1. Managing the Start-up
Estonia 2009
Rémi Walbaum
www.venturelab.ch - une initiative de l'Agence pour la promotion de l'innovation CTI
Remi Walbaum
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2. Remi Walbaum
 Passion
 Independent
 Risk
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Remi Walbaum 5 T’s
 Experience sharing
 Cokin: Travel autonomy
 De Vere: Timing is critical
 Axe: Talk the customer
language
 Le shop Try not to educate
 Fleur de Pains Turn upside down - Slide 4
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3. Plan
 Management ?
 Finance
 Timing
 Information
 Organization
 Team
 Finance
 Crisis
 Management Tools
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Management
 Control Vs Out of Control
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4. Management Key Words
 Anticipate
 Prepare
 Care for People
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What is your role ?
 Fulfill the Mission
 Stick to the Objectives
 Jump barriers
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5. What is your role ?
 Put people in movement
 Including yourself…
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Finance
 Secure Finance
 Burn Rate
 Cash Flow
 Payrolls first
 Sales Funnel
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6. Timing
 Milestones
 Monitor Market Movements
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Information
 Essentials infos to run the Business
 Communication channel
 Internal External
 Formal Informal
 Frequency
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7. Organization: Corporate governance
 Organization Board
 Communication CEO
Admin & HR
 Rules
Test and Marketing and
R&D
production sales
 Be flexible, plan for change
 Professional as of day 1
 Say what you have in mind
 Design the model that suits your business
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Team: Plan
 Assess needs
 Competing for people
 Internal versus external resources
 Build a team
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8. Team: Asess Needs
 Role of the Founder's)
 What other skills are key to the business
 When do you need those skills?
 When can you afford them ?
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Team : Competing for people
 Reward risk takers
 Fight for the good Resources
 Efficient people operational tommorrow
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9. Team: Internal vs External resources
Drawbacks Advantages of
of external Case by Case external
resources resources
• High unit cost • Variable cost
• Loss of internal expertise • Focused expertise
• Relative Priority • Fast / available
• Committment level • Committment level
Specific cases
Research Technical Dev
Legal
Planning Marketing Logistics
Accounting
Sales
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Team: the Process
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10. Team. When it works
From
The Five Dysfunctions of a
Inattention to
Team
Results ” by Patrick Lencioni, Copyright 2002 by Patrick Lencioni
Reprinted with permission of John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Avoidance of
Accountability
Lack of
Commitment
Fear of
Conflict
Absence of
Trust
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Crisis Management
 Handle it
 Look after yourself as well
 Analyze with others
 Decide
 Apply
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11. Crisis Management
 Never attempt a turnaround with a team of
people you do not know.
 Get reliable information
 Cash, Cash, Cash
 Focus on customers and prospects.
 Communicate, all the time.
 When you cut back, make sure you cut
enough
 Make a list of what is critical to survival and
what's just "nice to have".
 Don't leave any skeletons in the closet.
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Company“DNA” is made by its team
 The entrepreneur is the cornerstone of the
company’s culture
 Give the tone and spirit of the company
 Communicate
 Know that everything you do does communicate
 Team interaction models to culture
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12. People
 Eg: Fleur de Pains Votre Responsable
23
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Management Tools
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13. What are management tools ?
 The key information you and your team needs to
 Invest time in defining early
 What information ?
 When you need ?
 The key to anticipation
 Figures
 What you can’t measure, you can’t manage
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The Management cockpit
Strategy should not be revised often
Decisions are 200 times per day
 The entrepreneur @ the heart of this process
 Show the way
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14. The Management cockpit
A must…like in a plane. ;-)
 All necessary indicators to make a decision and
follow them up.
 That relates and reminds you, your strategy.
 Requires constant discipline
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The Management cockpit
Output
 Decision process
 Differentiate intuition from facts
 Sharing information or not
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15. The Cockpit infrastructure
 Consolidation area
 For the Pilot only
Personnal
management
The
Cockpit
Finance Others
Production
Marketing and
Sales Project
Management
Human
Ressources
 Identify flows of information
 Information flows vary according to the company’s size
 Build the necessary IT infrastructure
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The Management cockpit
 Design your own  Tools
management cockpit and  Dr George’s book
KPI, based on the same  Excell sheet
general concept  Netsuite.com
 Set time apart to do it  …
regularly
 Keep the strategy visible
 Control the info flow
 Then Decide …
 Action
 Communication
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16. Personal management
 Use the personal  Tools
effectiveness tools
 Prioritize the issues (Urgent –  Mind maps
Important matrix)  Free:
mmpersonal30-2e.exe
 Monitor yourself like you  Commercial: Mindjet (+
monitor your staff Gyronix for projects)
 To do lists
 Check your own efficiency
 Integrate your own situation
(conditions, week cycle)
 Health evaluation
 Build and Maintain the
NETWORK !  Act – Outlook
 Plaxo
 Online (Xing,, …)
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Time Management Matrix
Urgent Not urgent
Reactive Leadership
Important Crises Planning
Deadlines Empowering
meetings Visioning
Deception Waste
Not important Interruptions Trivia
Email Junk mail
Phone calls Busy work
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17. Seven habits of highly effective people
1. Be proactive - act or be acted upon
2. Begin with the end in mind- lead yourself to your
personal vision
3. Put first things first – organize and execute around
priorities
4. Think win/win – always seek mutual benefit
5. Seek first to understand, then to be understood –
empathetic listening and deep understanding
6. Synergize – discover creative alternatives in
collaboration with others
7. Renew yourself – physical, mental, social, and
spiritual nature
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Finance
 Monthly P&L  Tools
 Accounting software
 Indicators
 Cost of good sold  External accountant
 Burn Rate
 Cash flow
 Debt ratio
 Results YTD (Year to Date)
 History of business
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18. Marketing and sales
 Pipeline  Tools
 Quality and quantity  Excel table
 Conversion rate  CRM solutions
 Retention rate  Salesforce.com,
 Process time for contact to eCRM.com, …
cash in
 Start your Customer
Relationship Management
(CRM) from day 1
 5 top customers !
 Business Intelligence
 Competitors
 Market
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Human Ressources
 HR Administration (salary,  Tools
…)  Chamber of commerce /
 Headcount Insurances / Accounting
firms offer HR management
 Missing / opportunities for salary,
 Training
 Competences – skills  Insight discovery
 Productivity ratio Personality test
 Quality ratio
 Personality assessment  Strength finder team
(education.gallup.com >
 Climax scale Strengthfinder !)
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19. Production
 Production level  Tools
 KPI per business  Intranet
 Groove (P2P intranet)
 Project management  Egroupware.com
 Alextra.com,
 Ressources
Companyintranet.com, …
 Deadline
 Budget
 Identify and share
knowledge
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Others
 IP issues
 Innovation process
 … Any relevant issue for your business
 R&D Rate
 Risk Evaluation
 Number of contacts made
 …
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20. The PARETO time principle
The trivial many situations or problems (80% of the
time expended) produce 20% of the results
The critical few situations or problems(20% of the
time expended) produce 80% of the results
Plan your time to concentrate on the most
productive activities
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 Make sure you enjoy what you are doing
 If not the others will notice and adapt
 Have Fun doing it…
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21. Thank you for your attention
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