It can be easy for successful company owners, especially founders, to rest on their laurels. The sales keep coming in, so the owner buys a bigger house, takes a lot of expensive vacations and devotes time to charities and/or civic activities. All well and good, but ignoring the business can create problems that may not surface immediately.

Here are some examples:

• The owner, who used to call on the large and important customers or clients, turns them over to the sales manager.
• The CFO started as the bookkeeper and isn’t really qualified to do the financial reporting necessary to provide the information to continue to grow the company.
• The owner appoints his friends to important roles as outside advisors such as corporate counsel and outside accounting professionals. They may not be qualified or willing to provide critical advice.
• There is a tendency to not rock the boat since everything seems to going fine.

Company owners should remember that they are the leaders. They set the work ethic, discipline and standards for the senior management, the managers and the employees – and the business itself.

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