Diamond Logistics Founder & CEO, Kate Lester
“I do not know if I should be congratulated or committed but it was our 30th birthday last week. You can see our blog on our 30 years in Despatches this month and our plans for the future.
My observation over the last 30 years and, particularly the last 8 as we focused on properly scaling the business, is the companies that have succeeded (Network Partner and Clients alike) have relentlessly pursued 3 things.
Firstly, they have a culture over and above any individual founder or team member. A self-selecting, self-policing, and congruent culture that is upheld regardless. This is particularly important as you scale, and it makes it super clear if anyone is either trading according to that or not. It is all about mutually beneficial partnerships – and those companies or people who fail are those who make it all about themselves and do not think win-win in every situation.
Secondly you need to have a really good team. The biggest issue in failing businesses is failing to recruit or retain great personnel. If you cannot attract, acquire and sustain an effective team you cannot be successful. We are lucky at Diamond – it is not too tricky to find people who want to join. But companies who fail churn staff or cannot get the right ones and recruit inadequate people instead. Therefore, your offering to personnel must be rewarding, supportive and appealing. This helps because you retain your team – unless you decide it is time for them to go.
Finally, successful companies must relentlessly pursue performance. It is too easy, for founder entrepreneurs particularly, to be far too forgiving in terms of performance. No excuses – people must deliver results. I am reminded of the saying, ‘We pay 100% of your salary every month so we expect 100% performance’.
In summary great companies have Shared Success, are great companies to work, trust and belong too and they deliver results. Sound familiar? It should – it’s our three core Values. They will serve us well in our next 30 years.”
