A trap we sometimes fall into as Entreprenurs

A trap we sometimes fall into as Entrepreneurs:

I was thinking this morning about all the things I "Know" about running a business and actually what I am using at present to build this company. As you build a company you go through different phases, you are active in different tasks, different skill sets are brought into use, and the edge comes off some of the other skills you have. I have found myself buried in the tactics off getting this project off the ground, financial modelling, forecasting revenue, design of factory layouts, etc ,etc, supply chain management, but you don't work on the high level planning and strategy as much as you should be, you miss the sutler nuances in communication, it is only afterwards that you pick out gems from the conversation, and you remember a skill that you hand once honed to world class, but has dulled slightly, as it has been stuffed in the back of the cabinet due to other skills being the focus. This is something that we need to stop happening, if we want to be on the top off our game once we get through the funding stage, you will need to quickly switch from financier to a world class business operator.

I need to get all these skills and knowledge brought into the conscious mind to help in the "Now" so they are ready for the "future". I remember once saying to a tutor why do I need to learn all this stuff about organic chemistry, I won't use it when I start to work, he replied that you will need it one of these days, I did very early on in my career in the semicon business, a lot, not so much the detail, but the process of how things reacted and there outcomes. The same applies to what we have already learned and experienced to date and and what we will learn in the future. I have started to list the gems of knowledge that I have gleaned over the last 23 or so years, in functions, S&M, Operations, Finance and HR, also communication, presentation, and the other soft skills. This has started to trigger my memory and has already shown me areas of how I can work better and smarter, utilizing what I have gleaned in the past.

Companies do this from time to time, it is called the fresh blood injection, as an organization becomes stale and they are grasping at how to move forward, there was this snap of genius, lets bring in some fresh blood to get us performing better, they miss the route cause of why there staff or themselves has gone stale and are in danger of getting on this treadmill of fresh blood every three years. I believe it is better to get the team to be fresh and engaged and develop a culture that will make this happen.

Slainte

Gordon