Isaac Newton once said that “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants”. What he probably meant is that we can attain remarkable success in our endeavours by leveraging the support of those who are far more experienced, more knowledgeable or more talented than we are.
By taking our time to interact with those distinguished individuals who are leaders and pacesetters in their respective fields, we can amass some knowledge for ourselves. And, such knowledge will land us on the shoulders of those giants. Be that as it may, you will probably give an affirmative nod to the fact that, such leaders often lead very busy lives, and may not get the chance to meet and have lengthy conversations with every one of their followers.
That is probably why most leaders, past and present, have leveraged gatherings as a way to reach out to scores of their followers, all at once. Gatherings have always proven to be an efficient solution for bringing people together to exchange information.
An organization called Inspired Moves By MissK (founded by Miss Nyashadzashe Krispen) successfully did something of that sort on the 18th of February 2023, when they brought together a panel of experienced entrepreneurs to share vital knowledge on the various facets of entrepreneurship to an anticipative audience. The panel consisted of, (in order of presentation); Audrey Chidawanyika, Rutendo Mugadza Mugwagwa, Khesani Majoko, Kumbirai Chimukupete and Chido Chidziva.
The gathering was dubbed, The Entrepreneur Starter Pack. From the title, it can be inferred that the gathering was primarily intended for educating budding entrepreneurs who are on the verge of starting their businesses or are operating businesses that are still in their early phases of growth. Nevertheless, beyond the technicalities of operating a business, the speakers shared generally applicable perspectives on building professional relationships, having foresight, self-presentation, managing change and managing people. There was a lot to learn from the gathering.
The Master of Ceremonies, MC Vuyo, alluded to that fact, during the early stages of the event. He said that the knowledge to be amassed from the workshop was worth far more than the amount that everyone in attendance had paid to attend. Although he said it playfully, apparently to lighten up the audience, it turned out that he was right. I realized that fact a little later, as I was listening and taking note of the compelling ideas from the speakers as the event progressed. I will be sharing some of those high-yielding take-away points, in this blog article.
Part of the audience and the panel of speakers, listening attentively
Before I do so, I would like to make it clear that, many of the ideas expressed in this article are not my original ideas but were derived from the talks that were presented at the Entrepreneur Starter Pack workshop.
Nevertheless, this article will not contain a plain recital of the ideas that were presented at the event, as I intend to synthesize and connect the ideas to my personal experiences. Although due caution was exercised, I am still concerned that certain elements of this article may unintentionally skew the original ideas and original intentions of the speakers. In that vein, misrepresenting the speakers’ original ideas or intentions is neither deliberate nor intentional. Any inconvenience caused is sincerely regretted.
Before I do so, I would like to make it clear that, many of the ideas expressed in this article are not my original ideas but were derived from the talks that were presented at the Entrepreneur Starter Pack workshop. Nevertheless, this article will not contain a plain recital of the ideas that were presented at the event, as I intend to synthesize and connect the ideas to my personal experiences. Although due caution was exercised, I am still concerned that certain elements of this article may unintentionally skew the original ideas and original intentions of the speakers. In that vein, misrepresenting the speakers’ original ideas or intentions is neither deliberate nor intentional. Any inconvenience caused is sincerely regretted.
Before I do so, I would like to make it clear that, many of the ideas expressed in this article are not my original ideas but were derived from the talks that were presented at the Entrepreneur Starter Pack workshop. Nevertheless, this article will not contain a plain recital of the ideas that were presented at the event, as I intend to synthesize and connect the ideas to my personal experiences. Although due caution was exercised, I am still concerned that certain elements of this article may unintentionally skew the original ideas and original intentions of the speakers. In that vein, misrepresenting the speakers’ original ideas or intentions is neither deliberate nor intentional. Any inconvenience caused is sincerely regretted.
You may have an inspirational figure, with whom you wish to connect but is quite out of your reach. Before trying to establish a relationship you may have to prepare first. To do so, you can get to know something about them. Then as a second step, create an opportunity to get them to know you. If you closely follow them from a distance, there are chances that you know their stories a little deeper than someone who doesn’t follow them. However, there is also a chance that you may have missed some important facts along the way. So take your time to learn about what they do, their projects past or present and their education. Also find out if they will be hosting seminars, boot-camps or other mentorship events. Within all that you may be able to find common ground upon which you can initiate companionship. And thanks to the internet, all such information is now relatively easy to find. Once you feel prepared, the next thing would be to find a way to get in contact with them and get to know each other a little more.
