Companies do not grow in a linear way, they grow in spurts. And when a growth spurt happens, all the small issues that the company is experiencing are amplified into serious problems.
In this episode, we explore the key factors that can make or break a business in today's world, and that many companies fail to address before they start growing.
Our guest, Adi Vaxman, CEO of Sheba Consulting, shares her insights on the four critical areas that companies must focus on to succeed: mindset, culture, people, and information systems.
💥 Mindset is everything. Companies need to adopt a growth mindset and be willing to embrace change and take risks.
💥 Culture is key to attracting and retaining top talent. Companies need to define their values, mission, and vision, and make sure everyone in the organization is aligned with them.
💥 People are the most important asset in any company. Hiring the right people and investing in their development is crucial to the success of the organization.
💥 Information systems are essential for streamlining processes and driving efficiency. Companies need to know how to evaluate and implement the right systems for their specific needs.
Adi also emphasizes the importance of flexibility and agility in today's business world, where the rate of change is rapid. Companies must be able to adapt to new technologies and market trends quickly to remain competitive.
Adi provides valuable insights for business owners and leaders looking to stay ahead of the curve and build a successful and sustainable organization.
Listen to the episode to learn what common mistakes business leaders and owners are making, so you can avoid than at your business.
Connect with Adi on Linkedin
Check out Sheba consulting
Hi, It's Isar the host of the Business Growth Accelerator Podcast
I am passionate about growing businesses and helping CEOs, business leaders, and entrepreneurs become more successful. I am also passionate about relationship building, community creation for businesses, and value creation through content.
I would love it if you connect with me on LinkedIn. Drop me a DM, and LMK you listened to the podcast, what you think and what topics you would like me to cover 🙏
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Isar Meitis (00:00):
hello and welcome to the Business Growth
Accelerator.
This is Isar Matis, your host,and we're going to talk about an
extremely important topic todaythat I haven't touched in a very
long time, and that is the issueof growth of companies and what
happens when companies grow.
And companies do not grow in alinear way.
They experience growth spurts.
It happens suddenly your productis aligned, or the market fits,
(00:24):
or something happens and thecompany starts growing very,
very fast.
Now the problem is when thishappens, it makes every small
problem within the businesscrystallize and get amplified in
a very dramatic way, whichsometimes just slows down the
growth, but in extreme cases, itcan actually put the company in
(00:45):
danger.
The problem is it's very, veryhard to deal with those
situations while the company isgrowing very fast because all
your resources are stretchedreally thin.
So the question is, what do youdo?
How can you prep in advance soyour company doesn't go through
this very common phenomena ofgrowth the next time your
(01:07):
company grows?
And the answer is, they arecommon points of failure that
you can plan for in advance, inorder to reduce their impact.
Our guest today is Adi Vaxman.
She's the founder and CEO ofShiba Consulting.
She held multiple COO positionsin companies, large and small,
and she's an expert in settingcompanies for growth.
(01:30):
So she's the perfect person todiscuss and share with us her
knowledge and her real worldexperience.
On how to prep your company forgrowth so you don't bang your
head into those standard wallsthat everybody else does.
And since this is a common thingthat a lot of people go through,
I'm really, really excited tohave her on the show.
(02:50):
Adi, welcome to the BusinessGrowth Accelerator.
Adi Vaxman (02:53):
Hey, thank you so much for having me.
Isar Meitis (02:56):
Awesome.
Quick question before we diveinto the actual issue.
Why is it, like, why docompanies go through these
growth spurts and how do youknow that they're
Adi Vaxman (03:07):
coming?
That's a big question.
So first of all, I think weshould maybe define what the
growth spurt is.
And I think, defining a growthspurt as a Fairly quick
accelerated, growth from acertain level that a company has
been in for a while and kind ofgot comfortable in managing to
the next level.
(03:28):
And typically in my life, I seethis happening around when
companies hit the milliondollars revenue a year, and then
again at around 3, 5, 10, 20 and50, more or less.
It's not exact numbers.
And it also happens when you getto certain number of employees,
which usually correlates withthe levels of revenue.
And so when those growth spurtshappen, the company goes through
(03:51):
growth.
It could be from you know,clients coming in, it's always
good reasons, right?
could be from multiple clientscoming in, could be from a
marketing campaign, could befrom referrals, could be from
you know, different reasons, newproducts, whatever the reason
is.
market changes.
And then companies experiencethose times where business
owners are finding themselves ina situation that their entire
(04:15):
infrastructure and the frameworkthat they've been working on so
far doesn't necessarily fit orcan't necessarily withhold the
growth.
Isar Meitis (04:26):
Okay.
I, I think that's a greatdefinition.
Right.
So it's the, the problem thatyou're, basically, the
underlying problem that you'redescribing is the company is,
Built always to work at thelevel it is actually operating
and, and that's from an HRperspective, from a systems
perspective, from a processor'sperspective, from an IT stack
perspective, from all thoseperspectives, you cannot run a
(04:50):
business bigger than it needs tobe because A, that makes you
inefficient.
And B, it doesn't make anysense, right?
Why would you build all thatextra capacity when you don't
actually need it?
The problem becomes once youneed that capacity, if you did
not.
Have some prep for that, thenyou hit correct either one wall
or multiple walls, which like Isaid, can either prevent you
(05:12):
from growing out as fast as youcould, or in some cases can put
the actual company at riskbecause your balance sheet gets
completely outta whack and yourcash flow can get completely
crazy and you may run out ofmoney or lose key employees or
whatever the case may be.
Let's talk a little bit aboutwhat are really these common
(05:33):
points of failure?
And again, just to frame it, Ididn't say that in the intro,
but ad.
Beyond her consulting company.
She herself is a fractional coo,o o, at several businesses.
So she has seen this firsthand.
It's not like, oh, I've readabout it in a book.
She has enough scars to probablytell enough stories over and
(05:53):
over again for more than oneepisode.
So that in mind, let's go oversome of the main key failure
points that company experience,and how really can we plan for
each and every.
Adi Vaxman (06:05):
So first before I start, I wanna say that I don't
necessarily agree that you can'tor you shouldn't plan for it.
obviously you don't wannaoperate at a level you know, so
far beyond what you are, becauseit's expensive and it doesn't
make financial sense.
however, You really should planfor it and should try to
implement the key infrastructurecomponents to be ready for that
(06:29):
growth when it comes, especiallywhen, when you know it's coming.
and unfortunately, most of ourclients and most of the
companies that I see in, in my,professional life don't do that.
And I would say, Probably 97 to98% of them, come to us after
they already have a seriousproblem and some damage has been
done.
And the one or 2% that do cometo us planning ahead for the
(06:52):
growth are having a much easierjourney and more time to plan
and more time to get used to thenew systems and so on and so
Isar Meitis (06:59):
forth.
Um, let's see.
Something from my personalexperience, both myself and the
companies I ran, as well ascompanies I'm working with and
helping in different hats, itusually.
Is a thing of experience, likepeople who are not CEOs or CEOs
for the first time, if you havean experienced C-Suite, people
like, okay, this is what's gonnahappen next.
(07:19):
Okay, let's start preparing.
