Besides running an animation studio and an animation school. I also
provide consultation for companies in Entrepreneurship in Animation.
Something I shared in class the other day that I have learnt in my journey. There is a Chinese saying.
"养兵千日 用在一朝: Soldiers are to be maintained in the course of long years, but to be used in the nick of time."
Application:
Establish healthy relationship with good talents that you are not ready to hire.
1)
Having a strong team is more important than having lots of money. With a
strong team, you can overcome anything in the future.
Good and loyal people are hard to find. Money cannot buy loyalty. Some
times you meet good people but you do not have the capacity to hire
them. Put in effort to maintain this relationship. Be sincere. Even
though it might take years. Don't go to others only when you need them.
Identify what role they can play in your team ahead of time. Map out a
rough plan. It's like assembling and planning for your best soccer team. Prepare
for the backups as well. Only when you have a plan, can you identify
your missing jigsaw pieces. This will take time. It's ok if you are not
sure when you will hire them. Don't do this only when you have urgent
needs. When the time comes, you know that you are ready. Else overnight, you will be
unable to bring a good team together.
(That is why when other companies asked me to recommend talents, we always have someone in mind)
Maintain relationship with good talents who has left you
2) When I was in Indonesia giving a talk in Entrepreneurship in
Animation, several founders of companies told me this. "We always have
manpower problems. We lose our talents after training them. It's
frustrating."
I don't believe a company can be successful with
only mercenaries. Money cannot buy Honour and Loyalty. Use your heart.
Not money. Trust and Loyalty takes time to build.
I want to share another approach of ours to manpower.
Make an effort to maintain the relationship with those you value but
has left you for whatever reasons. (Could be, their contract is up). Especially
those who are loyal and have contributed to the company in the past.
At times, when we identify a new skill needed for the industry, we will
engage foreign expertise to conduct internal training to upgrade our
staff. Besides training our internal staff, we also invite those who have
left us to join the training at our cost. This is a little effort to
show appreciation to those who have contributed to the company in the
past. This includes the freelancers and those who are currently working
for other companies.
When those who have left us, have finished
their contract with other companies; when we have new projects and
money, we welcome them back to rejoin the crew. From our own experience,
these talents will become more dedicated than before.
Hope it helps.
