Issue link: http://endeavor.uberflip.com/i/1062008
What is the best advice you would give to a company looking to scale? A company looking to scale should look out three to five years and define a couple of critical milestones that they would like to achieve. These should be easy to identify, describe and communicate and should be achievable within the context of the market size and dynamics. Once these have been defined, the company needs to assemble a management team and create a corporate structure that is able to manage the business once it has reached those milestones, which inevitably means that the investment will need to precede the success. This is one of the hardest things for entrepreneurs to do. What is the relationship between company culture and business success? The relationship between company culture and business success is absolutely critical. How a company does business and how employees interact among themselves and with customers and clients needs to be defined by the management team and permeate through all ranks if the company is to be successful and create its own identity. I am a big believer in "How you do anything is how you do everything" and establishing the parameters for action within the company is critical to its success and identity. Why did you decide to become a mentor with Endeavor Miami? I've always enjoyed mentoring and like to see entrepreneurs and companies grow into their own. I am also a big believer in paying it forward and I would not be where I am if I had not been mentored along the way. Endeavor provides a great platform to do this and a variety of companies ensuring that mentors can use their specific experiences to help these businesses thrive. What have you enjoyed the most throughout your time as a mentor? I enjoy watching companies grow and evolve. I also like challenges and it is rewarding to see companies take the advice and employ the tools available to Endeavor in order to face and succeed at critical points in the road. P A R T N E R A T F O R R E S T A L C A P I T A L Annette Franqui is a seasoned business executive with close to 30 years of experience in the financial industry. She is one of the founding partners of Forrestal Capital, a business and financial advisory firm formed in 2003 to counsel a number of Latin American families. ANNETTE FRANQUI F I F T H A N N I V E R S A R Y E D I T I O N P A G E 6 2 MENTOR SPOTLIGHT