Ms Chidawanyika shared effective strategies for getting in contact with potential business connections. One strategy is doing voluntary work for your potential connection or their business. Volunteering may give you a great chance to work with them and learn from them. But if that’s not a good option, the other viable option would be inviting them to chat over coffee, lunch or dinner. Obviously, your potential connection will have lunch or dinner during the day. So, a meeting should not take a toll on their busy schedule if it is going to take place over lunch or dinner. If that’s the case, then why not get them to have lunch or dinner with you?
Even so, if you have that as an option, you must remember to follow the rules of etiquette. Etiquette rules dictate that if you invite someone for coffee or lunch, you have to take care of the bills unless you make a different arrangement. Thus, if you’re resource-constrained, you should find a modest meeting place where they serve good but moderately priced food. You should remember to have a robust personal brand, too. Your reputation must be good so your potential connection may be willing to meet with you.
Once you have successfully orchestrated a meeting and gotten them to know you, that’s when your networking journey begins. Next, to get them to remember you and keep your name at the back of their minds you have to be in constant communication. To that end you can, for example, regularly check on how they are doing. Better yet, if there is anything topical about their current work, initiate a conversation around that. If they have recently attained a certain achievement, congratulate them and tell them how much they inspire you. On another note, if you need advice that requires their expertise, consider probing them for such advice. They may be more than eager to share their advice with you. Genuinely, asking for advice serves to prove that you trust them and that you share similar interests.
To strengthen your relationship with your connections you may render them support when they need it and when you are in a position to do so. You may do so by promoting their business among your circle, by referring them to a client or through any other ways you deem suitable. You may also render support by sharing beneficial business information. Offering your support, right when it is needed will undoubtedly strengthen your relationship. In fact, the whole point of networking is exchanging support. Mr Mubu Delorne Mubu, alluded to that fact in his book entitled, People to People. He said, “Networking is the exchange of support, not just the exchange of business cards”. That is an indisputable fact. You cannot expect someone to remember you, let alone assist you, simply because you once met and exchanged business cards. But, they will likely be endeared to you, if you exchange gestures of kindness and support in the past.
As your business connections get to know and trust you, naturally, they will be willing to come to your aid when you need assistance. Still though, reaching that point requires that you act consistently, all the time, for them to build trust in you. Other than that, harvest time may never arrive for you. That goes to say, you may never get to fully derive the benefits that you intended to get from that relationship.
On the brighter side, you will know that it is harvest time when your business connection is willing to put their reputation at stake to promote you, according to Ms Chidawanyika. That means that they would be neither afraid nor embarrassed to refer people to you, for your services. That would speak volumes of the trust that they have for you. Still, though, no one is entitled to such kind of trust, one has to earn it.
Thus, building positive, strong and meaningful relationships requires bountiful repositories of trust. Getting to that point requires you to be strategic, put in some effort and follow the due process just as it is with farming. You must also be eager to render support to the person with whom you aspire to build a positive, strong and meaningful relationship. That’s a sure way to earn their trust. Only when we have their trust can we expect to enjoy the benefits of being in that relationship.
Finally, Ms Chidawanyika remarked that everyone has to devise their formula for building strong, positive and meaningful relationships. To do so, you may learn the important principles from others who successfully did so. One person who comes to my mind is Mr Mubu Delorne Mubu, who shared his account of how he built relationships that propelled him toward success. You can learn more about his story by reading his book, entitled People to People.
Guarding your legal side of business spares you from unnecessary frustrations
(Based on Mrs Rutendo Mugadza Mugwagwa’s presentation)
Humans generally tend to shy away from things which appear tedious, effortful and expensive. Instead, they prefer doing things that appear to be less strenuous and less costly. Some budding entrepreneurs avoid dealing with the legal aspects of running a business. Usually, they believe it to be either expensive or time-consuming.
Certainly, the cost of engaging with legal experts is usually the deterring factor for many. But, the benefits of taking care of the legal aspects of a business usually outweigh the costs as Rutendo Mugadza-Mugwagwa, an Intellectual Property lawyer explained. A business or entrepreneurs may suffer huge losses if they ignore taking care of the legal face of business. It would be something regrettable if entrepreneurs chose to ignore securing their businesses legally, given that many legal procedures can shield businesses from foreseeable losses.
