May 15, 1992 Phone consultation with my marketing consultant. If I add Jan R. to the list, I am now getting advice on the way the company is organized from my sales manager, Diane N.; my advisory board; and seven outside consultants (15 plates in the air!).
Jan is almost impatient when she reminds me I still have not consulted with another, larger telemarketing firm (we are now doing 80% telemarketing) to see how larger firms are structured. [Note: That piece of advice will prove to be one of the more important suggestions of the year.]
After our phone call I immediately call Chris H., a woman who works for an acquaintance who owns a huge telemarketing company in Philadelphia. I have been meaning to do this for months, and something always seemed to get in the way. I ask her if she can come in and help me look at operations. She agrees enthusiastically.
May 22, 1992 Chris H. arrives right on time, at 8:30 a.m. We talk for almost three hours. As I furiously take notes, I realize how important she has been in helping with the growth of her company. The owner is a salesman; Chris is an organizer. She is neat, precise, and detail oriented, and yet is also social and sympathetic toward other people. The owner had already been in business for 12 years before launching this division. And he had two partners on the operations side. I realize this guy knew the importance of hiring someone unlike himself to run operations. He is like me, an idea person, a people person, a salesperson. I ask her if she'd be willing to screen applicants for the position she recommends I create -- a director of operations to oversee telemarketing, computer support, clerical support, customer service, and bookkeeping. When I walk Chris out of the office she reminds me that the tree in our reception area needs to have the leaves dusted.
May 27, 1992 I call Sarah K., a board member who is a quality-assurance manager for an international manufacturer. I tell her about Chris H. and this discovery I have made. That I have never hired a manager who is my alter ego -- a detail person. She laughs.
* * *
She says there is a personality type among operations people. This is nothing scientific, just her own observation. She suggests I go out to the parking lot and look at my employees' cars. If the insides are clean, if those employees are always precisely on time, if they live their lives by a stopwatch, then they belong in operations. I hang up. I can't resist, and go outside to the parking lot.
* * *
My new bookkeeper's car is sitting next to mine. The inside is filthy: old soda cups on the floor, clothes on the backseat. His office and his work look the same, I am forced to admit to myself. I look at my sales manager's car. It is immaculate.
May 29, 1992 I am leaving for a 15-day trip to Italy with my husband and six friends. We have been planning this trip for two years. As the months have passed, I have eyed this date on the calendar and wondered if my company would be ready for me to be staying in a villa without a phone in the heart of Tuscany for 15 days. I decide to leave the company in the hands of Diane, my sales manager.
Two hours before I leave the office, Chris H. calls and tells me she is interested in the operations position.
In the flight magazine I read from Pittsburgh to New York City is a quote I rewrite in my journal: "The best executive is the one who has the sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it." Theodore Roosevelt. It is another reminder that for our company to grow, I must lead, but I also must hire good solid people to run each area of the company. I decide that is one of the mistakes I have made over the years, second-guessing employees, not clearly defining their jobs, and then not getting out of their way. Determined to follow Chris H.'s suggestions to realign DRM's organizational structure, I draft the new organizational chart and operations-job description before we land in New York to catch our overseas flight. I also realize that, realistically, until now I could not afford to hire managers -- so I hired people to assist me while I ran every area of the company.
June 8, 1992 While I am here in Italy I complete the operations director's job description. It is the most thought I have given to a position ever. I realize that in my career, I have hired very few management candidates. Mostly, they have been line employees or supervisors. I call the office once, from a hotel pay phone, and it costs 38,000 liras for Diane to tell me everything is fine.
June 11, 1992 Over a long, sunny afternoon I sit with Marion Z., debating the finer points of running a business. His architectural firm is 80 years old; our business is 8. He shares the company with four other principals; I have none. I do not ask him what his company grosses in a year, but I know he has more than 50 employees and occupies a large space in a premier office building downtown. We talk about what it takes for a company to go from $200,000 in sales to $2 million. He argues convincingly that it is the client relationships built over many years that make the difference.
I point out that I have always drawn a strict line between my business and personal life. When I walk into a meeting with a client, I am the first one to bring the agenda to the table. In fact, I pride myself on handpicking the clients I want to work with, looking for those I like and respect, and rejecting all others. Marion disagrees strongly, and so we debate for most of the day. At night I compare our points and wonder how many times my own beliefs get in the way of my company's growth.
June 16, 1992 Back in the office today. While in Italy, I got to know Marion Z.'s wife, Mary. I asked her if she would like to be considered by our new operations person as an administrative assistant once that person is hired. She agreed. I know how she keeps her car, because we shared the same car and villa for two weeks. Morale is actually high when I return. Diane has been solving problems and talking to employees, assuring them everything will be fine.
