Tapping talent
British Design firm Imagination Ltd. has a unique approach to teamwork. In their company, representatives from all twenty-six catalogued disciplines meet weekly. All of the firm’s employees are invited to these meetings, where they raise new ideas, look at problems, and assess progress. Production people and client-contact people are considered as much a part of the planning team as the creative-type people. In such an egalitarian environment, disbursement of power means equal disbursement of responsibility.
From “Total Teamwork—Imagination, Ltd.” by Charles Fishman. Fast Company, April 2000.

On setting norms
“What are the norms of a team? It includes everything from how do we select a leader or do we need a formal leader? Is the leader better, equal, less than the rest of us? What are the roles of respective team members? Effective teams talk about setting up norms and how we as a team will maximize contributions of individual members…They also develop norms about how to deal with conflict.”
–Joseph Weintraub, Professor, Babson College and President, Organizational Dimensions

The importance of mentoring
The people in the outer layer of your team can go a long way in helping your venture succeed. Experienced mentors have been there before. A good mentor uses that experience to guide you away from pitfalls, help you make crucial decisions, and even show you how best to run your business. Here are some examples of entrepreneurs who were helped along the path to success by good mentors.

• Tom Stemberg, founder, chairman, and CEO of Staples, a $5.2 billion chain of office supply superstores
• Mentor: Harvard Business School professor Walter Salmon
• Best advice given: “Apply your supermarket efficiency skills in a new business that’s underserved by modern distribution channels.”
• Lynn Frydryk, founder of $1-million-plus J&L Peaberry’s Coffee & Tea Co., in Oakland, Calif.
• Mentor: Alfred Peet, specialty coffee guru
• How they met: Frydryk worked for Peet at a company he founded, called Peet’s Coffee and Tea. She never solicited him as a mentor. She says he adopted her.
• How often they meet: Frydryk and Peet used to visit about once a month. Now they meet irregularly.
• Best advice given: Peet told Frydryk, “Before starting your own business, you really would be wise to make your mistakes on the payroll of someone else’s business. It’s a very sound theory.”
• Steve Leveen, cofounder and president of Levenger, a catalog business in Delray Beach, Fla.
• Mentor: Stanley Marcus, chairman emeritus of Neiman Marcus
• How they met: Leveen read Marcus’s book, Minding the Store, and wrote him a fan letter. Marcus wrote back.
• Best advice given: “No sale is a good sale unless it’s a good value for the customer.”

From “Mentees on Mentors,” by Various Inc. Staff, Inc. Magazine, June 1998.
Source