Adrie's Blog

Saying Farewell

Over the past week I heard a radio interview with Marlies Dekker, designer of lingerie, worn by celebrities such as the stars in Sex and the City in the meantime. Over the past decades she has built a true imperium around her lingerie line, resulting recently in Marlies getting funding from a private equity fund to internationalize her company further (see www.miodestino.co.uk/lingerie/marlies-dekkers). During the interview Marlies shared that she felt that building a company is nothing more then saying farewell to people along the way.

I have been thinking about that statement, as initially I thought it was rather black-and-white. Looking back though on the various companies I have built over time, and am building still (E.Factor), I have to say that her statement is largely true. More and more you notice that people oversell themselves, or simply can't keep up with the speed of growth of the new organisation. And often you do need people in the driving seat with different skill sets during the various phases of development - like technology to start, marketing and business development to build out and financial to help you move into a stable business phase.

Marlies went sofar as to compare this to her personal life, stating that she had to say goodbye to people that couldn't keep up with her self-development or speed. She even said outright that she bade farewell to those that could not communicate at the same (supposedly high) level as herself...

Whilst at E.Factor we also have had our fair share of incompetent people, those that want more money but don't perform, gold seekers or people that know a single trick only and can only repeat that so often before it is no longer useful. But even so, Marlies' idea of saying goodbye to any and all that fail to "keep up" with her, is taking a good idea much too far in my books. Loyalty still ranks way higher then mere skills. I am proud to say that I have a firm nucleus of friends I have known and done business with for many years. These are the people that are there for you day in day, in good times and bad. People with integrity, people I trust with my life.

Be good to people that are good to you, be loyal. Believe me, Loyalty is the most valuable good you can cultivate in your business life.