4.6 Share the essential interpretation of Fan Deng's book club's "difficulty in starting a business"

How to fire employees? Should we dig people from girlfriends companies? Do you need to hire experienced people? What should CEO do in adversity and prosperity respectively?

These are all difficult problems that entrepreneurs and managers will encounter. There is no fixed formula to help you answer these questions, but the author's experience in venture capital for more than 20 years is worth learning and learning from entrepreneurs.

Brief introduction of the author

Ben Holovitz

The earliest Internet pioneer in Silicon Valley was called "the management mentor of our young entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley" by mark zuckerberg.

1999 co-founded Loudcloud company (later transformed into Opsware company) with mark anderson, the father of Netscape. In the harsh environment of the internet bubble, he led the company back to life several times, and finally successfully sold the company to HP at a high price of1600 million US dollars. In 2009, Andreessen Horowitz once again founded a venture capital company with mark anderson. Founded only three years ago, the company has become one of the top venture capital companies in Silicon Valley. After three rounds of financing, it obtained funds as high as $2.7 billion and invested in many well-known Internet companies including Skype, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Foursquare, Pinterest, Airbnb, Fab and Groupon.

Ben Holovitz has also been praised by foreign media as one of the "Top 50 Angel Investors in Silicon Valley".

Jinghua Du Jie

The following content is the essence of the book "Difficult to Start a Business" for the reference of the majority of book lovers. Welcome to share, and it may not be used for commercial purposes without permission.

catalogue

First, it is difficult to start a business.

Second, how to get out of the most struggling moment

Third, the CEO must tell the truth.

Fourth, how to fire employees?

5. How to lay off executives?

Six, start-up companies must pay attention to the training of employees.

Seven, can you dig people from a friend's company?

Eight, how to avoid the situation that the director of a large company is not competent for the work of a small company?

9. Recruitment supervisor: How to recruit excellent talents without recruitment experience?

X. Be vigilant in managing debts

XI。 How to minimize office politics?

Twelve. Building enterprise culture

Thirteen, how to become an excellent CEO?

Fourteen How does CEO give feedback?

Fifteen, how to evaluate the CEO?

Upper guide bearing

First, it is difficult to start a business.

After graduating from college, the author joined Netscape, the iconic enterprise of the Internet. 1995 Netscape went public in August, and their competitor was Microsoft's IE. 1998, Netscape was sold to AOL under competitive pressure. 1999, the author founded Loudcloud, which keeps financing and expanding. At this time, the internet bubble burst and there was no financing, so they decided to go public. After listing, the share price dropped from $6 to $2. Just when the situation improved and the stock price rose, we encountered the 9 1 1 event again. Big customers withdrew their orders and went bankrupt, resulting in no orders in Loudcloud. In the end, they sold Loudcloud, leaving only one office software they had been optimistic about, Opsware. Opsware's share price fell to $0.35 after listing. If it cannot raise more than 1 USD, it will be listed as a low-priced stock. After last stand's hard work, its share price rose to $ 6-8, and it was finally sold to HP at $65,438+$04.25. The author finally earned the first bucket of gold in his life. In 2009, the author and Mark Anderson founded Anderson-Holovitz Venture Capital, which became the top venture capital company in Silicon Valley within three years.

The content of this book is basically the author's experience, which may not be as systematic and comprehensive as the textbook, but every word is bloody.

Second, how to get out of the most struggling moment

1. Don't take all the responsibility. When you can't bear all the burdens, you should share some burdens and find as many people as possible to solve the problem together.

This is not checkers, but chess. The technology industry is extremely complex. No matter how desperate it seems, there is always a step to take.

As long as you persist, there will be a turn for the better. The competition in the science and technology industry is changing with each passing day. As long as we can persist until tomorrow, there may be a turn for the better.

4. Don't be too hard on yourself. Everyone makes mistakes, and every CEO makes countless mistakes. Evaluate yourself correctly.

Facing challenges is the way to distinguish men from boys. If you want to achieve something, this is an inevitable challenge.

Third, the CEO must tell the truth.

