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Diagnosing The Workplace: Not Just An HR Podcast
Diagnosing The Workplace: Not Just An HR Podcast
How Does Stability Improve Your Ability To Attract Investment?
In this episode, we explore the necessary prerequisites that organizations (whether it is private investment or public funding) require for you to receive funding successfully. Whether you are a nonprofit or small business, this is a conversation you are going to want to hear!
Our prescription for this episode is to understand that investments come with obligations and expectations. Mostly, around your ability to grow and scale. But to do that effectively, you need to have systems, structures, and processes in place.
Past Episode Referenced:
Season 3 Episode 19: Are You At Risk From The Business Law Of The Linchpin?
Season 2 Episode 21: What Is The Technical Founder Paradox?
To talk more about organizational stability and readiness for investment, reach out to us at info@roman3.ca or through our LinkedIn page at https://www.linkedin.com/company/roman3
Don't forget to sign up for our New Quarterly Newsletter that launched in the fall of 2024!
About Our Hosts!
James is an experienced business coach with a specialization in HR management and talent attraction and retention.
Coby is a skilled educator and has an extensive background in building workforce and organizational capacity.
For a little more on our ideas and concepts, check out our Knowledge Suite or our YouTube Channel, Solutions Explained by Roman 3.
Breaking down everyday workplace issues and diagnosing the hidden sickness, not just the obvious symptom. Our hosts, James and Coby.
[COBY]:Did we lose a patient?
[JAMES]:No, that's just my lunch.
[COBY]:Hey, thanks for joining us. I'm Coby, he's James. And let's get started with a question. How does stability improve your ability to attract investment?
[JAMES]:Okay, so to the surprise of absolutely no one, I'm going to avoid answering the question for a minute, because I want to actually talk about how we got to this point. We've got a number of clients who have merger and acquisition as kind of a central component of their growth strategy. And also a significant number of our conversations recently have focused on the role that corporate culture, stability, retention and processes have on the value of organizations. At the same time, we've been, having conversations of a similar nature with companies that are trying to prepare for investments, particularly kind of, from the venture capital side, but also nonprofits wanting to expand and grow their operations to capitalize on new or increased, project funding. So because we've been talking about it a whole bunch for the last couple months, you're going to be stuck listening to us talk about it a little bit more. don't worry. Even though this, you know, this episode and probably the next one as well is going toa have a more financial focus to our conversations, Spoiler alert. Everything's coming back to how our people and how we treat them. So in this episode, we're going to focus on the need for stability and attracting investment and capitalizing on new opportunities. And in our next one, next, episode, I really want to dig into looking at how culture, stability and retention actually improves business valuations.
[COBY]:Yeah. So I think where we're probably going to go with this conversation, again, we're going to mostly focus on, like you said, the conversations around that are more appealing to either nonprofits trying to expand their project funding and their grow through additional funding opportunities, but also businesses who are going after kind of like whether it's, venture capitalist, BC funding or other types of investment for their growth and their scalability. But I think where we're going to end up is largely we're going to talk about how being scalable really does require systems and processes that will allow for that work to not rest on key people, but also just to show that this is a safe place to put your money into CA because you will get the results you're looking for. Because we're prepared for it.
[JAMES]:Yeah, yeah. And really the preparation piece is a big component of all of this. Cause if you're looking at bringing in new investment, then you're looking at doing something big, something new. Right. Something you're expanding, you're growing. And what makes investment attractive is, especially in a business standpoint, is whether or not the investor believes and has confidence that you can deliver on what you say you're going to deliver and that being able to deliver on that comes from. Are you in a good place? If you're constantly in crisis mode, you're probably not ready for investment.
[COBY]:Right. And I think too going back to just, I think the of, talk about how universal this idea of stability is of key to attract investment kind of even relates to what's happening with governments and international pieces trying to attract new businesses. And going back to your history and economic development.
[JAMES]:Yeah. I mean 2025 has been a ride so far. this has been a very prevalent topic of conversation at national and international levels. Right. Business investment. And what are companies, what are countries trying to do? What are companies saying? Companies, when they are evaluating whether or not to open a new plant in a. It's a massive investment in capital, they need to know that there's some level of stability in the country that they are investing in so that because they're not going to see a return on that investment in year one, year or even year five. Right. This is a long term play. And for long term plays to be successful, there needs to be some confidence that the whole thing's not going to blow up in their face. And the international community doesn't have that level of confidence at this point in 2025.
