BROADCASTS.com

b'We often hear that businesses care about transparency, that they are investors in people and that their customers are number on. But once you get beyond the marketing and the clever copywriting, how many businesses have you experienced where this is actually the case?
\\n
\\nOur guest for this episode of the number one small business podcast is Simon Biltcliffe, the managing director of Webmart. Listening to Simon\\u2019s laidback demeanour, you might not have guessed that he was the leader of a highly successfully and innovative business. Surely an MD or a CEO should be stressed out, knocking back coffees and chewing enough gum to give Sir Alex a run for his money? The difference between the stereotypical business leader and Simon is in how they choose to run their businesses.
\\n
\\nSimon has created an environment where staff are empowered to find the correct role for them, where profits are shared between team members and charities and where happiness can be measured in real-time.
\\n
\\nSimon\\u2019s here to give us the lowdown on how he got his people to buy in to this system and the benefits that a similar system could have for your small business.
\\n
\\nIssue Challenged in this Small Business Podcast:
\\n
\\nHow can you scale your business by empowering your staff, inverting your management structure and thinking about things a little differently?
\\n
\\nAbout Simon:
\\n
\\nSimon Biltcliffe is the MD and chief strategist of Webmart as well as being a renowned speaker and expert in creating value for his customers, suppliers and employees.
\\n
\\nSimon has grown a hugely successfully business while doing things a little bit differently. In this episode of your favourite small business podcast, he\\u2019s going to be sharing his experiences of inverted management structures and the benefits they could bring to your own small business.
\\n
\\nActionable Tips:
\\n
\\n\\t* Ask why you are in business. If you\\u2019re in business simply to make money for yourself, that\\u2019s fine but you can\\u2019t expect other people to be engaged with it. If that isn\\u2019t the reason, ask what is enough? What is enough for me? Decide what\\u2019s enough both for you personally and your organization.
\\n\\t* Work out your parameters. What are the ethics of the business? What\\u2019s important to you beyond a successful business? How could you empower your team?
\\n\\t* If people aren\\u2019t the right people for the business, you can\\u2019t have them on-board. A weight will be lifted from everyone. It\\u2019s rigorous, not ruthless.
\\n
\\n
\\n
\\nTop Quotes:
\\n
\\n\\t* \\u201cIf a business doesn\\u2019t have that human dimension, it doesn\\u2019t resonate with anybody.\\u201d
\\n\\t* \\u201cIf you get an alignment that really means something to people, their family, the people around them and to the community. It you\\u2019re doing the right things for the right reason and delivering value to all. If you get that, you get alignment, you get motivation. You get all the stuff that you read books about. It comes as standard.\\u201d
\\n\\t* \\u201cWe all need a feeling of belonging, we all need a feeling of appreciation. There\\u2019s a vision and a moral basis for what you do. Those are the two things that you need.\\u201d
\\n\\t* \\u201cIntellectual return, emotional return and financial return, in that order. Most companies go for \\u2018F\\u2019 first and ignore the rest.\\u201d
\\n\\t* \\u201cPeople who really care are amazingly powerful in the marketplace.\\u201d
\\n\\t* \\u201cIdeas are cheap, delivering them is really difficult.\\u201d
\\n\\t* \\u201cHaving a trusting, transparent business is simple. There are no contrasting views on things. We share all of the notes from our board meetings with everyone in the business the next day. We have live metrics up on the board. We measure happiness every day and we measure the happiness of our customers and suppliers.\\u201d
\\n\\t* \\u201cThis is an evolution, rather than a revolution. There\\u2019s still an awful lot of still that we know that we can improve...'