For the founder or CEO of a company, the most important management experience is absolute rationality. We should bravely face the pressure, face up to the fear, tell the truth, handle the problems in the company transparently, and work with employees to solve various problems in the process of product, marketing and sales.

Why tell the truth?

1. Trust. In all human interactions, the amount of communication is directly proportional to the degree of trust. Telling the truth is the key to building employees' complete trust in CEO.

The more people involved in solving the problem, the better.

3. A healthy corporate culture will encourage employees to disclose bad news. Only by allowing free and open discussion can the company solve the problem quickly. The CEO should establish a culture of reward rather than punishment, and reward those who openly ask questions and find solutions to them.

"Please believe me."

"Please believe me" is a sentence that CEO says to employees every day:

Please believe me, our company has unlimited prospects;

Please believe me, it will be of great benefit to your career;

Please believe me, it will make you live a happy life.

In this way, employees can establish full trust and identity with CEO.

Fourth, how to fire employees?

Step 1: Keep a clear head.

Step 2: Make a quick decision. Once a decision is made to lay off employees, it must be implemented as soon as possible.

Step 3: clearly understand the reasons for layoffs.

The fourth step: training managers, which is the most important step in the process of layoffs.

The golden rule of training managers: your employees should be fired by themselves.

The reputation of the company and managers depends on your performance: hold your head high and face the employees who once trusted you and worked hard for you.

Managers should do:

1. Briefly explain the current situation to employees and tell them that this is caused by poor management of the company and has nothing to do with personal performance.

2. Make it clear to employees that there are too many employees and layoffs are not negotiable.

3. Know all relevant details such as benefits and subsidies provided by the company.

Step 5: Give a speech to all employees of the company.

1.CEO must explain the rationality of layoffs to managers.

2. "Words are for those who stay."

3. Grasp the scale and don't apologize excessively.

Step 6: Make sure everyone sees you. You must appear in the company, take an active part in company affairs, talk to everyone and let them know that you appreciate their efforts.

5. How to lay off executives?

Step 1: Analyze the root cause.

First, there is something wrong with the company's interview or integration system-why did the company recruit the wrong person?

1. The responsibilities of senior managers are not clear.

2. When recruiting executives, what matters is not the strengths of the other party, but that the other party has no weaknesses.

3. Small temples favor big monks.

4. Summarize the recruitment position. Don't recruit that type of candidate.

5. The manager's personal ambition is contrary to the company's goal.

6. Failure to integrate managers into the company.

Second, about the special situation of the company size. A fairly common reason for dismissing executives is that when the scale of the company expands, the work efficiency of executives fails to adapt in time.

In view of the special situation of the rapid expansion of the company, it is necessary to hire a manager with successful experience to make other companies of similar scale grow rapidly.

Step 2: Inform the Board of Directors

As it turns out, it's best to notify individuals by phone first, and don't make an unexpected announcement at the board meeting. After everyone agrees, you can hold a board meeting to finalize all the details.

Step 3: Prepare for the interview.

The reason should be made clear; Speak decisively; Determine the plan to distinguish between dismissal compensation.

Step 4: Prepare to announce the news to the company.

Correct order: direct subordinates of this executive → other executives → other employees of the company.

Stupid methods are the most effective-developing products that are better than competitors is the most effective competitive strategy. Without good products, no marketing strategy can solve the fundamental problem.

Don't emphasize objective difficulties, because no one will care.

Don't spend time regretting the past and lamenting your own pain, spend all your time on what you can do, because in the end, no one will care, as long as you run the company well.

Six, start-up companies must pay attention to the training of employees.

First of all, training can really improve the productivity of the company, and it is easier to promote performance management and improve product quality. More importantly, training is very conducive to retaining employees. The best training lecturer is the CEO himself, and many training documents written by authors are still being used. For example, good product managers and bad product managers.

How to train employees?

1. Functional training. It's best to start with the topic closest to employees: the knowledge and skills needed to be competent for the job. Training is compulsory.