[COBY]:Yeah. And this is just kind of the whole idea is that I think that stability is kind of like the ugly stepsister of investment. It's one of those things where it's like. Or even just kind the idea, it's like the boring thing that people are less excited about. They want flashy, they want exciting and they want new, they want potential. But stability is really just. It's the foundational piece. Right. it's what empowers all of the big thinkers. It's what empowers all this great idea about how all these emerging pieces could be a complete game changer and new ecosystems and new, new supply chains or new projects or new programs. But it's the idea of all that rests on the shoulders of stability. And that's why we really need to make sure that whether we're talking about kind businesses going after additional funding and trying to improve their appeal, or nonprofits trying to Go after additional government resources and program funding to expand their reach and their community impact. It all kind of centers on stability. And I think that where we, where you and I kind of see these, the overlapping trends or seeing the common, problems or just the most reoccurring themes kind of goes back to one of our concepts we talked about in previous episodes. I. You did an episode on on the Technical Founder Paradox.
[JAMES]:Yeah. Well, I mean if you look at the question of where does stability come from? The first place you need to look at is leadership.
[COBY]:Right.
[JAMES]:Because if you have inconsistent leadership, then everything else is going to suffer. So the Technical Founder Paradox is quick recap for if you haven't listened to that episode or you haven't heard us talk about it a dozen times. Really it boils down to the fact that for most, many founders, if not most founders, when we create a business, we tend to create a business that is well within our specific area of expertise. We find a niche, we identify a problem and we develop a business to address that very specific circumstance. As the business grows, that level of deep technical understanding or expertise that was successful in helping us to start the business and grow it, at a certain point, those skills no longer align. The skills that you need to grow a business that already has penetrated markets is a different skill set than you need for a new business trying to penetrate a market for the first time. So the Technical Founder Paradox really just articulates that, that you have sett up a business and how natural it becomes for to have a founder or a CEO in the role that unfortunately their skills no longer align with what the company actually needs them to do.
[COBY]:Yeah, and, and this is not just something that we see prevalent in business in private sector. We see this just as common in nonprofits where it its usually that instit director kind of comes in thats kind of a whirlwind of knowledge and expertise and is very frontline focused and really makes a big difference in the community. But then eventually, because of how good they are, they attract greater investment and they attract greater opportunities. But then they get the point where the organization gets large enough that they cant be the ones delivering the programs anymore. They have to be the ones managing their teams that they develop to do it. If they want to increase impact and increase M and sust. That increased funding and often that inability to build the infrastructure will allow them to manage the teams is usually one of the things that can take down both private sector businesses and nonprofits. I mean, we've seen a number of nonprofits in our community, kind Nova Scotia that have gone bankrupt or that have had issues, kind of over the past couple of years as well as countless businesses that have fallen into technical founder paradox and weren't able to recover, or we’re able to adjust fast enough. But I mean it is just that one of the most destabilizing parts of a business, an organization, whether it's nonprofit or whether it's private sector, is when the success completely rests on the shoulder of the founder or of the executive director or of the owner or CEO or whatever it is. And they end up becoming the only real engine that's powering the impact. And then they try and grow and they can't sustain that anymore. And that's when those exact skills, like you said, that got them to where they are are now the exact skills that are holding them back.
[JAMES]:And on that point, the, the businesses that require the owner to actually be involved in the day to day are far less valuable than businesses that can run smoothly without the owner's involvement. Because if you are looking to attract investment. Ah, I'm going to stick on the, to the to the business side for a minute. if you're looking to attract investment or you're looking to sell your company and the person evaluating that business or potentially investing in your business realizes well it's going to require, I either need this person to stay or I need to step in and do that work. People aren't, they don't want to buy a job for themselves, they're investing often most of the time, the vast majority of the time, the investor is looking for something that can that is self sustaining, that doesn't require an intense amount of their time. Day to day. Now short term, yeah, probably. But if you can get out of the way and as a founder build the systems, the stability so that the company doesn't rest entirely on your shoulders. That in and of itself is a big step towards increasing the business valuation.
