Human Resources:

Over the last several weeks, we have been sharing some concepts for leaders considering making a transition from a large company to building the next chapter of their career in a smaller, early-stage venture.

Leaders who have built an effective set of skills while working for a large company are needed in the early-stage to help bring innovations forward in the market. The risk of all of us being “Amazoned” in the not-too-distant future is real. Being on the forward edge of innovation in the early-stage is one way to stay ahead of the threat of becoming extinct as marketplaces become more efficient in serving customers.

The focus for today’s topic is on establishing a human resource function in the early-stage. In the typical scaling up phase of an early-stage company, a formal human resources function is usually one of the last functions to be brought in house. There are plenty of exceptions but in general, most early-stage companies rely on their leaders and the occasional consultant to help create some degree of process around what would be characterized as a human resources function.

Senior leaders transitioning from a large company to the early-stage world bring a strong foundation in effective human resources. However, the big difference is leaders now have a sense of being all alone in making the decisions and executing the plan. They certainly gain input from advisors, consultants and lawyers, but in the end, all eyes are upon them. It’s the leader who is asked, “What do you want to do?” This is a much different experience than having an internal team of HR professionals and lawyers guiding each step of the way.

There is a misconception that many leaders have when transitioning to the early-stage environment. Leaders often make comments like, “I could never move fast enough in my large company…” to hire or fire someone, or give promotion. There were always so many guardrails, paperwork, and obstacles. “…I can’t wait for a small team where I can move quickly on personnel decisions.”

The reality is that yes, leaders can move quicker on decisions. However, leaders in the early-stage have a different set of guardrails and obstacles to think about in making decisions on personnel.

Given time and money are always in short supply, leaders face the challenge of balancing getting the most out of the team you have versus making some quick firing-hiring decisions. They also face critical vacancies with not enough bodies around the table to get the work done.

Sometimes balancing some positive and negative at the individual level is a bit more complicated. For example, sometimes working as best you can with a non-A player for the near term is a wise choice over having a major gap in a critical-need position.

In addition, when leaders are faced with pending financing of the company like a Series A or B round closing, there are risks to implementing major changes within the team, especially changes in functions that potential investors consider critical to the stability of the leadership team. These are never easy decisions, but in contrasting leadership in a large company to that in an early-stage environment, they both come with their own guardrails and obstacles that may hinder a leader from moving quickly on certain people management decisions.

One additional point to note about moving fast on people management decisions in a small company. Investors do not invest in a company to pay for litigation expenses caused by an employee or former employee issue that arises. Leaders need to be very thoughtful about the discipline with which they implement their own people management processes to ensure people are treated fairly and to minimize the risk of resources being allocated to items that are not creating value for the company.

In most cases, leaders in the early-stage are building these processes from scratch and are fully accountable for them.

Strong leadership is needed in the early-stage marketplace and leaders from large companies have the skills and experience to create great value at the forward edge of innovation. As we look to build and strengthen our leadership over a long-term career journey, the early-stage market provides a wonderful environment for leaders to learn, grow, and bring world-leading innovation to the market.

How can I help you today? My mobile is 269-370-9275 and my email is david@harvesttimepartners.com

Please download some FREE resources at www.harvesttimepartners.com I hope you find them helpful in your journey.

Also, for those leaders in healthcare, the opportunity to be at the forefront of creating and scaling life-changing innovation resides in the early stage. This sector needs strong leaders like yourself to drive innovation in the years to come. I wanted to share a link to a program specifically for leaders in healthcare who are looking for insights into building the next chapter of their career in the early-stage. I was asked to contribute to this program based on my experience of leaving a large healthcare company and building my career in the early-stage. Please take a look at the link below.

Write the Next Chapter of Your Career

Leadership:

Over the last several weeks, we have been sharing some concepts for leaders considering making a transition from a large company to building the next chapter of their career in a smaller, early-stage venture.

