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 »Leadership lessons I learned at my father’s funeral
I previously mentioned that I was blessed to have a father who was a very powerful role model (see my article “12 rules of business I learned from my father” to read more about him). He shaped my views on leadership, teamwork, and business, and I wanted to share a story with you about a very sad, yet inspirational, day in my life.
How Freecycle helped me bootstrap
I have a confession to make. Thanks to having worked for only customer revenue funded startups, I have become somewhat of a frugal nut. I love free stuff and I cringe at paying asking or retail price for anything. Anytime I pay MSRP, I feel like I have committed a sin. Whenever I would run operations in a startup, my most common response to many purchase requests was:” and with what revenue are we going to pay for that?” To me (and many others) cash is king, queen, emperor, and the whole darn extended dynasty. The only way I like cashflow in our books is incoming.
The biggest mistake of my career
I made the biggest mistake of my career when I lived in Chicago – I rarely networked. I went to maybe 1-2 events per year and made an occasional phone call. My excuse was that I was too busy for it. In retrospect, I cringe when I think about how many business opportunities and great talent I may have missed out on recruiting for my company, because I was too cooped-up in the office preventing “fires” and taking care of my people.
But I’ve changed my ways. Ever since I moved to Boston…
Random lessons from 12 years in startups
I wrote a post several weeks ago about the many lessons I’ve learned from my entrepreneurial father. Now I would like to share some tips from experience I have gained working in a startup world for 12+ years. These are things you definitely learn from rolling up your sleeves and working, not from a classroom or a textbook.
- Even one word in a 40-page contract can land you in a very bad situation. It does not matter how experienced or expensive your attorney is – learn how to read contracts yourself.