Tips to effectively scale and manage startups

A newly minted CEO friend of mine recently asked me how to run effective meetings, organize staff communication, communicated effectively to employees, etc.,etc.  Much is written on this topic from larger, more established firms, but, startups pose some difficult and different challenges.  Because startups are small and are growing quickly (hopefully);  the CEO is constantly reinventing the organization.  But, this doesn't mean that the business needs to be chaotic.  Here are some tips that might be helpful:

Operating meetings
In this section, I attached a grid that I created for myself over the years.  The startup executive will want to keep an active set of regular checkpoints (I like to call them "operating drumbeats") throughout the organization that ensure that the business is marching to his/her key objectives.  Regular checkpoints on strategic direction, weekly staff meetings, and 1:1s with your direct reports are an ideal way to structure this.   Here is a sample guideline:Download sample_business_planning_process.pdf

There are some things that could be tweaked based on the business. Evaluate your own business and constantly scrutinize your method of information flow.  Always be willing to cut a meeting if it is unnecessary.  Your goal at a startup is to be a fast mover;  that is your edge that your larger competitors do not have.

Another important tool that you will want to develop is an internal scorecard.  The internal scorecard should basically bleed out of your unified objectives, goals, strategies, and tactics.  The scorecard is basically a functional KPI (Key Performance Indicators) list.  This way from the Board down to the average employee, everyone is aligned.  I typically share this scorecard with all of the managers and then have a very general goal for all of the employees to focus on  (revenue, profitably, market share).  Example, would be "hit EBITDA positive by July," "exceed 2 billion impressions", etc. I am assuming that the entity has already gone thru a strategic planning process.  If not, then that will be a posting for another day.

Format for staff meetings
I like to constantly ask my team(s) what are the key issues that we should cover for each staff meeting.  Typically you will get a mix of both tactical or strategic issues. Each startups tactics tend to run the show which is just fine. It is 'fine' because focusing on launching your first product is the difference between having a business (or not).  Get a sense from the team on what key issues are out there.  But, please do make it a point to layer in more and more strategic discussion over time.  My typical staff meetings start out with (btw, usually an hour and a half every Tues...I have always hated Monday staff meetings):

1. Housekeeping (things that are tactical but require cross-functional input)...things like office space planning, HR, morale event planning, etc.  No more than 15 mins.

2. General discussion (70% tactical for early stage, 90% strategic for later stage companies) <you can interject your own points as well as ask for them from your directs;  I always had a review of the scorecard and financials as part of this section."  At least an hour.

3. Next steps

• Write things down & collect action items;  get someone to take notes and send them out < 24 hours after the meeting; make sure that action items are tracked and reviewed in the meeting.  At Mpire, I take the notes and everyone gets a copy of the notes within minutes.

• Write down topics that you didn't get to - collect anything that was a parking lot (aka something that you couldn't get to). 

• Don't talk a lot in your staff meetings.  Play traffic cop. Meeting style is ideally empowering with you make the decision on an item or making time decisions in the meeting.  Remember, this meeting is for you as a team to weekly track the business.  It is not all about you.  You are a team.

btw, you should send out an email no earlier than 24 hours before the meeting on a call for agenda items.

Communication
Another important tenet to running an effective organization is communication.  Communication is very key especially as you get bigger.  I tone down the centralized communication as organizations grow (toned down meaning instead of a weekly CEO email, it turned into a monthly).  Basically, the rule of thumb for me  was < 100 employees:

• CEO weekly emails (highlighting the company value, key initiatives, and goals)

• Managing by walking around - have your directs give you updates on key things going on with the staff; stop in and talk to a star or someone that is having issues.  Eat lunch with your employees.  You can use this for your directs, too.

• Regular townhalls - great time is Friday afternoon;  open up beers and give the employees time to listen to you but more importantly listen to them.  This keeps everyone together and synched up on what is happening at the company.

• Email communication - I tend to think about my week as being direction setting and people management.  So, send less email and make bigger decisions.  At the same time hire the right people and give them the right care.  You'll know how much is enough.

Communication for > 100 employees
I would basically do everything above except move to monthly emails and more formal
townhalls (with audio conferencing, webex, etc).  It also depends on how distributed you get, too.  In addition, I added a weekly 1:1 style update from my key direct emails updates.  So, you would get the following:

• Business performance v. key metrics (best for multi business lines but you can also have things like % spec complete, etc...basically your directs are reporting on the kpis that they own).

• Updates on key initiatives (in other words, these are your strategies...everyone should only have no more than 5 within the entire organization;  everyone will have their own sub-strategies to achieve the global strategy).

• Key competitive issues

• Escalations - these are for you; but, everyone can see them. Watch these closely...they also end up being discussed in your staff meeting (aka stratcom).

This was very helpful when needing to communicating at different levels (especially Boards, investors, etc).  In addition, your direct reports will be able to better understand what is happening in other areas of the business. I had some managers that used this format to structure their own team staff meetings, too.  It is glorious when your organziation is fully aligned and constantly reviewing their job performance to the organizationas key objectives.  That is a beautiful place.