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 Tim Ferriss Show by Tim Ferriss: Bestselling Author, Human Guinea Pig

The Tim Ferriss Show

16,145 Listeners

The McKinsey Podcast by McKinsey & Company

The McKinsey Podcast

398 Listeners

Coaching for Leaders by Dave Stachowiak

Coaching for Leaders

1,470 Listeners

HBR IdeaCast by Harvard Business Review

HBR IdeaCast

173 Listeners

Cold Call by HBR Presents / Brian Kenny

Cold Call

194 Listeners

Masters of Scale by WaitWhat

Masters of Scale

3,986 Listeners

Worklife with Adam Grant by TED

Worklife with Adam Grant

9,117 Listeners

Inside the Strategy Room by McKinsey & Company

Inside the Strategy Room

177 Listeners

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

Think Fast Talk Smart: Communication Techniques

829 Listeners

A Bit of Optimism by Simon Sinek

A Bit of Optimism

2,234 Listeners

Coaching Real Leaders by Harvard Business Review / Muriel Wilkins

Coaching Real Leaders

670 Listeners

ReThinking by TED

ReThinking

629 Listeners

The So What from BCG by Boston Consulting Group BCG

The So What from BCG

220 Listeners

HBR On Strategy by Harvard Business Review

HBR On Strategy

79 Listeners

HBR On Leadership by Harvard Business Review

HBR On Leadership

173 Listeners