Versus if you're doing this forthe first or second time, you're
probably really happy thatthings are happening and you're
not planning two steps ahead.
And so that's again, for my verypersonal experience, that's what
I've seen.
Adi Vaxman (07:32):
And that's true, and that's why the fractional
leadership model works so well,which is what I do for a living,
right?
Because these smaller companiescan't really afford, and the
level of experience that theyneed in order to get them
through those growth spurts.
well, and so they compromise on,less experienced people or
cheaper talent, and then theydon't get what they need.
(07:52):
So you asked about the areasthat I think, That I see
business owners kind ofstumbling upon and hindering
their growth.
And I think that I would focuson probably four main kind of
buckets of things.
and they're not necessarilyinfrastructure pieces because
those also exist, but they'rereally more, kind of areas in
the business.
(08:13):
I think the first and foremost,the number one thing, believe it
or not, sort of the mindset of abusiness owner, and what I call
being kind of stuck in themindset of a small business.
So when you grow, you have tochange how you operate.
You have to change how youmanage.
You have to change your team.
You have to change yourorganizational structure.
You have to change a lot ofthings, and you no longer as a
(08:35):
business owner, you no longer.
have all of these talents, everysingle one.
Maybe few people do, but most ofus don't.
And so you need to get out ofthat mindset of, you know,
you're leading your business,you're managing it from the
professional perspective of whatyou know, what your business is
doing.
and understand that the businessitself is, is a business that
(08:57):
needs attention.
and I'm talking about thingslike, you know, a lot of
business owners, especially inthe first, I would say between.
The one in the 10 million phase.
but also I've seen some in the ahundred million phase that are
still stuck in that place.
working from their gut, working,you know, making decisions based
on feelings.
And I'm not downplayingintuition at all because I do,
(09:18):
you know, I'm a big believer inlistening to your intuition, but
also.
Working without metrics, workingwithout KPIs, managing your
business according to, I thinkwe're here, but I don't know
that we're here.
And what is here and what arethe things that you need to
measure in order to understandyour successes and what are the
margins that you need to operatein.
things like not being able toadmit that they can't manage
(09:38):
this growth on their own.
It's, it's hard.
It's hard to admit that.
It's hard to give away control.
It's hard to say.
I don't have the skills, theexperience, or even the
motivation.
a lot of people's ego gets inthe way.
and all of us have an ego.
The question is, do we know howto check it?
You know, check it at the doorwhen we come in and do
something.
and that takes, thatunfortunately takes time and
(10:00):
experience.
And I, I'm gonna sound reallyold, but age too.
Because when you get to acertain age, you realize that
that ego that you've beenholding onto is really in your
way, and it's not really helpingyou.
but it takes time to get there.
Not delegating, holding ontocontrol, having a hard time
trusting.
All of these things to me arepart of this like mindset,
(10:20):
right?
You're still operating likeyou're a small business and as
soon as you realize that youneed to put that mindset aside
and start working on all ofthese things, and a lot of them
are in you, a lot of them arethings that are in yourself,
that you gotta work on.
It's not.
Isar Meitis (10:35):
I love it.
I love what you're saying, andagain, I, I want to touch on two
points from, from my experienceand from other people that I've
interviewed.
So from my experience, I thinkthe amazing thing is how
liberating it is when you havethe right team around you.
Yes.
Right.
It's suddenly you have peoplewho can do tasks better than
you, and I'm talking about majortasks, running, marketing,
(10:56):
running operations, developing aproduct, whatever the case that
you're doing.
There are people out there whodo those particular things
better than the founder, bydefinition.
And if you hire these people,it's like, oh my God, I'm less
busy, the business is runningbetter.
I can sleep at night.
I don't have to worry about10,000 things.
(11:18):
I can worry about 10 things.
And yet I know the other,whatever, you know, 9,900 and
whatever I did, I didn't do themath.
will will still.
Well, because there's capablepeople in that place.
So that, from a very personalperspective of this, I
interviewed the lady a whileago, a long time ago, and she
said something that I absolutelylove, and she started her own
(11:40):
business after being in a seniorposition in a large business.
And one of the first things shedid, She drew an org chart and
put it on the wall in front ofher in the office and put
numbers in each and every one ofthem of how much it will cost
her to fill those positions witha talented person, and said,
okay, this is a hundredthousand, 60,000, 75,000,
135,000, and she ranked them atthe things she needed the most
(12:04):
amount of help.
Compared to her skills andwishes of the stuff she had to
do, like 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and shesaid, as soon as I have this
cash flow, I'm hiring thisperson.
As soon as I have this cashflow, I'm hiring, and it's such
a brilliant way to build abusiness.
The problem is, it's motivatingtoo.
Don't do that.
Right?
Adi Vaxman (12:24):
Yes.
So, you know, I, I equate thegrowth spurt of a business to
those of a baby.
and to me it's very similar to,you know, you if you are raising
a child and you're a singleparent or if you're raising a
child and you have a partner, nomatter who that partner is,
could be a parent, it could be abrother, a sister, whatever.
And there's a big differencebecause, The weight of the world
(12:46):
is on your shoulders.
And as soon as you startexpanding that leadership team,
you're not alone anymore.
But the trick is to bring in theright people.
And that brings me to my secondkind of point, in our, in our
fourth point list, is that a lotof businesses have the wrong
people in the wrong seats, orthey are holding on to the wrong
people that have been with them,you know, from in the past.
(13:08):
and so.
Recognizing the need for helpwhen it's almost always too late
and the damage is done is thefirst thing, right?
You've gotta recognize the need,that you need some help.
What the help is depends on whoyou are.
Some, you know, some CEOs, somebusiness owners are more into
finance, some are more intosales, some are more into
creative.
Like there's very differentpeople you gotta find.
(13:30):
You know, the yin to yang, youhave to find the people that
will help you complete what youdon't have and not necessarily
what you don't have, also whatyou don't like to do, right?
Yeah.
I mean, we're runningbusinesses, yes, primarily to
make money, but also to havefun.
At least I am right.
We, we wanna enjoy what we do.
We spend so much time, in ourlives doing work.
And so you wanna do somethingthat you like doing, find out
(13:53):
who those people are that you'regonna need in order to allow you
to do that.
The other thing is not beingable to define what they need,
right.
Bringing in the wrong peoplebecause they don't know to
define what's really missing.
And that again comes to, youknow, from a level of experience
and how many times you've seenthis before and hiring someone
with, you know, 5 to 10 years ofexperience is not the same as
(14:15):
hiring someone with 30 years exexperience and hiring someone
that spent 30 years in.
You know, Sony or Google orsomething huge is not the same
as hiring someone that has beenthrough 50 startups.
So there's a very big differencein the people that you're gonna
bring.
And there's, it's not the same.
Every business is different, andyou really have to define and
(14:37):
understand what it is that youneed before you bring it on
board.
Isar Meitis (14:41):
Let me ask you the how, the, how question.
So I, I think what you said isso, so, so important, right?
Is knowing what people you needin order.
Then look through these kind ofpeople and find the one that's
the best fit.
How do I know?
Like I said, it's it'sexperience.
So if you experience, awesome,but if you're not, I'm like,
okay, this is a great advicetime.
Am I gonna capitalize on thatadvice?