Leaders who have built an effective set of skills while working for a large company are needed in the early-stage to help bring innovations forward in the market. The risk of all of us being “Amazoned” in the not-too-distant future is real. Being on the forward edge of innovation in the early-stage is one way to stay ahead of the threat of becoming extinct as marketplaces become more efficient in serving customers.

The focus for today’s topic is on describing effective leadership in the early-stage. There are fundamental leadership principles that are consistent across all job titles, levels, and sizes of companies. Bookshelves are full of leadership gurus pontificating on variations of a common core set of leadership principles. The intent of this writing is not to repeat these generalizations but to describe how effective leadership is delivered in an early-stage company.

One of the most exciting, and at the same time daunting, aspects of leadership in the early-stage is that as a key leader in the company, you actually own it. This is one of the major realizations of leaders coming from a large company into the early-stage. There is no set of heavy-duty consultants putting together some glossy matrix plan of actions along with some mandatory online training program to reinforce the company plan. As a leader in an early-stage company, you own the culture and you own the leadership framework the shapes it over time.

Over the years of building early-stage companies and guiding others to do the same, there are a few common patterns in the execution of effective leadership. Below are a few highlights:

Alignment

Given the limited resources of time and money in the early-stage, it is critical that there is very little wasted motion on work that is not aligned with the operating plan. A leader in the early-stage has no place to hide. Starting with the overall strategic intent of the company, where we are going, why it is an exciting pursuit, how we describe our vision, mission and values in words, images, etc. are all personally owned by leaders in the early-stage.

The alignment as to the direction of the company extends from a high level all the way to the individual objective of each team member. Everyone should be able to clearly say, “I know what I need to do every day and I know how my work supports the overall direction of the company.”

Communication:

Effective communication in the early-stage is not something that is handed off to someone else who will set the tone, draft the memos, create the cadence of meetings, etc. Effective leaders in the early-stage realize the importance of communication to ensure the alignment described above is achieved. In addition, effective leaders are intentional about prioritizing time and effort to develop and execute an overall communications plan to ensure the company, team members, and investors are all aligned around the key items.

The development and execution of a communication plan begins with clarity of words, images, and documents that become the tools to drive alignment around the key tasks of the company. These tools are consistently used in the routine cadence of weekly meetings, hallway conversations, recognition tools, performance management process, etc. to ensure there is limited wasted motion in the company on non-essential work.

Communications to investors in private companies is much different than large publicly traded companies. Effective leaders communicate consistently and clearly to investors to ensure no one is left in the dark. They communicate how their invested dollars are being utilized and to prevent the unfortunate “surprises” that emerge in the early-stage.

Transparency:

As we mentioned before, there is no place to hide in an early-stage company. News on customer mishaps, product failures, employee friction, etc. rarely go unnoticed by the full team. Effective leaders in the early-stage are very open about the issues in the company. They communicate the brutal truth with regards to the critical elements of the company like raising capital (or not raising capital), cash runway, product data readouts and implications, etc.

There is no playing the blame game for leaders in early-stage companies. They own the plan and the execution of the plan. Sure, a board of directors will have oversight and approvals on major budget items and strategic decisions, but owning the direction and owning transparency within the communication is a common thread among effective leaders in the early-stage. 

Leadership in the early-stage is truly a capstone course and an exciting opportunity for leaders from large companies to leverage all the great foundational leadership traits they have developed over the years to make a real difference in the innovative early-stages of the marketplace.

Strong leadership is needed in the early-stage marketplace and leaders from large companies have the skills and experience to create great value at the forward edge of innovation. As we look to build and strengthen our leadership over a long-term career journey, the early-stage market provides a wonderful environment for leaders to learn, grow, and bring world-leading innovation to the market.

How can I help you today? My mobile is 269-370-9275 and my email is david@harvesttimepartners.com

Please download some FREE resources at www.harvesttimepartners.com I hope you find them helpful in your journey.

