One sign of bad governance is the involvement of the board in the operations of the business. Does your board: Approve the choice of vendors, office equipment, software, or office furniture Participate in staff hiring and defining job descriptions (besides the chief executive’s) Get involved in approving individual staff salaries? If yes, they are going overboard. Check receipts and invoices, and participate in the procurement processes Contact staff members directly for information — without explicitly being invited by the chief executive. Such is a bad thing. It not only undermines the chief executive, but it is also plainly kick-ass terrible…
The cost of a day-off by any staff member
The number one reason many banks do not publish total expenses related to staff is to hide their staff inefficiency. A company with total revenue of say US $1,000,000 and total staff costs of US $300,000, can efficiently compute productivity as a ratio of staff costs to income. In this case, the total staff costs associated with staffing – basic salaries, bonus, allowances, benefits, and all costs incidental to staffing represent the input. In this case, you have an average staff productivity rate of about 30%. In reality, some staff are more productive than others. As a leader, you need…
Opportunities knock several times
The general belief in Uganda is that opportunities knock several times, and therefore no need to worry or hurry. You can always find and grab the opportunity! This belief manifests daily. You see young people screwing up chances and taking life so lightly oblivious of the many other people looking at their opportunities. I work with many chief executives of big and small businesses. The common complaint is the generally poor quality of staff in terms of work ethics and lousy attitude, leading to low productivity. Once someone gets a job, they relax and expect free lunch. You will see…