It is therefore important for entrepreneurs to appreciate, the available legal instruments and procedures which are beneficial for securing their businesses. In that vein, Mrs Mugadza-Mugwagwa detailed the legal instruments that may be used to secure a business and its intellectual property. I will not attempt to give a full account of what she mentioned, but I will only share the few I remember.
For starters, one of the most important ways to guard a business’ legal face, is formally registering it. You can engage with several experts who can advise you on how to register your business legally. Of course, an entrepreneur can trade as an unregistered sole proprietor. But, this presents its fair share of challenges to the business owner. Some of them include unlimited liability, scaling challenges and difficulty in securing contracts.
In terms of contracts, many registered companies and organizations prefer working with registered companies. They do that for convenience and security reasons. I remember when I approached a certain institution, with a business proposition. I wanted to provide them with freelance photography services. They disagreed because they only made provisions for registered photography or media companies. I have heard many people share stories like mine on social media. They too learned the importance of registering their businesses after missing a “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity. But they may have, too, learned that, beyond the formalities of business registration, there are many other formalities in the name of intellectual property.
Enterprises are products of the human mind’s ingenuity. Business planning and branding operations generate valuable intellectual property which must be protected. Intellectual property consists of the creative conceptions of the mind. These may include, stories, inventions, artistic works or symbols. The four categories of intellectual property, include trademarks, patents, copyrights and trade secrets. Mrs Mugadza-Mugwagwa gave a rundown of what each of the intellectual property categories entailed. As I compiled this article I also looked at some of these terms to add extra detail.
First up are the trademarks. I remember being fascinated by the Coca-Cola logo when I was a little boy. I couldn’t help but notice the encircled “R” or “TM” which were visibly superscripted right next to the fancy Coca-Cola text on the logo. The meanings of those markings and their significance only became clearer as I got older. Those letters, are there to confirm that the logo is a trademark. Trademarks are terms, phrases, symbols, and designs that uniquely identify products or services. The ® sign refers to a trademark that has been legally registered, while the ™ sign refers to an unregistered trademark. Companies may occasionally use the ™ sign for trade symbols pending trade mark registration. The ™ sign usually serves to signal to the customers that a business believes in the uniqueness and the value of the services that they would be offering.
Trademarks are very important for branding in business. They accumulate value as markers of the business’s reputation. That reputation accumulates over time as the business continually delivers high-quality services. Thus, their value is cumulative. Their value transcends the initial costs involved in the development of the creative artefacts. They are, thus, associated with a company’s goodwill. A company stands a chance of losing huge amounts of revenue through an infringement on its trademarks. They also risk losing their loyal customer base if their reputation is tainted, along with trademark infringement.
That is why businesses need to have trademarks registered well in advance to avoid suffering irrecoverable losses if such incidences were to occur. It then will be a simple case of filing a case when a trademark has been infringed. The trademark infringement case will then be settled in court. Mrs Mugadza-Mugwagwa mentioned that countries have different legal provisions for handling trademark disputes. Some countries give the right to the party that first went to market with the trademark. Yet, the Zimbabwean legal system awards the trademark rights to the one who first filed for the trademark. Thus, if you have uniquely valuable business offerings you avoid can future losses by registering the trademarks.
The next thing she talked about is patents. Patents are offered by the government giving an individual or company exclusive rights to build, sell, and use their invention. A patent, is usually valid for 20 years, after which it expires and anyone is at liberty to copy, build, and sell that invention.
Copyrights protect original works of authorship, such as paintings, photographs, musical compositions, sound recordings, computer programs, books, blog posts, movies, architectural works, and plays. Copyrights protect expression. They do not protect ideas, procedures, methods, systems, processes, concepts, principles, or discoveries. As such copyrights are more commonly used in the arts. Copyrights automatically belong to the originator of a creative work. However, one may enhance the protection by registering the copyrights for their work. Copyright registration is not mandatory. But it allows copyright owners to seek certain types of monetary damages and attorney fees.
Of course, some businesses do not exclusively produce, copyrightable creative works of authorship. However, they still have to be careful not to infringe any copyrights belonging to others. This is especially important since creative works can now be digitally replicated and shared. Businesses which use digital media for websites and online marketing must not use any copyrighted material. But, if they do, they must be sure to have the permission of the authors.
