The 6 Must-Have Skills For A Startup CEO
By George Deeb, forbes.com, 12-02-2014
Chief Executive Officer? Chief Visionary? Chief Cheerleader? Chief
Salesman? Chief Funding Officer? Chief Communications Officer? Chief
Team
Builder? Chief Lightbulb Changer? Chief Coffee Maker? Yup, all of
these titles apply to the role of a startup CEO. It is perhaps one of
the hardest jobs to do in the business world, given the wide range of
skills required to excel. This is one of the reasons only 10% of
startups actually succeed, as it takes a really special person that has
the right combination of skills and startup DNA. In many ways, a much
harder job than a CEO of a Fortune 500 company, minus the big salary.
When it comes down to the core skills required, a startup CEO needs: (1) a clear vision of where the ship is sailing; (2) a finger on the pulse of the industry and competitive trends, to navigate the ship over time; (3) solid team management skills to keep all employees sailing in the same direction; (4) impeccable sales and motivational skills, while maintaining credibility with clients, investors and employees; (5) to keep the business on plan and budget; and (6) keep the company liquid. I’ll tackle each of these points below.
1. Set the vision.
The first two points really go hand-in-hand. In order to create the clear vision, you need to have a good sense to what is going on in the industry and with competition. That is really the first step to building a winning business plan. It is not enough to say, “we are building a great travel website”, as there are tons of travel websites out there. You must shape the vision in a way it is more unique and competitive than current solutions in the market. My previous startup, iExplore, positioned itself as a niche killer for adventure travel (compared to the general online travel agencies like Expedia ). And, within the adventure travel sector, iExplore marketed “privately-guided, made to order” tours (compared to the traditional packaged group tours with set itineraries) at a price point 25% less than similar tours being offered (leveraging the cost efficiencies of the internet, compared to brick and mortar agents). This vision for the business created a unique product in the market place, which consumers ultimately flocked to with over 1MM unique visitors per month coming to the website.
2. Monitor key trends and pivot accordingly.
But, the CEO’s job is not done setting the initial vision. He or she must stay on top of key trends in their industry or competition to navigate the ship over time. For example, after the economic impact of 9/11/01, iExplore needed to evolve from a travel agent of other tour operators’ trips, into an iExplore branded tour operator of its own, in an effort to get more margin to the bottom line during a difficult economic climate. And, at the same time, iExplore opened up a whole new revenue stream from online advertising, to get the company to profitability while people were not traveling. It is the CEO’s job to constantly watch these kinds of economic, industry or competitive movements over time, and to respond accordingly to keep the ship afloat.
3. Keep the team focused on the same goal.
Another job of the CEO is to make sure all employees are clear on the vision, and that all staff are sailing in the same direction. In the iExplore example for adventure travel, you can’t have your tech guy building a cruise seller, your operating guy building a hotel seller and your finance guy building an airfare seller. Everyone is building an adventure travel seller, and the CEO’s job is to make sure all staff have contributed in building that vision, so all players are on the same page as to what they are building. Therefore, the CEO is not only the communicator of the vision, the CEO is the consensus builder for that vision. You will never be successful if your team does not buy into the vision, or if they feel their good ideas for improving the vision are not being listened to. Then once everyone is firmly on board, keep them clearly focused on the goal.
4. Evangelize and motivate.
Once the vision is set and being maintained over time, now comes execution. And, one of the key execution requirements for any startup CEO is to be its Chief Evangelist. This includes cheerleading the staff, from top to bottom, and getting prospective business clients and investors excited about getting involved with the company. Everyone has been around that infectious personality that lights up the room, and you can’t help but be excited by that person. That is who you need to be. But, and this is a big but, everyone has also been around that person who you feel is trying to sell you the Brooklyn Bridge. So, it is important that your sales and motivational skills, are tempered with equally important business judgment and intellect to come across as credible and backable to all parties involved.
5. Manage to key targets and budgets.
Keeping the business on plan, on budget and liquid is a no brainer requirement for any startup CEO. The CEO needs to set acheivable proof-of-concept points, and put key managers in place for hitting those goals. That means building a management dashboard of the key drivers for your business, that are going to dictate its success or failure. For iExplore, it was all about: (i) driving traffic to the website; (ii) getting those visitors to contact us; and (iii) getting those contacts to convert into a sale. So, all energy went into driving those three datapoints, with one key manager in charge of each datapoint (e.g., head of marketing drove traffic, head of web design drove contacts, head of call center closed transactions). Figure out your key drivers, and get the right team members to manage them accordingly. But, more importantly, you need to be able to quickly identify when things are not going to plan, so you can put new initiatives in place to make up for any shortfall. The longer you let cash-using problems go unfixed, the shorter your liquidity runway, and the higher odds you will run out of money and potentially go out of business. So, plan accordingly.
