Dream Team

Inc.'s start-up all-stars for 1989.

By Michael S. Hopkins | 
 

Inc.'s start-up all-stars

You'd think we'd be a little defensive about this, offer a disclaimer maybe, talk about how hard it all was, perhaps even apologize to the able and inspired company builders we're leaving out.

Not a chance. What we have here is, without doubt and beyond question, the management team of our decade-long dreams -- the ideal people, position by position, to lead the perfect fantasy start-up. So bet the ranch. Bet the kids. Heck, bet the record collection. We're ready. These are the guys.

(Did we say "guys"? Regrettably. We expect a different outcome next time.)

The ground rules for our picks were simple and few: (1) they had to come from somewhere in our pages over the past 10 years; and (2) because the company we'd start is in an unspecified business, we had to rely on functional skill, not industry knowledge.

Did we bring a bias? Sure. We like the combustive rub of not-always-varnished ego. We lean toward the lean, the decentralized, the innovative, the swift. We favor the hungry. (Some of our people don't even have jobs.)

For the most part, these aren't our most famous alums, but it doesn't matter. They're flawed, but it's OK. Put them in this lineup, and it works. Put them in a room, and things will happen. We're sure. It's our team. Beat it.

* * *

CEO

PATRICK McGOVERN
51, founder/CEO, International Data Group, Framingham, Mass., a market-research provider and publisher of more than 100 trade magazines related to information technology

First, there's "the vision thing." Saw technology's future early (the 1960s); went overseas early (1973, when IDG did just $6 million in sales); understood the power of decentralization early (from the start has tried to keep autonomous IDG business units to 50 employees each). Runs a $383-million, 65-unit, international corporation with headquarters staff of 15. Knows start-ups cold -- grows by launching them constantly within his own company. Craves customer contact, responsiveness, speed; launched one IDG publication in just three days.

More than any other CEO around, McGovern gets it: preach the mission, provide information, give folks plenty of rope -- then get out of the way. Exercises control with finance, research (an ingenious system of customer and employee surveys), and power of personality.

Another thing: has as much fun on the job as anybody we know. We like that.

COO

JACK STACK
40, cofounder/CEO, Springfield Remanufacturing Center Corp. (SRC), Springfield, Mo., a $40-million former division of International Harvester

A revolutionary, nothing less. We don't know whether he can find markets and create companies to cater to them, but it doesn't matter -- he's already the ideal number two. Nobody in the country knows better how to engage a work force in the task at hand.

Does it by taking all the fluff out of participatory management and turning employees at every level into businesspeople. At SRC, it's capitalism as Game. Everyone knows numbers; everyone shares rewards; everyone learns to make each decision based on how it will affect the score. Has created an operating system so sensible it can almost function on its own (see "My Favorite Company," April 1989, [Article link]).

In style, is straightforward, pragmatic, self-effacing. Enough ego to be fast and decisive, but not so much so that his managers can't move. Mr. Inside to McGovern's Mr. Outside -- the perfect complement.

CFO(VP/FINANCE)

THOMAS GOLISANO
47, founder/CEO, Paychex Inc., Rochester, N.Y., a former Inc. 500 payroll processor and now a national, $79-million-a-year, publicly traded company

Actually likes running a public company, working The Street -- "You gotta have fun, and this game is fun!" Highly credible there; his understanding of the market's needs and anxieties has helped propel his own company's shares to a multiple of 30. Knows other routes to capitalization, too, especially for early-stage expansion. Has grown own business by leveraging the equity of joint-venture partners, franchisees, and private investors.

Quick, indefatigable (not a word he'd use), a little salty. Also pugnacious -- an attractive quality in a CFO.

VP/HUMAN RESOURCES

DONALD BURR
47, founder/former CEO, People Express Airlines Inc. (which has since been swallowed by Texas Air Corp.)

From the category Tanned, Rested, and Ready, Burr's our man. Has had some stormy weather since People's demise, but no one's rivaled his gift for challenging convention, for questioning every assumption about how people are managed and why they work in the first place. Why quibble about his overall operational discipline? Other folks here can take care of that. For human-resources innovation, he remains the grail. We'll take his gifts of leadership and imagination -- not to mention his fight.

VP/MARKETING & SALES

JAMES KOCH
39, founder, The Boston Beer Co., Boston, brewer of Samuel Adams and Lightship, three-time winner of Best Beer in America at the Great American Beer Festival; former management consultant, The Boston Consulting Group

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