Your MSP company can get into some real hot water if you’re not careful to avoid common mistakes that come from bad management. For an object example of what not to do, check out some of the controversy surrounding Josh Trank and his train wreck of a movie, “Fantastic Four”. To his credit, a lot of the problems which came from the film resulted in studio decisions. Not to go down the “inside baseball” rabbit hole too deep, but Fox’s rights for the Marvel franchise were about to dry up, so the studio wanted to maximize potential profit by making a Christopher Nolan-type superhero film in the spirit of the “Batman Begins” trilogy. But they undermined the director by canceling scenes and a bevy of other things which soured him to the project. It was a domino effect of disaster. Your MSP shouldn’t find itself in the same situation, but it can if you’re not careful. Following are a number of things you should do, that Trank and his team didn’t, to ensure such perfectly disastrous storms don’t undermine your operations:
- Get the right people for your team, change as needed
- Ensure you’ve got good communication
- Ensure the vision of your MSP is properly communicated
- Be an example to your employees
Get the Right People for Your Team, Change as Needed
Your MSP company needs to hire a “dream team” of marketers, salespeople, engineers, technicians, and managers. But don’t allow whoever you hire to rest on their laurels. With “Fantastic Four”, at least two cast members were of that “prima donna” kind who are difficult to instruct or work with. Because of the “rising star” pedigree behind their names, the studio kept them. But they didn’t help “Fantastic Four” because the production was already weighted down by studio bureaucracy and pop-star idiocy of the prima donna type didn’t help anything. Trank should have let those performers go and found some that would work with him. In the world of your MSP, you need to find those with whom you can work, over those with a big pedigree. Pedigree does not equate to quality in workmanship.
Ensure You’ve Got Good Communication
Communication hit a brick wall in “Fantastic Four”; Trank was even barred from the editing room at one point. You need solid communication. Enigma shouldn’t surround management. Ensure you properly communicate to staff as best you can. This gets harder the larger your organization becomes, but it’s not impossible. Always keep lines of communication unfettered and open.
Ensure the Vision of Your MSP is Properly Communicated
Where is your MSP going? What differentiates it from other MSPs? Communicate this to your team and make it crystal clear. That didn’t happen on the set of Fox’s “Fantastic Four”. Instead, Trank tried to keep things hidden, and perhaps his plan would have worked if the studio didn’t pull the rug out from under him. But it did, and so things didn’t work. You can’t predict what kind of underhanded circumstances will pull the rug out from under your MSP; so, try to avoid decisions that will undermine you.
Be an Example to Employees
Perhaps it was studio intervention that made it so Trank could have used an intervention of his own, but the man definitely didn’t set a good example. He caused 100,000 to the property he lived on during the shoot, showed up late, had hostility problems— the list goes on. Don’t be like that. Your goal should be professionalism at every level. Show up on time— early, in fact. Dress well. Treat your staff courteously. That which is entrusted to you should be left better than you found it. These are basic common-sense things, but without accountability, people are apt to slide into apathy, and then destructive tendencies. Ensure you don’t do this with your MSP.
An MSP company that gets the right people for the job, properly communicates, has a clear vision, and sets examples for employees from the top-down, is an MSP that’s likely to operate more smoothly. Consider your operation and augment as necessary.
