One of the top five issues I’m passionate about is the need to increase the number of women executives, techies, scientists, and entrepreneurs. Why does this subject get so much of my mental energy?
Best practices in lean business operations, technology, and other areas pertinent to success of startups, small, and mid-market businesses.
Time to end the frat house culture! We need more women in our midst.
Difference between “My CEO” and “Our CEO”
Being in operations, I’m usually the right-hand-man for the CEO (and CFO), and have worked with some fantastic ones and a few who should have let someone else pilot the company. Not everyone is cut out to be a CEO and nowhere is this as evident and crucial as in startups. A good CEO can take the company anywhere he/she dreams it to go.
As I search for a head of operations position and talk to employees and founders of startups, one of the key phrase I am listening for is “my CEO [insert the rest of the sentence]”. That is what I want to hear. Yes, many will say “our CEO”, but there is a difference when someone adds emotion to their alliance and proclaims he works for his/her CEO.
Can’t retain talent at your company?
Everywhere you turn, more and more people are talking about the “free-agency” attitude of many professionals. The greater the demand of their skills, the less likely they will be loyal to their employer. I have a number of friends and acquaintances in high demand fields and I keep hearing stories about why they will “only do corp-to-corp” (independent consulting). This free-agency mentality is a direct backlash to poor human capital management (HR, for you old-schoolers) practiced by companies. Even in a bad economy, good talent is always in demand. The multitude of recent layoffs have left people feeling like they are easier to dispose of than corporate jets, and this is only going to make it more expensive and harder for companies to recruit and retain talent once things bounce back.
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About The FOUNDER
Apolinaras is a business operations leader with 12-year track record of building scalable and capital-efficient operations for technology and professional services companies.Read More About Us »How to create a Non-Disclosure Agreement people can understand
Like many of you in the startup world, I have read and signed my share of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs). I have reviewed, edited, and sent hundreds of them in my career, but I am yet to come across one that really serves anyone but the lawyers who charged dearly to write it. So, why don’t we stop wasting our money on having attorneys fill in one of their NDA templates, and write one that is understandable to everyone. Yes, let your lawyer look it over, but don’t allow him/her to insert any words your grandma would not understand. Here is how I would write my NDAs
What I have learned about business leadership from competing in auto sports
As some of you may already know, I am an avid “car guy” and starting my third season of autocross competitions (an auto sport, for those not familiar I have included a video below of what it is like). I did well in the races when I lived in Chicago, but encountered much more skilled competition when I moved to Boston, and it’s taken me awhile to move up the competitive ladder here. As I was recently pondering my strategy and goals for the season, I realized that some of the rules of racing are also very useful analogies for the world of leading companies (especially startups). Here is a sampling of several things I learned in racing that directly apply to business:
Disaster recovery planning and business continuity for startups
As we watch the news and pandemonium the media is creating about the swine flu today, it should remind entrepreneurs that disaster planning is no joke. Of all the entrepreneurs I have asked about disaster preparedness in the last couple of years, 9 out of 10 said they were not worried and did not have a disaster recovery plan or business continuity plan… heck, they think nothing will ever happen to them! But disasters happen all the time, whether it be a tornado hitting Chicago, an earthquake in San Francisco, or the power going out on the East Coast – real and unexpected disasters happen all the time.
Do you have what it takes to be an entrepreneur?
Today on Twitter I was led to a post by Mike Hudack (CEO of blip.tv) and found a diagram called “Am I fit for startups”.
Big part of the reason I chose to write this post is because we have too many people thinking they’re entrepreneurs. They see an over-glorified simplification of what it takes to succeed and jump in lacking a full understanding. Too many naïve (often young and inexperienced) folks get into entrepreneurship and cost vendors, creditors, investors, and themselves money and real resources.