Advice from the Top: Tips from a CEO

Our CEO Chirag Shah was interviewed recently and has some incredible advice from his experience of working his way up to CEO.

In this blog, we will pick out the top 5 key points.

1.     Surround yourself with the right people

People are the most valuable asset in any business, so surrounding yourself with a team capable of reaching your goals is paramount.

It can take time to find the right team or person that suits, be patient and do not hire for the sake of filling the role.

It is equally as important to ensure you dedicate the time and resource to creating the right job spec, how are you going to find the perfect candidate and put them in a position to excel if you do not know what he or she is going to do when they start?

Make sure you are also giving them the freedom to create, it is rare that high calibre people will enjoy micro-management.

2.     Focus on the top line

Revenue is not everything in a business. It is about the factors that build the revenue, from the ground up it is hugely important to keep an eye on all elements of your business, especially if you are scaling quickly.

Do not be fooled into buying growth and focusing only on revenue.

3.     Tunnel vision is not vision

Be careful about falling in to the trap of tunnel vision, a single-minded approach of focusing solely on one task or part of your business can lead to missing the true task at hand.

Always consider the bigger picture, innovation without clear sight of facts, is not innovation.

4.     Never take no for an answer

We are a firm believer that you should never accept no as an answer.

Think about why the answer was a no and think about how you can approach the situation in a different way.

Change is difficult, so try and put yourself in the shoes of your audience and pitch the question differently depending on their position, values and goals.

No is not a no, it’s a maybe if you get your stance right.

5.     Make yourself redundant

As a business owner and builder, it is your job to continually make yourself redundant. The same goes for key members of staff.

Every time you make yourself redundant, you are elevating to a new position, building a team underneath you each step of the way.

As a final thought remember that everyone makes mistakes – it is what you learn from them that matters.