Adi Vaxman (15:03):
So that actually brings me to my point number
three, which I will get to in aminute regarding, you know,
bringing in like how to recruitpeople from outside of your
network, how to know, but still,you know, I'm still staying on
point number two, which is kindof the wrong people in the wrong
seats.
And I wanna say that two moreareas that I've been.
You know, experiencing with alot of our clients is that one,
(15:25):
they bring in the wrong peoplebecause they can't afford the
right people and theycompromise.
And that's very common again,which is why fractional
leadership is such an amazingsolution in my opinion.
and the last one, which has, isprobably one of the most
difficult ones for businessowners.
To handle is holding on topeople that got you this far and
(15:46):
putting them in seats that areway too big for them and they
can't fill and setting them andyour business up to fill,
because you can't let them go oryou can't keep them in a place
where they're productive andtheir, their ego doesn't let
them stay there and bringsomebody above them.
And those almost always end.
(16:06):
Damage and separation.
and it's sad, but unfortunatelyit's one of the most common
things that we see.
so now going on to the thirdpoint, in my four aspect list is
recruiting people from outsideof your network.
Right?
At some point in your growth,you can't.
Bring on people that you knowanymore because you don't know
the right people.
(16:26):
or you don't know how toidentify the right people,
right?
And so it's really difficult tolet go and entrust your business
at the hands of someone youdon't know.
that's, that's a huge trustissue for growing businesses.
the second thing is how todefine the needs of the
business.
So before you define what personyou need, you need to define
what it is that you need, andyou don't always know.
And then how to define thecandidate, right?
(16:48):
Most people.
Recruit based on experience,knowledge.
What have you done before?
What do you know?
Where did you go to school?
What did you learn?
Very few people take into, youknow, consideration,
personality, culture, and thisyin-yang thing that I mentioned
before.
If that person is going to beyour partner, depending on what
(17:10):
level and what kind of person.
It's almost like a marriage.
You've gotta get along with thatperson.
You've gotta get along with'emon many different levels.
It's not just what they know andwhat they've done before.
And a lot of people justoverlook that, whether they're
bringing in junior people orvery senior people, they just
overlook that.
They look at.
Did they come from my industry?
And I want to tell you, itdoesn't always matter.
(17:31):
In most cases, it does notmatter if they have the right
experience.
Your industry doesn't matter ifthey have the right personality.
They will learn your industry.
if they fit your culture,they'll be a good partner to
you.
Another thing is one,
Isar Meitis (17:44):
I'll, I'll say one thing related to the last point
you said, because it's again,from a very personal experience.
So I work for a very largetravel company.
We grew stupidly fast and wejust couldn't hire people fast
enough.
And the first thing that you dois you go and steal people from
the competition, right?
So you're now growing faster,you have more cash, you can get
the talent from the other guyswho are not moving as fast and
(18:06):
cannot offer the same terms as.
And we hired people across theranks, like from front people
all the way to, to, to see sweetpeople.
Like literally all across.
And I'm generalizing it, but ona general term, it failed and it
failed and it's extremely goodpeople, very, very different
(18:26):
culture, very engraved in adifferent way of doing things.
And it just didn't work becausethere was not a fit and they
couldn't adjust and they weretrying to do things the way they
were used to doing it.
What we did, we started our ownacademy.
Now that's obviously not forevery company.
It required a huge financialinvestment, but we literally
started an academy that was afull quarter, including
(18:50):
accommodation, food, everything.
Just come and spend a quarterwith us and we took people that
were, you know, MBA grads fromall over the world, in the right
markets that we needed.
Groom them to our culture andthe way of doing things, and it
was a huge success.
So obviously not any, everycompany has the luxury of doing
what I said, but I think that ithighlights the point of having
(19:13):
people who are skilled andmotivated to do the kind of work
you want them to do with the redculture has a much higher
chances of success than peoplewith huge years of experience in
your industry of doing thingspotentially differently than the
way you're.
Adi Vaxman (19:30):
So I wanna say something about that, being
stuck, and that goes back tomindset.
and I've seen this a lot.
it's something that I reallypersonally believe in.
We hire in our company, a lot ofmore junior people and a lot of
people from completelyirrelevant fields whatsoever.
You know, teachers and you nameit, really irrelevant fields.
(19:52):
And we do exactly the same.
We teach them and we groom thembecause doing what we do
requires.
Mindset, bandwidth of notholding on to this is how this
needs to be done.
and there are things that weknow, major principles that we
already know, right?
You know, about how companiesgrow and what the kind of things
that need to be done, but, Everycompany's different and every
(20:13):
company will implement in adifferent way.
And every company company needsa different solution that will
work for what that company needsto achieve.
And so you can't be stuck inthat.
I've been doing this for 30years, 50 years, a hundred
years, and this is how we dothis.
The one of the things that Ireally can't stand to hear is,
this is how we do it.
Forget it.
(20:33):
That's not how you do it.
You do it according to what you,how you need it to get done, and
we reinvent that every singletime.
Otherwise it just doesn't work.
So I really do believe in thatprocess.
Isar Meitis (20:44):
Yeah, absolutely.
You know, it's the differencebetween managing based on what
happened in what happened in thepast versus managing based on
what you want that would happenin the future.
Adi Vaxman (20:52):
That's correct, yeah.
So yes, so I totally, totallyagree with that.
but.
You know, and it's a little bitdifferent from, for the, like
more like higher level C level,your leadership team and your
more junior roles.
but the principles are verysimilar.
You have to start with, Someonethat can really show you the
ropes and help teach you how todo these things.
(21:13):
And if you're hiring more juniorpeople, or if you're hiring at
all, you have to attract theright people and attracting the
right people.
And hiring and recruiting ingeneral is marketing.
Just like marketing yourproduct, it's exactly the same
thing.
You have to define what yourtarget audience is.
You have to define thepersonalities, the persona, just
like, like we do in marketing,you have to.
(21:34):
advertise and market it to theright crowds.
You have to use keywords.
You have to, you know, a jobdescription is not just a list
of things that somebody needs todo.
It's a marketing, you know,fishing hook.
it's a fishing rod, and you needto, you need to bring the right
people into the net and then,You're at a better place.
(21:54):
And after that you need tofigure out how to screen them,
how to interview them, how tounderstand who they are truly,
and not stay with that, youknow, list of questions.
Oh, did you do this?
Do you know Salesforce?
Oh, great.
You know, Salesforce, who caresif they know Salesforce?
So, the whole process from startto finish, from the definition,
(22:15):
from the understanding of whatit is that you need and writing
it down and understanding how itcomplements your, the abilities
that you already have in yourorganization, and then creating
that job description or, youknow, the persona, the profile
of the person, and then findingthose people and then bringing
them on board and.
Onboarding them and all of that.
(22:36):
So that is another PR piece,very major piece that we see a
lot of organizations fail
Isar Meitis (22:41):
awesome.
So we talked about these threethings.
You said they're fourth.
What's the fourth thing?
Adi Vaxman (22:46):
the fourth thing is information systems.
Systems in general, technology,information systems, not knowing
how to select, evaluate,implement, and use information
systems to drive efficiency inyour organization.
We see businesses from kind oftwo very opposite.
