My CEO Life

Now that i have moved on from the REA Group, i am setting up a new business.  In the process of doing this, we have decided that we will try our hardest to use new technologies to make the business run.  The first decision we took was to get right of the old telephone system and to use skype alone.

The theory is simple.  The business the we are setting up is global in focus and therefore we will need to be contacting people around the world on a regular basis.  Everyone has a PC so this is not a problem and all we do is give each of them a head set and away we go.  We are using Skype Business software that works like a dream.  We now have 20 people working off it and there are no problems.

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How often is it that you get invited to a meeting that goes on and on and on.  You get there and there is no formal agenda, the other attendees are late, some don’t know why they have been invited, there is no real leader of the meeting and an hour or so later you leave with no real outcomes and you are left wondering what that was all about.

Well i think there should be a different approach - the 30 minute meeting.  In fact, if it can be shorter, thats even better. 

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I am not sure how many of you regularly listen to podcasts however i am an avid fan of them.  When i go running, i plug the ipod nano in a listen to podcasts from around the world.  I also take my iPod nano with me when i am travelling so i can keep up to date.

Now what are the sort of podcasts is listen to.  Well they tend to be news, views and opinions from the US and the UK and generally relating to business as well as current affairs.  it allows me to stay on top of what is really happening rather than spending time in front of the TV wading through rubbish.  I am particularly interested in the more insightful analysis podcasts such as the Economist provide.

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I had a great meeting with a guy in San Francisco yesterday.  During the meeting we chatted about his current businesses and his aspirations for where he wanted to take them.  What was interesting was the breadth of ideas that he was tackling all at once and it got me to thinking about how important focus is. 

In any job there are always competing priorities.  It doesn’t matter whether you are in sales, marketing, finance, HR, what ever, there are always 100 things you can do and only time to do 5 of them.  What differentiates the effective people from the rest of us is that they decide what they are not going to do and this decision is based on the goal that they are striving for. 

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I hate meetings … especially if they don’t have an agenda, are not lead by someone and go on and on and on.  So what have i done about this, here are a few simple rules i try to live by

1. 30 minute meetings only - i even have a great 30 min timer on my desk as a reminder
2. No agenda, no meeting and the agenda must be sent before we get together
3. No more than 4 people to a meeting
4. There must be a clear leader and that person nominated before the meeting
5. Clear outcomes must be reached including decisions or next steps

Simple in theory but takes discipline to make happen.  They challenge is getting everyone to do it around the business and change the culture from a meetings one to a decision making one.  Now that takes time!!!

In the beginning i tossed up between allowing microsoft messenger in the business and blocking its usage.  In hindsight - that was a waste of thinking time.

Microsoft messenger is now the communication’s tool of choice for the business.  Most employees are registered and everyone is actively encouraged to share their messenger id with others in the business.

I personally have around 70 contacts in my including employees, customers and suppliers.  I find it a great way in which i can quickly connect with the right people no matter where they are in the world.  It also allows us to see who is on line and who is not.  The tool becomes even better when i am traveling as my hand held device (an O2 Pocket PC) has mobile messenger installed - so i can contact who i want, when i want.

Here is a classic case of where free technology is helping us reduce the costs to the business.  If you dont use it, then give it a go.

So, for those that have been following my blog will realise that last week we had our half year annual conference.

Wed / Thurs / Fri last week we ran many sessions for people from all parts of the business.  The whole 3 day event is capped off with a gala dinner.

It turned out to be an amazing event.  All the staff became fully connected with the business.  We covered lots of topics from how we have been going, to how we increase our size 10x, to cultural issues and to just having fun!

The highlight was a run down of the financials by our resident CFO / comedien.  He managed in one 30 min session to clearly communicate how the business is going while laying them in the aisles with deft one liners and targeted comments about staff members and beer.

The other highlight was taking the time to get to know people.  I was pleasantly surprised by the number of folk who came up to me at the breaks and over a beer or even at 4 am at the nightclub and who wanted just chat and talk about the business.

The amazing thing is that they are now so connected to the business adn where we are going.  What surprised me most is that when we set the challenge of how we get to $500m in revenues, most said “too low” …

It is so easy to love a business when the team just love it so much too.  The bottom line is that by putting lots into the business and the people, we will get a lot out of it.  I would recommend doing this to all CEO’s.

Well time management has to be one of my greatest challenges. I am notoriously bad at saying “yes” to most things.

However, how do i broadly split my time? The answer, surprisingly enough, is simple - 1/3rd is Board, media and investor related, 1/3rd is spent on people and operational related issues with the exisitng businesses and the remaining 1/3rd is on growth initiatives.

Lets look at each of them.

Well the 1/3rd of the time spent on markets / board / investors and this is probably the most challenging.

The second 1/3rd is spent diving in on issues relating to the current businesses and most importantly their operations. On reflection, there are two key areas i spend time on - people (including culture) and product. People issues are always about and it is up to me to help create the right environment for our people to reach their full potential. Product is critical as we operate in an fast innovation industry and slow to market is a long and painful death.

Finally, the last 1/3rd is spent on the building the future. We have great people running the current operations so i spend lots of time with our corporate development guru looking at markets to enter and businesses to buy. Also included in this is time spent on actually doing the deals.

So, my first insight into what i do …

I think i will talk about people and culture soon - these are the most critical.