"When you leave a meeting," says Secrest, "you understand the issue. Even if we have conflicting views going in, we eventually come up with a package that everyone can live with." The process is particularly valuable, Dewar notes, when the matter at hand is controversial or emotional -- managers are better able to sell something they've all talked out and agreed on. Last spring, for example, the executive committee decided after weeks of proposals and counterproposals to scale back funding of health insurance. Given the history of generous benefits at the company, it would have been an unpopular decision under any circumstance, admits Dewar, and Secrest, for one, had serious misgivings about its effect on the company's ability to attract good people in the future. But eventually they all agreed that cost reductions were necessary, and employees were asked to pay about a third of their dependent coverage. "If I had made the decision on my own or if it had been made by John [Colwell, the finance vice-president]," Dewar says, "we would have been seen as the bad guys." Committee decisions, Dewar thinks, carry more weight with employees.
While the initial impetus for Dewar's meetings with his managers was to solve a specific problem, an unexpected benefit has been the role it creates for managers. In most businesses, the person in charge of, say, finance is hired to run finance. His or her involvement in marketing or operations would be at most an afterthought and often an unwelcome one. At DISC, however, the vice-presidents aren't just permitted to comment on proposals centered in other areas; it's part of the job. Like managers at other companies, they still run their departments on a day-to-day basis and make most of the decisions within their areas. Through the committee, however, they have an impact beyond their corner of the company. "You feel like you're part of the process," says Secrest, who, along with Houcek, has been with DISC for more than five years.
The key to Dewar's success may be that he has made each of the participants part of the process at DISC. The meetings aren't a drag for him or his managers. They're the place where one's expertise comes to the fore, where one's ideas can directly affect how the company is run. Each of the four can point to decisions that are better for having been discussed openly.
Even though all three vice-presidents have owned or managed businesses themselves, working in the DISC environment took some getting used to. "When I first came here in 1987, I found it very annoying to have to listen to [marketing vice-president] Ed Houcek talk about our cash flow," admits Colwell. But since then Colwell, who used to own his own software firm, has come to recognize that "a company isn't run for the accounting department." Now, rather than seeing other managers' comments as unwelcome attempts to meddle in his affairs, he says, "you learn to share information and hear how decisions would impact others. This is a tool for coordinating every aspect of our growth.
"I'd say that 8 out of 10 decisions come out better with this approach," offers Colwell, who saw a lot of decision making in the five years he spent working for a Big Eight accounting firm. "There's a level of coordination we get here that you rarely see in other businesses." And Dewar? He's so pleased with the way things are going that he can't imagine running DISC differently.
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SHARING DECISIONS
How to get the most from an executive committee
An executive committee isn't for everyone. To begin with, says C. E. Steuart Dewar, president and founder of Dewar Information Systems Corp., you have to be comfortable with the idea of sharing responsibility with your managers. If that isn't a serious obstaclefor you, here are some things to keep in mind:
* Be organized. You don't have to be overly formal, but it's a good idea to have a regular meeting schedule, a written agenda, and a chairperson. Without a structure, says Dewar, "you risk having it become a bull session for senior managers."
* Be open. Encourage committee members to voice their views strongly, no matter how controversial. That's the only way you're going to see the whole picture. If the finance person, for example, isn't pointing out the financial risks of a marketing plan, you could end up with a false sense of security, warns Dewar.
* Find the common ground. Once everyone has placed their cards on the table, it's time to sort out what makes the most sense. "Somebody has to begin synthesizing the pieces," Dewar has learned. "I'll make proposals and keep getting feedback until we find a consensus."
* Assign responsibility. Nothing is complete until committee members understand who's supposed to do what by when. After each meeting, Dewar gives his vice-presidents an assignment list. "Unless you spell out what's supposed to happen," he says, "it winds up like a lot of committees -- just a waste of time."
