Adrie's Blog

Building a company - it's not a democratic process

This week we had a special speaker at our E.Factor event in Amsterdam, Roel Pieper - a well-known entrepreneur and investor. During the Q&A, Roel's statement to one member that building a company is not a democratic process, stuck with me. I had never realised that truth of that statement, probably because subconsciously I have always applied it.

When you think about it though - building a company needs a leader that understands what he/she wants to achieve and goes for it. That that doesn't always go smoothly, and will require sacrifices along the way is inevitable.
Of course - as a leader you will try and make well founded and considered decisions and you do have listen to what your direct reports have to say. Sometimes you base a decision on intuition, which you have to realise is harder for people around you to follow. But if you only want to do what everyone around you agrees on, or wants you to do, you will never reach your goal as you will always be pulled in different directions, based on the individual's interest. The saying "it's lonely at the top" has everything to do with the fact that ultimately, it is you that will make the final decision and you that is responsible for the result.
Sometimes you have these companies that grow according to a certain cell structure, and where all management apparently has a lot of input and say - but believe me, that is all posturing and show. Underneath, the more decentralized the company, the stronger and more central the leadership needs to be.

Some countries are ruled by consensus. It often looks like the responsibility is decentralised but again, I think this is only what you see on the outside. It often looks pleasant if the organisation feel they have a say and can give their input, but in the end the top will do whatever they wanted to do in the first place. The question you have to ask yourself, is how much time you need or want to spend "selling" to your organisation. I haven't always been that great at it in the past - but I am getting better and definitely see the value of having managers "buy in" to a decision before it is finalised.

If you work with multiple partners, you do have to have very clear agreement on who is responsible for what area but even there, ultimately, one of the team has to be the final decider when parties cannot reach a decision between them.

In sports teams, you often see the same thing - there has to be a leader that clearly lays out the strategies. Take note this summer at the soccer world championships in South Africa. Teams without strong leadership will not get far - even if they have excellent players. Teams with multiple leaders will also struggle as they won't be able to become one unit fighting for one goal.

To conclude - are you a true leader, with a vision? then this may be your wake-up call to start thinking about setting up your own company. On the other hand, if you already run your own business but you know in your heart of hearts you are not that leader, then make sure you have someone close to you that takes on that role for you. You will not succeed without it.