INSTANT MBA: Company Chemistry Begins With Clockwork Communication

Today's advice comes from Sir Terry Matthews via Discovery 12: The Secrets Of Business Success on YouTube:

"It's like clockwork. You have to come up with a high level report saying what the hell is going on, and then all the employees read it and then you get alignment of interest. But that communication part has to be every quarter like a sync pulse!"

Matthews has founded or cofounded more than 80 companies in his life, and says that all you need for great company chemistry is clockwork communication. A CEO may only get 8-10 hours with his employees each week because he's traveling or has meetings, but long as communication is timely, a company's interrelations are manageable.

These reports help both employees and CEOs see exactly what is getting done, how departments interact, and what can be improved upon. But this only works when reports are handed in promptly and with clear details. If that happens, productivity will increase and a leader will have a great handle on his company chemistry, alignment and progress.

"You have to put the energy into getting that top level view and then in the report, which may be eight or ten pages, you have to get depth for those people in the report — in R&D, those people in sales, those people in marketing, those people in finance. You have to line them up. So it has to be absolutely like clockwork. If you do that you get much better chemistry, much better alignment."

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