Handing over the reins

To ensure you have someone who can successfully manage your company, keep a stream of strong candidates flowing into every position. But sometimes you may need to hire from outside.

Q: I’m an aspiring entrepreneur, and a big fan of yours. I started launching businesses at a very young age (I’m 25 now). While not many have done well,

I currently co-own two companies – a surf-oriented travel agency and website and a fruit export company.

My question is this: How do you master the art of creating busineszses that can later be successfully managed by other people?

And how do you motivate the person to whom you’ve delegated management responsibilities to care for the business as though it were his own? Also, is it possible to do so with small or medium-sized businesses that aren’t earning millions of dollars? – Gad Levy

Ensuring that someone else can eventually run the business that you’re building depends on one key thing: whether or not you find the right person. As I’ve pointed out before in this column, the people you hire will make or break you.

And this is true no matter how big your company is.

This why I’ve insisted on being involved in senior-level hiring decisions at all of our Virgin companies over the years, even if that sometimes means flying applicants all the way to Necker Island to meet – a practice I have yet to hear complaints about!

And I’m certainly not the only entrepreneur who understands how important hiring decisions are.

My friend Larry Page, the co-founder and CEO of Google – a US$400bil company that hires over 4,000 people a year – insists on having the final say on whether or not to make a job offer to anyone being considered for a leadership role.

Once you delegate responsibilities, the people making decisions will handle many important aspects of your business. But how do you make sure that you can have 100% confidence in their choices?

Well, if you keep a constant stream of strong candidates flowing into every position from the moment you launch your business, promoting from within may be a great solution.

Then when an executive or manager does leave, you should try to give that job to someone who is already working for your company – they will already know your business’s strengths and weaknesses, and have the support of the rest of the team.

That said, there will be times when you’ll need to consider bringing in new people, particularly if you’re in a situation where your business is becoming stale.

Be sure to take a close look at people who have thrived in different industries and jobs – these people tend to be versatile, good at tackling problems creatively, and to possess transferable skills. To find such candidates, ask people during interviews what jobs they’ve left off their resumes.

Don’t get hung up on qualifications. A person who has multiple degrees in your field isn’t always a better choice than someone who has a broader experience and a good personality.

Another important consideration is whether or not an applicant fits into your company’s culture.

The right person will build upon what you’ve created, but the wrong person can bring it all down very quickly – and culture can take an awfully long time to rebuild.

A great way of gauging whether an applicant will fit with your company’s culture is to ask two or three employees who will be working with this person to join the interview process at some point and ask a few questions of their own.

This process lets you observe how an applicant interacts with them. Look for clues about whether he is fun, friendly and caring – all indications that he understands teamwork and values helping others.

Pay close attention to what candidates say about your industry or business during interviews. Occasionally you’ll run into an applicant who has so many insights that you’ll want to keep talking after the interview is finished. If her resume is not the best fit, it might be a good idea to take a risk and hire her anyway. Mavericks who see opportunities where others see problems can energise your whole group.

Ultimately, though, the best way of making sure that your staff will look after your company is to look after them – treating them with respect, offering good benefits, flexible working hours, and whatever other perks you can offer.

Take care of your employees, and they’ll take care of your business. It’s as simple as that. – Distributed by The New York Times Syndicate