Aug 11, 2008, post by Randall
As an investor, the most important lesson I’ve learned over the years is that great companies are built by great teams. Furthermore, great teams rarely are one superhuman “A” player surrounded by a supporting cast of “B” players. And unlike the Borg Collective which seeks to “… add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own”, great management teams need to have a set of complementary, yet overlapping, skill sets.
Most of us know the example of how Steve Wozniak the brilliant hardware designer teamed up with the uber-persuasive Steve Jobs to create Apple, an iconic Silicon Valley startup success story. While that partnership didn’t last forever, it’s pretty clear that the fusing of the talents of these two brilliant individuals directly led to Apple’s early success. I encourage you to read more in a “must read” book I’ve recommended earlier, Founders at Work.
Jim Balsillie
Mike Lazaridis
Here in Waterloo, Research in Motion (RIM) would not be today’s superstar company unless Jim Balsillie joined engineer, founder, Mike Lazaridis. Until Jim joined Mike in the early 1990’s, RIM had long remained a typical engineering oriented company doing about $500 000 annual revenues from 20-odd products. Although Jim could never have built the products, his introduction to the management brought the marketing and financial drive and focus that ultimately led to the Blackberry led success story we know today. Rather than the cult of the individual, once again it is the power of this amazing duo that built RIM.
What is unusual about this case is that both Mike and Jim share the title CEO, billing themselves as co-CEOs. Perhaps more companies should consider this approach?
Reed Hastings
Back in 1995, as MKS was starting to look to the capital markets, one of my personal inspirations, Reed Hastings CEO of Pure Software (and now Netflix), observed that “Pure Software has built a team where any of the senior management team could be CEO”. I certainly took that approach to heart when building MKS’s great team and it has been an important insight ever since.
For example, Chuck Bay, who was Pure’s CFO at the time has subsequently gone on to be CEO Broadbase Software (acquired by KANA) and President and CFO of Spatial Technology. Rob Dickerson, who was VP & GM of Developer Tools for Pure, a key operationally focused executive, subsequently became CEO of Faves and President, CEO of Pacific Edge Software (acuired by Serena Software) and EIR at Ignition Partners. These are just two data points illustrating the calibre of the team Reed built at Pure Software.
At MKS, we managed to build an amazing team, especially in the mid-late 1990’s with superstars like Ruth Songhurst, Eric Palmer, Tobi Moriarty, Michael Day, Frank Pfeiffer and Paul Laufert. It was a great mix, with stars from Canada, US and Germany. As well, almost uniquely, we had a balance of the genders. It is a big disappointment to me that I continue to see how rare that is.
To round out our discussions, anyone wanting a deeper grounding in this important topic should read the book Co-Leaders: The Power of Great Partnerships by David A. Heenan and Warren Bennis, John Wiley & Sons, 1999. With the thesis that great organizations need “more than a visionary CEO”, the bookoutlines the rare, but critical, role building a strong management team takes in building exceptional companies.
To summarize this book, in the authors’ words, “Co-leadership . . . is a tough-minded strategy that will unleash the hidden talent in any enterprise. Above all, co-leadership is inclusive, not exclusive. It celebrates those who do the real work, not just a few charismatic, often isolated, leaders who are regally compensated for articulating the oranizations’ vision”. Although, like many it has taken me years to learn this valuable lesson, I couldn’t say it better myself.
There are lots of detailed case studies, from companies in many industries, with a few key lessons for co-leaders, including:
- Know thyself
- Know thy leader (check your ego at the door)
- Avoid titanic clashes (!)
- Find out what the enterprise needs and deliver it superbly
- Lead as well as follow
- Know when to stay put (control the temptation to star)
- Know when to walk away (learn when to say no)
- Define success on your own terms
To reiterate, great companies are almost always built by great teams. As organizations and markets get more complex, I believe co-leadership will become increasingly the norm. For smart and successful people to control their egos takes a lot of maturity. Furthermore, the ideal team depends, in large part, on the stage and growth of the company. As I’ve learned, great teams take a lot of work to build, but can also dissipate over time. Indeed, they are a rare and fragile flower, to be cultivated constantly.
Nonetheless, it is definitely worth any entrepreneur’s full time and attention to unleash the power of the team - whether a gestalt of two, three or even more remarkable individuals.
Sphere: Related Content
Aug 08, 2008, post by Randall
Definitely outshining the Olympian brouhaha, today we gathered to celebrate the birthday of hitherto little known Flavius Octavius. We were honoured to have a reading by the eminent historian and raconteur, Peter Scott, who narrated a gripping saga, reflecting his very latest research. An excerpt of that esteemed work by Herr Doctor Professor Scott follows:
Flavius Octavius
Born 641
Cardinal 662
“anti-pope” 669 in Oc, France
Died 721
well known for his bulls, which had many issues
father was an ocarina maker and player
mother, an occultist (also took in laundry)At the time of his papacy there were several antipopes - challengers to the papal authority in Rome - besides Octavius of Oc, there were Sardonicus of Avignon, Herbivorus of Seville and Randy of Burnham on Crouch.
