People are the key ingredients to any company’s success, says Robert Glazer, founder and CEO of performance marketing agency Acceleration Partners and co-founder and CEO of BrandCycle.
Companies need to start out with the right people in place, and then continually evaluate their talent along the way to ensure that they have the right skills to face the challenges along the path to growth, he says.
Glazer is scheduled to give a presentation at the Specialty Food Association’s 2019 Business Summit taking place April 7-9 in Chicago called “Change the Game: Creating a Healthy Company Culture.” He will address how to recruit and retain the right people and how to create and maintain a culture that facilitates growth.
Specialty Food News recently asked Glazer about the how small companies can establish a “growth vision” for their enterprises.
What are some of the things small companies should be doing from the beginning to prepare for future growth?
I’ll equate it to cooking. If you want to create an outstanding dish – even an award-winning dish – that stands the test of time, you want to start with and continue using the best ingredients possible. From a business perspective, those “ingredients” are the people you hire and choose to partner with.
This “first who, then what” concept is something I write and speak about often. When you have the right people on your team, the what — for example, preparing for future growth — will unfold and evolve. And it is most definitely an evolution.
There’s a fun image we’ve used and shared over the years in our company about what the path to success looks like in reality versus what most people’s concept of it is, which is usually a straight, upward-sloping line. The “reality” picture is that of an ascent that has complex challenges, pitfalls and obstacles along the way. There are also many different goals to reach along a growth path, which is why the concept of “fit” between employee and company is not a one-time checkmark on a list of hiring criteria; it’s a constantly evolving relationship that changes to meet the needs of the company at that point in time along its growth path.
In addition to getting the right people on your team at the right time, establishing a strong set of core values is another thing that is important for any business to do, regardless of size. Words like “integrity” and “transparency” really are not core values; they are the basic “table stakes” of any workplace or employee. Core values should be at the heart of what makes it special to work at your company specifically. Some examples include “act like an owner,” “raise your bar,” and “attitude of gratitude.” You want employees to be able to remember your company’s values without a piece of paper, so it’s best to keep the list short and succinct.
How can small companies best gauge their potential for growth?
There are many different barometers for growth: revenue, customers, net profit, employees — and all these elements would be valid ways of gauging growth and the potential for growth. What I recommend, and what we do at our company, Acceleration Partners, is have an operating system. We follow the Entrepreneurial Operating System [EOS®] within our organization. There are many different facets to EOS, including a six-component model, a “toolbox,” and a process.
The point of it all is to help you, your leadership team and your overall business:
- Get on the same page and aligned to one vision and plan to get there;
- Gain traction through focus, discipline, and accountability; and
- Cultivate a healthy, productive and cohesive team.
“Growth” happens in many different ways for different companies. The point is to be as intentional and strategic as possible about that growth.
Is there a sequence of steps businesses should follow to best prepare for future growth?
Every business is unique. There is no step-by-step path to growth that will be the same for every business. What’s important for a business to do is have a vision for where they want to go, and then empower their team to help the company get there.
The EOS is the closest thing I’ve come across to a framework and process that every company can apply to their business and that gives them clear direction for how to get from point A to point B as efficiently, cooperatively, and strategically as possible.
Circling back to the cooking analogy, you could give five different people the exact same recipe, ingredients, and step-by-step directions and there’s a very good chance that each person will create something slightly different. Some of the results will be amazing. Others will fall flat. There are just so many variables along the way, and it’s the same in business.
That said, a high-level step-by-step process would be:
- Start with getting the right people on your team who are the right fit for your company at that time in its growth journey.
- Establish strong core values that truly express what matters to your company in a meaningful way.
- Get a business operating system in place that will guide your growth path.
from Specialty Food News http://bit.ly/2G18YKQ
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