How renewing trust between founder and employees led to a business turn-around
“He is lying!” – the team’s response was spontaneous. As part of the first phase of our engagement, we asked the team on why they thought their company was making a loss. Such was the lack of trust that the employees were convinced that the MD was lying. “He is claiming that we are making a loss just so that he does not have to pay us a bonus or increment!” This was a family-run distribution company. The founder MD, a well-intentioned honest man, was disillusioned! Long pending outstanding amounts from customers and the complete indifference of his team in following up and collecting payments on time was a major reason for the financial trouble the company was in. But the team had no clue that this was the case.
After a few foundational steps to create a fertile ground, we implemented the #Semcostyle practice of #TeachThemTheNumbers. The financial reports of the company were represented in an easy-to-understand, simple format. Every team member, including the delivery boy, was educated on basics of finance such as the cost of capital in a series of short and interesting workshops with simple everyday analogies. Another Semcostyle practice put in motion was #RhythmOfGovernance. As part of this, a weekly meeting was held where the finance head shared the week’s business performance, including sales numbers as well as liabilities. Team members were encouraged to ask questions and they were answered transparently.
These practices broke perceptions the team had about the financial health of the company. The team realised the importance of timely collection of outstanding amounts. The diligence of constant follow-up with customers and collecting due payments increased significantly. By structuring the team around customers instead of functions and implementing several other Semcostyle practices such as #RewardForResults, #MeetTrackAndChallenge, trust was rebuilt between the founder and the employees.
Employees understanding of the business increased manifold and it was just a matter of months before the company moved out of the red and started making profits.
#ShapingTheFutureOfWork #DrivingBusinessResults #HumanCentric
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