By looking at the initial employee practices, you can draw a roadmap to master this skill.
Editor’s note: This article is from the WeChat public account “Harvard Business Review” ( ID: hbrchinese).
In the 1950s, the S&P 500 company had an average business year of 60 years, but today it has fallen to 20 years. This means that the most successful companies are growing three times faster than before. In an environment where the pace of change is so fast, employees and business leaders have to adopt some tactical approaches to success, such as adopting growth thinking, learning new skills, and embracing flexibility. In the past, stability and long-term planning were hallmarks of good strategy, but nowadays, resilience has become a new competitive advantage.
Although the company’s resilience requirements are not new, for some people, adaptation is not an easy task. In the past 20 years, many large companies have failed to adapt, resulting in their profits, market share and profitability have been affected, and sometimes the company has been devastated.
So, why are some companies able to adapt, but other companies can’t do it? I think the key is who you are hiring. Fundamentally, leaders with growth thinking believe that both wisdom and success are achievable, while leaders with fixed thinking believe that these characteristics are constant and therefore uncontrollable. In large companies with increasingly unstable performance, leaders with growth thinking are not only more capable to adapt and drive change, but also encourage others to do so. This skill is necessary to succeed in today’s work environment.
The good news is that resilience can be nurtured; there is a special group of professionals who can serve as a model for all of us: the early employees of successful startups. I refer to a group of people as “initial employees” who join in the early stages of the startup and stay in the company during the company’s exit (acquisition or initial public offering) to make the success of the process A meaningful contribution. The pace of most startups is already fast; in this environment, what practices have made initial employees successful? As long as we fully understand these practices, we can understand howCopy these practices in your own business.
In the past year, I visited 25 initial employees, studied more than 50 venture capitalists, academics, entrepreneurs, business leaders, and early employees of startups, and reflected on themselves as the first batch of General Assembly. Experience of one of the employees and the current managing director. Based on the results of this study, I have compiled a set of best practices for everyone to learn from, and also provide some suggestions to help you apply these best practices within your own responsibilities. While these practices are primarily based on the experience of startup employees, some of these elements are directly applicable to larger companies, because the same skills are necessary to succeed in such companies.
1) Promote first, then apply for a job
Whether a company enters a new market or is influenced by competitors, as long as the business environment changes, its structure must be constrained. This means that companies often have to create new positions to execute new functions and plans. However, such changes do not occur in isolation; they need to be driven. The initial employee positions are not pre-set in the company’s structure; they tend to indicate the need for these positions when the company has not yet created a new position.
According to my research, many of the initial employees get a job by selling a new job to their boss that doesn’t exist yet. Chris Fralic, former vice president of Business Development at Half.com, started his career in the company: he first prepared a PPT to sell himself, and then used the PPT to be the founder of the company. Made a demo. Foursquare’s first business developer, Tristan Walker, used a similar approach to get the company hired; he later became a vice president. Perhaps the most famous example is Uber’s first employee, Ryan Graves. The way he joined the company was to sell his work to Uber’s CEO via Twitter.
However, this is not just for getting your first job. As the business changes, the initial employee responsibilities will often change. In response to the company’s rapidly changing needs, one of Dropbox’s first employees, Jon Ying, took over a more diverse role. He has at least eight positions, including community managers, creative directors, and “black action leaders.” Ying told me: “The company has firmly trusted me and made me act in favor of the company. Of course, before making any major moves, I will discuss with my colleagues or leaders whether it is reasonable.” p>
How is this practice?What kind of use?
You have to prepare a PPT to sell yourself. This document is not just a resume; it can determine your position and will force you to think about important questions about your career, such as: What is your ideal position? What kind of problems can you help companies solve? What method is the most effective way to demonstrate your achievements? Once you have identified your strengths, you will be more aware of your abilities. In this way, when you see an opportunity that requires these skills, regardless of whether there is such a position in the company, you will be more willing to take this opportunity.
2) Maintain an external perspective
In the early stages of a new business, everything is unknown. Business models may fail, customers may not come, and the market may just be a phantom. The amount of competitiveness in the market determines your success or failure. The various risks, crises and emergencies that companies face may get you off track; to be successful, your employees must maintain an external perspective and take these factors into consideration.
The reason for this kind of ambition is that startups (especially technology companies) are in an environment that some employees call “killing areas.” The giant company is absolutely capable of suppressing the aggressors; look at the history of products such as Picasa and Meerkat (some people think Snapchat is included).
However, as long as you are conscious of your surroundings, your ability to predict and cope with competitive forces will increase. A well-known example is Steve Ballmer, an initial employee at Microsoft. Management guru Jim Collins recalls in the book Great by Choice that when Microsoft prepares for an initial public offering, it must disclose potential risks to investors, so Ballmer will likely The countless disasters encountered are listed one by one.
Collins paused and began to think about the hurricane that might come. Finally, Collins heard an underwriter say to Ballmer: “The situation is not bad, or you may be even more difficult to hear.” After that initial public offering, Microsoft became the most successful company in history. One. Its personal computer revolution has allowed it to surpass major competitors such as IBM; until now, it is still adapting to today’s cloud computing era. There is no doubt that their predictions and resilience to competitors are the key.
How should this practice be used?
You have to set up “Google Alerts” for your top five competitors. This approach may seem simple, but the key is how you use the information you get. Perhaps this information can inspire new ideas, or provide you with warnings, or give you the ability to answer questions about competitors at a meeting.
3) Don’t forget the company’s mission
When a startup begins to expand, employees of the company may forget the mission of the company when it was created, replacing routine weekly meetings, quarterly reports, and annual reports. However, many of the initial employees still remember that when the company was just established, they not only took the time to discuss the business model, but also introduced the business model to new partners and employees again and again, and sometimes defended the company’s creation. Original intention.
