How much do your business partners know about your business? How much do your employees? How much do your clients and customers? Poor communication is one of the most common problems for small and growing enterprises. This may appear quite odd considering that the smaller the firm, the better the shorter the lines of communication should be – as there should be fewer persons to deal with. But really in smaller companies there is often a greater habit of squirreling. Rarely do company co-owners sufficiently confide in one another; senior management often ostracizes the rest of the staff, and clients are often largely in the dark over the status of their business with the company.
This is often a greater problem technical enterprises, or technical departments – the general belief apparently, being that it is acceptable for technical people to be poor communicators. It is therefore usual for engineers to believe that their duty remain principally to focus on solving problems and getting the job done, anything else being an extra burden.
What has your business been set up to do, and how do you intend to pursue it? Is the rank and file in same focus? Are...