[COBY]:Well, the thing too is like again whether it is nonprofits or whether it's private sector, government funding agencies and investors, they invest, they're investing in the people they're investing in. Whether it is the founder or whether it is the executive director or whatever is in their team, but they're investing in that person or that team's ability to deliver. Yes, but delivery, that's what they're actually wanting. They want this person, this team, they can deliver this, but the expectation is that they can deliver it sustainably. And as they get bigger, that delivery quality will not dip. And the whole point is that usually it's not just about investing in a single person. It's investing in the team around them. And they're buying the team or they're funding that team. But it's the idea of that the unspoken expectation or is spoken depending really on how aware the VC funder is or the government agency is. They're investing in the scalability of that team y because they're not going to invest more for the same output, they're going to invest more for the same impact. They're going to invest more for scalable results. And that's expectation that that team will deliver the scalable results. And that can only come from that team having stability and being in a position where it's not reliant on the core people or the e executive director or the CEO to be the one out there doing the work. no VC funder, no government funder wants that.
[JAMES]:Yeah. And you hit a really good point because it is the team. I mean, you hear that. That is a common theme that comes up when you're looking at, business investment opportunities. Not just who is the leader, who is the figurehead, but what does the team look like, what is the skill set that we have around us? What, how does the team work together? Can they actually collaborate? Or is everybody off doing their own thing? Right. These questions of not just who is in charge, not just, we often focus on, financial metrics as kind of the key indicator of whether or not a company is healthy.
[COBY]:Right.
[JAMES]:And that is a wonderful initial snapshot to, take a look at. But we serious investors will go beyond that. They'll go beyond just looking at the financial statements of the company and actually look at, okay, what's the team look like? Do we have the skill sets around us that will allow us to capitalize on the opportunities in front of us? Have we just talked about these opportunities or are we actually making progress towards them? Are we bleeding people on a regular basis? If your, employee turnover rate is really high, that's not a good look for you to attract business. Because how can you capitalize on, these new markets, new opportunities, new investments that you're going after if you can't even hang on to people in your organization? So all of these pieces, once you get in beyond the initial, yeah, our bottom line is healthy conversation. Once people start doing their due diligence, what they are evaluating is, are you stable, are you capable of delivering on the, promises that you are making.
[COBY]:And the other thing too is when that stability comes into question. One of the things that businesses really want to know why that team works and is they want to make sure that kind of like what you said earlier, that does this founder that we're buying out, do they need to still be here for this business to operate or I'm buying myself a job because. So we did an episode, I think two episodes back, we talked about the business law of the lincpin. And this is another great example of that. Because the idea of if your business is resting solely on the skill sets, the contacts, the knowledge, if you need that founder in order for this business to operate, this business is not scalable. This business is not, attractive for investment. Just like in the nonprofit sector, if you need that executive director to be the only thing or to be the catalyst for all things and to do all the work, that's not scalable. That's not going to draw a greater investment because you'not able to increase impact with increased funding. Stuck. You're stuck in a very limited circle because that person can'be replicated.
[JAMES]:Yeah, Essentially m. It creates a risk in the business. Right. And when there are risks present, we need to identify them and we need to try to mitigate them. Right. So how do you mitigate the risk of a technical founder or a linchpin? Well, you create systems, processes, and you operationalize what they do. Right. You create stability. You create the ability to, replicate the success that others are having. you invest in process development, you invest in key people. You invest like we need to de risk our organizations if we are going to get any form of investment, whether that's government or private.
[COBY]:And that's just it. Because again, what person with the purse strings, whether that's a VC or whether that's a government agency, is like, you know what? That looks like a nice risky investment. Let's dump all our money into that.
[JAMES]:yeah, governments might be a little less diligent in that, but, that might just be my own biases coming out.
[COBY]:Maybe. But the idea is that like, I don't think anybody on the surface is looking for.
[JAMES]:Nobody's going into a conversation looking for a risky investment.
[COBY]:Right. Yeah, exactly. And the idea of they want. People want stability because stability provides consistency. And consistency can provide. You can predict what is going to be the ROI or whats going to be the impact or whatever it is that youre trying to get of that investment. They want that. And that can only Come with stability. I think a good example is I want to talk a little bit more about kind of digging into each kind of our two areas. We were talking about both nonprofits and small businesses. I think that giving each their own attention could be helpful in showing, again, the versatility of this concept. But also we got some good examples that I think that we could probably come up with. So I want to talk about the nonprofits first. so again, we're even having conversations around how can orations kind grow with a lot of core societal issues. There's this need for greater investments in nonprofits to improve impact, kind of alleviate some of the like, again, social situations that many organizations or so many communities are in.