Besides patents, some businesses choose to keep their unique inventions as trade secrets. Trade secrets and patents offer protection on a similar set of valuable information. But they provide such security in ways that differ. A patent requires one to disclose the details of their invention to get exclusive rights to the invention. But, a trade secret is typically something not generally known to the public. Reasonable efforts are made to keep it confidential. It retains economic value by the information not being known by anyone else besides the secret bearer.
Thus, many resources have to be committed to keeping these trade secrets, secret. Non-disclosure agreements and strong encryption systems may be used to protect those trade secrets. You may have heard that Coca-Cola or KFC use secret ingredients, formulations or recipes in their products. If that were true, then that would mean that those corporates guard their trade secrets jealously. That must show that they place great value on their intellectual property. All entrepreneurs and business leaders are encouraged to adopt a similar attitude.
Beyond securing intellectual property, business executives must exercise caution when it comes to signing contracts. When signing contracts they must fully understand the terms of the contract. Oftentimes, the contract drafters may hide certain binding clauses in the contract document. They would assume, that the signatory will just ignore the long text and just put in the signatures. The signatories will be undoubtedly shocked to realize that they were tricked.
That’s exactly what legal experts warn against. Do not sign contracts without having enough insight into what the contract entails. It is often best to engage lawyers when signing important contracts. That very act may save you a lot more than you would by avoiding legal help in the first place.
An effective pitch leaves you and your audience with a better insight into your business
(Based on Mr Khesani Majoko’s presentation)
While there are many reasons for pitching a business, the ultimate goal of a pitch is to effectively endow your audience (e.g. judges, investors or customers) with refined insights into your business and to persuade, them to offer you something that you need. It is only when they are sufficiently enthused, that your audience will grant your request. It could be a request for support, funding or for business advice. While the intention may differ, according to Mr Khesani Majoko, it is important to prepare well, practice for the pitch, dress well and speak up confidently to leave a lasting impression on the minds of your audience.
During the preparation, you have to make sure that you are thoroughly conversant with the information that you will be presenting. And you must be sure not to leave out any grain of rice (a piece of information) that may be required to tip the scale. Even so, Mr Majoko warned aspiring entrepreneurs not to sugarcoat or exaggerate facts in an attempt to appease the audience. This can backfire and scathe their reputation. Imagine how embarrassing it would be, to get corrected by the judge, about a fact that you deliberately misstated. That surely calls for entrepreneurs to be rigorous, sober-minded and honest when preparing a pitch. While they may appear to be honest to others, they must be honest to themselves. That’s important for them to avoid presenting nonfactual or half-baked information to the audience.
The primary benefit of applying rigour during the preparation of a pitch seems to be extrinsic (that, you will charm the audience with sound facts). But, one of the most important benefits is an intrinsic one. The intrinsic benefit that you can attain for being rigorous is getting greater insights into your business. Remembering that your pitch will be evaluated by knowledgeable people will motivate you to gather information about:
• The real problem that exists
• Your proposed solution to the problem
• The target market for that solution
• The major competitors who are offering contending solutions
• The feasibility of that solution
• The sustainability of that solution
According to Mr Majoko, those key pointers underlie the structure of a pitch that is used at most business pitching competitions. As such it may differ from other types of pitches such as elevator and investor pitches. Elevator pitches are very brief, lasting about 30 to 45 seconds, while investor pitches are long and more detailed.
The last part of the pitch as he claimed is an attempt at “harvesting” from the rigorous process. The last part is, thus, defining the ask. This part, thus, calls for you to expressly, request what you would like your audience to do for you. To make it sound alluring you can offer them a lucrative deal if they grant your request. While your request may be granted, one of the most important things you can ever get from the pitch is an insight into your business and critical feedback from your potential stakeholders.
I postulate that rigorous business research can help you to decide whether to pursue that particular business venture or not. I have a feeling that undergoing such a process will allow one to start sustainable businesses that have a better chance of surviving in time. Many competitions require young innovators to learn the critical skill of pitching their business, with a promise of cash prizes for the most outstanding pitches. But some people, actually take part not to win, rather they take part to learn and come up with the most objective evaluations of their business ideas.
Thus, I fret when I remember that I missed the chance to take part in business competitions and clubs. I may have gained pitching skills if I participated in Junior Achievement Zimbabwe(JAZ), or Enactus and the Hult Prize Competitions in college. Thus, from the presentation, I realized that I must learn business pitching hands-on if I get any chance to do so. The other important thing I learned from the presentation is that I have to practice and improve my public speaking skills. Pitching requires the art of persuasion. That art can be learned by acquiring public speaking skills.