Angles, right?
We see those with no systems atall that do everything.
(23:08):
Like we are st still in like1973.
everything paper, huge filingcabinets, best case scenario,
million documents in Excels andthat's like huge automation for
them.
and we see businesses with.
Way too many systems, disparagesystems, disconnected systems
that do not speak to each other,and they really can't find
(23:30):
anything in those systems.
So from both of these angles,there is, there's something to
be said about systems and theway that we use systems to make
our business more organized,more efficient, our is more
repeatable.
and of course process, by theway, and I, it's not one of my
four.
Things on my list because Ithink process is an overarching
(23:51):
issue for every one of thesethings on the list, right?
So I can make it a separatething, but I think process is
like a much bigger thing that isrequired in every one of those
areas.
So I'm not kind of, Disregardingit.
but it could be a whole podcastca cast all by itself.
Isar Meitis (24:07):
for sure.
I, I, I wanna say somethingabout the, the it side of
things, and I agree with you ahundred percent and I think it's
gonna become more and moredramatic now that we're walking,
somewhat blindfold into the AIera and the amount of AI driven
tools that drive efficienciesthrough the roof are.
Literally dozens of tools comingout every single day.
(24:29):
Yep.
And all the big tools that weknow, you know, the Salesforce,
the Microsoft Office of theWorlds are gonna have AI
capabilities built into them.
And the companies who will knowhow to implement that will
skyrocket.
And the companies who won't willcrumble.
There's no option C.
Absolutely.
And I think the impact of havingor not having a solid tech stack
(24:53):
in your company, What's reallyimportant now, it will become
really a one or zero game in thevery, very near future.
You will either have a solidtech stack or your business will
not be able to compete.
I totally cease to exist.
Adi Vaxman (25:12):
I totally agree.
Let me ask you this.
How many AI tools have you usedin the past 24?
Isar Meitis (25:18):
I don't think I'm a good example, but probably 15
Adi Vaxman (25:22):
ish.
So, yeah, so you know, I'm, I'maround the 15 to 20 myself, so
like I totally agree.
This is one of the things thatwe're focused on more these days
is implementing AI in our.
Day-to-day workflow.
I just created an explainervideo for my company using an AI
tool.
there's like, these things arevery ingrained in what we do,
but AI is not just it, it's agood example because it happened
(25:44):
really fast.
Or for those who haven't beenfollowing, it happened really
fast.
And the number of tools, that.
Popped up in a very short amountof time is very overwhelming,
but there is an overwhelmingsupply of systems in general,
out there for every niche, forevery area, of the business that
can be very daunting to try toidentify what you need, how to
(26:06):
evaluate it, how to select it,how much does it cost, how to,
how to implement, how do you useit.
and we see a lot of cases.
One analysis paralysis, right?
Where we have people that areoverly thinking and
overthinking, overly evaluating,comparing until to the N degree
and not making a choice.
And by that, they're stoppingthemselves from moving forward.
(26:28):
And in a lot of cases, thischoice is even as basic as.
Selecting an email and filesharing system, and there are
really just two major ones inthe market.
Either one that you're gonnachoose is gonna be fine, so they
all have their, you know,benefits and advantages and
disadvantages, but at the end ofthe day, You need to make a
(26:48):
decision, right?
You need to start somewhere.
And so those things are very,very critical.
We see companies operate foryears without selecting a basic,
you know, basic tech stack,basic tools, and we do digital
transformation on a regularbasis.
One of the things that we, youknow, we start with when we come
into a new company is trying tounderstand what are the problems
(27:11):
that they really need to solveand how to prioritize them in
terms of what system to.
To implement.
And some of these systems are,are very big, you know, like big
E R P systems, big CRMs thatcost tens of thousands of
dollars a year and depending onthe size of the company, and
those decisions do require alittle bit more thinking, a
little bit more analysis.
(27:32):
But some of these otherdecisions, they're easy to move
on from.
So you start with identifyingyour problems that you need to
solve, prioritize these problemsand start by selecting, you
know, there's always.
The top five in the market.
Look at three, look at three,see what you feel.
What feels better.
And again, this is verysimplistic and we could do
(27:52):
analysis that are much, muchmore in depth than this, but you
have to start something.
Understanding the differentbuckets of information systems
that are out there, right?
The accounting, your CRMs, yourmarketing automations, your task
and workflow management, yourproject management, email and
file management, anycommunication, instant
messaging, video conferencinglike Zoom, HR systems, applicant
(28:13):
tracking systems, eh, r andEMRs.
In the case of, you know, wework with a lot of medical
practices, scheduling,calendaring, mailing list
management, you know, all ofthese different things.
You have to understand what thebuckets.
First, what these big buckets,like there are tools for
everything, but what is it thatyou do?
What's really important to you?
And then.
(28:33):
How do you value it?
How do you assess what, whatquestions do you ask in order to
know what's right for you?
How do you, and at the end ofthe day, and you and I talked
about this in our call before,and I, I, you really need to
repeat that because I think it'sbrilliant how to connect those
systems together so that you canget insights and analytics that
are necessary for you to manageyour business.
(28:54):
Because at the end of the day,that is the purpose.
It's also to simplify yourprocess, to make it more
repeatable, to make it easierfor people to, you know, to use
your, your systems, whetherinternally or outside.
But still, if those systems areeach of them operating at a silo
and they're not talking to eachother, then you are not getting
the benefit that you really needto get from them.
(29:14):
And I want you to repeat whatyou said to me about Zapier the
other day.
Isar Meitis (29:19):
Ah, I, I basically said that exact year dies.
I think, well, the world willcome to an end, or at least the
business world the way I knowit, with automations that can
connect different systemstogether.
And, and I really believe that,and I think everything you're
saying is invaluable, right?
It's, it's, and at the end ofthe day, literally most of the
things you said other than themindset, Has to do with solid
(29:41):
business strategy.
You need to know where you'regoing.
You need to define a clearculture.
You need to define targets.
You need to define KPIs.
And then all these things thatyou just said are means to those
ends that are defined by, bythose things.
And I think a lot of companiesmiss that step and hence why
they miss all the other things,that you talked about that are
(30:02):
all are really critical.
Adi, this was fantastic.
I think it's a great overview.
I think it comes from a place ofa lot of hands-on real life
knowledge.
If people wanna follow you more,work with you know about you,
connect with you, what's thebest way to do that?
Adi Vaxman (30:19):
I.
So our website is shibaconsulting.com.
S H E B a, consulting.com.
I'm on LinkedIn.
company's on LinkedIn onFacebook.
We have chat on the website.
We have every possiblecommunication tool, including AI
tools implemented in oursystems.
love to help, any businessowners.
I do wanna mention one thingyou've talked about.
(30:43):
In general, making plans andsetting goals, and I absolutely
agree with that.
But if there's one thing thatthe last three years taught us
is that we need to remainflexible and we have to remain
agile.
And we made the plans and we setthe goals, and those things
change and plans sometimes don'twork out the way that we plan
them.
And we need to remember to beflexible and to be dynamic and
(31:04):
to change those plans and thosegoals.
As a reaction to what'shappening in the market and to
be able to, you know, kind oflook at what's happening around
us.
