4.5 Assess Your Managers' Abilities
Are Your Managers Ready for Growth?
Take a Closer Look
Sizing Up Management
Here are two tools that you may find helpful in assessing your management
team's skills:
So far in this Step, we've been looking at management from the point
of view of how well your company functions. But the managers in your
business, as individuals, will also come under the investor's careful
eye. So, you have to determine if your management team has the skills
and experience needed for future challenges.
For a good real-life example of how a company assessed its management
team's strengths and weaknesses, read about how
Bfound.com adapted for growth. Bfound.com's management team underwent
changes during the search for funding. In fact, one of the investors
played a key role in helping the company attract the needed expertise
for growth. Consider using this example with your current management.
Comparing Available Skills to Needs
Here is a sample of the type of tool you might use to assess your team.
A real skills assessment grid like this would have to be customized
to your needs and particular situation. Using a matrix like this, you
can pinpoint weak areas, i.e., a column with low marks represents a
weakness that needs to be resolved.
Process for Finding Skill Gaps
Here's a process that can help you focus clearly on your management
team's true capabilities and how they will meet your future needs.
| 1. Make a general list of management skills,
organized according to key functions. |
- A General List of Management Skills is a good place to start.
|
| 2. Customize the list so it's relevant to
your situation. |
- To adapt the list to your needs, add the core skills
critical for your operations. Try brainstorming with all
key members of the team.
|
| 3. Take an inventory of existing skills. |
- Be candid, do an honest assessment of skills.
- List each person's experience, education, and specific skills and review
job descriptions.
- Consider having team members describe and evaluate each other too.
|
| 4. Evaluate the team's skills in terms of your
future needs. |
- Compare available skills to needed skills by mapping out your evaluations
on a grid or matrix similar to the sample above.
- Use a scale, such as 0 for no experience or skill and 5 for a high degree
of experience and skill.
|
| 5. Make decisions about the needs you have
identified. |
- Decide what is the best way to improve on weaknesses and prepare for the
future.
|
Keep the review process positively focussed on the future. You need the
team's cooperation in this process, and your company won't benefit if
loyalties become divided or hard feelings develop. Manage
the process and keep your team's eye on the future.
Management Audit
To help you assess your team — and to view an extensive list of
skills — we strongly recommend that you look at the Management
Audit Tool. The tool is organized under the key business functions
you've looked at earlier in this Step: Accounting/Finance, Marketing/Distribution,
Human Resources, Production/Operations, and Research and Development.
Too many "No" responses on this comprehensive list are a signal
that you need to make some improvements.
How Bfound.com Adapted for Growth
In order to meet their full financing needs, Bfound.com's founders
understood that they would need a stronger management team. While
the original team could secure the smaller amounts needed for
the initial growth phases, the large injection of capital required
for the second and third rounds of financing would only be met
if investors had complete confidence in management.
The Bfound.com team members agreed that given the urgency of
their financing needs they needed to bring in outside management
expertise to attract the funds and take Bfound.com to the next level.
Adding to the Team
As is the case for many high-tech companies, Bfound.com initially focussed
more on its technology initially than on the marketing of the products and
services that would result from this technology. The first addition to the
management team, after involving the investor, was a Vice-President of
Marketing — someone who had a lot of compatible experience. This
addition allowed the Bfound.com founders to focus on their areas of strength
and move the marketing function to an experienced marketer.
Getting Help from Investors
The management change for Bfound.com didn't come until after the first round
of financing had been concluded. In fact, the active private investor who
sponsored the first round of financing played a critical role in transforming
the management team and governance structure in preparation for second-round
overtures.
Solid Human Resources Policies
Since the quality of the people working in a high-tech company is so critical
to the success of the technology, Bfound.com had to demonstrate not just a
strong management team but also a committed work force. Providing stock
options to employees was a way to provide the Bfound.com team with incentives
while demonstrating to potential investors that the employees had a stake in
staying with the company in the long-run. Stock options also helped in hiring,
which is a big issue for high-tech companies.
back
Tip
Managing the Review Process
It's not always easy to be objective about management co-workers.
You may have a long history with some of them, through the difficult
early days of business start-up in some cases. Your current managers
may be very keen and committed to the company's success and vision,
and you may feel an obligation of loyalty to them. But if, taken
altogether, your management team has gaps in ability, experience
and knowledge, you (and they) will have to face up to adding new
managers and maybe replacing existing ones.
Keep Your Team's Eye on the Opportunity
Your management team members may be inclined to avoid having
their (and their colleagues') capabilities reviewed openly. They
may feel that the company's success to date is ample evidence
of their competence. So you may have to help them see that the
company's opportunity for growth is the real goal — that
staying in the same place is to no one's advantage.
back
<< Previous |
Next >>
|