Also, for those leaders in healthcare, the opportunity to be at the forefront of creating and scaling life-changing innovation resides in the early stage. This sector needs strong leaders like yourself to drive innovation in the years to come. I wanted to share a link to a program specifically for leaders in healthcare who are looking for insights into building the next chapter of their career in the early-stage. I was asked to contribute to this program based on my experience of leaving a large healthcare company and building my career in the early-stage. Please take a look at the link below.

Write the Next Chapter of Your Career

Operating Plan Development & Execution:

Over the last several weeks, we have been sharing some concepts for leaders to better understand as they consider making a career transition from a large multi-national company to building the next chapter of their career in a smaller, early-stage business.

Leaders who have built an effective set of skills while working for a large company are needed in the early-stage to help bring innovations forward in the market. The risk of all of us being “Amazoned” in the not-too-distant future is real. Being on the forward edge of innovation in the early-stage is one way to stay ahead of the threat of becoming extinct as marketplaces become more efficient in serving customers.

The focus for today’s topic is on the importance of developing and executing an operating plan. Leaders in the early-stage are accountable to a much greater degree for a fully interdependent operating plan than their peers in large companies. Leaders in large companies tend to be responsible for example the commercial growth of a product/product line, but not necessarily the ongoing development of the product for other applications or specific improvements. Even division leaders in most large companies have responsibility for a narrow swim lane compared to leaders in the early-stage.

Even though these differences exist, the fundamental skills and discipline of building a solid operating plan is where leaders from the large companies can clearly add value in early-stage companies. There may be a few more swim lanes added to the plan, but the principles of setting clearly defined goals, establishing timelines, risk assessments, etc. are all well within the skills and experience of most senior leaders from large companies.

From an operating plan development standpoint, most leaders coming from a large company to the early-stage are often surprised at what may seem like a little bit of chaos that seems to take place. It seems quite glamorous to outsiders envisioning 3–5 people sitting around a table making plans, super quick decisions and running a company. However, there are plenty of examples that reveal how this quick, sometimes undisciplined process, can lead to wasted resources, chasing one great idea after another, and not making methodical progress towards important milestones. Large company leaders can often instill a level of rigor and discipline in the operating plan development process that drives greater focus and achievement for early-stage companies.

When it comes to executing the operating plan, leaders transitioning from large companies often get a reality check of how much hands on in the process they actually become. Most large company leaders have teams who do much of the blocking and tackling work — determining vendor qualifications, running an RFP process, building communication tools (e.g., making the slides and writing the memo), coordinating meetings, making initial proposals, etc. Nothing gets done in the early-stage unless leaders do some, most, or maybe even all of the work. Efficient execution at this stage means time and money, both of which are in great need in early-stage companies.

Looking across both operating plan development and execution, the striking difference between the experience of large company leaders compared to early-stage leaders is in the clear measure of value creation that is built in an operating plan. Each milestone/deliverable is specifically tied to the value creation of the company. A milestone or key deliverable is not set just to meet some category on an annual performance grid or developmental goal. Milestones in the early-stage are driving value for the company, encouraging investors to commit more capital, etc.

Strong leadership is needed in the early-stage marketplace and leaders from large companies have the skills and experience to create great value at the forward edge of innovation. As we look to build and strengthen our leadership over a long-term career journey, the early-stage market provides a wonderful environment for leaders to learn, grow, and bring world-leading innovation to the market.

How can I help you today? My mobile is 269-370-9275 and my email is david@harvesttimepartners.com

Please download some FREE resources at www.harvesttimepartners.com I hope you find them helpful in your journey.

Also, for those leaders in healthcare, the opportunity to be at the forefront of creating and scaling life-changing innovation resides in the early stage. This sector needs strong leaders like yourself to drive innovation in the years to come. I wanted to share a link to a program specifically for leaders in healthcare who are looking for insights into building the next chapter of their career in the early-stage. I was asked to contribute to this program based on my experience of leaving a large healthcare company and building my career in the early-stage. Please take a look at the link below.