It's just like a lot of thesepeople that are now kind of
bearing their head in the sandabout ai.
And you can't because you'regonna disappear and you can be
afraid of it.
And I think there's good reasonto be, but it still doesn't mean
(31:27):
that you can ignore the factthat it's there because you
won't have a business just likethe people that ignored Covid.
Yeah.
And.
So those who were quick to reactwere quick to, you know, adapt.
That's awesome.
My last piece of advice, No,
Isar Meitis (31:44):
I agree.
I think it's awesome advice.
I think, flexibility and andagility are maybe the two most
important things businesses canhave moving forward just because
of the rate of change.
Idi, this was really, reallyawesome.
I really appreciate your time.
I really appreciate your sharingyour knowledge.
Thank you for coming on theshow.
Thank
Adi Vaxman (32:01):
you so much for having me.
It was great.
Love your podcast.
hello and welcome to the Business Growth
Accelerator.
This is Isar Matis, your host,and we're going to talk about an
extremely important topic todaythat I haven't touched in a very
long time, and that is the issueof growth of companies and what
happens when companies grow.
And companies do not grow in alinear way.
They experience growth spurts.
It happens suddenly your productis aligned, or the market fits,
(00:24):
or something happens and thecompany starts growing very,
very fast.
Now the problem is when thishappens, it makes every small
problem within the businesscrystallize and get amplified in
a very dramatic way, whichsometimes just slows down the
growth, but in extreme cases, itcan actually put the company in
(00:45):
danger.
The problem is it's very, veryhard to deal with those
situations while the company isgrowing very fast because all
your resources are stretchedreally thin.
So the question is, what do youdo?
How can you prep in advance soyour company doesn't go through
this very common phenomena ofgrowth the next time your
(01:07):
company grows?
And the answer is, they arecommon points of failure that
you can plan for in advance, inorder to reduce their impact.
Our guest today is Adi Vaxman.
She's the founder and CEO ofShiba Consulting.
She held multiple COO positionsin companies, large and small,
and she's an expert in settingcompanies for growth.
(01:30):
So she's the perfect person todiscuss and share with us her
knowledge and her real worldexperience.
On how to prep your company forgrowth so you don't bang your
head into those standard wallsthat everybody else does.
And since this is a common thingthat a lot of people go through,
I'm really, really excited tohave her on the show.
(02:50):
Adi, welcome to the BusinessGrowth Accelerator.
Adi Vaxman (02:53):
Hey, thank you so much for having me.
Isar Meitis (02:56):
Awesome.
Quick question before we diveinto the actual issue.
Why is it, like, why docompanies go through these
growth spurts and how do youknow that they're
Adi Vaxman (03:07):
coming?
That's a big question.
So first of all, I think weshould maybe define what the
growth spurt is.
And I think, defining a growthspurt as a Fairly quick
accelerated, growth from acertain level that a company has
been in for a while and kind ofgot comfortable in managing to
the next level.
(03:28):
And typically in my life, I seethis happening around when
companies hit the milliondollars revenue a year, and then
again at around 3, 5, 10, 20 and50, more or less.
It's not exact numbers.
And it also happens when you getto certain number of employees,
which usually correlates withthe levels of revenue.
And so when those growth spurtshappen, the company goes through
(03:51):
growth.
It could be from you know,clients coming in, it's always
good reasons, right?
could be from multiple clientscoming in, could be from a
marketing campaign, could befrom referrals, could be from
you know, different reasons, newproducts, whatever the reason
is.
market changes.
And then companies experiencethose times where business
owners are finding themselves ina situation that their entire
(04:15):
infrastructure and the frameworkthat they've been working on so
far doesn't necessarily fit orcan't necessarily withhold the
growth.
Isar Meitis (04:26):
Okay.
I, I think that's a greatdefinition.
Right.
So it's the, the problem thatyou're, basically, the
underlying problem that you'redescribing is the company is,
Built always to work at thelevel it is actually operating
and, and that's from an HRperspective, from a systems
perspective, from a processor'sperspective, from an IT stack
perspective, from all thoseperspectives, you cannot run a
(04:50):
business bigger than it needs tobe because A, that makes you
inefficient.
And B, it doesn't make anysense, right?
Why would you build all thatextra capacity when you don't
actually need it?
The problem becomes once youneed that capacity, if you did
not.
Have some prep for that, thenyou hit correct either one wall
or multiple walls, which like Isaid, can either prevent you
(05:12):
from growing out as fast as youcould, or in some cases can put
the actual company at riskbecause your balance sheet gets
completely outta whack and yourcash flow can get completely
crazy and you may run out ofmoney or lose key employees or
whatever the case may be.
Let's talk a little bit aboutwhat are really these common
(05:33):
points of failure?
And again, just to frame it, Ididn't say that in the intro,
but ad.
Beyond her consulting company.
She herself is a fractional coo,o o, at several businesses.
So she has seen this firsthand.
It's not like, oh, I've readabout it in a book.
She has enough scars to probablytell enough stories over and
(05:53):
over again for more than oneepisode.
So that in mind, let's go oversome of the main key failure
points that company experience,and how really can we plan for
each and every.
Adi Vaxman (06:05):
So first before I start, I wanna say that I don't
necessarily agree that you can'tor you shouldn't plan for it.
obviously you don't wannaoperate at a level you know, so
far beyond what you are, becauseit's expensive and it doesn't
make financial sense.
however, You really should planfor it and should try to
implement the key infrastructurecomponents to be ready for that
(06:29):
growth when it comes, especiallywhen, when you know it's coming.
and unfortunately, most of ourclients and most of the
companies that I see in, in my,professional life don't do that.
And I would say, Probably 97 to98% of them, come to us after
they already have a seriousproblem and some damage has been
done.
And the one or 2% that do cometo us planning ahead for the
(06:52):
growth are having a much easierjourney and more time to plan
and more time to get used to thenew systems and so on and so
Isar Meitis (06:59):
forth.
Um, let's see.
Something from my personalexperience, both myself and the
companies I ran, as well ascompanies I'm working with and
helping in different hats, itusually.
Is a thing of experience, likepeople who are not CEOs or CEOs
for the first time, if you havean experienced C-Suite, people
like, okay, this is what's gonnahappen next.
(07:19):
Okay, let's start preparing.
Versus if you're doing this forthe first or second time, you're
probably really happy thatthings are happening and you're
not planning two steps ahead.
And so that's again, for my verypersonal experience, that's what
I've seen.
Adi Vaxman (07:32):
And that's true, and that's why the fractional
leadership model works so well,which is what I do for a living,
right?
Because these smaller companiescan't really afford, and the
level of experience that theyneed in order to get them
through those growth spurts.
well, and so they compromise on,less experienced people or
cheaper talent, and then theydon't get what they need.
(07:52):
So you asked about the areasthat I think, That I see
business owners kind ofstumbling upon and hindering
their growth.
And I think that I would focuson probably four main kind of
buckets of things.
and they're not necessarilyinfrastructure pieces because
those also exist, but they'rereally more, kind of areas in
the business.
(08:13):
I think the first and foremost,the number one thing, believe it
or not, sort of the mindset of abusiness owner, and what I call
being kind of stuck in themindset of a small business.
