Business Confidential: how sensitive is your data?

September 27, 2010 Leave a comment

Do you find sometimes that you are swimming in a world of non-disclosures (a.k.a. NDA), whereas most of them are not really needed? Honestly, I believe that we could live without the majority of NDA’s that we are signing. In this day and age, people qualify anything as sensitive or confidential data – including their business address and who does the cleaning – lol. But seriously, how confidential is the data you want to share? Most of the time, we spend way too much time around the definition of a NDA, only to find out that there is very little information that is being shared.

What are you really afraid of?

How much can someone else do once they learn about your secret sauce? Can they just go and do what you’re planning to do? Information that needs protection is either information that would have an impact on the market (mostly if you are a public company) and specifically hurt your business if it becomes public knowledge. General direction of a business or a vague idea about your business plan does not cut it.

What competition would do?

That’s one of the most important question you need to ask yourself. What would be the impact if your competitor were to learn about this so-called confidential information? If the impact is low or nil, then there is not much you should be concerned about. Of course, if you have specific trade secrets or revolutionary new product coming, you want to make sure to safely guard this information.

Do you have just ideas?

You are in trouble if you have just a bunch of ideas but without the ability to execute them – NDA or not. People should spend more time on execution that to worry about others stealing their ideas. Beyond accusing others of taking your ideas, focus on making your ideas and plan a reality. If you execute well, competitors should never have enough time to beat you to the market. Nothing in an NDA is stopping you from badly executing – so stop blaming the others if you failed.

How much do you really need to disclose?

Again, learn to be selective about what you disclose. We actually say less when there is no NDA in place. People have a tendency to talk a lot more because “we can do it in confidence”. Staying quiet is the best method to protect confidential information. Let me burst your bubble and let you know that people still talk even with an NDA in place. Maybe not officially but people like to talk. Companies that have a culture of staying quiet have a better chance of keeping confidential information to themselves.

Learn to sign NDA’s when they are really needed. Talk less and focus more on your execution – these are the best tricks to stay ahead of the game and keep your information confidential.

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The new CEO and understanding the company culture

September 23, 2010 Leave a comment

So you have recently joined a company as the new CEO (or President/GM). The vision is clear and you know the direction to take. But this won’t be possible unless you get the entire company behind you. If there is any reluctance to change or to accept new leadership, you won’t get very far. As the new commander, you need to make sure you will get support and help from everyone below you.

Understanding the culture

While you might have a general understanding of the company culture, there is no better tool than to just ask around and get your own idea on the matter. Take the time to sit down with the employees and simply ask them questions about themselves, the Company. Here is a simple list:

  • Three words that would describe you:
  • What do you like about your job?
  • What don’t you like about your job?
  • Where do you see yourself two years from now?
  • Three words that would describes Company:
  • What should never change at Company?
  • What needs the most improvement at Company?

Not only this will help you get a better picture of some of the problems that the Company has but also to extract the core essence of the Company – as well as getting to know more your employees. Of course, this could take a lot of time depending of how many employees you are managing but at least begin with the leaders, senior managers and key employees. Ultimately, I believe that the CEO needs to meet with each and everyone of its employees either thru one to one, group meetings or company all hands.

Leaders are not always the one we think

Let’s not confuse seniority with leadership. If you just joined the business, it is easy for you to know how long each employee has been with the Company. But determining who are the up and coming leaders is a different story. First step is to ask managers that are already in place but I also believe that the new guy can bring a lot of fresh insight into the picture. And the only way I know to find out if by watching potential leaders in how they are working and interacting on a daily basis; but to also sit down with them.

Don’t just talk, listen

Many executives like the sound of their voice, and would never refuse an opportunity to speak in front of an audience. But listening is a whole different can of beans. Listening requires that you shut up (only to ask a few questions in order to get specific information) and let the others express themselves and share their thoughts. A CEO that knows how to listen (and learn) is an amazing tool for a Company; starting by understanding the Company culture.

