Why business stagnates? (Article 6)






Do you know what your core team is doing?

First, do you have a core team? Many Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME’s) do not have a core management team. Most of the business decisions are taken by the owner only! This is the first hindrance in organization’s growth. To grow fast, you must identify bright spots in your team & make a core team of such members. 

You need to delegate important tasks / responsibilities on these members & allow them to handle it in their own way. You can certainly ask them to give a presentation on their way of handling these tasks & periodically review the progress.

Are they aligned? The second important thing is, your team needs to be aligned to your vision for growth. For example, if you are looking forward to doubling your revenue within 3 years or increasing your exports by 50% each year, then the team needs to be aware of it.

Are they capable? Once the team is with you on the vision & mission, you need to see if they are indeed capable of handling this responsibility. If they are not (which would be mostly the case) plan for their training. Sending them to professional courses is worth spending, if you are looking for growth.

Are they free to think? Third thing to remember is that the team is also tuned to you, your way of working & your organisation’s culture. They need to be taught to look beyond….and you need to allow them to do so. You need to encourage healthy discussions about the business among the core team members. You need to make them read more about what is happening around & have informal talks with them in the evenings. 

Informal talks: One of the good ideas is to call the core team over dinner & have discussions about which industries are doing better, what is competition doing these days, what are the new selling and marketing techniques coming up etc… Such type of informal discussions will help you too.

Time: You can also ask them what they are spending most of their time on. This will be an eye opener. Don’t get surprised if you find them spending most of their time on things they are not supposed to do! We need to groom them to segregate the tasks that they need to complete themselves & the ones they should be delegating to their team members.

A lot needs to be done to develop a responsible core team that is aligned to your vision, can take decisions to a certain level, can lead their teams effectively and can deliver the results that you expect them to deliver. It always makes sense to get a good consultant to bring this change, who will work more like a business adviser & look at your business from a bird’s eye to give you rational approach towards your business process.


© Nitin Kirloskar

Comments

Popular Posts