Passion, Leadership and Responsibility

Passion, Leadership and Responsibility

Getting rid of committees, bureaucracy and individual blame

I have been involved in enterprise and innovation for quite a while. I love it, and where I have had the opportunity to think and dream and kick-start things that flourish in the future. Some things have worked, and other things have not. And, we have been so lucky to have spun out three highly successful cybersecurity companies, and each of which has come from a seed of an idea but has been built by great people.

And I am so pleased that people like Professor Mark Logan are now introducing words like enterprise and innovation back into academic approaches, as, for too long, it was all about research. Overall, research will go nowhere without adding some innovation and then some enterprise to take it to places where real people find real uses for it. In academia, there can be game-playing, and where the impact factor of a journal or the number of publications in the year can be seen as having an impact. But, the real impact happens in the real world and away from citation counts and impact factors. And, for grants, it is not the income that matters; it is what the grant actually does.

Know the market and your customer

Over the years, too, I have seen many approaches to enterprise and innovation, and at the core of this is knowing what the problem is that you are solving and that there is a market in what you are creating — in crude terms, it is, “Know the market and your customer”.

Having a passion for what you do

At the core of a great company is the genuine passion for what you do as an organisation. It should never be false passion — but genuinely, from the heart — we love what we do. And I’ve observed that great companies focus on the quality of what they do and never dwell on what they have at the current time.

Leadership and responsibility, and removing committees and bureaucracy

A great company, too, prizes leadership and responsibility, and where job roles have lesser importance than someone’s responsibility. I have never liked committees and bureaucracy; they are often created through a lack of trust in individuals. Few committees ever make strategic decisions, and few committees ever innovate anything.

And, so, to me, the best companies/organisations have leaders who are generally self-starters — they don’t need to be prompted to do something — they just know it is right to progress something. These leaders, hopefully, should be instantly identifiable in your organisation, and who you could communicate with in an instance. Great leaders should not hide behind administrative support but actively engage with those who have questions about their approaches.

Stop wasting time, and don’t blame

To me, companies should always try to break down these barriers to advancement and try to minimise the time in meetings. For me, I despair at the two-hour meetings with fixed agenda — and with a growing list of attendees. I’ve always found that time spent discussing will grow exponentially with the number of people in a meeting. The best meetings for me, as those which communicate things and have an open place to discuss any concerns, and then they finish on time.

And great companies often do not pinpoint blame on individuals. They will investigate what went wrong but will never end up pin-pointing any individual. This approach allows individuals to feel confident that they can take responsibility without feeling that, if something fails, they will end up being blamed for the failure.

My Bluffers guide to creating a great company/organisation

So, here’s my bluffers guide to creating a great company/organisation:

• Be passionate about what you do. Love your business.
• Understand the market and your customer’s needs.
• Promote leadership wherever possible.
• Do not blame individuals for mistakes.
• Recruit amazing staff, look after them, reward them well, and keep them.
• Break down the hierarchy.
• Focus on responsibilities rather than job roles.
• Promote enterprise and innovation wherever possible.
• Remove bureaucracy wherever you find it.
• Remove committees wherever possible.
• Be agile, move fast and execute quickly.
• Small teams often work best.
• Support the generation of ideas from every part of the business.
• Praise success wherever possible, and allow others to share in the success.
• Know when something fundamentally isn’t working, and stop it.

And, the signs:

• There is a genuine passion in the company/organisation.
• There is a core focus on quality.
• Leadership drives the company.
• Leaders are highly visible to all and are self-starters.
• There is a common and shared vision.
• There is accountability in decisions.
• There is open communication for debate within teams/company.
• Success is communicated within teams and where teams genuinely feel proud of their achievements.

Conclusions

Avoid hooking up with a company or organisation with followers which is full of committees and line managers. Oh, and get the best HR people possible! For a start-up, the HR function is likely a core part of the success or failure of a company.

For me, I love innovating, and I love teaching and researching cryptography, and my university has given me the space to do these things. I have a passion for education, and I love what I do. Go find your passion if you have not already found it …