So when you grow, you have tochange how you operate.
You have to change how youmanage.
You have to change your team.
You have to change yourorganizational structure.
You have to change a lot ofthings, and you no longer as a
(08:35):
business owner, you no longer.
have all of these talents, everysingle one.
Maybe few people do, but most ofus don't.
And so you need to get out ofthat mindset of, you know,
you're leading your business,you're managing it from the
professional perspective of whatyou know, what your business is
doing.
and understand that the businessitself is, is a business that
(08:57):
needs attention.
and I'm talking about thingslike, you know, a lot of
business owners, especially inthe first, I would say between.
The one in the 10 million phase.
but also I've seen some in the ahundred million phase that are
still stuck in that place.
working from their gut, working,you know, making decisions based
on feelings.
And I'm not downplayingintuition at all because I do,
(09:18):
you know, I'm a big believer inlistening to your intuition, but
also.
Working without metrics, workingwithout KPIs, managing your
business according to, I thinkwe're here, but I don't know
that we're here.
And what is here and what arethe things that you need to
measure in order to understandyour successes and what are the
margins that you need to operatein.
things like not being able toadmit that they can't manage
(09:38):
this growth on their own.
It's, it's hard.
It's hard to admit that.
It's hard to give away control.
It's hard to say.
I don't have the skills, theexperience, or even the
motivation.
a lot of people's ego gets inthe way.
and all of us have an ego.
The question is, do we know howto check it?
You know, check it at the doorwhen we come in and do
something.
and that takes, thatunfortunately takes time and
(10:00):
experience.
And I, I'm gonna sound reallyold, but age too.
Because when you get to acertain age, you realize that
that ego that you've beenholding onto is really in your
way, and it's not really helpingyou.
but it takes time to get there.
Not delegating, holding ontocontrol, having a hard time
trusting.
All of these things to me arepart of this like mindset,
(10:20):
right?
You're still operating likeyou're a small business and as
soon as you realize that youneed to put that mindset aside
and start working on all ofthese things, and a lot of them
are in you, a lot of them arethings that are in yourself,
that you gotta work on.
It's not.
Isar Meitis (10:35):
I love it.
I love what you're saying, andagain, I, I want to touch on two
points from, from my experienceand from other people that I've
interviewed.
So from my experience, I thinkthe amazing thing is how
liberating it is when you havethe right team around you.
Yes.
Right.
It's suddenly you have peoplewho can do tasks better than
you, and I'm talking about majortasks, running, marketing,
(10:56):
running operations, developing aproduct, whatever the case that
you're doing.
There are people out there whodo those particular things
better than the founder, bydefinition.
And if you hire these people,it's like, oh my God, I'm less
busy, the business is runningbetter.
I can sleep at night.
I don't have to worry about10,000 things.
(11:18):
I can worry about 10 things.
And yet I know the other,whatever, you know, 9,900 and
whatever I did, I didn't do themath.
will will still.
Well, because there's capablepeople in that place.
So that, from a very personalperspective of this, I
interviewed the lady a whileago, a long time ago, and she
said something that I absolutelylove, and she started her own
(11:40):
business after being in a seniorposition in a large business.
And one of the first things shedid, She drew an org chart and
put it on the wall in front ofher in the office and put
numbers in each and every one ofthem of how much it will cost
her to fill those positions witha talented person, and said,
okay, this is a hundredthousand, 60,000, 75,000,
135,000, and she ranked them atthe things she needed the most
(12:04):
amount of help.
Compared to her skills andwishes of the stuff she had to
do, like 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and shesaid, as soon as I have this
cash flow, I'm hiring thisperson.
As soon as I have this cashflow, I'm hiring, and it's such
a brilliant way to build abusiness.
The problem is, it's motivatingtoo.
Don't do that.
Right?
Adi Vaxman (12:24):
Yes.
So, you know, I, I equate thegrowth spurt of a business to
those of a baby.
and to me it's very similar to,you know, you if you are raising
a child and you're a singleparent or if you're raising a
child and you have a partner, nomatter who that partner is,
could be a parent, it could be abrother, a sister, whatever.
And there's a big differencebecause, The weight of the world
(12:46):
is on your shoulders.
And as soon as you startexpanding that leadership team,
you're not alone anymore.
But the trick is to bring in theright people.
And that brings me to my secondkind of point, in our, in our
fourth point list, is that a lotof businesses have the wrong
people in the wrong seats, orthey are holding on to the wrong
people that have been with them,you know, from in the past.
(13:08):
and so.
Recognizing the need for helpwhen it's almost always too late
and the damage is done is thefirst thing, right?
You've gotta recognize the need,that you need some help.
What the help is depends on whoyou are.
Some, you know, some CEOs, somebusiness owners are more into
finance, some are more intosales, some are more into
creative.
Like there's very differentpeople you gotta find.
(13:30):
You know, the yin to yang, youhave to find the people that
will help you complete what youdon't have and not necessarily
what you don't have, also whatyou don't like to do, right?
Yeah.
I mean, we're runningbusinesses, yes, primarily to
make money, but also to havefun.
At least I am right.
We, we wanna enjoy what we do.
We spend so much time, in ourlives doing work.
And so you wanna do somethingthat you like doing, find out
(13:53):
who those people are that you'regonna need in order to allow you
to do that.
The other thing is not beingable to define what they need,
right.
Bringing in the wrong peoplebecause they don't know to
define what's really missing.
And that again comes to, youknow, from a level of experience
and how many times you've seenthis before and hiring someone
with, you know, 5 to 10 years ofexperience is not the same as
(14:15):
hiring someone with 30 years exexperience and hiring someone
that spent 30 years in.
You know, Sony or Google orsomething huge is not the same
as hiring someone that has beenthrough 50 startups.
So there's a very big differencein the people that you're gonna
bring.
And there's, it's not the same.
Every business is different, andyou really have to define and
(14:37):
understand what it is that youneed before you bring it on
board.
Isar Meitis (14:41):
Let me ask you the how, the, how question.
So I, I think what you said isso, so, so important, right?
Is knowing what people you needin order.
Then look through these kind ofpeople and find the one that's
the best fit.
How do I know?
Like I said, it's it'sexperience.
So if you experience, awesome,but if you're not, I'm like,
okay, this is a great advicetime.
Am I gonna capitalize on thatadvice?
Adi Vaxman (15:03):
So that actually brings me to my point number
three, which I will get to in aminute regarding, you know,
bringing in like how to recruitpeople from outside of your
network, how to know, but still,you know, I'm still staying on
point number two, which is kindof the wrong people in the wrong
seats.
And I wanna say that two moreareas that I've been.
You know, experiencing with alot of our clients is that one,
(15:25):
they bring in the wrong peoplebecause they can't afford the
right people and theycompromise.
And that's very common again,which is why fractional
leadership is such an amazingsolution in my opinion.
and the last one, which has, isprobably one of the most
difficult ones for businessowners.
To handle is holding on topeople that got you this far and
(15:46):
putting them in seats that areway too big for them and they
can't fill and setting them andyour business up to fill,
because you can't let them go oryou can't keep them in a place
where they're productive andtheir, their ego doesn't let
them stay there and bringsomebody above them.
