The less your business depends on you, the more valuable it’s likely to be…

And there’s likely to be no exit opportunity if the business relies on you to operate.

Microsoft are a company that breeds intrapreneurs, giving their team autonomy to help the company grow, and who are rewarded based upon Microsoft’s financial success.

Interestingly in 2006 Bill Gates announced he was leaving his full-time position, to focus more on philanthropy.

At the time Microsoft had a market cap of $176 billion, and Gates leaving could have seriously unsettled the company, and possibly sent it into a tailspin.

Yet, by September 2019, it was the only public company with a market cap of more than a trillion dollars, and with Satya Nadella leading and not Gates.

Some of you might be amazed to see since Tim Cook replaced Steve Jobs as CEO of Apple in August 2011, the company’s stock has increased by more than a trillion dollars.

Again, this is down to having a team of intrapreneurs, who have the autonomy to do what’s required to help the company grow, and who’s financial success is into twined with the organisations.

We’ve always believed you should employ people who are better than you in each key area of the business, and then get out of the way and let them run and grow the organisation.

It’s the way we operate our office technology solutions business, my role is strategy and operational support, but it’s the team who run the business and who are our real hero’s.

…the more your business depends on you, the less valuable it’s likely to be for everyone.