Category: Management

Can you Read? Technical and Financial Literacy

2 Things Business Students Must Know

Managers in today’s economy cannot just be good at one thing. On the contrary, they need to have an exposure to almost every facet of the business that they are managing if they are to succeed. Does that mean you have to be a network engineer in order to run Cisco Systems, or a chef in order to run Nabisco? Certainly not. However, it’s tough to manage what you don’t know. Last year in the NU Entrepreneurs Club, I was the Director of our Startup Challenge, the largest division of the club. This year as President, I manage that Director, and 23 others. I know what they have to deal with because I did it myself before.

I believe that for any business-oriented student graduating today, in addition to whatever your major concentration is in business, you need to be literate in two key areas: technology and money. A lack of understanding of either is a gaping failure point for an organization. Let’s look at each one:

Technical Literacy

This means that you can talk the tech talk. Do you have to be the CTO? No. But, you need to understand the language, the acronyms and the terms that engineers use. You need to be comfortable speaking to engineers and have a solid understanding of how they think and how they work. You should be able to approximate about how long a technical project will take, and about how much it will cost. Advantages:

  • Earn respect from the engineering team… engineers want to see business people who at least have the desire to understand tech
  • Pay the right price for tech projects because you understand what it takes to complete them
  • Gain opportunities to leverage technology that you understand to increase efficiency and reduce costs in your business

Financial Literacy

A balance sheet can be confusing. Do you know how to calculate comprehensive income or loss? Your company just bought a new server – how should we deal with the cost of that asset and how should we depreciate it? These are questions that should not be reserved for just your CFO or Controller. Advantages:

  • Ability to talk to finance and accounting teams and understand their needs 
  • Insight to know when there is a financial problem in your company, not enough cash flow, etc.
  • Skills to review a company’s financial statements before your join the team to ensure it is in good fiscal health

Ready to become technically and financially literate? Great! Here are the action items:

Clarity as Clear as Glass

“Assuming makes an ass out of you and me.”

I make it a point to focus on clarity with my team. This plays off the old saying that “assuming makes an ass out of you and me.” I may have an idea for a project, or a specific deliverable that I need someone on my team to take care of. If you want something done right, you need to be explicitly clear with exactly what you need, the format you need it in and the deadline. I use bulleted lists, bold things and use key words like “action items” and “deliverables.”

If I am on a team and get these kinds of instructions from the project manager, there is no excuse to get it wrong, because it is so drop dead obvious, and everyone knows it. 

It’s really easy to be clear. Use the following guidelines when outlining instructions:

1. No big words.

Use simple language that is easy to read and digest.

2. Don’t write long paragraphs.

Bulleted lists are your best friend.

3. Bold what is important.

People’s eyes will go right to it.

4. Format documents.

Use tables, use visuals. My professor and serial entrepreneur, Bruce Russell, explained it best that the important stuff should jump right off the page.

5. Be careful with acronyms.

I only use acronyms when my team either knows them, or I want my team to learn them by searching on Google.

6. No extra information.

Tell people what they need to know. Nothing less, nothing more.

What are the advantages of clarity?

  • Less mistakes
  • Less frustration
  • Faster delivery times
  • Things get done right the first time
  • Happier team

So, next time you are writing a Goliath email that seems more like a Harry Potter novel, take a step back and ensure that things are concise and the important information is abundantly clear.

5 Ways to Be a Great Mentor

Especially in the world of entrepreneurship, having great mentors and being a great mentor is crucial. Mentors can act as guides for a young entrepreneur, helping them avoid classic mistakes, making key introductions and serving as a teacher far after college graduation day.

Over the past few years I have had multiple mentors, and been a mentor myself to others. As President of the Entrepreneurs Club, a key part of my role is to act as a mentor to all 640 of our members, and especially to the younger students leading the club on our executive team. On top of that, I am honored to have quite a few great mentors to guide me, such as Graham Brooks at .406 Ventures, Gordon Adomdza at Northeastern University, and Ken Coleman, co-founder and former EVP at TimeTrade Systems.

So what makes a great mentor? There are varying degrees of how intense the relationship can be. In some cases, it is just a check in once in a while and an open line of communication to ask questions. When I play the mentor role, I like to take a very hands on approach. Especially for my younger colleagues, my goal is to give them tangible feedback, advice points and action items that they can use to advance their careers. More specifically, I suggest a mentor does the following:

1. Be critical

I call my mentees out a lot, anytime they make a mistake. I clearly explain to them where they fell short and how they can improve. It’s much better they hear this from you so they can improve for when it counts.

2. Focus on soft skills

This means proper business acumen, wording in emails, etc. I am constantly reviewing sent emails / any written doc (ie a resume) with my mentees and making suggestions for improvement.

3. Make introductions

And make a lot of them. Build up your mentees’ networks. I make many intros via email and suggest my mentees set up meetings.

4. Guide, don’t do

Be sure to make suggestions, but never give orders and never do the work for your mentee. I always use the phrasing when making a suggestion "I would consider doing X"

5. Suggest tangible action items

I always provide, in bullet list format, clear ideas for my mentees to consider executing to contribute to and advance whatever they are working on.

Ultimately, the relationship will depend on the time, flexibility and personality of the both the mentor and the mentee. If you want to find a mentor of your own, there are plenty of great programs in Boston to help you, like Sean Lindsay’s Founder Mentors or Northeastern University’s venture accelerator, IDEA.

Are You Afraid of the Dark? Risk Management 101

Last weekend I watched the Hills Have Eyes 2 on DVD. Knowing my policy on horror movies (stay away from them), this was admittedly a poor choice. That night as I stared into the blackness of my dark room and I tried to fall asleep, all I could think about was the blood thirsty mutants. As I thought about this more, I realized there is a distinct link between my mutant fear in the dark and risk management in business and entrepreneurship.

Put simply, we fear the unknown. The darkness is scary because we can use our imagination to decide what might be there. An unknown represents a risk and this induces fear. When there is light, we have confidence because we can see exactly what is going on. Unfortunately, the business and especially entrepreneurial world is one giant dark room, filled with risks with unknown outcomes.

The key to mitigating risks (and allowing yourself to fall asleep and not get attacked by desert mutants) is two fold.

  1. Outline potential outcomes – if (A) happens, what is the worst result? How can I plan to make it better?
  2. Acquire more intelligence. Analyze data, look at past examples and trends. Shed some light on the darkness.
  3. Suck it up and move forward – entrepreneurship is a risky business.