Tag Archives: Profit Sharing

How Do You Manage Growth? Six Points

Situation: Many companies face challenges managing growth. Growth is a complex process involving strategy, staff and company culture. What guidance can the group give to help guide planning for growth? How do you manage growth?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Think of growth in term of five major components of organization and growth: structural, cultural, facilities, documentation systems, and people.
  • Structural
    • Consider different ownership and profit sharing options. Look for options that fit the objectives of the company.
    • If you are looking at multi-location solutions, develop a structure that can be easily copied in new locations that are added but which is complementary to the home office structure.
  • Cultural
    • If the business is family-run and looking at moving to a non-family structure, look for options that will preserve the best aspects of the culture as it has developed.
    • Keep company values intact.
    • Focus on maintaining engagement and commitment.
  • Facilities
    • The transition from single-site to multiple-site is particularly traumatic. The jump from 2-sites to 3-sites is much easier because an effective model is already in place.
  • Documentation Systems
    • Growth can compel the company to adopt entirely new systems, especially when passing certain thresholds for government regulations (i.e. 50+ employees).
  • People
    • Hire and retain for the right mindset – consistent with company culture and structure.
    • Specialists can be a real asset for their particular talents, but they seldom have the view of the “big picture” that is required for a turbulent environment.
    • Compensation – align compensation with company culture and priorities.
    • “Ownership” may have to change from sole ownership to shared ownership in order to keep key talent engaged.
    • Add new skill sets to address needs but assure that these complement existing skill sets.

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How Do You Reprioritize Your Time? Seven Suggestions

Situation: A company delivers specialized consulting services. The founder CEO is also a lead consultant. As the company has grown, the CEO has struggled to prioritize her time as she shifts from consultant to leader. How do you reprioritize your time?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Look at the skill sets required to run the company and compare this with the skills of current staff. While the company has excellent consultants, do some of these people also have experience in business development or management?
    • Prioritize the skill sets needed and focus hiring efforts on those that can’t be filled by current employees.
  • If the CEO is also the chief rainmaker, then a top priority is hiring a manager/leader. The next level of development within the company will require a level of management.
  • Accept that the company can’t get an A+ grade on every project or detail. Learn to accept a B when this is enough. It will do.
  • Recognize that as priorities shift, vacuums will develop. Identify what will be missing. For those vacancies:
    • Write job descriptions for the roles.
    • Replace the leader’s roles with flexible teams instead of individuals.
  • Reapply financial resources to fund the transition as incentives for individuals to take on new work and responsibilities.
    • Look at profit-sharing models. Use profit sharing to facilitate the shift in priorities by adjusting payout incentives.
  • Anticipate the risks within the plan. Think through these thoroughly and develop contingencies.
  • As CEO, you will not be able to do everything that you do now. In your new role you won’t want to do everything you do now. Your view and responsibilities will change.

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What are Best Practices for Employee Reviews? Five Examples

Situation: A CEO is evaluating her company’s employee review process and seeks input on alternative practices from other companies. What are best practices for employee reviews in terms of frequency, format and structure?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Company A conducts annual reviews. They ask for written input from the employee, peers, and manager. The review is a sit-down meeting between the employee and manager.
  • Company B conducts formal annual reviews, with informal 6 month reviews. The annual review evaluates the employee’s performance on 15 key variables, and is prepared by the manager. The review is a sit-down meeting between the employee and manager
  • Company C does not conduct reviews. They have tried several formats over the life of the company, but found none satisfactory. Instead the company continually monitors key metrics on a green, yellow, red scale. As soon as yellow appears on a metric for an employee, the supervisor meets with the employee to discuss the situation and to formulate corrective action. The result is that reds do not occur.
  • Company D conducts annual reviews on the employment anniversary. They request written input from both the employee, and manager. The employee, manager and President meet over lunch, off-site. The objective is to communicate plus and minus points, taking a long-term approach in a conversational setting.
  • Company E conducts annual reviews, with quarterly self-evaluations. Both reviews and evaluations include a key question: “what can management do for me to improve my performance?” The review is a sit down meeting between employee and manager. Results of reviews are tied to quarterly profit sharing.
  • All companies agreed that, generally, in evaluating the options, the most important questions to ask are:
    • Why are we doing reviews?
    • What is the objective?

    The answers to these questions help to evaluate review options.

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