My CEO Life

Here is another question - i must be on a roll

What specific turning points (sudden or gradual) moved you significantly forward along your path moving up the corporate ladder towards becoming a CEO? Secondly, what was the first thing you did coming out of college or grad school that got you set on a path of success/progression? Or, were there initial obstacles that you had to deal with?

So the first question … first!!  The biggest turning point was taking a risk.  I saw an opportunity to run a company and i made a sales pitch to the board, had the incumbent sacked and took over running the business.  I made my own luck.  If i had not taken the risk and made a pitch to the board - the safety net would not have appeared and i would not be typing today.

As for the second question - the first thing i did after college was going into sales with IBM. This was a great start as i learned to sell - computers, myself, everything.  From this i was able to understand what makes a sales person tick — no sales, no revenues - therefore this is probably the most critical skill i learned.

I also did an MBA and went to work for McKinsey and co for 4.5 years … this is much better than an MBA.  Management consulting (for a short period of time) is a great lesson.  Too long and you just become so detached from the real world!!!

There you go … some more about me.

I was recently asked the question “how do you attract and retain excellent employees?”.  This entry looks at the second part of the equation.

Firstly, you need to make sure that your team members are paid at least at the market rates.  Now you can often get away with paying a little less than market rates if you have the ability to issue options / equity in the business to the employees.  When we pay our employees, we ensure that everyone has a bonus component linked to measurable KPI’s.  We also allow people to earn more than their package through over performance.

Secondly, you need to create a culture where people can grow.  Now to do this, you need to understand what people want to do and then ensure that they can achieve some or all of those objectives.  We are about to instigate a google type 1 day per week for tech guys to explore new ideas.

Thirdly, we are a strong believer in spot awards.  For example, a team has just completed a marathon new product launch.  So as a reward, we are going to ask them all into a room, give them a day off AND give them $2k each to spend in that day.  Make it fun for them!

Fourthly, we create a very open environment where people’s thoughts / concerns and ideas are clearly heard.  Often a closed environment means that people get sick of going no where and leave.

Finally, you need to ensure that they have part of the business.  That you make them feel like owners and that they can ride the growth of the business.  Options are a great way to do this.

I would love your thoughts and questions.

As many of you know, i run a business the operates in the internet space. We do a number of things incuding publish a number of sites.

There are often great ideas that blossom on the internet including such well known names as google, amazon and ebay. However, over the years there have been the real duds - i am sure every one remembers pets.com and the sock puppet.

So it was with interest that i was reading an article in the Wall Street Journal about “The Best of the Worst” of the internet. Do you remember cyberrebate.com, flooz.com, ismell, cuecats, iLoo, Audrey or point cast?

• Cyberrebate worked on the theory that people would be happy to pay up to 10 x the value of a product on the conditiion that they received a 100% rebate. The company worked on the theory that not all people would claim the rebate and they would make money. They closed their doors $83 m in debt

• iSmells was a product created to enhance the web surfing experience by engaging the users’ sense of smell by plugging the device into the USB port. Enough said …

• In May 2003, Microsoft announced the plans for iLoo - an internet enabled toilet! The UK office announced plans for a portable toilet complete with a computer, waterproof keyboard and wireless Internet connection, to be used at summer music festivals in England.

And we all remember pointcast - the technology to automatically deliver news and headlines over the web to the user’s PC … well the company knocked back $450m from News Corp and was eventually sold for $7m.

For more information check out the full Wall Street Journal article and enjoy … http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB114424637699117715-OO16F7Ov3DMZcs1xpbu5ksPDTl0_20070503.html