Change is always upon us. Only businesses that are well-adapted will survive
(Based on Mr Kumbirai Chimukupete’s presentation)
“Technology is the great growling engine of change.” – Alvin Toffler
We live in a time of unprecedented technological advancement. Concepts that were once relegated to Sci-Fi, cinemas are ever becoming more possible. What’s even more interesting is that humanity has caught up to the promise of technology and does not want anything less. A lot of young people especially Gen-Z now understand how to work their way through technology. They know how to produce results that their predecessors never thought to be possible. Moreover, they experienced a technological revolution, that brought computing to their fingertips, early in their lives. They thus seem to have inflated expectations of what technology can do for them. They have caught up and surpassed the promise of technology. That fact alone has a huge implication for those who offer, goods and services to satisfy human needs and wants, the entrepreneurs.
If they fail to live up to the expectations of their clients, the clients are at liberty to find alternatives. Such is so because we live in a world of options according to Mr Chimukupete. Almost all prominent businesses have faced or will face emerging trends which threaten their existence. It could be a competitor or an emergent technology that changes the status quo of how we do things. For example, who knew that ChatGPT an AI, chat-based search engine, would one day emerge as a threat to Google, the largest public domain search engine? Lucky for them, they had BARD their AI-powered search platform to try bursting or at best shrinking ChatGPT’s bubble. Locally, who knew that one day, Innbucks would emerge as a convenient and hassle-free, foreign currency local remittance service that would pose a threat to established fin-tech giants such as Mukuru and Ecocash? All those disruptions were possible because times are changing. Some innovators are doing their utmost to keep up with technological changes.
Thus, to stay relevant, businesses must keep up with emerging technological trends according. Failure to do so places them at risk of going out of business. Of course, entrepreneurs are risk bearers by definition. But, they cannot risk being overtaken by competitors due to complacency. No! That kind of risk never bears dividends, no matter what. There are numerous examples of businesses that were complacent and overtaken by their competitors. One popular account is that of a company called RIM (Research in Motion). It was famed for including email functionality in its Blackberry phones. That innovation helped the company to meet huge success in the mobile phone market. However, they quickly became complacent and failed to notice the emerging trends until Apple came over and overtook them. Apple developed a touchscreen-based mobile phone, the iPhone which rendered the keyboard-based Blackberry obsolete. The iPhone became a huge success in the market and stole everyone’s heart. It is quite baffling isn’t it, that a former market leader lost their market dominance in a snap because of their complacency? Researchers have gone to great lengths to understand why some businesses become complacent over time.
“It all boils down to mindset”, according to Carol Dweck, a best-selling author of the book entitled, Mindset, The New Psychology of Success. In her book, she explains why some entrepreneurs, leaders and organizations thrive better under changing circumstances than others. To that end, she proposed a dichotomy of mindsets, one being the fixed mindset and the other being, the growth mindset.
Fixed-minded people and organizations are more likely to be complacent than their growth-minded counterparts. In contrast to fixed-minded people, growth-minded people are always looking for opportunities to improve themselves. When faced with potentially intimidating change, growth-minded people, do not cringe or make excuses to avoid taking action. Rather, they take the change to be an interesting challenge which will catapult them to even greater heights. They adapt to change better than fixed-minded people.
The concept of mindsets struck me as Mr Chimukupete spoke of the essence of innovation in business. Only growth-minded individuals make up such a cohort of disruptive innovators. Those innovators take it upon themselves to tame the change that the universe throws at them. Better yet, they bring out some of that change themselves. But, while we can catalyze certain changes, there are some changes we can never block in our lives.
Yes, we cannot block certain changes from occurring in our lives. Changes usually come at us, full steam ahead, like a huge unstoppable locomotive with great momentum. Our best bet at surviving is by purposefully jumping onto that locomotive of change and moving along with it.
It so came to me that, a similar idea is elegantly explained in the book entitled Who Moved My Cheese by Dr Spencer Johnson. To bring out the importance of adapting to change, the author shares a fictional story of two little humans who were suddenly struck by an unfamiliar situation. They lived in a maze and had a source of cheese close to their residence but they never bothered inquiring about where it came from. Ever since they were young they would just get their cheese at the same place every day. Therefore, they expected that they would get their cheese every day, until one fateful morning when the inevitable happened. Change Happened!
