I recently had a conversation with a friend about the importance of building a diverse team. It is a subject I spend a lot of time on, since my own personal experience and countless research articles have shown that a diverse teams deliver better product and increased efficiency. If you are interested in this research, follow professor Vivek Wadhwa on Twitter. He usually has links to it that do not require journal subscribtion.
Then my friend uttered something that I commonly hear – “are you saying you should engage in discrimination against the majority?” My answer that is: if that is what you call “discrimination”, then hell yes!
Not only should we avoid hiring clones of our current employees, but we should shy away from building an environment and employee benefits based on the “hot” formula that is only appealing to the majority. Hiring “blindly” and on qualifications alone is no longer good enough! Bringing great skills and knowledge onboard is no longer good enough! Every new person you add should bring in a healthy dose of a unique perspective, experience, culture, personal story, etc. The truth is – people like to hire others who are like them. So you must make an effort to hire outside of your “comfort zone”.
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EditMe is a two person startup. We consider ourselves a startup, because we’re still searching for the product/market fit that can result in scalable growth. But, we’re a bit different from your typical startup in that EditMe has bootstrapped every stage of growth by providing real value to customers who have validated (or not validated) the product through real dollars. In a world where most entrepreneurs spend a majority of the time refining their deck, it seems strange to ignore outside investors. Impossible even. Here’s how we do it.
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In the late 90’s, the Six Sigma quality improvement process swept through the corporate world, led by early and vocal adapters such as Motorola and GE. For those who are not familiar with Six Sigma, it is a process for making significant quality improvements through a rigorous five-step data- and statistical-based approach (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control). The siblings of Six Sigma, such as Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) and Lean Six Sigma, expand its applicability to new product design and manufacturing flow. You can immerse your products from cradle to grave in the Six Sigma process to achieve total quality control nirvana.
While this may be great if you have the resources of a GE, and are involved with markets and products that are more mature and slow to change, I’m here to tell you that Six Sigma is anathema to the nature of the startup.
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Since an article I wrote in June of 2009 called “How a foosball table can kill your startup” is still sparking attention and conversation, I think the time is ripe for me to expand on the topic. Yes, I still believe that tchotchke “benefits” do nothing but waste money. Instead, use your resources to attract new, retain your best talent, and improve your team’s happiness.
Here are additional issues for us to consider…
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Apolinaras is a business operations leader with 12-year track record of helping companies manage growth, build diverse teams, harness technology, and get a lot more profitable.