Sheila Marcelo's Blog

Holiday Parties in the Downturn

 Although we are in a recession, I still find the winter season abuzz with holiday parties. However, before and after the "official announcement" came that the economy's been in recession for a year, we saw news stories trickle in about companies shifting away from their usual holiday plans to save money. But the best stories came from companies staying in step with the generous spirit of the season and choosing to give back to the community.

Giants like Citigroup, American Express, and Morgan Stanley canceled their holiday parties (the latter, reportedly, plans to donate its party budget to charity). Barclays, which held a $1.2 million shindig last year, axed all of its holiday functions except for ones geared toward employees' children. Marriott encouraged employees to spend a morning serving free meals at a D.C.-area soup kitchen and then held a holiday party at an executive's home. And Cisco recently announced it's completely shutting down for four days at the year's end as part of an effort to save $1 billion.

Now that we're in the thick of the holiday season, I think it’s great that companies aren't only saving money, but are also finding ways to give back to charities. At Care.com, we held our annual holiday function for employees and their loved ones to cap off the year. We had planned on having two celebrations—one for the annual holiday party and another to celebrate a huge milestone—but we decided to merge them into one, save the money, and instead donate to a non-profit called Outdoor Explorations. OE is an organization, headquartered near Boston, which gives disabled kids access to outdoor adventures and runs trips for more than 2,000 participants annually. We worked with OE to clean up a nature preserves they often visit by clearing debris, landscaping, painting, and doing minor construction work. You can read more about our volunteer project and OE here.

What are your companies doing?  Leave a comment below and let me know.

No matter what your employer chooses to do this quarter, I do hope you and your family have a great season. Happy Holidays!  

Types of Business Advisers

I was just at a women's business panel and I was asked the question, "Do you have mentors and advisers?"  Absolutely! Don’t know how I’d keep sane without them.

Strategic Business Advisers

• People who can give objective advice from outside the company on matters of structure, leadership, and strategic planning
• Provide advice in negotiation, valuation, etc.
• Poke holes in your business plans in terms of forecasting and projecting revenue streams
• Help with introduction to investors, sales/marketing contacts, etc.

Likely candidates include:

• Angel investors/Venture capitalists—they are more than just a source of funds. For benefits of VC's outside of financial backing, check out my previous post on Starting a Business.
• Board members
• Professors from business school

Personal Advisers

• People you admire/emulate
• Solid friends/family who are there to support you (making sure you do, in fact, have a personal life) and also tell you what you don’t want to hear

Special Area Advisers

• If you don’t have background in specific area (i.e. tech, finance, SEM/SEO, etc.), finding outside advisers who specialize in those areas can help you better lead your company
• Basically, anyone that helps improve your business (Although, usually, you have to pay for this advice, but equity also works too!).

How do you make decisions with your co-founders and/or management team?

At start-ups, we often have to make quick decisions based on limited data. However, this inherent swiftness can sometimes results in bruised egos, misunderstandings, or misalignments among management team members. As we know, any one of these unintentional results can lead to corporate-wide inefficiency, spinning, and even turfiness.

I've learned through the years that, important as it is to make efficient and sharp decisions, it is equally important to have a plan in place for solving problems. I'm not a big fan of developing process for the sake of having them—too much bureaucracy stifles good business. However, managing expectations in advance on how future decisions will be made results in more long term buy-in and alignment. 

Here's the system I've set up for my team…

Every choice we face falls within one of these categories:

• Type 1: One person serves as decision-maker and can reach a resolution without group input.
• Type 2: The decision-maker takes input from the group, but the ultimate choice is made by this one person.
• Type 3: The group reaches consensus.

This strategy can be applied throughout your organization, from the CEO level to team leaders. When you're able to quickly categorize a particular problem, it's easier to come to a swift and sure resolution. The categorization process usually takes us just a couple minutes to discuss and, afterward, everyone is on board with the direction we're headed.

However, if you regularly find yourself stuck on discussing the decision making process, then there are probably underlying problems with management team communication styles, cultural fit, or shared vision and values in your organization. That's a much bigger problem to tackle and will certainly impact decision making at your company. Take the time to resolve that ASAP, if you can.

My rule of thumb as a CEO or team leader, if you want your Type 1 decisions to be effective, is to make sure to be thoughtful when invoking them. It shouldn't necessarily be carte blanche for enforcing your will; often, it's a much better policy to rely on group input. However, there are some expectations that, as the CEO, you reserve the right for those Type 1 decisions. But if you use it sparingly, your people will know an issue really matters to you when you do!

Cheers,

Sheila