Tag Archives: employees

Great summary of the panel session. I was in the audience for the panel and it was clear that business owners need to be more willing to let go and delegate more to a qualified 2nd in command. Like, John, I would encourage owners to consider upscaling their next hire into a more qualified candidate who can assume a strategic competency as a GM, Operations Manager, or even 2nd in-training. This is a high leverage investment which will allow more time for “working on the business.” TAB Business Coach-

In my other life, while being a Corporate person, I became completely entrenched in the Corporate philosophy based on expectations, performance, strategic direction, planning, bench mark standards, consistency of customer relations, product quality, performance guarantees, and team work and development of personnel. These points worked well and the Corporation met financial expectations in the marketplace and stayed ahead of the competition that was consistently on our heals. If there was a ‘sanctuary’ location it would have not worked… the same goes for cities that believe they should be ‘sanctuary’ city on the Federal dime. Cut off the Federal dime if they are allowed to maintain a ‘sanctuary’ city., Consistency should be paramount across the USA.

Thank you John!

Old Fezziwig has been a role model for me for years because of the way Scrooge explains to the ghost why Fezziwig was beloved. “He has the power to render us happy or unhappy; to make our service light or burdensome; a pleasure or a toil….The happiness he gives, is quite as great as if it cost a fortune.”

What a privilege it is to give happiness to others!

John, You are spot on about the importance of being able to get your staff to support the transition. The process starts by finding out as much as you can about the buyer’s intentions for your employees. With that information you can plan for incentives that give employees who you believe are likely to be retained, a reason to make the transition work,and offer reasonable compensation to those who are likely to be terminated. The retained employees have a better attitude if they believe that the seller cared about those who did not fit the new owner’s plans. In one acquisition situation we debated how much money was appropriate and how it should be distributed. Our decision was that the employees had exceeded normal commitments to the company, particularly in the early stages and they deserved financial reward. We voted and arrived at 5% of the capital gain on the sale. These funds were allocated on a pro-rata basis of the employee’s accumulated base salary without allowance for bonuses. On this basis a secretary who had worked for 5 years at $30,000 per year and earned a total of $150,000 received the same amount as a VP of Sales who had worked 1 year and earned $150,000. Those employees who were retained in the transition were subject to vesting requirements. Those who were released were paid a month after termination. We considered a longer delay after termination to discourage defection to get a quick cash bonus, but the conditions offered by the buyer made it unlikely that retained employees would quit. This arrangement resulted in a smooth transition.