[JAMES]:the way that governments deliver services to their, citizens is through third party, non governmental agencies. There's a lot of direct government, support through civil service. But those civil service programs or departments often also fund, NGOs that receive government funding to deliver on these mandates. So.
[COBY]:Yeah, well, most of the stuff that's really making a difference in your community comes from grassroots organization that started off with a passionate group that sometimes they evolve into these massive organizations that have this crazy large impact over this huge region and they're really making a huge difference in the world. Or, some that are smaller and working their way up to something like that. But that's the whole point is they want the dollars to be spent wisely on their ability to kind of have this, you know, I can have this increased impact, but for a nonprofit, be able to handle the growth, be able to handle a new project, be able to deliver the results. You have to be able to do that without waste, without fracturing under the additional pressure that this new funding comes with. Because again, new funding, whether it's BC funding, whether it's government funding, comes with strings attached. And those strings attached are usually a. About.
[JAMES]:About impact or about deliver accountability. Yeah.
[COBY]:And so if you're not set up to handle a new project or a new region or a new scope of whatever it is, are you. Is that already going to fracture under this additional pressure and end up creating waste? Because they're not actually being able to deliver the way that they thought they could because they didn't have that fundamental stability to build off of.
[JAMES]:Yeah. And the challenge with, grassroots nonprofits that develop very organically, they are run by incredibly passionate, incredibly dedicated and skilled individuals, but they are technical founders in every sense of the word. They have a very specific and deep knowledge of a particular issue or area and rarely is that also seen with the knowledge and expertise of how do you actually build an organization delivering services to the community. They've got that, that is their passion, that is their drive, that is who they are, what they do and they are good at it. But building a structure, building the supports behind it, building the stability to be able to expand, that is rarely seen in conjunction with the other skills required to start and grow.
[COBY]:And that really speaks to the bulk of the work that we do in nonprofits is we usually go in to help them create that stability. Sometimes it's a matter of us stepping in and being kind of taking on a leadership role to kind of help build the house while we're inside it. But a lot of times it's usually us working, working beside the leadership team as kind of an external resource and kind of an outside voice to kind of help them fill in the gaps, build those structures around them so they can actually be able to focus more time on the impact that they're trying to achieve then by having that come from processes and policies and stability and consistency so they can actually meet their obligations and do more with the funding that they already have. Right. because again that stability is so important for everybody. I mean for the nonprofits and the leaders and their boards, they want that impact to come and they want to be able to do more. But the communities want that to happen too. But they want that to happen effectively and have that rollout be not a wasted opportunity really.
[JAMES]:Its about allowing people to play to their strengths. Right. If you. We have met some absolutely phenomenal nonprofit leaders who are the most dedicated, the most like caring, compassionate, the depth of knowledge that they have in the services that they are delivering and their ability to communicate with funders and get more programming dollars is an incredibly remarkable skill. We need to free people up to do that. If you have that skill as a nonprofit leader, that is a m. Incredibly valuable skill set for the organization. Sometimes it just means bringing in some external resources to be able to build the structure and the foundation and then get out of the way and let the organization do what it's really good at.
[COBY]:Yeah, that reminds me of a while ago we worked with an organization that they were chasing this funding to bring this new program to their community that was going to be huge for around kind of connecting the different new residents and students and kind of job seekers kind being two broader opportunities in the community and networks. And it was this amazing program that.
[JAMES]:They are so excited, really integrating ah, people into the community, connecting them with opportunities, resources and supports. Like yeah, really, really well designed.
[COBY]:Absolutely. Yeah. And this nonprofit was so excited and they wanted, and they had the great relationship with their funders but the funders were like, you know what? Things are just too chaotic and you know, in this organization. And this is something that I think we need to just take a moment, take a beat and just kind of clarify too. Your ability to capitalize the new opportunities when you're stable is significantly different than your ability to capitalize on opportunities when you're in reaction mode, when you're in chaos or when you're understaffed. And it's something that this was what was happening with this nonprofit.
[JAMES]:On this particular nonprofit, unfortunately there were some very well known instances of key staff people leaving at the time when they, the organization was trying to attract new investments and new programming to increase their impact in the community.
[COBY]:Right, exactly. Yeah. They just kept, they kept losing key people. And part of the problem too was that the executive director was so in the weeds.
[JAMES]:Yeah.
[COBY]:That there was no almost like there was no trust I guess, or.
