Empowerment: A Guide for Giants
April 09, 2013
Back when I first started my company, there were a grand total of six of us.
We didn't have to talk about empowerment. There were so few of us, we all did
everything, from answering the phones to making deals to taking out the trash.
We were all empowered to do everything. It was the only way to function.
But as a large company, empowerment is harder to achieve. We are now a 10,000+ person giant and so we can’t simply do what we like when we like. That would be chaotic. Yet I want to keep the sense of personal responsibility each of the initial six of us felt back in the early days.
And so I have created for Rakuten this global enterprise’s guide to empowerment:
Step One: Empower yourself first. Recognize your own power and your own responsibilities. Do not allow events to carry you along. Instead, focus on being active rather than passive in all things. You will be better able to create empowerment if you can also experience it.
Step Two: Make empowerment part of the strategic plan - as important as product development, marketing, and revenue growth. List empowerment as one of your strategic goals and keep it as a key target as your company grows.
Step Three: Measure the results of empowerment. Is it working? Are you achieving your empowerment goals? You will only know this if you measure it.
Working at a small new venture is exciting. Working at a big company can feel the same, if empowerment is part of the experience.
My book: Marketplace 3.0
But as a large company, empowerment is harder to achieve. We are now a 10,000+ person giant and so we can’t simply do what we like when we like. That would be chaotic. Yet I want to keep the sense of personal responsibility each of the initial six of us felt back in the early days.
And so I have created for Rakuten this global enterprise’s guide to empowerment:
Step One: Empower yourself first. Recognize your own power and your own responsibilities. Do not allow events to carry you along. Instead, focus on being active rather than passive in all things. You will be better able to create empowerment if you can also experience it.
Step Two: Make empowerment part of the strategic plan - as important as product development, marketing, and revenue growth. List empowerment as one of your strategic goals and keep it as a key target as your company grows.
Step Three: Measure the results of empowerment. Is it working? Are you achieving your empowerment goals? You will only know this if you measure it.
Working at a small new venture is exciting. Working at a big company can feel the same, if empowerment is part of the experience.
My book: Marketplace 3.0
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