They woke up one day to discover that the cheese reserve that they had sorely relied on for food had depleted. They had eaten it all up. Not knowing what to do, both of them felt dejected at first. The shock was especially devastating because they believed that someone had moved the cheese away. Ignorant of the fact that they had eaten it all up, they both eagerly awaited that the person who had moved it would return it. In other words, they expected that the devastating change would be reversed and they would get their cheese back, but it was to no avail.
So, what did they do? Eventually, one little human became of good sense and realized that the cheese was never going to magically reappear. So, he thought about looking around to find out whether he could find another source of cheese. Eventually, the little human rushed through the maze and started to get small traces of cheese as he moved around. Hooray, his idea of taking action paid off. With each breakthrough he got, he started gaining positive thoughts and useful lessons from the ordeal. He wished he had taken action earlier on. But aren’t you wondering about what about the other little human? Well, nothing happened.
Sadly, the other little human remained fixated on the prospect that the change would be undone. Thus, he did not make any attempt to find some cheese. His ordeal serves to inform us that when change happens, rather than taking a long time grieving about the change, we have to pick ourselves up and keep innovating our way through. While that is true, it is easier said than done. But that is not to say that it is not doable.
Many businesses and entrepreneurs have shined on this one. Google’s action in the wake of ChatGPT’s rising popularity in 2023 is probably instructive of this. They did not take long to release BARD as their answer to the threat that ChatGPT presented to them. They had long seen it coming and they had been working on their own AI solution for their search engine. Now that’s what we call adaptation.
Constant innovation is one way through which businesses keep themselves alive and relevant in the market. That’s my take on Mr Chimukupete’s message. Times are changing and so is technology. Business owners and entrepreneurs need to adopt a growth mindset to stay in sync with the changing times. And more importantly, they have to realize that sweeping change will still occur whether they are prepared or not. Therefore, entrepreneurs are encouraged to be on the lookout for emerging changes that may affect the way they do business.
Hiring eats strategy for breakfast, too. Smart hiring decisions will attract success for your business
(Based on Ms Chido Chidziva’s presentation)
As a business grows it usually comes to include a team of personnel in its operations. The success of the business increasingly relies upon the team employees and executives. That team is critical for the daily operations of the business. Thus, it is important for those in charge of hiring to make the right hiring decisions. The future success of the business is reliant upon those decisions.
Prudent hiring decisions are crucial for startups since all startups face the risk of failing during their early years. Startups are especially vulnerable because of the lean nature of their financing. CEOs of those startups must make sure that every dollar that goes into the startups is accounted for. Expenses incurred in business operations must serve to generate revenues. It’s a simple business principle really, the cost incurred must be justified by proportionate outcomes or results. That argument also holds for personnel costs. All the costs that go into hiring and wage expenditure have to be justified by the value that the employees bring into the business. Otherwise, the business will be at risk of failing. Thus, hiring executives must be strategic about hiring and personnel management. Doing so may help them to avoid incurring unnecessary losses for the business.
So, the that remains questions is, how does one choose a good team for their business? Ms Chido Chidziva gave several pointers that can help entrepreneurs to go about building an effective team.
First things first, as an entrepreneur you have to be clear about your vision for the business. You can only be sure of whom you would like to employ if you are clear about your business’s vision. That goes to say that, you can only be clear about the skills you are looking for in your new hires if you are clear about your clear about what you want to achieve in business and how you would like to achieve it. Hiring the wrong people for your company’s vision would be uneconomical. For example, it may mean that you would be forking out vast amounts of money as wages for people who wouldn’t be producing a proportionate amount of value in their work. As stated in the book by Laszlo Bock, making wrong hiring decisions cost way more than all the cost involved in a rigorous and precise hiring process, that likely produce the right hiring decisions. Finances are a major factor in hiring for startups.
To stay lean on personnel costs, startups are encouraged to consider hiring one person for multiple roles according to Ms Chidziva. Instead of hiring an accountant and an administrator, you can hire a multi-skilled individual who handles both roles well. Also, instead of hiring a graphic designer and a social media marketer, you can hire a multi-talented individual. But, it is important to note that hiring for multiple roles is not done randomly but is done in full view of the startup’s mission and vision. It is important to remember that, such a practice is most suitable for startups because the business would still be in its infancy and have relatively fewer clients to serve. Of course, when the business operations have expanded, the most feasible thing would be to hire an individual for a single role, circumstances permitting.
