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If you are a business founder of a private company, what advantage do you have over your cousin who is C-level for a public company?

You are probably thinking of a few things that you do better and a few things your cousin does better. But for the purposes of this discourse there is one difference that is worth thinking about, especially now with much uncertainty and so many surprises in our economic and political climate.

As a business founder you know your business, you know about the products, you know how they were created and are made and you relate to your employees and customers on their terms. Your C-level cousin is likely to be an excellent accountant, lawyer, marketing or sales professional, but they don’t always fully understand the products and services that are at the core of the business.

I am not trying to upset all your C-level cousins, but I am trying to point out that working in a ‘power tower’ without the human factor of rapport which comes from knowing what your company gizmos do, how they are made and what happens when the little darlings go wrong, is how you gain trust and loyalty.  Both are needed more than ever in a world of economic uncertainty.

You, as a business founder, do this by default and it encourages and persuades people to move away from the large public companies and move towards you and your fellow entrepreneurs.

There are examples of highly successful giants in industry being led by people who intimately understand the business they are in. For instance, Greg Foran, the president and CEO of Walmart US, has an employment history in the retail industry such as Woolworths and supermarkets; and the Chairman and CEO of General Motors, Mary T. Barra, has worked in engineering across various functions for years.

If you are  part of a valuable team of lawyers, accountants, engineers and other professionals on a C-level executive management board, I wonder if the next time you are hiring for a key role, it may be an economically sound idea if you choose someone who really deeply understands how your particular specialist market, products and services tick, so that you can enjoy some of the advantages business founders have?