Worst things to do as a company/CEO - Please share and I will add

[rel=alternate]

Relying too much on business partners and not knowing their interests
Trusting a business partner
Being too open about your business model
Not signing an NDA
Signing and NDA and think a competitor won't use it against you
Taking half of things into your own hands because you know better rather than firing the person who should



As you may have noticed, this is very biased so far, because someone just fucked me. But I am happy to edit other things.

 

[Justtocheck]

Trusting your lawyers (or outsiders) in the first consult and not doing cross consulting for better options or prices or to see if you are getting fucked.
Not having a contingency plan. "If X has to happen for Y to happen to have success", perhaps X was a given assumption, but you have to plan extra, especially for assumptions that "everyone knows they are true".

 

[Absolutego]

Personal pet peeve:
Announcing an initiative to centralize/decentralize the company organizational structure in your introductory all-hands, especially as someone brought in from the outside. It's the ultimate "I don't have a real vision of how to improve this company but I need to do something" kind of move.

 

[WearerOfHelmets]

Say something the jews don't like.

 

[DumbDude43]

too much emphasis on growth, too little on profitability
if your restaurant barely manages to break even after expenses, securing more credit and opening a second location is not what you should be putting your time and effort towards

 

[skunt]

Anything to do with INDIA. Literally anything. Just pretend that entire specific country is a black hole and doesn't exist.

 

[rel=alternate]

Trusting your lawyers (or outsiders) in the first consult and not doing cross consulting for better options or prices or to see if you are getting fucked.
Not having a contingency plan. "If X has to happen for Y to happen to have success", perhaps X was a given assumption, but you have to plan extra, especially for assumptions that "everyone knows they are true".

How much do yours cost? I pay 400€ and hour, and I have learned to try and avoid them as much as I can, because they will drain you. Obviously I do for everything I signe, but there is so much they can protect you from.

I made a mistake on the advice of someone by giving them a quote, and they went and used that to go over my head because they already knew my supplier, through the very person who introduced us.

 

[rel=alternate]

too much emphasis on growth, too little on profitability
if your restaurant barely manages to break even after expenses, securing more credit and opening a second location is not what you should be putting your time and effort towards

Unless you own the place and pay rent to yourself.

 

[Justtocheck]

How much do yours cost? I pay 400€ and hour, and I have learned to try and avoid them as much as I can, because they will drain you. Obviously I do for everything I signe, but there is so much they can protect you from.

I have several for different things, but the same goes with accountants. I would add this to the list, "If there's a person who's going to fuck you over in your company, it is going to be your lawyer or your accountant. Let them work, but NEVER trust them so much that you don't review their work often."

 

[rel=alternate]

I have several for different things, but the same goes with accountants. I would add this to the list, "If there's a person who's going to fuck you over in your company, it is going to be your lawyer or your accountant. Let them work, but NEVER trust them so much that you don't review their work often."

I don't think I am giving too much away by saying that both are handled by the same company. There are 4 of them.

But tbh, I am very seriously thinking of changing, they are good-ish, but they don't give a fuck about me. And I have to fight them all the time if they fuck me, but they will never recognize it if I don't point it out.

It's only worth the money because they can't drain my bank accounts and get away with it like some random dude could.

f your restaurant barely manages to break even after expenses, securing more credit and opening a second location is not what you should be putting your time and effort towards

I got out of this cursed business a long time ago, I love it, but it's too much to handle for me. It eats you alive

 

[rel=alternate]

Personal pet peeve:
Announcing an initiative to centralize/decentralize the company organizational structure in your introductory all-hands, especially as someone brought in from the outside. It's the ultimate "I don't have a real vision of how to improve this company but I need to do something" kind of move.

That's we commonly call in the business 'we can relocate you in Romany for 750 € a month, or you lose your job"

 

[The Ugly One]

Assuming that because you're the CEO of a company in a high-growth industry, you and all your employees are much smarter than everyone in low-growth industries, that all the engineers, accountants, salesmen, etc working on things that aren't having double digit YOY growth are just really fucking stupid, and it's not because, ya know, things like diesel locomotives or steel foundries or whatever just don't have anywhere left to grow to.

