Entrepreneurs, success and party people

A great mini-rant and great quote from Anna Farmery today. Definitely one I’m going to use, attributed to Phillip Green:

“Successful companies have parties. Unsuccessful ones have meetings.”

Some sections of the large corporations I worked for in a previous life were run almost entirely on meetings. It always struck me as hugely inefficient, and yet these were some of the UK’s most successful businesses. Imagine how much more successful they might have been, if they’d had fewer meetings.  Recognising success with parties has got to be good for morale too.

The meeting culture is less prevalent in smaller businesses – most don’t have the luxury of wasting large chunks of time.  But it’s as well to keep the inimitable Mr Green’s words of advice ever at the back of your mind.

Anna’s blog is also well worth a read on motivating, managing and inspiring people and she’s a prolific podcaster too.  Having started just under a year ago she puts me to shame by having already notched up 68 episodes.

Alex is the founder and editor of SmallBizPod, the UK's first podcast dedicated to small business, start-ups and entrepreneurship. Alex writes about topical small business issues, entrepreneurs and anything else that catches his eye here on the small business blog. http://www.smallbizpod.co.uk