The Risks of Trying to Emulate the 800-Pound Gorillas of Business

Greg Griesemer • Sep 27, 2023

It's crucial for organizations, particularly smaller enterprises, to understand the limitations of emulating iconic business figures like Elon Musk and Steve Jobs.


Summer is over, but I’ll admit that even when I found myself at the beach, it was hard for me to disconnect from thinking about work completely. As much as I like the idea of settling in with a Hemingway novel, I’m much more likely to reach for a business biography or the business page.


Maybe a boring hobby in the eyes of some of my family members who will go unnamed, but I've always believed in the power of learning from others' experiences. There's a lot to gain from studying successful business leaders, especially when it comes to avoiding their mistakes.


However, it's crucial for organizations, particularly smaller enterprises, to understand the limitations of emulating iconic business figures like Elon Musk and Steve Jobs. These individuals operate vastly different and often much larger enterprises. Most of them have a tolerance for risk taking that is easy to admire, but maybe stomach churning for us to actually emulate. That’s why I think it’s essential to take their examples with a grain of salt.


I've noticed that small company CEOs and leaders often use the practices of these big companies as a justification for their own decisions and frameworks. Whether it's a return-to-work policy or an approach to hiring, they tend to leverage the actions of iconic leaders to support their own choices. However, it's important to remember that these decisions are context-dependent, and what works for behemoth companies may not necessarily align with the reality of smaller enterprises.


For instance, when considering a return-to-work policy, citing Elon Musk's directive for Tesla employees to come back to the office might seem like a compelling argument – to you. However, it's crucial to recognize that your company is not Tesla! The scale, resources, and operational dynamics of these large corporations are vastly different from those of a smaller consultancy firm or a startup. Comparing yourself to these industry giants is akin to comparing an apple to a cement truck, or an apple to Apple — they simply don't belong in the same category.


Another area where this emulation tendency becomes apparent is in the hiring process. Keep in mind how different the context is if you’re a start-up, a 100-person tech company, or a globally recognized brand. Smaller companies sometimes try to align their policies and ways of operating with those of big companies simply because they see it in the news. However, it's essential to consider the unique attributes of your own company, its brand, and its employees. Iconic brands like Nike and Tesla have established personas that extend beyond their executives, which is not the case for smaller companies. Attempting to mimic their practices without taking into account the specific context of your own organization can easily lead to misguided decisions.


To navigate these challenges, I often advise my clients to focus on their own story, rationale, and reasons behind their decisions. While external validation and support can be helpful, the foundation of your decision-making process should be rooted in a deep understanding of your employees, culture, and the direction of the market. Large companies can provide insights into general market trends, but it's crucial to evaluate them through the lens of your competitive landscape and talent acquisition needs.


That doesn’t mean that we can’t play to win when it comes to recruiting great talent. Maybe we can’t expect to compete head-to-head with behemoths like Microsoft and IBM for business contracts, but we can focus on distinguishing ourselves from other small companies — let's call them A, B, and C — by highlighting the unique strengths and capabilities we can offer to the talent who keep these companies humming along each day.


On the talent front, things become more interesting indeed. While we may not have the resources of the tech giants, we can leverage our agility and flexibility to attract the right people. We can create a work environment that allows our employees to thrive, offering benefits like remote work options that big companies may struggle to provide. This way, we can build a team of dedicated professionals who value our company's culture and opportunities for growth.


Ultimately, you need to run the race you’re in. Stay focused on your business competition and how you can attract great talent. Small businesses have the advantage of being nimble and adaptable, offering unique value propositions that differ from those of larger corporations. Embrace this flexibility and leverage it to your advantage in crafting your own story and direction. Ultimately, you must take ownership of your decisions and have confidence in your ability to make sound choices based on your specific context.

Building The Right Foundation Series Part 3: How Startups Should Tackle Employee Well-Being