And then, based on that assumption, you acquire some small companies in that industry and assume that all you need to do is fire everyone who actually knows the industry, order sales to start delivering 30%-50% YOY, and it's just going to happen because you're smart and they're stupid.

 

[rel=alternate]

Assuming that because you're the CEO of a company in a high-growth industry, you and all your employees are much smarter than everyone in low-growth industries, that all the engineers, accountants, salesmen, etc working on things that aren't having double digit YOY growth are just really fucking stupid, and it's not because, ya know, things like diesel locomotives or steel foundries or whatever just don't have anywhere left to grow to.

And then, based on that assumption, you acquire some small companies in that industry and assume that all you need to do is fire everyone who actually knows the industry, order sales to start delivering 30%-50% YOY, and it's just going to happen because you're smart and they're stupid.

Ngl, this seems like the 1% of the 1%.

Most companies are just in the middle and the overwhelming majority is not traded.

 

[DumbDude43]

Unless you own the place and pay rent to yourself.

i guess, yeah
but how many people are there who are commercial real estate landlords and simultaneously also entrepreneurs an a different field? it's not unheard of, especially when you include situations like "uncle rents out property to nephews business" but it's still quite rare overall i think

 

[rel=alternate]

i guess, yeah
but how many people are there who are commercial real estate landlords and simultaneously also entrepreneurs an a different field? it's not unheard of, especially when you include situations like "uncle rents out property to nephews business" but it's still quite rare overall i think

If they earn money, more than you would think. It's pretty much the first advice you're going to get when your company is making money, but not profitable. You can leverage the value of the shares to borrow against and buy assets the company would have spent for anyway but instead pays rent. It's a win win.

 

[10 Little Niggers]

Anything to do with INDIA. Literally anything. Just pretend that entire specific country is a black hole and doesn't exist.

Absolutely this. You will never get value from a move like this. If you pursue cutting costs like a retard you will just get less value AND long term frustration.

From experience (medium size company that got irrelevant as Amazon and the likes launched web services): one mistake would be to have a few clients who account for a big chunk of revenue. At some point one client left and ~30% of revenue went to shit. We sold and closed everything one year after.

From what I’ve seen in large companies: surrounding yourself with people who won’t tell you bad news/ ass kissers. These are the people who perpetually want to change something to pretend they are working.

 

[The Hardest R]

Hubris

Seen several CEOs high on their own supply get lucky once on a market arbitrage opportunity that they accidentally stumbled upon, assume it was due to their own sheer skill and intelligence, and then drive the company into the ground because they’re unable to replicate that success. The business equivalent to a one hit wonder. By the time they get canned it’s too late and the company is halfway down an irreversible decline.

 

[The Ugly One]

Ngl, this seems like the 1% of the 1%.

Most companies are just in the middle and the overwhelming majority is not traded.

It is extremely common in M&A world, especially when a Silicon Valley company acquires a company with no Bay Area presence. "Oh, you make inventory management software? Well that's because you're a fuckin' moron. If you were smart, you'd be making gay hookup apps for the iPhone. I bet your engineers are pretty stupid. So we're just going to blow up your entire customer acquisition process and lead generation, replace it with nothing whatsoever, and expect that to work. Once word gets out that Giggly Fagsex, Inc has acquired you, your sales will go up 10x, because we're a big name, you see."

But it's not just SV acquisitions. Just a very common attitude wherever there's been a lot of recent growth. Everyone's a genius in a bull market.

 

[Chongqing]

I think there was a company that gassed an entire village in India by accident.

I think that was really bad, and I don't support what they did.

 

[Betonhaus]

Have zero knowledge or involvement of the fundamental functions of our company (eg: if you're a machining company and don't know how a bandsaw works)

Saving pennies at the cost of dollars

selling off tomorrow for a dollar today.