2. Management training. Management training is the best starting point when setting expectations for the management team. These courses will tell managers how to act according to your expectations.

3. Other training opportunities. Invite elites from all walks of life to share their professional knowledge. Training related to negotiation, interview and finance can not only strengthen the company's ability in these aspects, but also boost the morale of employees.

There are only two ways for managers to improve employee output: motivation and training.

Seven, can you dig people from a friend's company?

1. You should never poach people from a friend's company unless the employees are excellent.

2. The "reverse principle of poaching": If a company poaches several of your employees, it will shock you, then you should not poach any employees of their company.

3. formulate policies: list companies that stipulate that employees may not be hired without the consent of CEO (or senior supervisor). Before the recruitment, keep open, communicate with the CEO of his company and conduct a background check on him.

When you tell your friend that you hired someone from his company, it means that he is not as important to you as this employee, so don't expect you to continue to be friends.

Eight, how to avoid the situation that the director of a large company is not competent for the work of a small company?

First, screen out destructive mismatches in the interview.

After hiring the director of a big company, you may face two dangerous mismatches: rhythm mismatch and skill mismatch. You can ask the following questions:

1. "What will you do in your first month at work?" If the answer is that it takes a month to get used to it, then such people should not be hired, because small companies don't have so much to know.

2. "What's the difference between this new job and your current job?" -Select candidates who are aware of job differences.

3. "Why do you want to join a small company?" -Choose candidates who are eager to be more creative.

Second, the integration of newcomers is as important as the interview. Actively help newcomers integrate into the company.

1. Encourage them to create actively. Set goals for them every day, every week, and even every day to ensure that they make corresponding contributions.

2. Make sure they understand their responsibilities. If after 30 days, you think they don't know the situation, you should dismiss them without hesitation.

3. Divide them into a group. Give them a list of employees they need to know and learn, and ask them to submit a report.

9. Recruitment supervisor: How to recruit excellent talents without recruitment experience?

Step 1: Know what you want.

1. Personal experience is the only way to get all the knowledge needed for recruitment.

2. Introduce experts, and if possible, introduce experts in this field into the interview.

You should know what you expect from people who join the company.

Step 2: Control the recruitment process.

1. Write down the abilities you want and the shortcomings you are willing to endure.

2. Set questions and answers to test recruitment criteria.

Form an interview team

4. Secret investigation and public investigation

Step 3: Make a decision alone.

Only CEO can fully understand the recruitment standards, the basic basis for formulating recruitment standards, all feedback from interviewers and candidates' referees, and the relative importance of each shareholder.

X. Be vigilant in managing debts

Managing debt occurs when you sacrifice expensive long-term interests and make expedient short-term management decisions.

The following are three common types of debt management by startups:

1. "One mountain accommodates two tigers".

2. Overcompensation in order to keep the employees you want.

3. Lack of performance management mechanism or employee feedback mechanism.

XI。 How to minimize office politics?

1. When selecting employees, we should measure how ambitious the other party is. Beware of job seekers who only pay attention to personal achievements and ignore the interests of the company. When a person always says "I" instead of "we"; Or when he uses the word "play" to treat his work, his ambition is just inappropriate.

2. Establish strict procedures to prevent office politics, and earnestly implement them. Please pay special attention to the following three aspects:

Performance evaluation and performance reward. Through strict and standardized performance management and salary verification, the highest possible consistency between employee income and company profit can be guaranteed.

Organization setting and power division. Consider the organizational setup of the company regularly, collect the required information, make decisive decisions and implement them immediately.

Employee promotion. Create a formal, open and reasonable promotion mechanism.

Twelve. Building enterprise culture

Why should we create a corporate culture?

1. For new technology companies, the most urgent task is to develop products. On this basis, seize the time to seize the market. The existence of corporate culture helps you achieve the above two goals.

2. In the development of the company, it can help you carry forward the company's core values and make your company a more ideal workplace and a more promising enterprise.

Most importantly, with a corporate culture full of humanistic care, you and your subordinates will be willing to devote their efforts and sweat to the development of the company.