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The importance of a severance package

July 22, 2010 Leave a comment

We often hear on the news about the severance packages given to high profile executives. And while some of these are over the top, there is an important aspect of why these are necessary in order to attract key executives in a company: finding your next opportunity can take quite long time. As an example, I have been looking around for 12 months hoping to find the next big challenge. While I am happy to report that I will soon make an announcement regarding this new position, the past year has been a long process of search and discovery.

Great opportunities are rare
Upon reaching a certain level of experience and roles, you are no longer just looking for a job. You need to find a place where the market excites you, the challenge is big enough and the potential payback is important. I have looking at more than my share of business plans, company pitches and exploratory meetings over the past year. In many ways, finding the next thing is pretty much a full time job. You need to be patient and make sure you find the one project that is right for you.

Finding a perfect match even more
 To begin, you need to make sure that you clearly know what type of role you are looking for. In my case, I focused all my energy in finding a GM/President role in a hi-tech Montreal based software development company. Of course, I have looked at opportunities that were not as close to a perfect match but at the end of the day, I went forward with the one opportunity that was closest to my goals and objectives.

Are all the right conditions in place?
 Even when you find the right company, you might not have the right conditions to come on board. Maybe they are taking too much time to replace their current CEO, perhaps they do not have sufficient funds to make you a decent offer or sometimes plain out just not ready yet to hire you. There are many factors that come in play when accepting a new executive position and timing is certainly a big one.

So what does all of this have to do with severance?
 Well everything. While we have the perception that every executive that has received a severance package just stays home, plays golf and does nothing for months until that elusive opportunity comes knocking at the door, it is far from the case. You need to network, meet people, and consider many opportunities. You might be lucky and find something in just a few months but most often; it will take you a year or even more. Everybody have bills to pay and unless you have a lot of money in the bank (besides money saved for your retirement), unemployment insurance does not take you very far.

Pay it backward
 The Company needs to think of the severance package given to an exiting executive as a contribution for his next employer while someone else paid severance to the next executive that will join your business. Without this “pay it backward” system, a lot more executives would have no choice but to just pick a normal day job, reducing chances for an up and coming startup to find and hire a key player to take their business to the next level.

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Change of management: when is it good?

May 17, 2010 1 Comment

From my latest blogs on due diligence, employee ranking and succession management; I wanted to write about change of management and when is it good for the business. The business has been doing all right lately and things seem to be going in the right direction. So why would you want to make a change now?

Calm before the storm
Too many companies are making changes when things are going bad. Perhaps it is because we want to give a last chance to someone or that we have a hard time improving the executive team? Nonetheless, making changes when things are at a low point is a lot more difficult than making them at the cusp of bad news. Of course, it is easier to justify a change when the Company is in a downward spiral but the energy and pain required to fix this while you are joining a Company is far more likely to fail. Plan ahead the bad news. As a visual, do you prefer to bring an umbrella before it rains or you are the kind of person that will just get completely wet; having forgotten to check the weather beforehand?

From good to great, to greatness
Every Company can improve on what they’ve been doing. But this is very much linked to the potential of your executive team. How far can this team take you? How capable can they make this Company great? How can they build a plan to achieve greatness? Recognizing the limitations of a team is fundamental in doing better things. Some people are great at the startup level while others strive at the 100 million revenue mark. No matter how much someone has done in the past, you need to be aware of where this executive can take you (of course, this does not preclude coaching or mentoring).

Not everything in the past was bad
The reverse effect of change management is having a new executive team come in and pretend that everything that was done in the past was just wrong and that everything they will be doing is good. New management needs to spend the time to recognize the good things and how to improve on them while fixing what’s needed to make the Company better. It is imperative to acknowledge the good stuff from the past if you want the employees to support the new plan going forward. Take the time to explain why you are making certain changes and get them involved and accepting this.

Start with one thing; fix more stuff over time
There is also temptation to want to improve everything at once. While this is a noble idea, it is practically impossible. Identify what’s more critical and get at least one thing going better before planning to change a lot more things. Once employees can see that the changes you are proposing are beneficial for the business and for them individually (at least in general), you will get less resistance for doing more in later phases of improvements.