Octavius’ deeds are the stuff of legend.
He is venerated in Oc today as the patron saint of stray cattle. It is said that his bulls often escaped from their enclosure.
On one famous occasion, when a most large and ferocious bull was terrorising the honest citizens of Oc, the saintly Octavius, still in his ceremonial robes, caused his bearers to lower the palanquin in which he was riding. He produced an ocarina from a concealed pocket and, fearlessly facing the raging bull, played an air of such melodic sweetness that the bull became totally incensed. After the merest, most cursory pawing of the earth, it charged the courageous cleric, who turned and fled, His only escape route was down a very narrow alley and Octavius was not a thin, ascetic pope. In fact, he was a substantially built pope (the expression ‘enbonpoint’ comes to mind). However, although he became tightly wedged at the narrowest point of the alley, he continued to play his ocarina. (There is scholarly disagreement concerning whether this was a sign of his courage or the result of all the wind being forced out of his lungs by his confinement.) The bull, his enthusiasm for goring portly popes no wit diminished, pursued Octavius until he too, became wedged. Thanks to a subtle discrepancy in their respective girths, the bull was brought to a halt within snorting distance of the pontiff.
This stalemate was maintained until the pope’s own Corsican Guards were able free each of the wedged, although to do so, they had to wait for the better part of five days until, first the bull, and then the pope had lost sufficient avoirdupois to allow for the careful application of ropes and wedges.
On the eighth of August every year, Oquians re-enact this famous legend with the famous ‘Spectacle du Taureau.’ Be the weather cool or hot, young and old alike don heavily padded suits under clerical robes and parade at noon in the streets, all playing the well-rehearsed ‘Melodie du taureau‘ on their ocarinas. At an unspecified moment a bull is released, and, like the Bulls of Palmplona, it pursues the crowd. But do not be alarmed, gentle listeners, this bull has been so well fattened that it can barely manage a slow, swaying trot.
The same bull makes a second appearance in the town later that evening garnished with Dijon mustard, flavoured with garlic and various ‘herbes de Provence’ and accompanied with Oc’s special edition red wine, ‘Ruelle Entroite du Pape’.
I hope that this little historical excursion has not intruded upon your enjoyment of tonight’s celebration, and that you will be truly edified by the shining example of courage of Pope Flavius Octavius of Oc, who, on this day, 1300 years ago, triumphed in a tight spot.
Now, everyone please exchange the traditional Oquian greeting, Merde des Taureaux!”
Peter Scott, Elora, 8 August, 2008
Sphere: Related Content
Aug 02, 2008, post by Randall
In today’s mail I received a tantalizing offer from Bell Canada Long Distance. It promised the ability to “Call the world without limits” by delivering “Unlimited World Long Distance Plan $29.95/mo.” With calls to over 50 countries plus Canada and USA included, on the face of it, that’s a pretty attractive offer.
But, I’ve learned that, when dealing with the telecoms industry whether landline or wireless, it pays to read the fine print. And, sure enough, in very small type at that bottom it says “excludes calls to mobile phones and wireless devices.” Sadly, when I call overseas, where mobile penetration is generally at or even above 100 mobiles for 100 population, over 95% of my calls are to mobile phones. So, far from being unlimited, this plan is really a bit of a “bait and switch” which might well increase my calling costs. In the monthly billing cycle, the arrival of the first bill post sign up would almost certainly make any customer’s blood boil. At a macro level, I’m really curious as to what such deceptive marketing campaigns say about customer relations and basic trust in the 21st century?
Also this week, Canadian Minister of Industry, Jim Prentice, dialled up his earlier suggestion to mobile operators Bell and Telus to reconsider their ill-conceived plan to charge customers for incoming SMS text messages, including SPAM. Minister Prentice, after meeting Bell CEO George Cope, publicly raised the spectre of increased wireless regulation in Canada as a way to increase pressure for the pair to see common sense. Clearly, for companies that act in the public interest, using the police-like powers of regulation to curb those who stray from this idea must strike a delicate balance. Again, is this a trust issue? Are Bell and Telus exhibiting corporate greed or simply strategic incompetence?