Corporate culture is about how to design a way of working, so that enterprises can achieve the following goals:

1. Make your company different.

2. Ensure the implementation of important production standards, such as "satisfying customers" or "making products outstanding".

3. Help you choose employees who will help you achieve your goals.

The ideal way is to start with the details. These details should be small enough, practical enough and important enough to influence employees' future behavior. You need a strong corporate culture to change everyone's working status. For example, Amazon's "take the door as the platform" or the author's "1 minute 10 dollars" culture, and Zuckerberg's "act quickly and break the routine" are all examples of good corporate culture. Allowing dogs to work or setting up a spa in the office has nothing to do with corporate culture, because it does not help to establish a core value to promote the development of the company.

Thirteen, how to become an excellent CEO?

The hardest thing for a CEO to do is to control his heart. Under pressure, the CEO often has two wrong views, 1. It is all my fault; This has nothing to do with me. In fact, the most ideal state is resolute and rational. Decisive, cut the gordian knot. Many times, you need to fight alone. The best way to soothe the nerves is to make more friends; Write your thoughts; Keep your eyes on the road, not the wall. Not giving up is the most important trait of CEO.

A good leader has three qualities:

1. Ability to draw blueprints: Steve & #183; The characteristics of Jobs.

Especially in the company's adversity, leaders can still let everyone stay with a convincing blueprint for development.

2. The ability to get others to follow you: bill campbell characteristics

A truly outstanding leader will create an employee-centered working atmosphere. With a sense of ownership, many employees contribute wholeheartedly to the company.

3. Ability to realize ideals and ambitions: Andy Truff's characteristics

Leaders themselves should have the ability to convince employees.

These three qualities can be learned, and one of them is particularly strong and can win the trust of employees.

Fourteen How does CEO give feedback?

Sandwich feedback method

It is a very effective and commonly used feedback strategy for beginners, which can make your feedback right and wrong, and is very suitable for low-level employees. However, after repeated use, it will be too formal, not so sincere or even counterproductive.

Basic concept: If you praise (the first piece of bread) from the beginning, people will accept your feedback more easily. Next, give them information that makes them unhappy (criticism), and finally remind them how much you value their advantages (second piece of bread).

Six key points of effective feedback:

1. Authentic.

The starting point is correct.

3. Pay attention to things, not people.

4. Don't play with a person in front of colleagues.

5. Feedback varies from person to person.

6. Direct, but not mean.

Feedback should be a dialogue, not a monologue.

Your goal should be to start a conversation through feedback, not to end it. Encourage people to question your judgment and refute your point of view. Be open-minded and find your mistakes in time.

High frequency feedback

As a CEO, you should have your own opinions on almost everything and let people know what you think.

Fifteen, how to evaluate the CEO?

1.Does the CEO know what to do?

(1) development strategy and blueprint. The CEO has the responsibility to establish a development environment in which every employee can participate and clearly plan the company's development blueprint.

(2) make decisions. A good CEO will collect the necessary information through clever strategies for decision-making.

2. can put 2. The CEO lets the company do what he wants?

(1)①CEO should have leadership ability and master rich operation skills to ensure the smooth implementation of decisions.

Is the ②②CEO leading a world-class team? Excellent CEOs often ensure the quality of this team through evaluation. At the same time, the ability of CEO determines the quality of the workforce.

③ How difficult is it for employees to contribute to the company? This is an important criterion to judge whether the CEO can effectively manage the company.

3. can put 3. Did the CEO achieve the expected results on the set goals?

① When measuring performance based on objectives, we must first ensure the correctness of the objectives.

The CEO's performance should be measured according to his company's development opportunities.

conclusion

The author is frank and direct, admits that starting a business is an unimaginable lonely process, and gives the guidance of the management team in good times and bad times, which is vivid and incisive without any nonsense. With my own personal experience, I authoritatively unveiled the truth under the gorgeous coat of entrepreneurship.

If you are interested in creating, developing or leading a great company, The Hardship of Starting a Business is a must-read, a valuable resource and a lively, interesting and insightful reading.