Grit & Growth

Scaling Your Business: It’s All About The People


Listen Later

What’s the greatest resource for a fast-growing company? If you answered human resources, you’ve got a great head start on scaling for success. Sachin Dhanani, co-founder of Kenyan-based Danco Capital, learned firsthand the importance of having a strategic HR plan. Hear his story and get essential guidance from HR expert Claudia Salvischiani as you grow and scale your own company.

Sachin Dhanani paid little attention to org charts as he took his manufacturing company in just seven years from four to 240 employees and zero to 30 million dollars in revenue. Dhanani describes Danco Capital as a classic startup with everyone doing everything: “We had no org chart. We had no real job descriptions. So, when it came to things that were sort of in-between, it would be like, who's got the time, or who's done it in the past, and let's just do it.”

By the time Dhanani realized he needed help from Claudia Salvischiani, they had over 160 employees. Too late, according to Salvischiani. She advises, “If you have 50 people, you must have HR. When I say you need HR, you need strategic HR. You need somebody who understands the business strategy and helps you translate that business strategy into organization, people, and culture.”

Dhanani began by structuring the organization and creating formal job descriptions. And that, as Salvischiani describes, creates changes for the CEO as well. She says, “When companies scale, they need to rethink the role of the CEO. And the CEO or the founder needs to think about: How is my role going to change? Because typically the CEO is doing everything. And when you scale, you have to let go. This is a big jump for a lot of CEOs.”

Listen to Dhanani’s real-world struggles and successes creating and executing an HR strategy and get practical advice from Claudia Salvischiani on why and how to make HR a priority as you grow and scale.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

Grit & GrowthBy Stanford Graduate School of Business

  • 5
  • 5
  • 5
  • 5
  • 5

5

43 ratings


More shows like Grit & Growth

View all
The McKinsey Podcast by McKinsey & Company

The McKinsey Podcast

381 Listeners

Coaching for Leaders by Dave Stachowiak

Coaching for Leaders

1,461 Listeners

a16z Podcast by Andreessen Horowitz

a16z Podcast

1,034 Listeners

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch by Harry Stebbings

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

519 Listeners

Cold Call by HBR Presents / Brian Kenny

Cold Call

194 Listeners

Masters of Scale by WaitWhat

Masters of Scale

3,995 Listeners

Y Combinator Startup Podcast by Y Combinator

Y Combinator Startup Podcast

217 Listeners

Worklife with Adam Grant by TED

Worklife with Adam Grant

9,189 Listeners

Inside the Strategy Room by McKinsey & Company

Inside the Strategy Room

171 Listeners

Think Fast Talk Smart: Communication Techniques by Matt Abrahams, Think Fast Talk Smart

Think Fast Talk Smart: Communication Techniques

794 Listeners

Me, Myself, and AI by MIT Sloan Management Review and Boston Consulting Group (BCG)

Me, Myself, and AI

106 Listeners

Coaching Real Leaders by Harvard Business Review / Muriel Wilkins

Coaching Real Leaders

652 Listeners

Stanford GSB: View From The Top by StanfordGSB

Stanford GSB: View From The Top

18 Listeners

HBR On Strategy by Harvard Business Review

HBR On Strategy

84 Listeners

HBR On Leadership by Harvard Business Review

HBR On Leadership

151 Listeners