Write the Next Chapter of Your Career

Solving Problems:

Over the last several weeks, we have been sharing some concepts for leaders to better understand as they consider making a career transition from a large multi-national company to building the next chapter of their career in a smaller, early-stage business. The forward edge of innovation happens in the early-stage across all industries. Large companies have transferred massive amounts of resources from internal R&D functions to business development efforts focused on acquisitions and licensing deals as the primary means for remaining competitive in a global marketplace that continues to accelerate innovation outside of the 4 walls of large corporations.

Leaders who have built an effective set of skills while working for a large company are needed in the early-stage to help bring innovations forward in the market. We hear from leaders everyday who are energized by leveraging their skills and experiences to create their own unique path to a fulfilling professional journey in the early stage. In addition, the risk of all of us being “Amazoned” in the not-too-distant future is real. Being on the forward edge of innovation in the early-stage is one way to stay ahead of the threat of becoming extinct as marketplaces become more efficient in serving customers.

The focus for today’s topic is on helping leaders understand the pace and focus on solving problems that consumes the time and energy of teams in the early stage of innovation. Leaders in large companies are typically not problem-solving significant business issues on a routine basis. There are teams that meet at regular intervals to assess the health of the business and routinely rely on committees to bring about potential solutions to business challenges. The rate and pace of problem solving is on a quarterly and annual basis.

Leaders in early-stage companies are typically in daily problem-solving mode. The agency required to switch from C-Suite level strategy to immediate fire-drill, problem-solving mode is a critical element of leadership in early-stage companies. Typically, within large companies, leaders will use the cadence of large, routine meetings to kick around ideas on defining the problem, think about it some more, maybe bring in some consultants to discuss, and typically postpone a decision or action until gathering some additional information. In early-stage companies, there is a bias for near term action (today, tomorrow or before the end of the week). This is a major difference in the cadence when compared to large companies.

The pace of problem solving and decision making is rapid in early-stage companies. However, it should not be viewed as just “winging it” either. This is precisely why leaders from large companies are needed in these early-stage companies. They bring a foundational discipline to think through issues thoroughly, weigh the benefits and risks in a thoughtful manner, etc. Disciplined decision making is desperately needed in early-stage companies and leaders coming in from large companies need to be sensitized to the reality that we need that decision today, in this meeting, as opposed to waiting until the next meeting to make that decision.

One clear example of the different pace within large and small companies is the responsiveness of senior executives to customer challenges. It is a familiar scenario that as problems filter up the chain of command in large companies, there is often the frustration of scheduling conflicts that prevent important meetings with customers from happening for weeks, if not months.

The typical response in an early-stage company is almost immediate. My response to many customer issues went something like this, “I can be on a flight that lands in New York by 3 p.m. and can be at your office by 4:00 p.m. today. Will that work or do you prefer to discuss the issue first thing in the morning?”

The reality faced by many leaders making the transition from a large company to a small company is that the pendulum has shifted to where the company’s survival may in fact be in the hands of one or two customers. Therefore, everything else becomes second in priority to addressing any problems with those customers.

Leaders transitioning from large companies to the early-stage need to be problem solvers. Often these problems move beyond commercial problems to include product quality, investor challenges, and bordering on the potential ethical questions on how to keep the company going during difficult times.

Strong leadership is needed in the early-stage marketplace and leaders from large companies have the skills and experience to create great value at the forward edge of innovation. As we look to build and strengthen our leadership over a long-term career journey, the early-stage market is fertile ground to learn, grow, and bring world-leading innovation to the market.

How can I help you today? My mobile is 269-370-9275 and my email is david@harvesttimepartners.com

Please download some FREE resources at www.harvesttimepartners.com I hope you find them helpful in your journey.

Also, for those leaders in healthcare, the opportunity to be at the forefront of creating and scaling life-changing innovation resides in the early stage. This sector needs strong leaders like yourself to drive innovation in the years to come. I wanted to share a link to a program specifically for leaders in healthcare who are looking for insights into building the next chapter of their career in the early-stage. I was asked to contribute to this program based on my experience of leaving a large healthcare company and building my career in the early-stage. Please take a look at the link below.

Write the Next Chapter of Your Career