I posted recently about seeing a rash of mangled financial statements. I wrote it’s my top item owners should fix to increase value, and just behind this is getting him or herself out of the way.
In the last couple weeks I ran into companies where the owner:
- Is the only one who does the bids.
- Spends over 80% of his time doing “billable hours” work (a professional firm).
- Makes 90% of the sales.
Who wants to walk into these situations? What you want is a company, like the one whose owner I met last week, that has the structure to allow the owner to take three or four boating vacations (a week or so each) in the middle of their busy summer season.
The three items above are what’s known as a serious dependency. The boating-owner company is an example of management depth and successful delegation.
