Tweet

Trimming Startups, One Inscrutable Position at a Time

Written by: Paul Kedrosky

Article Overview: From Lucy Kellaway in the FT, a rule that I'm going to apply at more startups:

Trimming Startups, One Inscrutable Position at a Time

From Lucy Kellaway in the FT, a rule that I'm going to apply at more startups:

[Imagine] you are sitting next to a stranger at a dinner party and you have to describe your job in one sentence that they can understand. If you fail this test, you are either a nuclear physicist or your job shouldn't exist.

In fact, every manager should get each member of their team to do this. My guess is that great misunderstandings will be uncovered, and great savings made. If any member of your team can't tell you simply what their job is you should fire them, move them, or give them something proper to do. If none of them knows what their job is, then you should fire yourself.

Related Articles
  The Five Most Important Lessons of Entrepreneurship
  Entrepreneurs in India: Are they missing on creating differentiators?
  What will happen to small business funding?
  A Five Point Strategy for Job Creation
  What’s so difficult about building a successful startup?

Article Tags: dinner party, guess, job, lucy kellaway, misunderstandings, nuclear physicist, startups, stranger



Related Forum Posts
Re: 10 Reasons Who Startups Fail & Book Recommendations - Great post,but please edit the headline. I presume it is "10 Reasons Why Startups Fail & Book Recommendation
Re: UPDATES: New Campaign! New Layout! New Ideas! - We've also expanded the list for Contest and All-Time Leaders. It's great to now see David and Yinka on the All Time list and recognize the contributions they've made to the forums!
No B.S. Time Management - A great book I read on Time Management is No B.S. Time Management for Entrepreneurs by Dan Kennedy.
Re: looking for partner - Partnerships in business can be tricky. Most partnerships fail. Here are a few points to ponder before starting a partnership: - Should have common goal and vision - Level of commitment in business - Expectations from business and each other. - Good sense of self-worth - Financial Position – Have a good experience in related business with strong financial standing I suggest you to go on Google type “Partnership Assessment form” and Partnership Assessment Tool” You find some good results. Further apart from this forum look into on social media and business sites.
Books that should be written - [quote:1m0dcpd7]"The Idiots Guide To Sticking With One Thing At A Time and Not Doing Something New All The Time" [/quote:1m0dcpd7] I myself am a 'constructive' procrastinator... I don't know if I'm alone in this. I have about six or seven projects I'm working on at any given time. I get one project almost done... then my interest is piqued by another project and I work on that... I get burnt out and move to another...I know I do this so I have it arranged such that once I get bored or burnt out with one project, I can step right back into project 1 - or 2 or 3, and get that a little bit more done before moving on to something else. As long as you're organized and know where all your reference material/idea sheets are when you're ready to get back to work on each project, it should be fine. I also find that by stepping away from a project - I still work on it in the recesses of my mind so that when I go back to it - it's with some good ideas that I wouldn't have had if I'd continued on with it originally. Maybe I should write a book on how to Procrastinate Constructively... I've actually thought about doing that...because most people procrastinate, don't they...and very few are ever able to stop.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Living on The Edge of Chaos...

The five pillars of internet marketing strategy

The Golden Rule of Communications

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.