the best management ideas ever

In 1958 the average lifespan of a business was 61 years. Today, the average lifespan is around 18 years, according to a study by McKinsey.

As we walked (and then ran) into the digital age, how, when and where we do business has completely transformed. In its wake, the business graveyard has grown and not many are pausing to mourn the losses of Blockbuster, Blackberry, Yahoo, or any other ghosts of businesses' pasts.

So you’ve successfully bootstrapped your way to a real company with great offerings and you’re starting to see some real growth. Congrats! Hopefully, people are spreading the word and the trajectory is trending nicely upward for the foreseeable future. Up next on the leadership todo list: Scaling your operations to handle this growing amount of work.

First, let's get this out of the way. Growth and scaling are two different goals, growth is about adding incremental growth percentages as a factor of turnover whereas scale is a process-driven approach to growth. Growth and scale require different management styles, below we’ll run through a few important questions you should be asking yourself before you start the process of scaling.

Company values are a collection of ideas and guidelines that establish your company culture and drive your employees to daily success.

These values are essential to a company overall, but in many cases, they are only found written on the office walls or inside employee handbooks. They aren’t being talked about daily or living and breathing within the company. So how do we transform values from plain text into a way of life?

Hiring is an expensive and time-consuming endeavor. According to the SHRM, it costs an average of $4129 to hire an employee, and takes an average of 42 days to do so. These figures increase exponentially the more senior-level the hire.

Given the time and expense involved, executives and decision-makers need to make the right decision the first time. Hiring well can be a great investment for the company, as high-quality talent quickly pays for itself in terms of knowledge, efficiency and leadership potential.

There are plenty of reasons why companies hire from within. It's cheaper, offers natural progression for candidates, and shows that as a company, you nurture and develop the people who are already doing a great job - but is this always the right choice for success?

Not always. It's vital to assess the company's specific needs and goals when hiring, but if you are looking for a strong leader, new ideas, the right experience, or a fresh set of eyes on things, hiring outside your company could be the right direction. While managing change in business can be difficult, there are actually lots of benefits to external hires, especially when it comes to leadership positions.