Two main things you need to think about from day one:

Separating knowledge from people.

Ask yourself a simple question: how many people would have to fall under the bus for your company to fail? Where are the bottlenecks in the organization? If this person resigns tomorrow, would your company pay bills on time? Will other employees be able to complete the job?

Eliminate “irreplaceable”. How? Knowledge in the organization should be stored in CRM, company documents, emergency procedures… I know no one like it, you don’t have time for this but when one person leaves (forever or just on vacation), another should replace him with minimal effort from the others (because they have their own duties).

Separating competences from people.

Another question: if you run a fashion brand, what competencies will you require during the recruitment interview from the man who will make sales for you? A man after a selling school is difficult to find and – because many companies are looking for such people – his salary will be large. And what sales competencies are required from an H&M’s employee? Most of what is to be known is written in the procedures. Graduation from selling school? Not necessarily. There are more such people on the market. Recruitment will, therefore, be shorter and the negotiated rate … lower. Only if you have such procedures in place.