John Linton We had a pleasant day doing virtually nothing in Bangkok today having got up at close to 11 am and from then on the day disappeared. After five plus of years of looking I finally found the dragon figurine I have been looking for in five different countries for my youngest son and we bought some sapphires that may become due as achievement prizes for our Australian corporate sales team, Apart from those purchasing successes, a facial for Annette and another amazing dinner the last full day of our break has disappeared with only the flight home tonight to 'look forward to'.
I thought a little more about the problems of a small company growing just beyond the limits of the available management resources available to it and what the options become in such a situation. I managed to get past this situation once, a long time ago, but the way(s) employed then proved, some years later, to be totally disastrous. Undoubtedly there were other contributing factors then but the main thrust of the problem was identical. If I remember it correctly it remains impossible to retain the single minded drive that is the base raison d'etre of any start up company when you appoint 'professional managers' - the simple fact is that 'bought in' managers have their own individual agenda for their own lives that are far, far different from the agenda and ruthless self discipline of the founder/managers of start up companies.
That was true 20 years ago which was the last/first time I tried to manage such a transition and it seems, at least in part, to pose a similar problem today. Non-start up management simply don't regard "the company" in any semblance of the way the founder managers do - nor do they even attempt to work out why the 'positions' they inherit do not simply conform to their own personal agenda. I have no idea how to deal with this situation but I understand that it is the key problem that confronts Exetel today - and for the next 12 to 18 months. Our problem is that we have a lot of very bright young people who do not have the slightest idea of how to supervise, let alone manage, other young, very bright people.
The review days in Sri Lanka made this issue abundantly clear but it is an identical situation in Australia. So as I write these words I am not looking forward to returning to my full time job in Australia. I understand that the decisions we take over the next 2 - 3 months will determine not only whether or not Exetel succeeds in the immediate future but whether it survives in a sensible shape to benefit from the previous 6 plus years of quite successful development. I am always an optimist in such situations but I have serious reservations about how to deal with the management challenges that now confront us.
How do you devolve the management of a 100 person company involved in a set of cut throat markets about to face serious technological change? Advertise for suitable management personnel? Employ 'management consultants' to advise you? Seek advice on selling the company to a bigger company that has already
solved these problems? If you'd ever met any management consultants you would realise what a laughable decision that would be. Selling the company to any other entity would simply rob yourself of any sensible return for your last seven years work and advertising for competent managers would result in listening to a bunch of total failures and egotistical wankers with as much skill and knowledge as pond scum - but with a desire for sky high salaries and incredibly elastic achievement time frames.
So - pity the holiday is about to end.
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