How leaders of successful start-ups can bolster morale among those concerned that the organization may some day be sold.

Being part of a start-up organization can be a most invigorating experience.  Even for those with no equity stake, the energy and excitement is contagious and makes it easy to work hard for the good of the whole.

In the face of growth and strong performance, some may begin to wonder if the good times will soon end as founders, owners, and investors look to pocket the value that has been created through a sale of the organization to larger firm. Leaders sometimes struggle to keep up employee morale in such circumstances.

It can help for leaders to remind everyone in such circumstances that the best thing, in all scenarios, is to build the best possible business because doing so leads to:

  • Making the most positive impact in the market served,
  • Creating the most value for owners, and
  • Creating the most opportunity for employees to assume new responsibilities, earn increased compensation, learn new skills, and be in position to take on attractive roles upon an acquisition. Continue reading

Four questions an organization needs to ask every performance period in order to perform, learn, and grow to its full potential.

It is impossible to control what you cannot, and what you do not, measure. For every important thing that the organization does, decide what is most important to monitor and then watch carefully to know how things are going.

If what to monitor is not known then:

  • Watch everything and whittle away what turns out to not be useful and keep watching what turns out to be useful.
  • Study similar organizations to learn what they track.
  • Look up industry analysts and market researchers to find out what they watch.

Continue reading

How CEOs and Investors can best work together for higher odds of better results sooner.

The post below is based on Peter DiGiammarino’s remarks at the

2012 National Private Equity International Operating Partners Forum

October 18-19 in Sentry Center, New York Panel Discussion:

Panel Topic: A view from the portfolio company CEO on:

Management autonomy and sponsor inclusion; striking the right balance
• Engaging with the General Partner over the life of the transaction

Remarks:

Beyond getting deals done and setting up financing, there are three things I count on from my investor:

  1. Governance – i.e., provide a consistent point of accountability for us to report on: what we said we would do, what we did, what happened, what we learned, and what we plan to do next; ask good questions to push up our thinking and give us your best advice.
  2. Focus – i.e., help us clarify whose problem we solve, how, and how well Continue reading

How to increase the accuracy of revenue forecasts.

A Revenue Forecast asserts that a certain amount of revenue will be earned in a certain period of time with a certain probability that the actual revenue earned in the period will be within a certain tolerance of the forecast.  For example, management may forecast that there is a 90% chance of actual revenue being not more than 10% less than a forecasted amount.

Generally speaking, the percent probability of revenue from a source is assigned by management based on their judgement in light of their collective past experience with similar revenue generating opportunities in similar circumstances.

Some managers set forecasts equal Expected Value; that is, their revenue forecast equals the sum of potential revenue generating opportunities each multiplied by an assigned probability of occurring.  There are several potential problems with this approach that should be considered carefully before proceeding:

  • Summing expected values allows fractional results when there may actually be little to no chance of fractional results.  For example, an opportunity to generate revenue of $100,000 with a 50% probability of occuring would contribute $50,000 to a forecast computed as a weighted sum even though the actual result is more likely to either be $0 or $100,000. Continue reading

How to get, and stay, in control of operations.

Leaders who are in control of their operations compare their organization’s actual performance results to:

  • Past results to know whether their organization is trending up, down or sideways.
  • The results other organizations that are doing things similar to theirs achieve in order to know how well they are doing relative to industry benchmarks, especially relative to those who do best what they are doing. Continue reading

How to define terms related to strategy to help everyone stay on the same page.

The following offers a useful way to think about strategy and matters directly related to it:

  • Strategy is what people in an organization plan to do in order to “win” whatever game they are playing.
  • Strategic thinking is how decisions and actions are made in the immediate-term in a manner that is mindful of long-term implications and consistent with a strategy.  Continue reading

Three Steps to Selling a Professional Services Work-Plan

Follow the three steps in this note to arrange a contract to provide professional services work for a client.  Buyers of professional services work provided by outside contractors should also pay attention to these points. Continue reading

Why top MBA Students should pursue a career path in Operations instead of Finance.

Business school students generally head in one of two directions from day-one: finance or operations.  The allure of finance is working with money to buy and sell companies. Success is when a small stake in a large transaction generates a healthy payday in a short time.  The attraction of operations is working with people to build and run something of value that is eventually realized through a sale or refinancing. Continue reading