Partner Andrew Sherman Highlights Importance of Employee Engagement on SMEmpower Pod

Partner Andrew J. Sherman appeared on an episode of The Impactful Capitalist’s “SMEmpower Podcast” to discuss how he shares his knowledge with the world and how companies can expand and be more successful by engaging more employees.

During the more than an hour-long discussion, Sherman emphasized the importance of sharing knowledge with entrepreneurs worldwide and how it can move the needle on ensuring that people have access to what they need to build a life.

“We can have a world where everyone has access to the resources they need to eat and sleep and raise a family comfortably and have a little savings for retirement,” Sherman said during the March 8 episode. “I believe that that world is possible. But it is impossible if people hold their knowledge too close to their vest.”

Some of the knowledge Sherman shares widely is that of how to build a solid business foundation and navigate the challenges that can arise during the different phases required to take an idea from a conversation to a funded company.

He noted that some of the most successful companies in today’s world are focused on culture, governance, leadership and engagement. In the entrepreneurial world, one of the most important growth drivers is employee engagement, based on his book, “The Crisis of Disengagement.”

“Most of the innovation inside a company comes from the three or four percent of your most highly engaged people,” Sherman said. “I’ve even testified before Congress regarding how much innovation we would be seeing worldwide, imagine the impact on the country's GDP if something more than 3% of the average company were highly engaged workers.”

This means, Sherman noted, that about 95% of the people working inside these companies are slogging along, doing whatever the minimum is to get their Christmas bonus. He said AI, robotics, supercomputing and all of the other great technological developments would be expedited tenfold if that percentage point were just a little bit higher.

“I'll tell you this, these disengaged workers are definitely not up at night worried about the future of the company,” Sherman asserted. “They may be up at night worried about their own career trajectory. … All of these businesses are people businesses. And until we're replaced by robots, which I hope is not anytime soon, it will remain people businesses.”

The “SMEmpower Podcast” is hosted by entrepreneur Max Getuba, who is chief executive officer of Ridgemont Africa, a media company dedicated to elevating the culture of enterprise in Africa, based in Kenya.