Communication is at the heart of it
No matter what you are doing as a new executive team, the most important item on the agenda is to properly communicate to the employees. For example, putting in place a weekly employee newsletter (which can include status reports of top initiatives) can be a fantastic tool to inform and get people to follow your work. It does not take that much time and goes a long way. Well informed employees always better collaborate and can even bring up solutions that you did not think of. Other useful tools can include a Company blog, monthly or quarterly employees meetings or end of week beer & wine in the cafeteria.

Planning a graceful exit for those executives leaving the Company
Whether you like these individuals or not; it is irrelevant to how they are appreciated by their employees. As a new executive or CEO coming in, you need to recognize this and make sure you provide the right kind of graceful exit (if possible of course). Some people are very sensitive with their title and will want to have some special role as they are exiting (special consultant, VP of strategic initiatives, fellow, etc). Others just want to make sure they are well treated (severance package, not being abruptly escorted outside, etc). But everyone wants to feel respected. While sometimes tempting, you should always refrain from referring to a past executive in a negative way. Assume they did what was thought to be the best for the Company and just focus in making things better; there is no value in bashing the past.

Change of management is not an easy thing to do but with enough patience, respect and communication, you can make this a good experience for everyone. The better you do, the greater you will be and get the Company closer to greatness.

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Succession planning in management

May 12, 2010 Leave a comment

This is an exercise that is most often done in larger organization but never really in small or mid-sized companies. Of course, most entrepreneurs might believe that they can’t be replaced or that everybody will stay on board forever. You might thing that until someone important leaves the company. Then of course comes a flurry of panic on how to deal with the situation and you look at promoting the most senior or what looks like the closest replacement available.

Moving up the hierarchy requires coaching and mentoring

I am a strong believer that in order to successfully move up the ladder, you need to not only have the right skills and experience, but also to get proper coaching and mentoring BEFORE and AFTER you get a promotion. I can never understand managers promoting people assuming that somehow they will become a great manager because they got more responsibilities. I have seen too many times great contributors to the business become less valuable as they get higher on the food chain.

Working the career path

Each employee has some form of career path. It is up to the manager to understand this path and guide the person the best way possible in achieving this plan in accordance to the need of the Company. Some employees might need more support, even some training in order to learn what is needed before embarking on a bigger challenge. The better you work and coach your employees, the more options you have as you need to plan to replace someone in the organization.

Building a succession map

While you don’t want to think about someone leaving the company (including yourself), there are many conditions under which a key employee might decide to leave for another opportunity or might not be able to work anymore (health related issues). It is very important to take the time at least once a year to build a succession map. This process will allow you to determine where you have gaps for certain replacement roles as well as what needs to be done in order to bring specific employees at the right place.

Employee succession planning

Succession does not always come from obvious places

Once you get all your managers to do the same exercise, you might be surprised on a few potential succession – widening opportunities to coach and mentor specific individuals that will better support your business in the long term. Just as well you might realize that some people used to be highly marked as potential successors but have now been set aside. This exercise is also a very good conversation piece with your managers – getting better insight on how they are seeing their direct reports.

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Employee ranking: the lifeboat experience

May 11, 2010 2 Comments

Here is another method of ranking the importance of employees. The lifeboat experience is a simple test where you decide how many people can the boat handle; and then you decide who gets in … or not. Think of your business as a sinking ship (or a house on fire) and you need to save what is most valuable to the Company.

Who is needed to run the business?

While doing this, you need to remember that who ever gets on the lifeboat are the ones that will stay and run the company. This means that if you only put all your smart engineering guys, you might have a problem running sales and marketing and other functions. So you need to think at the bigger picture; who is really needed to make the business successful.

Think short and long term

Of course, who ever gets in the boat might not be the same people depending if you looking at the short term or the long term picture. So some balance might be needed. If it’s just about short term, then you will miss key players that can build your future. If you only think about the future, you won’t be able to run and operate in the short term.

Start with a bigger boat, and then make it smaller

First you might just want to make the lifeboat a little bigger and only determine the 10% that will stay behind. Who are the employees, that while hard workers and great people, you could live and succeed without them? We always have a few rotten apples but when it comes to shaving 10%, it is very hard. Now do the same exercise for 25% of the staff. What are the programs or items that you need to kill in order to achieve such a reduction?

