How much is it important to delegate authorities
Most entrepreneurs actually don’t like working with other people – including their own employees! It is for this reason that 96% of all firms have less than ten employees, and the vast majority – less than three. So, the decision to make growth difficult.
Doug Harrison, CEO valued at $ 200 million company, the Scooter Store, which deals with the supply of wheelchairs and prostheses for the disabled, remembers very well this change in thinking which has transformed his small shop into a huge firm.
“I remember like it was yesterday – a meeting at which we decided on… We spent a few years in hard work, establishing the work at the local level. We knew that our system is not ready, and understood that the business would deprive us of the opportunity to spend time with loved ones. But we also understood that since we have already started to make some money – our business can grow,” says Harrison. To make this decision helped by the threat from one of the so-called friends of Harrison – he saw the opportunity presented itself, and became a potential competitor. It’s time to show who is more talented.
“One of the first management principles that firmly stuck in my head, says Harrison, was the realization that if you don’t allow people to work for you, it will be a job, not a business. It’s like someone opened my eyes, because only then did I realize that the need to attract good people who will work for me. I couldn’t continue to hire employees for a salary that was close to the minimum”. And although friends and family told Harrison that it was too early to pay high salaries and hire experienced sales staff, current operations and Finance, he then did it – and has no regrets about his decision. “In that year we have grown from two shops in five – and at the same time I feel that we better control our business.”
The transfer of authority to others really so important to your business, as experts say. Harrison knew that madness would be to decide to have towels in the bathroom to be simply white or with a blue stripe. Having an engineering education, he did not pretend to be versed in Finance or sales. He not only had to abandon consideration of a multitude of small issues, but to take the first steps to ensuring that they have the role that can play only the CEO and/or founder of the company, the role of leader and visionary. Harrison needed a governance structure that would allow him to concentrate on his real work – the growth of the company.