Health & Medical
Delegating power
How to give employees a say in making decisions
By Carolyn LaWell
Smart Business St. Louis | May 2009
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Shri Thanedar
CEO
Chemir Analytical Services Inc.
Until you learn to delegate, your company’s growth will be limited, says Shri Thanedar.
“A common misconception is I can do it better than someone else can and I can do it quicker than somebody else can,” Thanedar says. “It may be so, but when you do somebody else’s job, there’s nobody there to do your job.”
It’s a lesson that the CEO and chairman of Chemir Analytical Services Inc. learned firsthand. For years, he relied on his own determination and independence. Growing up poor in India, Thanedar arrived in the U.S. to get his doctorate in chemistry with only $20 in his pocket. In 1990, he bought Chemir for $75,000, running it with two employees. Since then, the pharmaceutical company has grown to 400 employees and posted 2008 revenue of $60 million.
He says that to grow your business, you have to share all aspects of your business with employees, show them that their opinions count and allow them to make decisions.
Smart Business spoke with Thanedar about how to empower employees to make decisions that will help your business succeed.
Share the business background. A lot of times, especially private companies don’t have to disclose their sales and their profitability. We make it a point to let all of our employees — not just the top management, not just the key employees — we let every employee know about our profitability and know about our sales so there are no secrets.
They don’t need to come to me and ask questions because I have this special knowledge or information that they don’t have. One of the first things I do is let them know what I know.
We look at our business as a game, and if you don’t know the rules of the game, it’s very difficult to play. Same way, if you don’t know what the score is, then you don’t know if you’re winning or losing.
We make sure that we educate our employees. We make sure that they all understand how the business is doing, what makes the business successful, why our clients come to us, what our current sales are, what our sales are in the last three months, how many price quotes we have given out to potential clients, what percentage of those price quotes get accepted, when they don’t accept a price quote why do they not buy from us.
All the information I have gets communicated.
