to train and prepare for missions:
    • Know each other’s strengths and weaknesses.
    • Know how to back each other up.
    • Set up situations that are likely to arise and rehearse.
  • Another good model is engineering decision trees.
    • Create decision trees for how frequently occurring situations are handled to help team members determine the proper course of action and how to utilize which resources to respond to these situations.
  • Note the difference between reactive and proactive responsibilities.
    • Train the team to respond to reactive situations.
    • Schedule proactive responsibilities around planned time away to facilitate involvement in these as necessary.
    • Flexibility is critical.

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Is It Time to Raise Prices? Six Suggestions

Situation: A company will be losing a client in the near future. However, the client is still buying from the company as sole source supplier while they develop alternate suppliers. Should the company raise prices, and if so by how much? Is it timely to raise prices?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • A factor in this decision will be your history of raising prices in the past. If you have increased prices to keep pace with inflation and your costs, look at the frequency and magnitude of these increases. Provided that the increase that you are considering is not out of line with past practice, it should not come as a surprise to your client. If you have not raises prices in the past, be prepared for push-back.
  • However you decide, be sure to maintain the relationship. You have a long relationship with this client and you never know what their future needs will be. As to the amount of the price increase, if they are reducing the volume of their purchases, you can raise your prices by 10-20% based on the loss of volume to cover your overhead.
  • Be prepared with logical arguments to explain the price increase to the client.
  • If your discussions with the client’s representative have become tense, it may be better to have someone else within your company lead this discussion. It’s OK to tie the emotional component – having to lay-off employees, etc, – into your story.
  • If you have an advocate within the client company, involve them in the discussion and give your advocate the ammunition that they need to support your case.
  • Adjust your staff and costs to fit the new reality.

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Where Do You Currently Stand on Benefits? Three Comments

Situation: A small company (fewer than 50 employees) is reviewing their employee benefit package and wants to get a sense of what others are currently covering in their benefit packages. Where does your company currently stand on employee benefits, and what does your company cover in its benefit package?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • A recent small (unscientific) poll of entrepreneurial Silicon Valley SMB Companies on benefits offered found:
    • Health: 100%, Dental: 83%, Vision: 67%, Disability: 17%
    • 401K: 100%, 401K Match: 33% (most companies eliminated the match to reduce costs)
    • Reduced benefits in the last 6 months: 67%
    • Employee complaints or recruiting challenges following cuts: 0%
  • One company commented that when a key customer cut their payments they had to cut benefits. They reduced the company payment from 100% to 50% of benefit cost. Their employees make choices among options available, with a company dollar payment cap. Management explained the situation when they made the cuts, and there were no objections.
  • Several companies have shifted to consumer directed health care options.
  • A comment of caution was offered by one CEO – employees are unlikely to object to their company needing to reduce benefits to get through a difficult market. However, as conditions improve, employees are likely to expect some level of return to prior benefit levels. If not, the company at risk of increased turnover. It is best to stay ahead of the curve to assure that your benefits packages are competitive.

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