[JAMES]:Just, or incredibly dedicated and values driven. But what we see with the technical founder, what we see when people are in that role and they, the skills that made them successful early on no longer align with what they're doing now. They default back to what they used to do. Right. They default back to actually doing the work, being in the weeds, leading from the ground rather than being that visionary leader who can take the organization to the next step. And unfortunately that's what we saw in this case. Unfortunately those actions is what was driving employees. And unfortunately the chain of events that resulted was this organization was not able to secure the program funding to deliver on a promise that they had made because the, unfortunately the founder, as well intentioned as they were, was in the way.
[COBY]:Yeah. So part of what we had to do is we had to go in and support the organization to make changes in order to kind of allow for, allow to stop the exodus of key employees and to make sure that there was better HR practices and there was good operational structures and again provide the confidence back into the funders that they can continue to invest more dollars into this organization so organization can expand its impact. And again, it was not necessarily an easy thing to do, especially trying to stop the exodus of people. But eventually we were able to help bring that program to this community as a result of the work that we did.
[JAMES]:Well, we weren't Actually the ones who delivered the, who brought the new program in. Right. We all we did was help the organization build the structure and supports so that the funder could be confident that they could actually deliver on it. They had already done the hard work of building the relationships and developing the program parameters and you know, all they needed was somebody to help build some structure and stability.
[COBY]:Yeah. And that was just did. But I mean like it was one of those things where it just when that was in there, then it also made the delivery of the program easier and it made the hiring of the new people easier. And then because of that program in success and the stability attracted more funding. I. That's usually how this stuff works. Success breeds success. Right. So I mean it was but like the difference. Ye. So this going back to what I said earlier about the difference in capitalizing the opportunities when you're stable was so much easier for them after we helped them kind of reach that point. Then the constant trying to convince the funders that they could do this and even though they weren't too sure and then when they were in this chaotic mode. Right. So it can be night and day when you just have those processes in place. It can make a huge difference. And I mean any nonprofit that really wants to grow or really wants to increase their impact, you have to make sure that you have that stability in place. So that way you know that you can deliver on your promises to your funders, but also that you can actually achieve the impact in the community that you're actually there for. That's why you get out of bed was to do that. You can actually deliver that for yourself and for the community and for the funders. So you really can't undervalue the importance of having that stability.
[JAMES]:Yeah. And it's. You're right. And it's not just in the non nonprofit, investment area either. this is going to blend a little bit with the conversation that we'll probably have next time. But it, what really comes to mind for me is a recent situation, conversation around business that's looking to a founder who's looking to exit their business. And their focus is entirely monetary. Their focus is entirely on the financial situation and understand and trying to get the bottom line, the EBITDA to be a multiplier effect so that they can get the best return that they possibly can. The challenge is that their approach to this is, well, let's just, let's make some cuts so that the EBITDA is improved. Right. That's not how you build stability in your organization and that's not how you attract investment in your organization. Because what happens if in 12 months when the effects ah of those cuts that you've made start playing out in the operations and you're unable to actually capitalize on the opportunities that you identified? Right. Like there's so many aspects to business investing that rely on the company not being a hot mess.
[COBY]:Well, exactly. Let's shift towards talking now more about small businesses. They're looking after VC funding or additional investment that to be able to take that next step with the new investment you need to be able to provide kind that roi. Right. You need to know how the invest needs to know how they're going to get return on their investment. And to do that you have to hit the ground running and gain consistent, repeatable and measurable traction which is something you really can't do when you're in reaction mode, when you're in chaos, when you're understaff. You have to have that stability to capitalize on those new opportunities if you actually want to hit the ROI that any kind of investor is going to look for. So something that it is just so vital that you're able to kind of bring that stable consistent plan strategy to bring those repeatable and measurable results that will gain the traction you need to show that your a great investment.
[JAMES]:Well, and you're right and it's for anybody who's gone through the conversations in attracting vc, there's a world of difference in your pitch deck in how you develop your. Because I mean you're not just going saying hey we've got this cool opportunity, I think we're going to make money, give me money. That's not going to work. Well if it does, tell me who you're talking to because I've got a, a lot of opportunities for them. really what you're looking at. Right. I've seen businesses go through this process with a new market identification plan of here's a new market that we've identified, here's how we plan to penetrate this market. Here's what we want to do to get there, here's what we believe we need in order to you know, penetrate the market and here's the ROI that we anticip participate. Fine. Nothing wrong with that conversation but the tone is vastly different if you have a stable foothold hold in that market. here's the market that we've identified, here's what we need to be successful in it. Here's what we have done to show success. And we st. We've made an entry point, we've stabilized that entry point. Now we need your help. Grow is vastly different conversation than the other. And again even it's a lot of hard work, and a lot of different teams pulling in the same direction to actually penetrate a new market and build a bit of a foothold. But stability in the market and growth opportunity in a market that you already exist in is a much, much, much different conversation when you're trying to attract investment than just a hey, we've identified this opportunity and we want your money to see if it works.
