Franny Oxford On What Small Businesses Need Most
SmartBlog on Workforce
January 18, 2010
By Mary Ellen Slayer
MARY ELLEN: Let’s say a company has grown enough that it can afford to expand its senior leadership team beyond a single CEO/president. Who’s the first person they should hire: A CFO? An HR chief? Someone else?
FRANNY: I find most entrepreneurs start their first few companies with people they already know — so while there may be a shared history and a deep trust, there is often a critical skill set missing on the team. Fill that gap, with an eye toward the long-term. It might be an operations role, it might be someone who is 20 years further into the field and has connections and experience you can lean on, it might be someone outside the revenue stream completely, like a CFO, an IT director, or a really great admin or three. It depends on the company’s leadership mix, history, strategy and place in the market.