And those almost always end.
(16:06):
Damage and separation.
and it's sad, but unfortunatelyit's one of the most common
things that we see.
so now going on to the thirdpoint, in my four aspect list is
recruiting people from outsideof your network.
Right?
At some point in your growth,you can't.
Bring on people that you knowanymore because you don't know
the right people.
(16:26):
or you don't know how toidentify the right people,
right?
And so it's really difficult tolet go and entrust your business
at the hands of someone youdon't know.
that's, that's a huge trustissue for growing businesses.
the second thing is how todefine the needs of the
business.
So before you define what personyou need, you need to define
what it is that you need, andyou don't always know.
And then how to define thecandidate, right?
(16:48):
Most people.
Recruit based on experience,knowledge.
What have you done before?
What do you know?
Where did you go to school?
What did you learn?
Very few people take into, youknow, consideration,
personality, culture, and thisyin-yang thing that I mentioned
before.
If that person is going to beyour partner, depending on what
(17:10):
level and what kind of person.
It's almost like a marriage.
You've gotta get along with thatperson.
You've gotta get along with'emon many different levels.
It's not just what they know andwhat they've done before.
And a lot of people justoverlook that, whether they're
bringing in junior people orvery senior people, they just
overlook that.
They look at.
Did they come from my industry?
And I want to tell you, itdoesn't always matter.
(17:31):
In most cases, it does notmatter if they have the right
experience.
Your industry doesn't matter ifthey have the right personality.
They will learn your industry.
if they fit your culture,they'll be a good partner to
you.
Another thing is one,
Isar Meitis (17:44):
I'll, I'll say one thing related to the last point
you said, because it's again,from a very personal experience.
So I work for a very largetravel company.
We grew stupidly fast and wejust couldn't hire people fast
enough.
And the first thing that you dois you go and steal people from
the competition, right?
So you're now growing faster,you have more cash, you can get
the talent from the other guyswho are not moving as fast and
(18:06):
cannot offer the same terms as.
And we hired people across theranks, like from front people
all the way to, to, to see sweetpeople.
Like literally all across.
And I'm generalizing it, but ona general term, it failed and it
failed and it's extremely goodpeople, very, very different
(18:26):
culture, very engraved in adifferent way of doing things.
And it just didn't work becausethere was not a fit and they
couldn't adjust and they weretrying to do things the way they
were used to doing it.
What we did, we started our ownacademy.
Now that's obviously not forevery company.
It required a huge financialinvestment, but we literally
started an academy that was afull quarter, including
(18:50):
accommodation, food, everything.
Just come and spend a quarterwith us and we took people that
were, you know, MBA grads fromall over the world, in the right
markets that we needed.
Groom them to our culture andthe way of doing things, and it
was a huge success.
So obviously not any, everycompany has the luxury of doing
what I said, but I think that ithighlights the point of having
(19:13):
people who are skilled andmotivated to do the kind of work
you want them to do with the redculture has a much higher
chances of success than peoplewith huge years of experience in
your industry of doing thingspotentially differently than the
way you're.
Adi Vaxman (19:30):
So I wanna say something about that, being
stuck, and that goes back tomindset.
and I've seen this a lot.
it's something that I reallypersonally believe in.
We hire in our company, a lot ofmore junior people and a lot of
people from completelyirrelevant fields whatsoever.
You know, teachers and you nameit, really irrelevant fields.
(19:52):
And we do exactly the same.
We teach them and we groom thembecause doing what we do
requires.
Mindset, bandwidth of notholding on to this is how this
needs to be done.
and there are things that weknow, major principles that we
already know, right?
You know, about how companiesgrow and what the kind of things
that need to be done, but, Everycompany's different and every
(20:13):
company will implement in adifferent way.
And every company company needsa different solution that will
work for what that company needsto achieve.
And so you can't be stuck inthat.
I've been doing this for 30years, 50 years, a hundred
years, and this is how we dothis.
The one of the things that Ireally can't stand to hear is,
this is how we do it.
Forget it.
(20:33):
That's not how you do it.
You do it according to what you,how you need it to get done, and
we reinvent that every singletime.
Otherwise it just doesn't work.
So I really do believe in thatprocess.
Isar Meitis (20:44):
Yeah, absolutely.
You know, it's the differencebetween managing based on what
happened in what happened in thepast versus managing based on
what you want that would happenin the future.
Adi Vaxman (20:52):
That's correct, yeah.
So yes, so I totally, totallyagree with that.
but.
You know, and it's a little bitdifferent from, for the, like
more like higher level C level,your leadership team and your
more junior roles.
but the principles are verysimilar.
You have to start with, Someonethat can really show you the
ropes and help teach you how todo these things.
(21:13):
And if you're hiring more juniorpeople, or if you're hiring at
all, you have to attract theright people and attracting the
right people.
And hiring and recruiting ingeneral is marketing.
Just like marketing yourproduct, it's exactly the same
thing.
You have to define what yourtarget audience is.
You have to define thepersonalities, the persona, just
like, like we do in marketing,you have to.
(21:34):
advertise and market it to theright crowds.
You have to use keywords.
You have to, you know, a jobdescription is not just a list
of things that somebody needs todo.
It's a marketing, you know,fishing hook.
it's a fishing rod, and you needto, you need to bring the right
people into the net and then,You're at a better place.
(21:54):
And after that you need tofigure out how to screen them,
how to interview them, how tounderstand who they are truly,
and not stay with that, youknow, list of questions.
Oh, did you do this?
Do you know Salesforce?
Oh, great.
You know, Salesforce, who caresif they know Salesforce?
So, the whole process from startto finish, from the definition,
(22:15):
from the understanding of whatit is that you need and writing
it down and understanding how itcomplements your, the abilities
that you already have in yourorganization, and then creating
that job description or, youknow, the persona, the profile
of the person, and then findingthose people and then bringing
them on board and.
Onboarding them and all of that.
(22:36):
So that is another PR piece,very major piece that we see a
lot of organizations fail
Isar Meitis (22:41):
awesome.
So we talked about these threethings.
You said they're fourth.
What's the fourth thing?
Adi Vaxman (22:46):
the fourth thing is information systems.
Systems in general, technology,information systems, not knowing
how to select, evaluate,implement, and use information
systems to drive efficiency inyour organization.
We see businesses from kind oftwo very opposite.
Angles, right?
We see those with no systems atall that do everything.
(23:08):
Like we are st still in like1973.
everything paper, huge filingcabinets, best case scenario,
million documents in Excels andthat's like huge automation for
them.
and we see businesses with.
Way too many systems, disparagesystems, disconnected systems
that do not speak to each other,and they really can't find
(23:30):
anything in those systems.
So from both of these angles,there is, there's something to
be said about systems and theway that we use systems to make
our business more organized,more efficient, our is more
repeatable.
and of course process, by theway, and I, it's not one of my
four.
Things on my list because Ithink process is an overarching
(23:51):
issue for every one of thesethings on the list, right?
So I can make it a separatething, but I think process is
like a much bigger thing that isrequired in every one of those
areas.
So I'm not kind of, Disregardingit.
but it could be a whole podcastca cast all by itself.