This is about focus, not cost cutting

Ok, so maybe you are thinking that this is about cost cutting. While this might be the case, I find this exercise a lot more useful in the context of improving company focus. We you are making the lifeboat just smaller; it forces you to determine what is really important, what is core to the business and how to preserve that. In the process, you might realize that you would better with less, by being more focused. Yes, cutting on resources might be an outcome but it is not the goal.

At the end of the day, this exercise might just help you get a clearer idea on what has to be done and whom you want alongside to make it happen. More focus always-mean better results. And better results equal better revenue, better profitability; which is what your investors want to hear about.

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Employee mapping based on performance and potential

May 7, 2010 Leave a comment

Whether you are involved in an integration planning process (as part of an acquisition) or maybe you just joined the Company; it is important to identify how are the key players in the organization. Just as well, you want to know how have the best potential (given the right support and coaching) as well who are the low-performers.

While some employees might feel threatened by such process, this is more about understandings the team you have in front of you rather than just finding reasons to get rid of some of them. I believe that we all have things to learn and to improve; it is the role of every manager to support, coach and mentor. Nobody can convince me that great employees and leaders were just born like that. Yes, some people might be more gifted and while you need to be realistic about each person’s limitations; everyone has an ability to get better thru hard work and proper support.

Performance vs. Potential

Each manager needs to be able to evaluate not only the performance level of a given employee, but also his (or her) true potential. I believe that we each have our own degree of potential based on a given role; meaning that our potential need to be fully evaluated upon the role and responsibilities you currently have (or potential in the case of a upcoming promotion or succession planning) but we might have variable degrees of performance. Performance can be linked to given targets and objectives, how specific challenges are met; but can also be affected by external factors that can range from work related (employee conflicts, political situation, financial constraints, etc) and/or life related (family, love life, living conditions, etc).

Mapping on a chart

Once you have determined the level of performance (high, medium, low) and potential (high, medium, low), you can now easily map this on a chart such as the illustration below. It is important to note that this mapping process is not only on an individual basis but also comparative to other employees that fit in the same level or group (for example, reviewing your product management team). As such, you cannot just have high performers and high potential employees. As a rule of thumb, you should have a 25/50/25 split on both axis. Of course, there are always exceptions so you just need to use your own judgment.

Employee Mapping based on performance and potential

Performance and potential mapping

So what’s next?

Once you have this mapping done, you can determine how you want to treat each individual. Employees that are in quadrant 1,2,4 need to be rewarded (bonus, promotions, increased responsibilities). Staff located in quadrant 3, 5 & 8 needs to be reviewed in getting them to either better perform (assess what prevents better performance) or how to handle high-performers with low potential. Depending on their role, you need to assess if these individuals can continue to perform; especially if the challenge rises in the future (and making them at that point mid-low performers). Lastly, people in quadrant 6, 7 & 9 can be problematic. Are the low performing / low potential employees at the right place? What is preventing them to perform, why do they have such a low potential? As for low performing / high potential people; is this a problem of motivation? How long have they been working there? Are they just waiting for a better opportunity? How driven were they in the past?

At a minimum, this tool is great to start a discussion on how to rank the organization or a team. In the coming posts, I will be writing on additional tools that complement this employee mapping process.

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My top 5 core values: #5 Communication, communication, communication

January 8, 2010 Leave a comment

Thinking different – check. Challenging status quo – check. Plan first, act second – got it. Achieve quality of execution – in the plans. This is all good stuff but there is one last final core value that glues all of this together. This is communication.

Speaking is not communicating
No matter how much is coming out of your mouth, it does not mean you are communicating. From Wiki: “Communication is a process whereby information is enclosed in a package and is channeled and imparted by a sender to a receiver via some medium. The receiver then decodes the message and gives the sender a feedback. All forms of communication require a sender, a message, and a receiver.”

Repeat, rinse and lather
No matter how much we would like people to get it the first time, it rarely happens like that. I often like to repeat key information and make sure that the FEEDBACK I receive is in line to what I expect.