[COBY]:And that brings me to another, another past client where they were trying to attract VC funding to be able to improve their market penetration. I think, sorry, it was to the gain market penetration in a new market they thought was a pretty soft entry point for them. But the problem was they were still carrying the lion's share of the work of their existing markets on the plate of the founders.
[JAMES]:Right?
[COBY]:So when they were trying to kind of say yeah, we can, we see a really soft entry point, we can really get a foothold really, really easily. And this was part of their pitch deck. The problem was that they weren't getting a lot of interest because the questions going to come back to well, they.
[JAMES]:Didn't have the capacity, right. They hadn't built the systems to make their current market efforts, their current bread and butter of, of what's made the company successful. They didn't take the time to actually build that stability and repeatability in the marketplace that doesn't require the undivided attention of the founder or the leadership team. Right. Like it is a tremendous amount of work to open secondary markets or to open new markets. Right, like, or launch a new product. It, it's not easy. It's why a lot of businesses don't do it well, Right?
[COBY]:Yeah, but even just with that, but like, I mean kind of when they were, you know, kind of, I remember hearing the story of when they were talking to a potential fund. They well, how exactly is this going to fall into the workload? And they were like, you know, because I think there'a rep made reference to like them working like you know, 75 hour weeks, all the leadership team in their current work, not trying to show their dedication. But then the person was like well how if you already working 75 hour weeks, are you going to be able to find time for this? They like oh, we'll just work harder. And they were trying to show that was a Dedication thing. No, they were trying to show as a dedication thing, but it was really of, we don't have a plan for how to sustain this.
[JAMES]:Yeah.
[COBY]:And yeah, so that was kind of, I think, part of the catalyst for why we got connected with them and why we started kind of trying to see if we could bring that stability to them so they could actually have the real answer of we have this system in place, we can scale very quickly when we get a foothold here.
[JAMES]:What we’ve done over the last 6, 812 months to build system structures and support so that when we are, when we have new market, opportunities, we can scale up very quickly or we have the capacity. We are actually. We prepped this by, ensuring that we are slightly overstaffed so that when these things do come up, we can capitalize on them immediately. Right. It's long term versus short term planning.
[COBY]:Yeah, exactly. And I think that what's always something that, you know, we remind, whether it's nonprofit clients or whether it's, small business clients, is to say that the thing you have to understand about investments is that investments come with expectations and accountability.
[JAMES]:Right.
[COBY]:And it's really problematic if you achieve those, achieve that investment, but you're not set up to meet the expectations. Right. Like, like there is, you know, like, you know, you. That money comes with strengths and that money comes with, you know, a. With obligations.
[JAMES]:Yeah.
[COBY]:And that's, I think probably the thing that we might want to really draw the point home that new investments, new funding comes with obligations and you have to be able to meet those obligations. You have to be stable enough that you can. And that's really kind of the heart of this whole conversation.
[JAMES]:Yeah. And if we're going back to the not for profit, section of this conversation. So, you're talking about public funds. There absolutely should be expectations and accountability in how that is being spent.
[COBY]:Absolutely.
[JAMES]:I emphasize should because. Yeah, I don't think I need to finish my sentence.
[COBY]:No. So I think that. Again, I think we should leave. We should tryly end this conversation with a little bit of, focus or a little bit of help. How can. Okay, cool. Thanks for letting us know this.
[JAMES]:So how do you actually build stability in an organization? Let's answer the question.
[COBY]:Yeah. How do we actually do it? I think it's always good to answer the question that we started the episode with. And I always. We always have one thing that we always say when we enter a new client or situation or whenever we try and solve a Problem like this is we need to get some data. We need to investigate your current situation to know where you legitimately stand, how stable are you today, how much risk is there today? What is your current situation that you are in so we can get an objective view on it so we can really identify your risks, your liabilities, your opportunities and help you meet your aspirations.