6. Keep the company liquid and in business.
>>>
Chief Executive Officer? Chief Visionary? Chief Cheerleader? Chief
Salesman? Chief Funding Officer? Chief Communications Officer? Chief
Team
Builder? Chief Lightbulb Changer? Chief Coffee Maker? Yup, all of
these titles apply to the role of a startup CEO. It is perhaps one of
the hardest jobs to do in the business world, given the wide range of
skills required to excel. This is one of the reasons only 10% of
startups actually succeed, as it takes a really special person that has
the right combination of skills and startup DNA. In many ways, a much
harder job than a CEO of a Fortune 500 company, minus the big salary.When it comes down to the core skills required, a startup CEO needs: (1) a clear vision of where the ship is sailing; (2) a finger on the pulse of the industry and competitive trends, to navigate the ship over time; (3) solid team management skills to keep all employees sailing in the same direction; (4) impeccable sales and motivational skills, while maintaining credibility with clients, investors and employees; (5) to keep the business on plan and budget; and (6) keep the company liquid. I’ll tackle each of these points below.
1. Set the vision.
The first two points really go hand-in-hand. In order to create the clear vision, you need to have a good sense to what is going on in the industry and with competition. That is really the first step to building a winning business plan. It is not enough to say, “we are building a great travel website”, as there are tons of travel websites out there. You must shape the vision in a way it is more unique and competitive than current solutions in the market. My previous startup, iExplore, positioned itself as a niche killer for adventure travel (compared to the general online travel agencies like Expedia ). And, within the adventure travel sector, iExplore marketed “privately-guided, made to order” tours (compared to the traditional packaged group tours with set itineraries) at a price point 25% less than similar tours being offered (leveraging the cost efficiencies of the internet, compared to brick and mortar agents). This vision for the business created a unique product in the market place, which consumers ultimately flocked to with over 1MM unique visitors per month coming to the website.
2. Monitor key trends and pivot accordingly.
But, the CEO’s job is not done setting the initial vision. He or she must stay on top of key trends in their industry or competition to navigate the ship over time. For example, after the economic impact of 9/11/01, iExplore needed to evolve from a travel agent of other tour operators’ trips, into an iExplore branded tour operator of its own, in an effort to get more margin to the bottom line during a difficult economic climate. And, at the same time, iExplore opened up a whole new revenue stream from online advertising, to get the company to profitability while people were not traveling. It is the CEO’s job to constantly watch these kinds of economic, industry or competitive movements over time, and to respond accordingly to keep the ship afloat.
3. Keep the team focused on the same goal.
Another job of the CEO is to make sure all employees are clear on the vision, and that all staff are sailing in the same direction. In the iExplore example for adventure travel, you can’t have your tech guy building a cruise seller, your operating guy building a hotel seller and your finance guy building an airfare seller. Everyone is building an adventure travel seller, and the CEO’s job is to make sure all staff have contributed in building that vision, so all players are on the same page as to what they are building. Therefore, the CEO is not only the communicator of the vision, the CEO is the consensus builder for that vision. You will never be successful if your team does not buy into the vision, or if they feel their good ideas for improving the vision are not being listened to. Then once everyone is firmly on board, keep them clearly focused on the goal.
4. Evangelize and motivate.
Once the vision is set and being maintained over time, now comes execution. And, one of the key execution requirements for any startup CEO is to be its Chief Evangelist. This includes cheerleading the staff, from top to bottom, and getting prospective business clients and investors excited about getting involved with the company. Everyone has been around that infectious personality that lights up the room, and you can’t help but be excited by that person. That is who you need to be. But, and this is a big but, everyone has also been around that person who you feel is trying to sell you the Brooklyn Bridge. So, it is important that your sales and motivational skills, are tempered with equally important business judgment and intellect to come across as credible and backable to all parties involved.
5. Manage to key targets and budgets.
Keeping the business on plan, on budget and liquid is a no brainer requirement for any startup CEO. The CEO needs to set acheivable proof-of-concept points, and put key managers in place for hitting those goals. That means building a management dashboard of the key drivers for your business, that are going to dictate its success or failure. For iExplore, it was all about: (i) driving traffic to the website; (ii) getting those visitors to contact us; and (iii) getting those contacts to convert into a sale. So, all energy went into driving those three datapoints, with one key manager in charge of each datapoint (e.g., head of marketing drove traffic, head of web design drove contacts, head of call center closed transactions). Figure out your key drivers, and get the right team members to manage them accordingly. But, more importantly, you need to be able to quickly identify when things are not going to plan, so you can put new initiatives in place to make up for any shortfall. The longer you let cash-using problems go unfixed, the shorter your liquidity runway, and the higher odds you will run out of money and potentially go out of business. So, plan accordingly.
6. Keep the company liquid and in business.
>>>
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