The Builder's Guide to the Tech Galaxy

3People (HR) Excellence Attracting, Developing and Retaining an A+++ Crew

With Constanze Buchheim, Manjuri Sinha and Chris Bell

Key pitfalls for scale-up builders

• Failing to understand that an AAA team is one of the best predictors of business success

  Some tech company teams believe success comes primarily from getting the product and technology right. While this matters, hiring and retaining an outstanding crew is mission-critical, too. Evolving from a startup to a scale-up calls for the crew to create an impact quickly in an environment with limited resources. Without the AAA team, this growth journey can end fast.

• Lowering the recruiting bar due to time pressure

  The pressure to quickly fill open positions can lead some scale-ups to choose internal or external candidates that are available but do not have enough potential to scale. Senior leaders in particular should have ideally scaled tech companies before they are hired. Some companies put people with no leadership experience in senior management positions. This usually only works if they are exceptionally talented and coached intensively (see Practice 12).

• Copying people and culture “best practices” from shiny brands

  Copying measures that Netflix or Amazon have taken is often not the path to creating the next unicorn. It is key to understand specific business goals and then design a “people perspective” that ...