Whether you hire for a single role or multiple roles, the key benchmark for hiring should be proficiency. Laszlo Bock a former Google HR, outlines how focusing on hiring top performers has helped Google to stay competitive. He explains and I quote, “Hire only the best by taking your time, hiring only people who are better than you in some meaningful way”. As he purports, doing so can save a lot of time and money for the business. However, he also advised hiring executives not to go about recruiting exclusively for smart people. The hiring executives need to hire smart individuals who also possess good character. That is, they must also be honest, reliable, and humble besides being outstanding. True, reading into people’s character is difficult, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not doable.
Chido Chidziva shared a funny story of how she busted one of the job interview candidates at her company, who was dishonest on his curriculum vitae. The story goes like this; There was a vacancy at Ms Chidziva’s company for which they invited applications. The shortlisted candidates were called in for an interview. Among those who attended the interview, one man, in particular, captured Ms Chidziva’s attention. He had mentioned that he enjoyed playing golf, a game that Ms Chidziva was also fond of. So, she thought to herself, “How about we conduct the interview over a game of golf?”.
So, she made arrangements and took him along with her panel of recruiters to the golf course for the interview. However, she was shocked to discover that the man knew nothing about golf. He did not even know how to hold the golf club properly. He had proven himself to be dishonest, so he did not get the job. In case you were wondering about how someone can read into another person’s, character, the story shared by Ms Chidziva can give you a hint. Test their integrity on the little things that seem unimportant.
As someone looking forward to being employed one day, I thought seriously about that incident and wondered, “Why would someone share something untrue on their CV?”. I gave it a thought and postulated that, what may drive someone to do that, is an irrational desire to appease the recruiters into offering them a job.
To avoid all that drama, anyone looking for a job must put in the effort to acquire the requisite qualifications for the job which they covet. That may require them to take online courses and gain numerous certifications as an individual initiative. That implies that they should be a lifelong learner. Ms Chidziva encouraged business executives and entrepreneurs to consider lifelong learners when hiring.
Such individuals are most likely to be confident about their skills and will likely feel no urge to be untruthful on their resumes. However, it is still encouraged to test their skills by giving them small relevant tasks to complete. If they perform exceptionally well, then they could be the right fit. Such individuals are likely capable of self-leadership and diligent fulfilment of their roles. The only catch is that those kinds of individuals are usually highly sought after. Thus, may be lured by other organizations, leaving a void at their former workplace. A question worth asking therefore is, “When you find such an amazing individual, what should you do to keep them?”
Giving the employees a sense of belonging and satisfactory remuneration is one sure way to encourage them to stay within your organization. To give the employees a sense of belonging, business leaders have to work hard to craft a company culture which values and rewards the employees. One way to show that you value your employees is by giving them a good salary and some perks. But, more is still required for employees to attain satisfaction from their work.
From the books I read, I learned that employees’ sense of satisfaction stems from their perception of the impact they are making in their work. The books include Permission To Screw Up by a young business leader, Kristen Hadeed, and 80,000 hours by Benjamin Todd. That fact calls for leaders to give feedback to their employees regularly. They must also praise them for their excellent performance and frequently remind them of their value to the company.
Often that is easier said than done, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not doable. I was especially awestruck by the account of a certain young entrepreneur named Kristen Hadeed, who was able to craft a company culture which attracted many young people to join her workforce. As she recounts, several of her young employees were unwilling to take up jobs elsewhere, where they were offered considerably higher remuneration. I guess that is every business leader’s dream; To retain their top talent. Good thing is that they can live their dream by crafting amazing working environments and cultures. Many well-known organizations such as Google, Netflix and many other are reported to have those amazing cultures.
There are many books which offer insight into crafting an amazing workplace culture
For Netflix’s story look out for No Rules rules By Reed Hastings
For Google’s story look out for Work Rules! By Laszlo Bock
For Kristen Hadeed’s story look out for Permission to Screw Up by Kristen Hadeed.
Acknowledgements:
Special thanks:
To The InpsiredMoves team for ensuring that the event was a success.
To all the panellists for generously sharing amazing insights on entrepreneurship.
To MissK for allowing Inspishare to share an article about the eventful workshop.
To all the loyal subscribers of this blog. You drive us to keep you inspired always.