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Whether you are dealing with a start-up company or one that is expanding, one of the impediments that can cause that growth to flatline is the inability to add the key talent necessary to make that happen. Ideas and products are great, but someone must be able to organize and properly lead the people to turn those into profit.
There are several periods on the normal growth curve where a Senior Talent Gap could seriously interfere with progress, as shown below:
Most companies are in the business to grow over time, but exactly what does that mean? Growth in headcount or territory or revenue? Value is often determined by the trust and respect the enterprise gains over time and also perhaps what someone would pay to buy the company or the product offering in a competitively priced market.
Far too many companies—even those with exceptional products or technology—fail to advance from Introduction to Growth to Maturity to Excellence. And far too often, this is due to not adding the right leadership at the right time to take them to the next level.
The challenge is always to remain on the growth curve, but the roadblocks include:
· We don’t have the resources.
· We don’t know how to get there.
· That’s someone else’s problem.
· It will just happen.
Sitting and ignoring the elephant in the room doesn’t make it go away. You need to clear out any and all roadblocks. And if you don’t have the right people in place, then you need a clear plan to recruit them.
If you have a minor water faucet issue at home and you can fix it, you fix it. If it’s major and you can’t fix it, then you hire a plumber. You need and want specific expertise.
It’s no different for securing the right talent—if you have the ability to go out and secure the right talent on your own, then go do it. But remember, you should be looking to maximize shareholder value—as in a Return on Investment (ROI). And ROI means that you invested either your time or your dollars to get that return.
The old saying is very true: it takes money to make money! If spending money produces a greater ROI, then you should be figuring out who can help you maximize that ROI.
Just as the legal profession has a spectrum of options from attorneys that focus on contracts to those who focus on real estate or M&A, finding talent has a spectrum of options from entry-level to mid-level positions to executive management. Entry-level and most mid-level positions are typically engaged on a contingency basis, whereas executive and most key positions are usually done on a retained basis.
Just remember that you are trying to maximize the ROI on this hire. The right hire can be tremendously rewarding—and the wrong hire can be catastrophic! If you need help making this happen, then just like that plumbing issue, get it!
Cendea was founded almost 23 years ago to solve key talent issues such as the Senior Talent Gaps the founding Partners personally encountered in their careers of growing companies. If you’d like to know more, please feel free to call Wade Allen, President & CEO, at 800.350.8411 x101.