In this environment, initial employees tend to become stronger and more creative. In addition, because these people have a solid understanding of the company’s roadmap and infrastructure, they can be down-to-earth; and because of this, they can not only better understand the purpose behind a change, but also adapt and utilize this change, and care. Unexpected places to find opportunities.
The most important habit for me is to maintain a sense of mission. Last year, General Assembly was acquired by Deco Group. The Deco Group employs 30,000 people and conducts complex operations in 60 countries and is highly regarded by the public market. In the months after the company was acquired, I thought I would become more complacent.
After all, we did it; as the company grows in size, we can now enjoy stability. However, I feel that I am more motivated than ever. Many new ideas and business models have not been realized for many years, but now, all of this suddenly becomes readily available.
As I changed my responsibilities, rhythm, and work style, my resilience became stronger; this ability was mastered after eight years of practice. As General Assembly transformed from a startup to a large company, the company’s mission became my main driver. Under the leadership of the new owner, the opportunity to achieve this mission has also increased.
From all this, the focus of employees on the company’s mission allows them to recognize and take advantage of the opportunities offered by change.
How should this practice be used?
The company’s “mission statement” should be found somewhere in the company’s annual report. It’s often helpful to review the mission statement, but a better approach is to find a presentation, record, or article from the company’s founding team, and then spend some time pondering. Then, you have to use a sentence to summarize your own mission statement for the company. You should show this sentence in a place you will often see and reflect on it before making any major decisions.
4) Customer First
When companies develop and execute strategies around their customers, they become more resilient once they face change. As the business grows, they can more accurately notice problems and trends from the perspective of consumers.Exist, and cope with them early. However, it is still difficult to do this in many areas. The average employee rarely interacts with the client; they see presentations, focus group reports, and a summary of frontline staff.
The vast majority of the initial employees I have visited remember their original customers. Many initial employees communicated with customers on a private level, and they learned the motivation behind their purchase of the company’s products. With these memories and insights, they are able to incorporate customer voice into key business decisions about new products, features, promotions and more. No matter how big a company is, it can get the same benefits as long as it can build a private relationship with the customer.
How should this practice be used?
You have to find ways to reach two customers: one is a satisfied customer and the other is an angry customer. You can attend a sales meeting, attend a customer service call, or participate in an annual business review. Most of the time, you can understand the pros and cons of your product directly from the customer’s mouth rather than conducting research, which will give you a deeper understanding of your business.
5) You are a pilot, not a passenger
A lot of times, the startup’s structure is relatively flat, and the team size is relatively small. As a result, employees are more focused on their projects. The success of a person is obvious to all, but the failure of one person is also obvious. More importantly, the smaller the company, the greater the responsibility each employee has, and the greater their sense of ownership.
However, as most companies expand, the roles and responsibilities of employees become more specific. Originally a project that was the responsibility of the entire company, it will be divided into smaller parts, and then by the technical team, sales team, marketing team, etc.; in the most extreme case, it may be that one person is only responsible for a specific Work, such as testing email headlines, for marketing certain products. Such rapid growth means that some people may be demoted, resulting in fewer responsibilities. But for others, rapid growth is an opportunity; this is especially true for those who show a sense of ownership on tougher projects.
According to my survey, the most successful early stage employees will have a strong sense of ownership in their responsibilities, and in many cases they will exceed their responsibilities. For example: Nikhil Khosla joined the company when General Assembly just created a new “standard” team and became the product manager for the team. The team has a bold mission to develop an industry-recognized technical standard for the future.
However, the team has limited resources and no rules to refer to, so in order to succeed, Cosla must make good use of resources.Source, you have to play your own creativity. In order to envision and launch this new product, he must not only have multiple roles, but also have to work with technology, marketing and sales teams. Whenever he goes to work, Kosra is busy with various tasks, such as writing a technical roadmap, doing sales with the sales team, and receiving customer service calls. Kosra told me: “To be honest, in a startup, you can’t push responsibility to others. So, you have a sense of ownership, especially when only one or two people are responsible for a product.”
From the experience of Khosla, it can be seen that larger companies value the sense of ownership and enthusiasm for learning. He spent several years helping General Assembly form and launch the company’s “standard” products. Later, Ralph Lauren hired him to become one of the youngest vice presidents. Now, he is responsible for Ralph Lauren’s outerwear business.
How should this practice be used?
You have to play the role of CEO for a day. You have to force yourself to look at each of your meetings and every project from the perspective of the CEO, as well as every email you come into contact with. In the face of the same situation, how will your CEO respond? From this perspective, what will happen to your reaction? Many times, CEOs must weigh the conflicting needs and responsibilities to make a decision. Performing such thought exercises can help you to think differently and give you a more comprehensive view of your work and company, thus enhancing your sense of ownership. (If you are the CEO, try to play the initial employee of the day.)
I spent nearly a decade in the past helping some of the world’s largest and fastest growing companies improve their team’s skills and prepare for the future. Now, I am more and more convinced that as long as the thoughts and behaviors of employees, managers and leaders are like the initial employees, their future career will be bright. Whether it is a large company or a small company, it will invest in adaptable team members. I believe that by observing the practices of the initial employees, you can draw a roadmap to master this skill.
About the author
Anand Chopra-McGowan|文
Anand Zopula-McGwen is the initial employee of General Assembly and the current vice president and managing director of the company. He is responsible for the international expansion of the company’s corporate business and provides consulting services to large companies to help their employees prepare for the future.
欧明说|译周强|校