The Board and Management Team
Identifying the skills and qualities needed to succeed
By Guy Rigby, Head of Entrepreneurs at Smith & Williamson T
he average early stage business doesn’t spend a lot of time thinking about management. However, as the
business begins to grow, increased resources will be required.
Building a management team requires you to identify these five areas: corporate necessities, business disciplines, leadership qualities, personality and track record. Let’s look at each of these in turn:
Corporate necessities Management apostle Peter Drucker, aka ‘the father of modern management’ saw management as “the organ that converts a mob into an organisation, and human effort into performance.” In order to maximise performance and organise the ‘mob’,
teams
require a set of complementary, but often very varied, skills. These skills should include a balance of attitudes and opinions and a balance between believers and challengers.
It is important to build a strong foundation in leadership. For example, Alastair Lukies of Monitise says that you need to be able to look to your right and your left and, “as far as you can see both ways, be able to see people who believe in your vision and then set off together.”
However, your believers shouldn’t just march blindly beside you, they should challenge you too. “Too many people I know set up a board of their great mates
who ultimately aren’t 56 entrepreneurcountry going to challenge them at all,” continues
Alastair. “Then it’s like the Pied Piper of Hamelin, you all end up running into the sea together.”
Irrespective of the number of people in your team or on your board, it’s generally beneficial to have at least one dreamer, one doer and one cynic. The dreamer is usually the entrepreneur with the vision that will drive the business, the doer is often the COO or MD, the trusted confidante of the CEO and the man who ‘makes things happen’ and then there is the cynic, often the FD and the voice of reason who considers the risks. Having a team with these core traits means that your business will benefit from healthy debate and a filtering system where each person has to be convinced that a particular decision, strategy or action is the right way forward.
Business disciplines Businesses need to cover the bases in terms of disciplines. These will vary based on the activities of the business, but may include research and innovation, production, sales, marketing, distribution, IT, finance and administration. If you are recruiting for a particular role, make sure you understand the requirements of the role and the particular skill sets required.
In early stage businesses, particular individuals may carry out multiple roles. The challenge for a growing business is to create the need for dedicated and skilled resources in each of the key areas, thereby professionalising the business (and hopefully maintaining profitability and cash flow).
When assessing an individual’s capability to carry out a particular role, consider their qualifications and whether these are appropriate. Finance is a particularly easy area to assess, as there are a number of recognised qualifications. The same can apply to other areas, although the qualifications are often more varied.
Leadership The qualifications may be perfect, but the members of your management team or board should also possess strong leadership and communication skills to inspire and motivate your wider team.
Just to list a few
attributes, they should be visionary, a good communicator and networker, accessible and approachable, supportive of staff, a confident decision-maker, knowledgeable about the industry and the business and accountable, ethical and responsible. Do you have
people with these
qualities in your team or will you need to bring them in from outside?
Personality Personality is too big a subject to go into in any detail here. However, it’s worthwhile having an awareness of the ‘five factor model.’ These factors, discovered and defined by several independent sets of researchers over
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