Miscommunications start with yourself
Although we have a hard time admitting it, a lot of miscommunications start with ourselves. Always ask yourself: “Was I clear?” “Did he or she understand what I was trying to say?”. Each individual should strive to improve his or her own communication skills. Expecting others to improve without requiring you to change anything is utopia.

Conflicts are sometimes signs of miscommunication
It is the role of any manager and influencer to help people better communicate. It is amazing how many conflicts often arise from miscommunication: from upper management that was not clear on roles and responsibilities, employees having a hard time working together to employees doing the wrong thing at the wrong time.

Invest in achieving better communication
Spend time with your employees and provide feedback to them. Invest in Leadership Development. Make sure your leaders learn to better communicate and your overall company to do better in return.

Meet face to face
While remote work can be efficient to a certain degree, you still need to have regular face-to-face meetings with everyone in the company. No matter how someone is doing well at a distance, you want to get a regular chance to be in front of him or her.

Bottom line, it’s all about communication, communication and communication.

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My top 5 core values: #4 Quality of Execution

January 7, 2010 Leave a comment

Now that we got all our planning under our belt, it is time to focus on execution. And nothing is more rewarding that achieving flawless execution; reaching high standards of delivery.

Making sure that everyone is following the plan
You spent a good amount of time to create your launch plan, you need to make sure that you have the right process to track progress and be confident that things are being done as documented. Just like the maestro conducting an orchestra, you want to keep everybody in line; this of course assumes that everybody knows his or her part.

Things don’t always happen as you planned them
No matter how much planning you do, you will have unpredictable events down the road. Expecting that some things will go wrong can actually get you more prepared and face adversity. But this is only possible if you have “free” time to take care of these problems. Again this is where good planning will support quality execution – letting you focus on items that truly need you attention.

Demand more, expect more
No matter how successful you are executing, you can always improve on things. Take the time to make sure that your employees are rewarded on their good work but also provide feedback on how you want things to be better next time. Make sure that everyone can see how he or she can execute and succeed even better. As much they are feeling part of the solution, the more they will be inclined to push their limits and seek to better perform, better execute.

Perfection is not instant, take your time
While I believe in quality of execution, this never happens at first and expecting so will result in frustration and failure. By supporting and coaching your staff, you can show them the right direction and guide them towards perfection. It will take time and energy but by enforcing a deep desire of reaching high quality of execution, you will feel a great impact to your business; and things will just keep getting better and better.

Satisfaction in a job well done
By rewarding quality in execution and supporting your team in achieving excellence will make your company run better on all cylinders; building a machine that will be hard to stop or beat.

Next and final Core Value: Communication, communication, communication

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My top 5 core values: #3 Plan First, Act Second

January 6, 2010 Leave a comment

As a chief EXECUTIVE officer runs most companies, running a business is all about execution, right? Well yes and no….

The importance of planning
To flawlessly execute without proper planning is almost impossible. As we like to say, the devil is in the details and unless you have thought about it before, you will most likely have problems executing with you will hit some bumps in the road. The better your planning is, the better your execution will be.

Planning takes time
No matter how much you want to “wing it”, planning requires time (and patience). Always allocate extra time for your planning process – whether is it to reveal a new product, announce a new acquisition or launch a new sales tour. And the more complex is what you are trying to accomplish, the more time is needed.

Planning is about sharing information
How many times have you seen an execution fail because one person did not fully understand their role? Or that something was not done (oups!)? Or you sent the press release too early (ouch!)? A good plan helps to make sure that everybody is on the same page. Throughout all the mergers and acquisitions I have been thru, I have gotten to appreciate the importance of a good plan. The better everybody knows what they have to do, the better the execution will be.

Plan first, act second
No matter how much time your planning takes, do not start acting or executing before you’re done. Once the wheels start turning, it is very hard to stop the machine. If you’re running out of time, it means that you did not allocate enough time (or energy) to your planning process.

Indeed, once you have the right plan, you can get everybody to start executing. Then all you have to worry about is that everybody are executing to plan …

Next Core Value: Quality of Execution

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