The 10 Best Business
Lessons Of 2016
Here's a list of the
best advice we've given for building and growing a successful organization.
Over the last year, there
have been a lot of changes on the business landscape from Yahoo being sold to
Verizon to Gawker going bankrupt. Along the way we've talked to CEOs of big companies, first-time entrepreneurs, and those working hard every day to make something
new. Many have gone against the grain and looked at practices that may seem
unintuitive but ultimately helped them find success.
To help you prepare for making change at your own company in 2017,
we've complied some of the best business lessons we learned this year.
Though unemployment
has been on a steady decline over
the last few years, tech jobs are still in high demand. More often than not
they are hard to fill. Take the example of security: Cybersecurity jobs are
very hot right now, and most companies are having trouble finding and
cultivating the right talent. The answer to this problem may be to think
bigger. Telecommunications services firm Level 3 has actually found success in
sourcing security talent not from their hard labor skills but from their
passions, namely from musicians.
Though many people do not know the technical skills that security
professionals need, the company found that those adept at music were able to
learn how to do the job and excel at it. By casting a wider net and seeking
talent from out-of-the-box sources, a few companies have been able to fill gaps
where others are still searching long and hard.
"Retain your talent" may be an intuitive strategy for
growing businesses, but it may not be the best advice. In fact, Mathilde
Pribula, a partner at the HR executive search firm Frederickson Pribula Li,
recommends the exact opposite. Her reasoning is simple: Why invest heavily in
retaining talent whose aspirations don’t match with the company? Instead, she
reasons, it’s best to work with your team to see what they want next. If it’s
with your company, that’s great. But if it’s not, that’s okay too. She found
that allowing her teams to talk about their professional paths—be it inside or
outside the company—is the best answer. So perhaps it may behoove growing
companies to provide each employee with a candid conversation about the future,
so they can adeptly analyze the best steps forward.
Statistics, to many people,
equal objectivity. And often business decisions are bolstered by a datum that
supposedly speaks quantitatively to the issue at hand. But designer and writer
Ash Huang cautions people to avoid using statistics spuriously, and make sure
that numbers cited help the business long term. Additionally, some statistics
people use aren’t the most illustrative of the goals at hand. We can even look
at this year's presidential
election to see how statistical analysis went awry. Instead, Huang
argues, data should be used as a tool and not as an end.
LESSON 4: BE CLEAR WITH YOUR EXPECTATIONS
If you’re an enterprising business world entrant, chances are you
will want a raise and promotion sometime in the future. Needless to say, it’s
more than annoying to be gunning for a salary lift and then be met with a flat
"no" from managers. That’s why it’s good for employers to be clear
with what their criteria for promotion is and for employees to understand what
value they add for a business.
Here’s a look into exactly
what managers look for when considering these decisions so people can more
adeptly navigate the world of raises and job shifts:
The type of business you make depends on how the world inside it
operates. That’s one of the tricks entrepreneur and Google analytics cofounder
Brett Crosby wrote about when he detailed the best ways to infuse good work
culture. Many places try to go against the grain and do away with traditionally
boring activities such as seminars and lengthy all-hands meetings. For Crosby,
these sorts of totalizing edicts don’t work. What's more, companies can even
make programs like seminars good and useful for employees—even something that
ends up bolstering the business’s culture.
Thanks to shows like Shark
Tank, raising money and getting an obscene valuation is often considered
the same as having a successful business. This year alone we’ve seen some
highly valued companies (think: Theranos and Zenefits) fall from grace, despite
the fact that they’ve raised millions of dollars. Craig Shapiro and Morgan
Housel took this venture-capital myth to task and conclude that some of the
best and most successful businesses are the ones with the least cash.
The truth of the matter is that businesses that are swimming in
money probably feel less inclined to innovate quickly because there’s no
imminent threat of demise. So while raising capital is what gets a lot of
businesses off the ground, sometimes it can ultimately hinder their success.
Instead, argue Shapiro and Housel, entrepreneurs should think twice about how
they want to grow their business and really see if they absolutely need the
infusion.
The goal of pretty much every businesses is to make money. All the
same, there are other important elements to being successful. For instance,
business leaders ought to be compassionate. For some, this may seem like some
hippy-esque nonsense that won't help a bottom line, but there's actually a case
for being an empathic leader. Emma Seppälä, the science director for Stanford
University’s Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education, argues
that compassion is actually a standout trait among people that often gives them
an edge. It's necessary to have the skills in place to both do good work and
lead an organization, but it's even better if a leader is able to aptly and
empathetically communicate with those around them.
There are many reasons why
leaders ought to consider embodying more of theses human skills—one, they breed
trust among underlings; two they make for a more cohesive work culture—and, as
three business leaders told Fast Company during this year's Innovation Festival, these sorts of human
skills are greatly in demand. In short: Successful leaders need to be able to
relate to those around them.
LESSON 8: TREAT YOUR COMPANY, EVEN YOUR BEHEMOTH CORPORATION, LIKE
A STARTUP
Sallie Krawcheck worked in
the corporate world for years and then founded her own business. There, she
learned a few key lessons about how to work with a small team and build an
ideal product. Looking back, she realized these same lessons could even inform
some big companies about how best they should operate their businesses. And,
it’s true that other, bigger companies are beginning to mimic the startup ethos.
Perhaps they’re listening
to Krawcheck, but if they’re not it’s time they read these helpful lessons she
learned while building a startup from the ground up:
Entrepreneurs want their companies to succeed, there’s no doubt
about it. But some business mantras proclaim that the only path toward success
is by only accepting it—that is, refusing to admit defeat. However good this
may make someone feel, it’s not a good strategy. In fact, one of the best ways
to realize how to navigate a business is to understanding the worst-case
scenario and accept it as a possible outcome. Making a game plan to combat
these worst-case scenarios is much better than refusing to admit they could
happen. And many of the most successful entrepreneurs have visualized these
less-than-ideal paths as a way to better steer toward a goal.
Google famously had the policy that allowed employees to use 20%
of their time toward personal projects. It was the company's way of allowing
its employees to be agile—yes, they had to do their day-to-day work, but they
also had a way to seek out other projects that may help the company (and the
tech industry) innovate. While Google—now Alphabet—may have done away with this
formal policy as the company grew to gargantuan size, the idea remains.
IBM, for example, has an entire internal radio station that allows
employees to be creative and connect with others around the world. None of the
people running the station are paid to do so; it's a wholly extracurricular
activity that has turned into a well-known internal hub. This program is a way
for the 200,000-plus employee base of the computing giant to cross over
networks and learn from each other. And, most importantly, it's a way for them
to be creative.
CALE GUTHRIE WEISSMAN
https://www.fastcompany.com/3066387/startup-report/the-10-best-business-lessons-of-2016
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