Building A Venture Team and Planning for the Next Generation
- ZPerry78
- Sep 5, 2018
- 4 min read

Leadership- influencing/ inspiring others to work to achieve a common goal, while giving freedom and power to achieve said goals. The characteristics associated with leadership include the ability to be innovative, passionate, a risk-taker, adaptable and understanding.
A business is like a construction project, where the leaders are the architects and the managers are the builders. Leadership without management is unbridled and management without leadership is uninspired. Although leaders create the entire business, managers are the ones to keep it operational.
One without the other leaves the business going nowhere- effective leaders exhibit:
define and reinforce the vision of the company. Create set of values and beliefs for employees
establish a culture of ethics/ develop strategic plan for SCA/ respect and support employees
set example for employees/ authentic/ create trust within org/ build credibility/ challenge employees
provide resources for them to achieve goals/ communicate/ value diversity/ celebrate success
encourage creativity/ maintain sense of humor/ motivate by training and giving freedom to achieve
create environment that encourages performance/ become catalyst for change/ develop leadership talent
Servant leadership style- leader takes on the role of servant first and leader second
Building an entrepreneurship team: hiring the right employees
Reduce employee turnover rates- provide rewarding & challenging work/ pay employees fairly/ provide training opportunities and mentoring relationships/ offer flexible schedules/ provide simple rewards/ conduct exit interviews for areas for improvement
How to hire winners- commit to hiring the best talent/ elevate recruiting to a strategic position in comp (look inside company first/ look for employees with whom your customers can identify/ encourage employee referrals/ make employment ads stand out/ use multiple channels to recruit talent/ recruit on campus/ forge relationships with schools and other sources of workers/ recruit retired workers/ consider offbeat recruiting techniques/ offer what workers want)
Create Practical job descriptions and specifications
Job analysis- firm determines the duties/ nature of jobs to be filled and the skills/ experience requirements
Job description- written statement of duties/ responsibilities/ reporting relationships/ working conditions/ methods and techniques/ materials and equipment used in the job
Job specification- written statement of qualities / traits (education/ skills/ experience)
Plan an effective interview (give insight into applicants qualities/ personality/ character)
involve others in the interview process/ develop open-ended questions for every candidate
create hypothetical situations about potential situations in the workspace/ their handling
Situational interview- interviewer gives candidates a typical job related situation/ response
probe for examples in past experience that demonstrate necessary traits and characteristics
have them describe recent success/ failure and how they dealt with them
arrange non interview setting/ allows several employees to observe candidate in formal setting
Conduct the interview- breaking the ice/ asking questions/ selling the candidate on the company
Contact references and conduct a background check
Create an organizational culture that encourages employee motivation/ retention
Culture- distinctive/ unwritten/ informal code of conduct that governs an organizational behavior/ attitude/ style
building pos. org. culture has a direct positive impact on the financial performance of an organization.
Respect for work and life balance/ sense of purpose and fun/ engagement (recognize/reward/ communicate)
Diversity/ integrity/ participative management/ learning environment
Job Design
Job simplification- breaks work down into simplest form/ standardizes each task
job enlargement (Horizontal job loading)- adds more tasks to a job to broaden scope
job rotation- cross training employees/ give them skill sets for multiple tasks to perform
job enrichment (vertical job loading)- building motivators by increasing planning/ decision making/ organization/ controlling functions that workers perform
Skill variety/ Task identity/ Task significance/ Autonomy (freedom)/ Feedback
Flextime- arrangement where employees work normal hours/ flexibility when they start & stop
Job sharing- work arrangement for 2+ people share a single full time job
Flexplace- work arrangement for employees to work somewhere that is not a traditional office
Telecommunication- employees working remotely use modem comm. to connect electronically
Motivating employees to higher levels of performance: rewards/ compensation
Pay-per-performance compensation systems- employees pay depends on their performance
Profit sharing plan- reward system where employee receives a portion of the company's profits
Open book management- entrepreneurs share openly their financial results with employees
Stock Options- plan under which employee can purchase shares at a fixed price
Cafeteria benefit plan- employers provide certain benefits/ allocate $ amount to select benefits
Management succession: passing the torch of leadership
How to develop a management succession plan- select successor/ create a survival kit/ groom them/ promote an environment of trust and respect/ cope with financial realities of estate and gift taxes
Buy/ sell agreement- co-owner contract stating a buyout incase of a death/ disability of the other
Lifetime gifting
Setting up a trust- contract between grantor (founder)/ trustee to hold assets for beneficiaries (heirs)
Revocable trust- trust that a grantor can change/ revoke during their lifetime
Irrevocable trust- trust in which grantor can not require the trustee to return the assets held
Estate Freeze- strategy that minimizes estate taxes by creating 2 classes of stock for a business: prefered voting stock for the parents and nonvoting common stock for the children
Family limited partnership- strategy that allows bus. owning parents to transfer company to children (lowering estate taxes) while still retaining control over it themselves
Exit strategies (Selling to outsiders/ insiders) Insiders:
Leveraged buyout- managers/ employees borrow $ to purchase bus/ use $ from ops to pay debt
Employee stock ownership plan- managers/ employees contribute a portion of wages over time towards purchasing shares of company stock from founder until they own the company outright
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