Management Qualities in Building a Great Company
- Mohammed Umair
- Aug 27, 2025
- 6 min read
“A Great Company withstand great adversities not because of its intact business operations, but rather because of its great leaders.” - Anonymous
With this idea in hand, it becomes quintessential for a company to have a highly seasoned management team and practices to be successful.
A successful management team is one which has the right talent and the ability to work together towards a common vision.
As Jack Ma, Founder of Alibaba, rightly remarked, “Try to find the right people, not the best people.”
Now, the very first question that hits an early-stage startup entrepreneurs is, ‘Should I hire professionals only from top management schools or institutions in order to build an effective management team?’
The answer to this question is contextual. If an upstart has sufficient funds and ability to induct, nurture and retain tier-A management grads, without having the need to shun off funds in areas which is essential to achieve intended revenue outcomes to thrust its operations, then you are all set to hire them.
If a startup encounters fund constraints, then go for the best possible hiring. The key here is to find the best talent possible and avoid unwanted and unproductive hiring, which simply adds to the cost for the company.
It is highly useful to have a systematic structure and process for hiring, which will allow a company to filter the best talent out of the prospects.
An instance of such recruitments subject to constraints is of Berger Paints India, erstwhile British Paints in the 1970s.
Now, let us dive deep into elements which contribute to building a successful management team for a company.
Imagination Beyond Experience:
“Without leaps of imagination, or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning.” - Gloria Steinem
Every profession demands a veteran or a person with experience because of the quality of work he/she can contribute to the position. Well, that’s indeed true. However, considering management as both art and science, I believe one must have the ability to foresee future outcomes, amidst the volatile business environment.
And, the more seasoned and experienced a manager is, the more he is equipped with the ability to forecast future outcomes.
Flexibility and Autonomy:
Decades ago, if a company had a culture which empowered employees with substantial authority and commensurate responsibility through systematic reporting and review processes in place, it was regarded as a company that had an extraordinary working environment.
But, in this age of dynamic and tumultuous business environment, this attribute of flexible and autonomous organisation culture becomes the fundamental block for any organisation.
Rigid working styles curb an individual’s creativity and discourage their innovative solutions to improve the functions of the organisation.
Allowing adequate autonomy to an employee makes him feel that he has an important role to play in the firm and motivates him to contribute meaningfully to its success. It also instills a sense of belonging and ownership towards the company. This feeling of inclusion, coupled with responsibility, will increase his efficiency in his respective role, thus contributing to the organisation effectively.
Consistent Vision and Mission across all Levels of the Organisation:
It is said that getting on a bus without knowing the destination is simply futile. Similarly, if an employee is working in a company without the awareness of what the vision and mission of the company are, what its short-term and long-term goals are, and what its comprehensive strategy for the current financial year is, then the company cannot expect him to contribute to the best of his abilities.
In the late 2000s, Blackberry was facing competitors such as Apple in the phone industry. Its employees were vague in understanding the mission of the company. The top management was indecisive between enterprise security and mass consumer smartphones. Consequently, Blackberry was forced to exit the phone market entirely. (source: newyorker.com)
Psychological Safety:
Take any company in the world which is deemed the epitome of management success, and you will always find a culture which protects and enhances the psychological safety of its employees.
“Psychological safety at work takes effort. It’s not the norm. But it’s worth the effort.” - Amy Edmondson, Professor of Leadership and Management, Harvard Business School
People think that psychological safety is something that only sounds good in theory and not in practice. But let me talk about this from a rational standpoint.
Consider an employee of your firm who is assigned an enormous list of tasks and given a definite deadline. But the employee is not satisfied with the company, let’s assume, owing to the stringent procedures to accomplish the tasks. He is refrained from adding his creative ideas to execute the tasks at hand.
Imagine yourself in his shoes, would you be all charged up and motivated to complete all the tasks? Would you perform the task in the same manner as you would if the manager had taken your perspective into consideration?
Psychological safety is also one of the most crucial factors in effective meetings and discussions.
Achieving a Sense of Belonging:
Most companies around the globe face a great disparity between the attitude of the promoters and their employees, towards the company.
The promoters of a company will spare no effort to go out of their way to push the growth of the company. But, its employees mostly try to execute what is deemed necessary and do not expend much effort to push the growth trajectory.
This phenomenon is again due to the mindset of the employees due to the nature of the jobs. The employees have a sense that they are sacrificing their time and efforts to the company in exchange for the salaries they get paid.
A management which can turn down this sense of sacrifice in its employees and foster a sense of belonging will reap the benefits of a great workforce.
This can be achieved by a set of practices executed assiduously, such as encouraging inclusive leadership, creation of employee resource groups, carrying out regular feedback and surveys and so on.
For more information on steps to develop a culture of belonging, visit heartcount.com
An Attitude of Persistent Progress:
As James Clear rightly explains in his book “Atomic Habits”, the power of progress, even a little, but when compounded over a long period, will produce remarkable results. (source: jamesclear.com)
The key learning that the business community can take away from his book is to always be on the lookout to improve things: improving communication channels, enhancing customer relations, improving revenue metrics and so on.
This might look like something which is very simple and fundamental. But, as an upstart grows and expands its operations, it becomes really difficult to identify inefficiencies and work around them at the earliest. Thus, having a systematic controlling mechanism in place to identify inefficiencies and execute corrective measures from the very beginning will help the organisation to avoid unforeseen crises in its functions.
Communication:
Yahoo’s then CEO Marissa Mayer, in 2013, issued an abrupt company memo to its employees, stating that they shall no longer be allowed to work remotely. This unlooked-for memo with stringent implications left its employees in resentment. (source: forbes.com)
Although the intention of the then CEO was to optimise productivity in Yahoo, the lack of systematic communication and gradual implementations to shift its remote employees to work in the office left the firm in chaos.
The takeaway, according to me, from this situation is that the management should always disseminate only those communications which are carefully thought out and are consistent with the company’s core values and ideas.
Also, when it comes to casual communications among employees, gossip can lead a company into chaos. Such distorted communications should be moderated whenever necessary.
Conflict Management:
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