Building Business Value | Corporate Management Strategies

Here’s Why You Should Share Information with Your Employees

How does sharing information empower employees?

Think about trying to fix a stalled car without the basic knowledge of auto mechanics.  Sharing information and teaching your employees how the enterprise works allows them to make solid business decisions while they are in the heat of the moment.  Equipped with the right information, they’ll know not to discount a deal or to push hard for an end of month sale because they’ll understand what it means to the company and what it can also mean for them.

How to Create 200 Jobs Out of Thin Air

“A recent report by the Sage Policy Group and the Nearing Group affirms the positive economic impact of UMBC’s ACTiVATE® program. The report concludes that ACTiVATE® creates jobs at a "remarkably low cost" when compared to benchmarks for entrepreneurial job creation and generates substantial income for local governments and the State of Maryland.”

This was the opening line of a recent press release from the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) touting the successes of their ACTiVATE®  program. ACTiVATE®  is an incredible innovative, yet simple program that works because of its pragmatism and because of the people involved.  Over 100 women with business and technical backgrounds have gone through the program and have started 30 companies as a result.  The Sage Policy Group study estimates that these 30 companies will create 234 direct and spin-off jobs by the end of 2011.

Ellen Hemmerly, Walt Shultz, David Fink, Steven Auvil and the leadership team of UMBC’s Incubator and Accelerator (branded as bwtech@UMBC) have done a great job in finding passionate business people and encouraging their entrepreneurial spirit, locating technologies that were able to be polished and taken to market and then offering the right mix of support to make ACTiVATE®  such a smash success.

Let's see - passion, entrepreneurship, sound technology, a market awareness and support when needed.  Sounds like a formula for success any business would be smart to employ!


Full study available here:
http://www.umbc.edu/activate/SageACTiVATE_UMBCImpactStudy2010.pdf  

Press Release:
http://www.umbc.edu/blogs/umbcnews/2010/09/report_affirms_success_of_umbc.html

Leadership team of UMBC:
http://www.bwtechumbc.com//about/management.html  

The Triple Bottom Line Creates Business Value - Expand your Concept

I had lunch with an old colleague a while ago and he reintroduced me to the concept of the Triple Bottom Line. Alan Randolph is the Professor of Management and Global Business in the business school at the University of Baltimore and the author of "Three Keys to Empowerment". As our conversation drifted around concepts of empowerment and value drivers, Alan reminded me of the concept developed by Ken Blanchard, Alan and others at The Ken Blanchard Companies. 

It goes something like this. Companies should certainly strive to achieve results in EBITDA or the traditional bottom line. That almost goes without saying. But they should also expand their concept of a bottom line to include being considered the employer of choice and the investment of choice. So if it all comes together, you'll strive for the best profits, the best place to work and the best place to invest.

Privately held midmarket companies can easily measure EBITDA, but may struggle with measuring their progress on whether they are the best place to work or the best investment.

Consider turning behavioral goals like "best place to work" with metrics like retention rate and number of applicants per staff opening. Whether you are a good investment can be viewed as a return on investment on the ownership of your stock, but also by how partner firms working with you view their relationship. Is it a profitable venture for stakeholders such as your bank, suppliers, vendors and distributors to continue doing business with you?

So the next time you address your leadership team or staff and broche the topic of meeting bottom line objectives, remember the triple bottom line.  You'll satisfy your shareholders by building long-term value and meeting the objectives of your stakeholders by building a great company.