Business Tools Blog

If you ever get a chance to interview with John Scarano, get ready for a long deliberate conversation.  John’s interview style is to spend quality time with a candidate and really understand if hiring them would add value to Zayo Bandwidth.  Don’t be surprised if he asks you to put together a 90 day plan with milestones as a final step in the interview process.

When I asked John what he thought the most important trait is for an employee at Zayo Bandwidth, he said, “Every employee should understand how to create value.  Every decision that they make should be within the context of value creation.”

Click here to read more about creating intrinsic value. At the time of this writing, BearonBusiness had ~19 posts in the “creating intrinsic value” category.  For example, Dan Caruso writes that Empowerment and Accountablity are important.

On a daily basis, employees will see an increasingly direct relationship between what they are doing and how it is impacting our bottom line. Capital decisions will center more on how expenditures will really impact cash flows-and less around how to dress up a business plan to convince corporate to approve. Expenses will be scrutinized-are they really essential for us to win business and provide great service to our customers? Winning and retaining business will feel more important than ever-with a more direct relationship between revenue and cost, every dollar of revenue will matter a ton more.

I couldn’t find a ready made Top 10 list on how to create intrinsic value … so instead, I’ll take shot at my own list (BearonBusiness already described many of these … click to view)

#1 - Know your company’s franchise

#2 - Provide products and services that your customers want and that add value to their businesses

#3 - Reliably forecast and communicate cash flows

#4 - Make all decisions based on how they will influence long term cash flows

#5 - Create a sustainable competitive advange advantage, or “Unfair Edge”

#6 - Have access to enough capital to meet the company’s investment needs

#7 - Attract and retain a team who inherently understand how to create value

#8 - Have the right alliances and partnerships with external organizations

#9 - Communicate about value creation often, in a way that everyone in the organization can understand

#10 - Don’t get distracted by shiny objects (projects that entice … but are not part of your franchise and/or may not positively influence long term cash flow)