By Greg Griesemer • 01 May, 2024
I’ve written about how start-ups have to create a proper foundation in the early days—just like a new home needs a good basic structure to ensure that it doesn’t collapse when you add a second floor, and the electricity still functions when you redo the living room. For a company, this foundation helps it create the constants that employees, customers, and partners can rely on amid the usual ups and downs that all companies go through. In my mind there are three key pillars for this foundation, none of which can be neglected: compliance, employee well-being, and accountability. In this part of the series, I want to explain why employee well-being is so critical. (To read parts one and two of the series, go here .) Defining What It Means for Your Organization  I believe that to a large extent the future of the workplace hinges on employee well-being, especially as remote working environments continue to blur the porous line between work and the rest of our lives. Companies that neglect well-being run the risk of increasing burnout and turnover and reducing productivity and engagement—all of which can severely hinder the growth of a startup. On the flipside, I’ve seen firsthand how early-stage companies that get it right are talent magnets. They create an environment where employees feel valued and are aligned and working hard to achieve the business vision. As fast as many start-ups are moving to keep their momentum going, it’s vital for their leaders to carefully think through what employee well-being means for them. It's not just a matter of offering benefits; it's about defining a stance on the various dimensions of how you’ll approach your employees’ overall health, happiness, and satisfaction with work. This should include physical, mental, financial, and even spiritual considerations. What dimensions do you include in your definition of well-being? What do your employees value and expect? What programs and policies help ensure it? And what trade-offs are you willing to make in other areas of the business to make it a reality? From my conversations, I know CEOs and leadership teams can struggle on how to even begin answering these questions. In response I’ve offered a relatively simple framework, with a few questions for each, to get the conversations started. Rich dialogue usually spiders out from here. Getting Started Purpose ( Emotional ): Many start-ups I’ve worked with do not take the time to define their Vision and Values and miss out on the power that clarifying their “why and how” can bring to an organization. Employees seek out and stay with organizations that connect to their hearts and minds – sharing what’s in yours will allow that to happen. 1. Why does the company exist? 2. What is its passion? 3. What characteristics and behaviors will each employee exemplify? Health ( Physical, Mental ): Setting the direction of your benefits offering should be a top priority for companies that wish to remain attractive to current and potential future employees. Most employees do not worry about or even understand their coverage, but need peace of mind knowing that it’s there when they need it most. Getting the programs AND messaging right is key here. 1. What do we want our benefits to “say” about how we treat our employees? 2. Do we have the right broker partner to help us maximize our programs while optimizing our budget? 3. How will we educate our employees to keep them healthy and happy? Pay ( Financial ): Good, fair pay is a cornerstone of your well-being strategy and a non-negotiable. Competitive packages attract and keep talent, provide employees the means to care for themselves and their families, and are often viewed as a measure of equity. Spending time here will help create an environment where employees feel valued, respected, and motivated. 1. What benchmarking methods are you using to ensure competitiveness in your talent market? 2. How transparent do you plan to be on company matters? How openly will you share and communicate your decisions about pay equity, for example? Moving Forward Once you have answered these foundational questions, then you can design the policies and launch the programs to make those broad strokes a reality. At a time when talent is more mobile than ever, having clarity about the well-being of your startup's team is a strategic move that fosters a positive work environment and fuels long-term success. In my next post, I’ll take a look at the final critical piece of foundation-building: accountability.

How to Hire as a Non-Technical Founder

17 Apr, 2024
Our CEO, Greg Griesemer, recently had the pleasure of being featured on the Koridor Inc. podcast, Founders Korner. In this insightful episode, Greg shares his expertise on building a successful team for your startup, defining hiring goals, and mastering the hiring process to ensure your company's growth and success.

Building the Right Foundation Series Part 2: Why Compliance Can be Tricky for Startups — but Is Vital

By Greg Griesemer • 12 Mar, 2024
I’ve written about the need for startups to lay a solid foundation when building their business, similar to the way you build a new house. For a business, that foundation rests on three key principles: compliance, employee well-being, and accountability. In this post, I’ll look more closely at compliance and how to ensure a balance between protecting the rights and interests of your employees and maintaining the regulatory standards required within your field of work. Compliance might not be the most thrilling aspect of starting a business, but it's undeniably critical to get it right. It ensures that you safeguard your business from legal challenges and instills confidence in employees, customers, investors, and partners. Compliance should be a top-of-mind priority for the vast majority of new businesses, simply to ensure that they’re on solid legal ground within their jurisdictions. For example, an organization receiving a grant from the National Institutes of Health may need to take steps to ensure they’re compliant with requirements to maintain a drug-free workplace, which probably isn’t intuitive. 50 Different Ways to Do Things Various industries have their own rules, and each state has its own employment laws – some stricter than others in what they require from employers. It's essential to be aware of these laws and stick to them. Some states require you to pay within 10 days of the end of a pay period, while with others, it is 15 days—and some offer you option to pay monthly but require you to pay by a certain date and include days not worked yet. And don’t get me started on the rules and regs related to how you need to handle an employee who is leaving your company! Compliance is not just about legal adherence to national and state-level requirements that govern employment and hiring. It also includes important considerations related to operational policies, leaves of absence, and general standards of conduct—all of which help set the tone of the culture you’re trying to build within the organization. In short, a thoughtful approach to compliance ensures the stability and credibility of your startup and should be thought of as a critical base layer that will enable well-being and accountability. Let's look at a checklist of some of the questions that can help you assess your approach to this important topic. Checklist: Questions to Ask Yourself about Compliance: 1. What is our organizational tolerance to risk? Answering this question will help guide your development of policies and standards, as well as how you’ll enforce them within the organization. For example, what is the balance between trust and structure you’d like to strike, and what risks might you take on as a result? Are they managable? 2. Do I know and understand industry-specific, national / state, and customer requirements that are applicable to my business? Some startups will find this easier to answer than others, though we always recommend that our clients bring in legal and/or HR experts to help with. You want to be sure on this one! 3. Have we created policies and standards, and communicated them to the business? In our work with startups and early-stage companies, we generally find this work has been done by a non-HR employee, typically someone with a Finance or Operations background. While the work is solid, there are often critical holes that develop and cause pain or unnecessary exposure as the organization grows. 4. Do we have a process for regularly updating compliance protocols as regulations evolve? You’ve nailed #1-3, time to sit back and relax – right? WRONG! States and the federal government often change regulations regularly throughout the year, so developing a process to keep up with the pace of change annually is just as important as setting your compliance infrastructure up in the first place. Compliance might seem like just another bureaucratic hurdle, but it's the shield that protects your startup. Proactively addressing compliance will pay dividends as you grow and scale and ensure you can hold yourself accountable along the way.
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