Your business’s management team brings together skills, talent, and commitment. You want team members to find their direction from your business’s mission, values, and vision statements, as well as from the business goals and objectives that you plan to achieve. Top-notch managers and owners are particularly important in industries that face increasing competition or fast-changing technologies.
The following list gives you some key questions to ask about the management and/or ownership of your business:
How long have managers been around at various levels in your business? (Alternatively, what variety of experiences do you have as an owner?)
Does your business plan to hire from the outside or promote from within?
What’s the general tone set by you and your business’s management?
Do you have a management-development program in place? (Alternatively, how do you plan to develop your own skills, if you’re a sole proprietor?)
What background do you or your managers have?
How do you measure management performance in your business?
How would you rate the general quality of your skills or those of your management team?
Management determines what your business does in the future. Senior managers are officially charged with setting the direction and strategy for your business and laying the foundation for a new business, but all managers indirectly set a tone that encourages certain activities and discourages others.
