Mentor Column

 

Even the Lone Ranger had Someone to Cover His Back

 

By J. Kent Millington

 

Many entrepreneurs are so intent on building a company that they miss the opportunity to bring in people who are capable of helping the company grow at an even faster pace. Planning for management additions is an important part of the entrepreneur's duties.

Every startup company wants to grow bigger. At startup, sales of $1 million look very big. At $1 million in sales, $5 million looks possible and at $5 million, $10 million looks very close. The dream is to grow and harvest or it might be to grow and keep growing. Either way, with growth comes one of the most difficult decisions an entrepreneur must make: when and where to bring in talented people to sustain momentum. While it is difficult for many to realize they are in need of help, sooner or later every entrepreneur faces the need to add quality management. Knowing when to share the burden of growth with trusted allies can be a key to successful growth.

 

Evidence

In his book "Blueprint to a Billion," David G. Thomson says that one of the seven essentials in building very big companies is what he calls Dynamic Duos (see Chapter 7). An essential characteristic of many of today's large companies is the way in which two senior executives, working together, were responsible for success in the early stages, during rapid growth, and even to what might be considered maturity. A list of these companies includes Yahoo!, Google, Sears & Roebuck, Hewlett Packard, eBay, Tractor Supply, Starbucks, Nike, Cisco and Microsoft. Thomson points out that this combination was usually where one person focused on the internal operations and one focused on external relationships enabling the leaders to concentrate their efforts where they could have the most impact on overall company growth. "If you relied on the covers of the business magazines, you would think that it takes only an individual or two to run a [successful company]. No single CEO can possibly keep all of the essentials in motion without help." (page 163) At some point in the evolution of your own company, you will need to add strong leadership to assist you. Planning ahead for that addition, even at the outset, demonstrates an understanding of business reality. Even though some think that founders cannot build the company to become very large, companies like eBay, Staples, Microsoft, and Oracle demonstrate otherwise. But no CEO did it alone.

 

Decision Ahead

Successful entrepreneurs have to make the important decision of when, how, and who to add to the management team. Plan ahead. Think about the future. Develop strong networking skills now so your contacts include talented people that you can bring into the company, or that you have good people to advise you about whom to bring in. Careful, thoughtful management planning can help propel your company from barely having traction to much greater success than you ever imagined. Remember the examples of those companies that developed "Dynamic Duos" and achieved phenomenal growth and profitability. With strong management in place, your own startup can become a leading innovator, a strong competitor, and a very profitable growth company. Begin now to make management planning part of your business plan and part of your strategic thinking about the future.

 

Kent Millington is currently president of AccessData Corporation, a leading digital forensics software company. From 2004 to 2007 he was the entrepreneur in residence at UVSC. He has been a business leader and entrepreneur for 35 years. Contact him at mailto:kmillington@accessdata.com.

 

Launch - Winter 2007

 

 

For the full "digital magazine" version of Winter 2007, visit: www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/growutah/launch_2007winter