Speaking of trust, a week ago a good friend lent me a fascinating book called 24 Days, by Rebecca Smith and John R. Emshwiller, Harper Collins, 2003. The co-authors, two Wall Street Journal Reporters, lay out a factual and totally rivetting chronicle of how the once “great” company called Enron went from being on top of the world into a death spiral in little more than three weeks. To quote the authors, “so much of Enron’s energies were devoted … to exploiting accounting rules to make profits out of thin air. So much brainpower went into temporary gains rather than into building projects with lasting value. By any means, was the Enron way. … Service to its customers and clients, didn’t enter into it.” Having once run a public company where we took our fiduciary and regulatory duties to our shareholders and the public markets seriously, the sheer magnitude of the greedy cleverness of the malfeasance at Enron boggles the mind. Again, why have the fundamental ethical standards of human trust in the corporate world sunk so low? While it is easy to build a house of cards, without long term trust, I firmly believe it is impossible to build any entity (corporate or otherwise) with lasting, long term value.
Trust issues aren’t confined to the US and Canada. In Germany, T-Mobile has been advertising their new iPhone mobile data plans as “open internet access with unlimited data” (”Freier Internetzugang mit unbegrenzter Datenflatrate”) For the details, see a fascinating post from TMCnet. Indeed, customers were finding to their dismay that this open internet access specifically disallowed such basic mobile web services as VoIP, IM, and VPN. Furthermore, the supposedly unlimited data plan was actually capped. This is almost unbelievable, especially in Germany which, being in the European Union, generally benefits from far superior mobile regulation than we enjoy in US and Canada. In a David versus Goliath situation, sipgate, a small VoIP application provider for Apple iPhone, stood up for consumers and has won a preliminary court injunction against mighty T-Mobile. In this instance, there can be no doubt that t-Mobile is just plain wrong. Once again, we wonder how clearly deceptive advertising affects trust between T-Mobile and its cusotmers?
For once, the lessons for companies are simple, yet so often overlooked. In this age of call centres, web self service and mobile nomadism, opportunities for developing personal relationships between companies and customers are on decline. As people feel increasingly distant from the companies that provide them goods and services, the importance of trust in business dealings goes up. I would argue that because trust is built over the long term, it needs to become a vital part of every company’s brand equity. Although economists have yet to devise specific measurements, it is clear that a lack of trust can kill a multi-billion dollar brand very quickly and in such a way as to make recovery extremely difficult and costly, if not impossible.
Sphere: Related Content
Jul 30, 2008, post by Randall
A little over 4 months ago we first wrote about an astonishing social enterprise, Jonathan Howard (see photo) and his Run The Dream (RTD).
Jonathan and Terry with Michael Chong, MP
To refresh your memory, take a look at our 22 March, 2008 post by clicking here: With amazing youthful enthusiasm, having Just turned 25 today, Jonathan Howard ran into Elora to a welcome by a Michael Chong, MP, Mayor Joanne Ross-Zuj, a number of parents who live daily with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and a good contingent of local supporters. It goes without saying people were inspired and he was very warmly greeted.
It’s really interesting how things that start slowly eventually snowball. There are always challenges and false starts in any truly entrepreneurial enterprise. The snowballing of viral propagation is famous in the world of web startups. Jonathan has witnessed a similar effect with Run The Dream. One shining example of that is Terry Robinson (see photo). Terry, a co-worker at Ontario Public Service and an accomplished two-time Para-Olympian (Seoul and Barcelona), was so inspired by Jonathan’s social vision to commit to a leave of absence from his job to accompany Jonathan by wheelchair from Ottawa to Winnipeg. That’s a 3 month and 3000 kms of dedicated trek. What a team they make as they average a marathon a day, day in, day out.
Jonathan and Terry should be an inspiration to us all. RTD is managed by a core team of about a dozen (effectively full time) volunteers, augmented by literally hundreds of local grassroots volunteers, with Jonathan being the notional CEO (or should I say, Chief Running Officer?). As a startup social enterprise, RTD has an impressive year one business plan. The two main CSFs:
- to raise awareness of ASD, and
- to raise $2.5 million in donations
are ambitious goals for any startup. How many technology startups come close to that in year one?
When we filter investment prospects at Verdexus, we like to think that 80% of the investment decision is centred around the team. As a result, we spend much time getting the measure of founding team entrepreneurs. For a social enterprise, the same is true, in spades. With a vision and an execution track record that Jonathan and Run The Dream has so far, have you any doubt that investors will back Jonathan and his team?
And, guess what? You can to. Help Jonathan and his team meet their goal by donating online at the Run The Dream website.
Sphere: Related Content
Jul 10, 2008, post by Randall
New York Times on Sunday contained an article which immediately caught my attention, as it appears to provide the missing piece pulling together all of my recent postings outlining an “Entrepreneurial Toolkit”, so far consisting of these five core skill sets:
- “Fearless Passion”
- “Don’t Drink Your Own Bathwater”
- “Embrace Change”
- “Taste the Cash Burn”
- “The Power of Two (or Three)” (coming soon)
The article,
