CEO Time Allocation by Mark Juliano

One of the hardest things for a President & CEO to do is properly allocate time. Goodness knows I’ve had these problems at all my startups (FORE Systems, Vinomis, Brava Fashions, Avidia Systems, MediaSite, Haley, etc. etc.). We all seem to spend TOO much time on small firefighting issues, and too little time on the truly important things like: SALES, Marketing, Products, Business Planning, Hiring key employees, Finances, and yes — CUSTOMERS!!!

So what’s a CEO to do?

Here are some suggestions that I’ve found helpful:

1. Keep a ToDo list and get that stuff done. Prioritize each ToDo (including voicemails, emails, etc.) on a 1-3 scale. Make sure all the 1’s are taken care of, do something on the 2’s. And ask yourself if the 3’s are really that important. And if you can assign any of this ToDo list to someone in your company, then do it.

2. Make another ToDo list of Big Picture things with headings like strategy, products, marketing, etc. These are generally very important for real change in an organization, but CEO’s never seem to get them done.

3. Be sure to do SOMETHING on the Big Picture list every day, and keep track. If you’re not making progress — you’re not making progress.

4. Shut your office door! And do the Big Picture things without interruption. Even put a Do Not Disturb sign on your door — for an hour. Really.

5. Have less long, worthless meetings. One company I know actually had their meetings with no chairs standing up, so they were shorter.

I know this all sounds kind of fuzzy, but the Big Picture stuff is truly the important things to change your organization.

Read Full Post »

Back in the Old Days

This post relates to junior employees taking direction from senior employees. Back in the old-old days, work life was pretty straightforward in terms of decision making. Senior employees (managers) made decisions, and junior employees carried them out. This was a very efficient system, although junior employees didn’t always buy into decisions. If a junior employee didn’t listen, it was considered insubordination.

In the old days (my generation), senior employees weighted advice from both senior and junior employees. Senior employees ultimately made the decisions, and they were carried out by junior employees. But junior employees had the right to disagree, but in the end everyone still realized who was boss. If a junior employee didn’t obey the decision, it wasn’t considered insubordination, but it wasn’t a good thing over the long term.

Today, things have changed again. It seems that senior and junior employees negotiate equally and openly. Junior employees are generally not afraid to speak their mind. In particular, at TalkShoe, since we’re focusing on social networking, junior/younger employees still  have a say. Now we must reach consensus. If a junior employee doesn’t carry out the decisions made by the senior employee, it’s more the senior employee’s job to once again try and reach consensus. This can be very inefficient if decisions have to continually be revisited; however, ultimately it’s great when concensus is reached, and all employees feel ownership of the decision.

Read Full Post »

Taking out the Trash

Planning and executing trade shows are a pain in the butt. Lots of details, forms, etc. This week I’m in major trade show mode. I haven’t done a trade show by myself in years.

This brings up an interesting point. We entrepreneurs refer to this as “taking out the trash”. Startup employees, no matter what their title or level, have to do all kinds of menial tasks since there are no support staff. Here at TalkShoe, we have zero administrative personnel. What’s interesting is that one minute I’ll be planning the long term corporate strategy or talking about venture capitalists, and the next I’ll be faxing in a form listing the people who will staff our booth at the tradeshow, or listing some podcast on iTunes.

To be a successful entrepreneur, you’ve got to WANT and be able to do both big and small things. This is one of the reasons that people from large companies don’t always make good entrepreneurs. They’ve always had large support staffs, and can even feel some work is beneath them. Anyway, gotta go and fax in some more forms.

Read Full Post »