Isar Meitis (24:07):
for sure.
I, I, I wanna say somethingabout the, the it side of
things, and I agree with you ahundred percent and I think it's
gonna become more and moredramatic now that we're walking,
somewhat blindfold into the AIera and the amount of AI driven
tools that drive efficienciesthrough the roof are.
Literally dozens of tools comingout every single day.
(24:29):
Yep.
And all the big tools that weknow, you know, the Salesforce,
the Microsoft Office of theWorlds are gonna have AI
capabilities built into them.
And the companies who will knowhow to implement that will
skyrocket.
And the companies who won't willcrumble.
There's no option C.
Absolutely.
And I think the impact of havingor not having a solid tech stack
(24:53):
in your company, What's reallyimportant now, it will become
really a one or zero game in thevery, very near future.
You will either have a solidtech stack or your business will
not be able to compete.
I totally cease to exist.
Adi Vaxman (25:12):
I totally agree.
Let me ask you this.
How many AI tools have you usedin the past 24?
Isar Meitis (25:18):
I don't think I'm a good example, but probably 15
Adi Vaxman (25:22):
ish.
So, yeah, so you know, I'm, I'maround the 15 to 20 myself, so
like I totally agree.
This is one of the things thatwe're focused on more these days
is implementing AI in our.
Day-to-day workflow.
I just created an explainervideo for my company using an AI
tool.
there's like, these things arevery ingrained in what we do,
but AI is not just it, it's agood example because it happened
(25:44):
really fast.
Or for those who haven't beenfollowing, it happened really
fast.
And the number of tools, that.
Popped up in a very short amountof time is very overwhelming,
but there is an overwhelmingsupply of systems in general,
out there for every niche, forevery area, of the business that
can be very daunting to try toidentify what you need, how to
(26:06):
evaluate it, how to select it,how much does it cost, how to,
how to implement, how do you useit.
and we see a lot of cases.
One analysis paralysis, right?
Where we have people that areoverly thinking and
overthinking, overly evaluating,comparing until to the N degree
and not making a choice.
And by that, they're stoppingthemselves from moving forward.
(26:28):
And in a lot of cases, thischoice is even as basic as.
Selecting an email and filesharing system, and there are
really just two major ones inthe market.
Either one that you're gonnachoose is gonna be fine, so they
all have their, you know,benefits and advantages and
disadvantages, but at the end ofthe day, You need to make a
(26:48):
decision, right?
You need to start somewhere.
And so those things are very,very critical.
We see companies operate foryears without selecting a basic,
you know, basic tech stack,basic tools, and we do digital
transformation on a regularbasis.
One of the things that we, youknow, we start with when we come
into a new company is trying tounderstand what are the problems
(27:11):
that they really need to solveand how to prioritize them in
terms of what system to.
To implement.
And some of these systems are,are very big, you know, like big
E R P systems, big CRMs thatcost tens of thousands of
dollars a year and depending onthe size of the company, and
those decisions do require alittle bit more thinking, a
little bit more analysis.
(27:32):
But some of these otherdecisions, they're easy to move
on from.
So you start with identifyingyour problems that you need to
solve, prioritize these problemsand start by selecting, you
know, there's always.
The top five in the market.
Look at three, look at three,see what you feel.
What feels better.
And again, this is verysimplistic and we could do
(27:52):
analysis that are much, muchmore in depth than this, but you
have to start something.
Understanding the differentbuckets of information systems
that are out there, right?
The accounting, your CRMs, yourmarketing automations, your task
and workflow management, yourproject management, email and
file management, anycommunication, instant
messaging, video conferencinglike Zoom, HR systems, applicant
(28:13):
tracking systems, eh, r andEMRs.
In the case of, you know, wework with a lot of medical
practices, scheduling,calendaring, mailing list
management, you know, all ofthese different things.
You have to understand what thebuckets.
First, what these big buckets,like there are tools for
everything, but what is it thatyou do?
What's really important to you?
And then.
(28:33):
How do you value it?
How do you assess what, whatquestions do you ask in order to
know what's right for you?
How do you, and at the end ofthe day, and you and I talked
about this in our call before,and I, I, you really need to
repeat that because I think it'sbrilliant how to connect those
systems together so that you canget insights and analytics that
are necessary for you to manageyour business.
(28:54):
Because at the end of the day,that is the purpose.
It's also to simplify yourprocess, to make it more
repeatable, to make it easierfor people to, you know, to use
your, your systems, whetherinternally or outside.
But still, if those systems areeach of them operating at a silo
and they're not talking to eachother, then you are not getting
the benefit that you really needto get from them.
(29:14):
And I want you to repeat whatyou said to me about Zapier the
other day.
Isar Meitis (29:19):
Ah, I, I basically said that exact year dies.
I think, well, the world willcome to an end, or at least the
business world the way I knowit, with automations that can
connect different systemstogether.
And, and I really believe that,and I think everything you're
saying is invaluable, right?
It's, it's, and at the end ofthe day, literally most of the
things you said other than themindset, Has to do with solid
(29:41):
business strategy.
You need to know where you'regoing.
You need to define a clearculture.
You need to define targets.
You need to define KPIs.
And then all these things thatyou just said are means to those
ends that are defined by, bythose things.
And I think a lot of companiesmiss that step and hence why
they miss all the other things,that you talked about that are
(30:02):
all are really critical.
Adi, this was fantastic.
I think it's a great overview.
I think it comes from a place ofa lot of hands-on real life
knowledge.
If people wanna follow you more,work with you know about you,
connect with you, what's thebest way to do that?
Adi Vaxman (30:19):
I.
So our website is shibaconsulting.com.
S H E B a, consulting.com.
I'm on LinkedIn.
company's on LinkedIn onFacebook.
We have chat on the website.
We have every possiblecommunication tool, including AI
tools implemented in oursystems.
love to help, any businessowners.
I do wanna mention one thingyou've talked about.
(30:43):
In general, making plans andsetting goals, and I absolutely
agree with that.
But if there's one thing thatthe last three years taught us
is that we need to remainflexible and we have to remain
agile.
And we made the plans and we setthe goals, and those things
change and plans sometimes don'twork out the way that we plan
them.
And we need to remember to beflexible and to be dynamic and
(31:04):
to change those plans and thosegoals.
As a reaction to what'shappening in the market and to
be able to, you know, kind oflook at what's happening around
us.
It's just like a lot of thesepeople that are now kind of
bearing their head in the sandabout ai.
And you can't because you'regonna disappear and you can be
afraid of it.
And I think there's good reasonto be, but it still doesn't mean
(31:27):
that you can ignore the factthat it's there because you
won't have a business just likethe people that ignored Covid.
Yeah.
And.
So those who were quick to reactwere quick to, you know, adapt.
That's awesome.
My last piece of advice, No,
Isar Meitis (31:44):
I agree.
I think it's awesome advice.
I think, flexibility and andagility are maybe the two most
important things businesses canhave moving forward just because
of the rate of change.
Idi, this was really, reallyawesome.
I really appreciate your time.
I really appreciate your sharingyour knowledge.
Thank you for coming on theshow.
Thank
Adi Vaxman (32:01):
you so much for having me.
It was great.
Love your podcast.
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