What is the most important thing in running a company?

Some people say it's a product, some say it's a technology, some say it's a brand, and some say it's a service. Everyone's perspective is different.

But in my opinion, the most important thing is talent.

Talents are the core competitiveness of enterprises. As Amazon founder Jeff Bezos once said, "Your people are your business. No matter how hard you try to remedy the wrong people, it's useless

Without talent, everything is reduced to zero; Without character, talent is reduced to zero.

1. Which is more important, talent or product?

Many people believe that it is a product because it can generate value. Only by making a good product can it be sold at a good price, and only then can a company make money and make profits.

Is that correct? Yes, it's not right either.

Products are important, without good products, there can be no good brand. However, what truly generates value is not the product, but the genuine user needs.

What is user demand? Let me give you an example:

Does the customer really want to buy an electric drill when they go to buy one?

No, he doesn't want an electric drill, but a hole in the wall.

Let's try asking a few more "why" questions and deducing them backwards.

Why do customers want to buy electric drills? I want to make a hole in the wall.

Why dig holes in the wall? Maybe I want to hang a famous painting on the wall.

Why hang famous paintings? Perhaps it's for decorating the house and showcasing taste.

You see, you think customers want electric drills, but in fact, what customers want is taste and spiritual needs. What he wants is just the hole in the wall, as for what tool it is, it doesn't really matter. The reason for buying an electric drill is also because it is more convenient to drill holes in walls than using a hand drill or a cone.

Products are never the requirements themselves, they are tools used to meet the needs.

How can any enterprise produce products that customers truly need without understanding their real needs? Even if you produce good products, if people don't improve, they still can't sell them.

In fact, not only products, but also a company's brand, marketing, technology, and services rely on talent.

Without talent, your brand cannot be created; Without talent, your skills will not have breakthroughs; Without talent, your service cannot keep up with business development and will sacrifice user experience.

So, talent is greater than strategy, without talent, everything is zero.

2. Which is more important, character or ability?

Talents are the core competitiveness of enterprises. So, what kind of talent is considered?

It's not about his education or qualifications, but whether he can fulfill his duties and responsibilities in his position, work diligently and make contributions.

So, is an administrator considered a talent? Is a cleaning lady considered a talent?

Many people don't think so, but when they are doing this job, they will consider how to improve their work, how to enhance their work efficiency, and make the company well-organized and spotless.

At this point, they are talents.

For talent, in my opinion, character comes first. People with poor character, even if they have strong abilities, should not be sought after.

Because the stronger his abilities, the greater his influence within the organization, and the more people who admire him. His bad behavior can infect others, and such people are a scourge.

Moreover, abilities can be cultivated, but character is difficult to change. Character is something that cannot be seen or touched, but it is irreplaceable.

Many times, the determination of a person's future achievements is not based on how smart or capable they are, but on how good their character is in the face of interests.

Interest is the touchstone of character. Can a person with malicious intentions harm the interests of the company for personal gain be considered a talent?

Yeast once had an employee with strong abilities and high expectations from the company, but he was eventually fired.

Why?

Because this employee, driven by vanity, fabricated non performance data by manipulating sales orders and other means.

Dishonesty, this touches the company's high-voltage line. If these small actions are tolerated out of appreciation for his abilities, they will become big problems, and the problems will become increasingly serious, ultimately leading him to make big mistakes.

So, ability is important, but more important than ability is character. Ability determines how fast you can go, while character determines how far you can go.

Without character as the foundation, the greater your ability and the higher you fly, the more miserable your fall will be.

3. Where do talents come from?

So, where does talent come from?

There are two ways: one is to introduce talents externally, and the other is to cultivate talents internally.

1. Introduce talents from external sources

There are two key points for external talent introduction: the leader's talent and accurate talent profile.

The first one is the size of the leader. Some leaders lack talent and tend to hire people who are not as good as themselves. They are worried that if they hire someone better than themselves, will that person one day replace them?

In this mentality, second rate people recruit third rate people, and third rate people cannot recruit those who are in the middle. Finally, like Russian nesting toys, where each layer becomes smaller, how can talent be found?

Some leaders are reluctant to spend money and refuse to do things like buying bones with gold, always thinking of using the cheapest money to attract the people who can create the most value. But the cheapest people often end up being the most expensive.

The second one is a precise talent portrait. You need to clearly draw what kind of person you need.

For example, if you want to recruit managers, you need to focus on two points: having both moral integrity and professional competence; cherish the same ideals and follow the same path.

Managers need to be matched with morality, and morality must come first. This is the lowest level of a person, and without this morality, the higher the position, the more dangerous it is.

Being like-minded means that this person must genuinely enjoy the company's business. If they are not interested in the company, they will not accompany you through difficult times.

2. Internal talent cultivation

For a mature enterprise, selection is just the first step. To truly turn talent into the company's wealth, you still need to invest time in employees, cultivate employees, and develop employees.

Management is about achieving results through others, and cultivating people is the duty of managers. Only when employees make progress can your products and services improve, and the company can move forward.

If employees don't change, your product won't change either; If employees don't improve, your company won't improve either.

So, how to cultivate talents? The core is mentoring.

Transmission is about passing on knowledge. You must stand at the forefront, lead by example, and teach employees the standards of being a good person and doing things.

Help, it's help. A study by Harvard Business School shows that 72% of a person's ability to achieve performance at work is determined by their superiors, while only 28% is determined by their own performance.

So, as a leader, you should provide him with resources, tutor him, and help him achieve performance.

Leading, is leading. When he can't do it, you should be like a master taking apprentices and teaching them step by step.

There is a 16 word guideline for coaching subordinates: I do what you see, I say what you listen to, you do what I see, and you say what I listen to.

Without the growth of talents, there can be no growth of enterprises. When you continue to pass on your skills, cultivate successors, and build a talent pool, the company will have a promising future.

Finally, to summarize: talent is the next star in the ocean. For enterprises, talent strategy is the primary strategy. Without talent, everything is reduced to zero; Without character, talent is reduced to zero.