BEST ALONE, BETTER TOGETHER — ALEXEI ORLOV’S FUNDAMENTALS FOR A GREAT TEAM
You cannot neglect the fact that if you give a good idea to a mediocre team, there is a high possibility that they will screw it up. On the contrary, if you give a mediocre idea to a great team, they will make it work every time. One of the most challenging experiences Alexei Orlov endured not so long ago was when he became the CEO of a substantial international company. During that time, he was profoundly happy and made great friends.
As the CEO, he met some of the best practitioners in the industry and some of the finest minds he had ever worked with. However, the company he inherited seemed like an orphan, as one senior client put it to him once.
Thankfully, the group under Alexei Orlov’s charge had an excellent reputation for more than 50 years. However, it was not a stellar performer, primarily because it was burdened with profound problems in the middle.
It was an environment where the scarcity of true leaders, dynamic managers, and lack of a plan to suit the changing world was all too evident in the numbers and the epic staff churn. Over half the office suffered more than 40% “headcount loss” year over year.
The company’s survival was because it was as viewed as a cornerstone to one of the world’s best-run holding groups in the media industry. Under Alexei Orlov, within two years, the company managed to get the numbers to a better place and sharpened the operational and service capability. Still, it didn’t matter in the end.
While the company had some truly fantastic people who were honest, intelligent, and willing, all too often were over-burdened and doing other people’s work to accommodate for the vast gaps in leadership and people with complementary skills. Unfortunately, that was not the only problem. Several senior-level people, especially in New York and Los Angeles, were significantly mismatched, disorganized, and riddled with self-serving personal agendas.
Despite Alexei Orlov’s best intentions, he could not get to cure the most important thing, “the people,” quickly enough. Things on reflection could have been done better, but many people stood outside, feeding on the turmoil, too fearful of walking in and seeing how they could help. This is the most significant challenge facing most businesses since most people are only wise after the event. Notably, the brave ones do not write history; they make it, which separates the chaff and the wheat.
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