[JAMES]:Yeah, I mean if you are going to claim stability as part of your, you know, we are ready for this opportunity because of X, Y and Z, you need to be able to prove that you need some sort of data, some sort of measurement, some, ideally a benchmark and a few instances of showing growth around key personnel, around organizational process, around, you know, the different core elements that you, whatever, however you're framing your stability conversation, you need data to back it up.
[COBY]:Yeah, yeah.
[JAMES]:If you don't have that, then you need to be very convincing. Righte, right. Like it's either you re, you're operating on charisma or you're operating on data and hopefully you have both. if you don't, I would default to data. But that's probably because I'm not very charismatic.
[COBY]:That's why I see all the time.
[JAMES]:Yeah, I know. Shut it. I was teing you up a little too well there.
[COBY]:But. No, but you are, you are right. Is that charisma willect can often get you over the over, over the goal line, but that will be what actually gets you, gets you to that point. Right. And I mean so like, you know, one of the things that we've seen, like we've done or additional reviews is our report, and our recommendations on. Here's what you need to do in the short term, mean term and long term combined with their strategy and how they're going to achieve. There are recommendations. Is something that people have used as part of that, that you know.
[JAMES]:You have an effective leadership team that understands how to work together and are all working in the same direction. Do you have a founder who is a visionary leader who can delegate and who doesn't requ. Require all of their time to be spent working in the business and getting in people's way? Do you have a management structure that actually understands how to work, with their employees, motivate and monitor, performance? Do you have frameworks around how people are, how performances measure what the key outcomes are from an operational standpoint and how those link to your human capital strategy? Right. All of these things can be done and they can all be done whether you are talking about A ah, private sector business or a not for profit. These are core elements of how you build structure, of how you build sustainability and how you build that consistency in your organization.
[COBY]:Yeah, I mean and when we go in and do or reviews or needs assessments or kind of whatever the varying degree of like you know, like deathth we have to go into, it's usually just, it's a matter what systems are in place, what, what transparent processes are available that employees know that there's more autonomy so there's greater independence that everything'not bottlenecked. What's the communication systems and channels like how can we actually notify staff on things that way we're not talking in silos and there's so much that that can be assessed but a lot of it when we go into, we create these very tactical organizational reviews so we can get to the heart of what is going to be needed in order to meet that stability so you can capitalize on those new opportunities. And then we usually help them build a strategy with measurements to put in the structural pieces in place so they can scale. And that's really, we say what you kind of need to do in order to improve your stability which will improve your ability to attract investment. It really kind of does come from that. You need to know where you're currently at and then we have have a data driven recommendations or plan or strategy with measurements that will put, you can put in place to start working towards scalability. That's really what you have to do and that's how your stability will improve. Yeah.
[JAMES]:Yes, I agree.
[COBY]:Okay. You didn't think you're going to fight me on that one? All right, well I guess I'll do a little bit of a. Sure. Yeah. So, okay, so how does stability improve your ability to attract investment? Well, largely it's to be scalable. You need systems, processes and strategy. And again, whether we're talking about a nonprofit organization that's government funded or we're talking about a private business asset's seeking funding like VC funding or another kind of funding. You really have to know that you have to avoid things like the technical founder paradox where the skills of the founder, that got you to the point where you are now can actually be the skills that are holding your company back or that you're not creating a linchpin where these key people are what the organization is built on. Without them the organization collapses. You really have to understand that your ability to capitalize on new opportunities is so much greater when you're stable versus when you're in reaction mode or in chaos, that if you are a nonprofit, and you're trying to handle a new project and deliver results to, you have to be able to do that without creating waste or fracturing under the pressure of the new expectations on you. And same with small businesses. If you're going to take the next step and attract an investment, you have to show the roi. You have to hit the ground running. You have to be consistent, repeatable and measurable in order to meet the obligations that are now on you with this new funding. Because that's what funding brings. It brings opportunities, but also it also brings obligations. So you have to meet the expectations and be accountable if you want to actually repeated have repeated success in attracting funding. So where do you start? We always suggest you start with understanding your current situation, investigations into your current practices. Whether it's an or review or a needs assessment or some other type of assessment that will allow you to actually get to the heart of where you really are and what data and what measurements can be used to help you build a strategy that can put the pieces in place that will allow you to scale and continue to be successful. Well, that about does it for us. For a full archive of the podcast and access the video version hosted on our YouTube channel, Visit Roman 3ca podcast. Thanks joining us.
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