How to inject new blood into your business

How will you shape your management team to ensure you stay ahead of the driving forces that shape our future? Management roles are changing in the digital technology era. A new generation of consumers with a fresh and challenging mindset and ideas has arrived. Traditional buying patterns are changing. If you have big aspirations, you’ll need to employ a team of specialist individuals to help you achieve your goals. Recruiting members who come from different backgrounds adds value to the overall team.

As the owner of your business, you’re responsible for building and managing your team. You should be thinking about your team structure and capabilities. Have you got the right mix of people? Use your recruitment opportunities to compensate for shortcomings in your existing team by recognising any areas of weakness and employing people with strengths in those areas. Get the right people on and the wrong ones off.

Its A New Day and Time For New Ideas - Preparing for the next business 'Big Bang'

Everyone knows about Steve Jobs and Apple.

Q. What happens when you take an established industry and introduce a disruptive and innovative thinking business?

A. You challenge the old norms and break with tradition. Its rocks industry foundations sending some businesses to the bottom. The effects cascade all the way through an industry, killing off old technology businesses while creating and cultivating others. It's described as a business 'Big Bang'.

So what's in all this for you? Firstly, you need to prepare your team for the next 'Big Bang' that may well affect your industry and business. Secondly, you need have people on your team who can see opportunity and be visionary. You need to know about consumer trends so you're in the loop on any innovation in your industry. To make my point, some major millennial innovations, that created the demise of big brands like Blockbuster and Blackberry, include

• ​Social media like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

• Smart handphones

• Internet streaming like Netflix

• apps - especially games

• Tesla electric cars

• Uber, Grab Taxi

• Beverage concepts like Boost Juice and Starbucks

• Branded sports apparel like Nike and Adidas

These success stories are just a taste of whats to come. If you want to be heading in the right direction, you need to recruit the right mix so you have the right team on board. Bringing in people who challenge the way things get done and can make things happen may be confronting to your team. Agreement is crucial before you recruit new personalities. Your success as the leader depends on agreement. Some dead wood may have to be chopped as you manage out any resistance to changes that may be required.

The Perfect Management Team Diversity & Characteristics

So you have a great team with great skills. Have you recruited across different generations and gender? How well do your long serving managers mix with newcomers? How well does your team work together? Are they working in their own silos? Do they interact well?

The best teams have a blend of five personalities with complementary skills. These are

• innovator - creates the vision, entrepreneurial, ideas generator

• disruptor - alternative philosophy, challenges tradition, millennial

• producer - makes things happen, champion of flow, master of moving ideas along

• administrator - puts the systems in place, technical specialist

• communicator - people person, team mediator, spreads the team's ideas

the perfect balance will vary depending on what stage your business is at. Startups, naturally, need more entrepreneurial energy.

The Perfect Management Team Skills

If you find yourself working 16 hours a day and fulfilling every role in your business, it's time to hire an upper level management team. Although it's hard to pass your power on to someone else, it's something you must do if you want to avoid burnout.

The skills required to run your business successfully include

• sales and marketing

• production

• finance

• administration

• procurement and buying​

A review of your business should identify skills that are important and those skills that your current staff, including yourself, already possess. Some types of expertise might only be needed from time to time and it may be better to outsource as required using a business consultant on a short term basis during an expansion phase. The key to getting the right people on your team is to be clear about how your team's performance will contribute and then making sure the right people are in place to help make that happen.

Recruiting The Perfect Team for your business

Anyone who comes into your business should be better than you and bring something to the whole. Pay attention to balancing gender. Employ people who know what to do and empower them to do it. Monitor them on a regular basis and ensure they are not cruising. If people are as good as they say they are, they will succeed.

Recruit people with the necessary skills and make sure they mesh with your current team. You need to have a cohesive and flexible team to be well positioned to take advantage of changing customer trends.

Building a successful business is hard to do. Getting the right mix of people to complement and reinforce your business is essential. The Business Minder operates throughout SE Asia with clients in Bali, Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia.