Can SMEs spearhead growth and success while putting the needs of their staff first in a post-lockdown world?
Chieu Cao, Co-founder of Perkbox and Founder of Mintago, joined us on the second day of Elite Business on 12 March as the keynote speaker for the Digital Transformation panel, speaking about how businesses can expand and grow during this challenging time ‘ and at the same time, putting the needs and wants of their staff at the forefront.
Chieu Cao spoke about the different stages a start-up goes through, and their different goals during each period. A start-up in its ‘seed’ stage will be more focused on finding the right team and surviving in the early days, while a business in its scaling up stage may be more on improving company culture and management styles. In a seed stage, we’re storming and forming all the time and you need to expect that, Chieu Cao said. It’s not going to be calm, it’s not going to be a pleasant place all the time but that’s part of the environment. We’re trying to get product-market fit, finding the right team is so important. We need to take care of them, we need to nurture them and we’re always switching and changing things just to survive. Because you’re not going to have a lot of capital, so we need to just make it work.
He added: From there, you start looking at the structure stage. That’s about getting market traction, really understand your true product-market fit. And not it’s just the early adopters who should love you or you’re trying really hard to convince people to use it. The market should pull you in and that should feel really good. And that’s when it becomes more real. More structure is created, you want to value efficiency over flexibility. The third stage is about scaling. Focusing on management, leadership… its systems driven and you want to hire people who are keen on that, you want to hire specialists.
How do you have difficult conversations with your employees? Chieu Cao advised bosses to take a step back and assess their approach. Rather than coming across as authoritative, try and be vulnerable and empathetic to your staff. That way, you will be able to strengthen your relationship with your team and build trust,Chieu Cao said. Be honest and be humble. Recognise your role in an organisation, he added. You’re a CEO, you don’t have to assert your authority all the time. In fact, do the opposite. Say, ‘I’m vulnerable, I need help, I need you to step up because I’m not perfect’. And with that you build the bonds, you build the trust. It works for me. It’s not always for everyone, so you have to find your way of management. But for me, being an empathetic leader is the style I subscribe to.
With remote working now the standard for most businesses, how do you develop company culture from a distance? Chieu Cao emphasised the importance of always preaching your business’ core values so that your employees understand your vision which eventually becomes integrated into your company culture ‘ even when you’re not face-to-face with your team.
To be a great leader you need to repeat it a lot, Chieu Cao said. What’s important to you, you need to keep saying it. It gets boring sometimes but you have to keep at it. This is what our values are, this is what we do, this is what we don’t do. What I learnt at Perkbox, as you get bigger people to ask you the same questions over and over again. They ask you why you started the business, how do you get to where you are today. For that person asking the question, it’s probably the first time. For you maybe it’s the hundredth time, but it doesn’t matter. Repeat and really emphasise what’s important and that’s how you really make a difference.
Are company perks important? Chieu Cao agrees, however, he believes that its not just perks that drives employees. Employees should also be rewarded and recognised for their contributions as well. Managers in a business have a big role to play when it comes to staff-wellbeing and should implement tools and technology to become the best they can be at their role and be in tune with their employees. Perks have really evolved. We started during a time where SMEs didn’t really have access to perks. The thought back then was that you had to join Microsoft or Amazon to get company perks, and so we democratised perks and that was really our gateway into the market. Now perks are more about hyper-personalisation. What more can you offer the individual? But also, a 360-degree understanding of the employee is important. What drives them? It’s not just perks. It’s reward and recognition, it’s all these other things that Perkbox offers. It’s about upgrading your management. Managers have always taken a back seat. Some think, let’s give employees perks and that will do its magic ‘ that’s not the case. You have to be a more proactive manager now, and use these tools and technologies to help you become better managers. Because you can’t take away management, it’s still very valuable.
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