The subject of the master class held by Erevena prior to the CEO Tales discussion last night revolved around the importance of culture and trust in building world class teams.
There are a couple of links to useful content on this subject:
One, is a link to my notes from the Business of Software talk given by David Russo, HR Director of the SAS Institute who has developed a framework for describing cultures in technology businesses and then considered the implications to stock prices when public companies change cultures (spoiler alert, it is bad). https://thebln.com/2010/10/david-russo-business-of-software-company-culture/
The other was sent to me by Alex McCracken at Silicon Valley Bank and explains Hofstede’s framework for understanding the often subtle differences in culture are between for example, the US and the UK. http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_66.htm
Anyone building a business internationally, will find both fascinating.
When it comes to building your own team, one of the key messages that David Grundy from Erevena shared was that when it comes to building your team, you cannot delegate responsibility. Everyone in the core leadership team in a small but growing business, has to take responsibility for talent management. You cannot just pass the responsibility to your own HR department or external consultants. Valuable advice from a service organisation that has been instrumental in building some very successful UK businesses – Cramer Systems, Clearswift, Apertio, Secerno – as well as EMEA teams for US companies including Intralinks, ATG, McAfee and the SAS Institute.