Spin Doctors

Tweet

Push came to shove for the Rykodisc telephone-answering process soon after. When the company acquired its own distribution firm, the Minneapolis-based REPCorp., in 1993, the message load became too great for a receptionist and a while-you-were-out pad to handle. As a stopgap measure the partners set up a couple of individual answering machines. But when the number grew to three, they realized that voice mail would be much more cost-effective and installed two inexpensive (less than $10,000) PC-based voice-mail systems, Voice Systems Research's VSR-200 and Compass Technology's Smooth Operator.

Yet even as they integrate more advanced technology into their far-flung operations, the partners are working hard to preserve the informal information-sharing management system that, quite unintentionally, now serves as a Cliffs Note to making it in the global village. "Technology itself is a cool medium," says Rose. "The way we use it, we make it a warm process."

Take, for example, how Rose handles E-mail. With just a few months' experience under his belt, he has already established a very Rykodisc approach to cyberspace, personally answering all his internal E-mail while sending all outside messages to his assistant, who treats them like any other piece of snail mail. He tries to log on at least 30 minutes each day, placing his highest priority on being accessible to insiders. There are employees, he says, with whom he'd had little daily interaction who have since become regular E-mail correspondents. "Some people are just more comfortable leaving me an E-mail message than walking into my office," he reports.

Rob Simonds is less sanguine. "I do pretty well with this," he says, picking up the telephone on his magazine-covered desk at REP. "There is a certain anonymity with E-mail, and there seems to be less personal responsibility for what you write than for what you say." Unlike the company's weekly reports, he points out, which focus on what the report writer has done, E-mail messages often convey instructions to the recipient, whose immediate reactions can't be gauged. For Simonds, voice mail, too, is impersonal -- and cuts down on the exchange of information, to boot. So he bridges the high-tech-low-tech distance by crafting the most personable outgoing message he can: "Hi, this is Voice Rob. If it will make you feel better, go ahead and leave me a message. But if you really want to get your question answered right away, call my assistant, Jocelyn, at . . ."

"These are shortcomings of the technology," Simonds says. "And I am not really interested in the technology for its own sake. I'm just interested in making sure we communicate."

With their concentration on the message rather than on the nature of the messenger, the partners wisely chose an insider to serve as their first MIS director -- someone who already knew which streams of information were most vital to the business. As retail-sales coordinator, Randy Hope had won the partners' respect by providing them with accurate, up-to-date sales reports and forecasts. It didn't hurt matters that in that position he had made a practice of stopping by record stores wherever he was and personally counting the available Rykodisc CD inventory. "He already showed us he would do what it takes to get the information we need," notes Simonds. "And we're pretty sure he can figure out the rest of that stuff -- you know, the technical end."

Hope was responsible for selecting the E-mail product, a decision made with the help of a small-business networking consultant in Minneapolis. The negotiations with long-distance carriers and voice-mail vendors are still being handled by the company's local office managers -- which is why the Salem and Minneapolis offices ended up with different systems. "I'm keeping an eye out for products that will let us integrate voice mail and E-mail in the same platform," Hope says.

The company also turned to its own workers rather than to outside talent when it came to other types of technology. "They just brought the computer in and said, 'Here it is; now learn how to use it,' " recalls ponytailed Steve Jurgensmeyer, Rykodisc's design guru, about the company's cutting-edge graphics equipment. Housed in one large room, the tiny art department produces all the CD art, packaging, and auxiliary materials for the approximately 500-title Rykodisc catalog. Working on high-end Macintosh Quadra computers augmented with Microtek and Hewlett-Packard scanners, one PowerPC, and a full line of Adobe software tools, the team can turn an idea into a CD on store shelves in a little more than a month.

Another highly motivated employee, Lars Murray, is now responsible for maintaining the Rykodisc Web home page, which debuted in late 1994. The page (http://www.shore.net/~rykodisc) opens with a point-and-click version of the Rykodisc catalog and gives visitors the opportunity to download art samples; eventually, they will be able to download music samples as well. The Rykodisc leadership team regards the Web experience as a valuable testing ground for the day when music will be distributed on-line. "The bandwidth isn't there yet," says Rose. "But when it's ready, we will be, too."

Rose is not about to make the same mistake of ignoring new media that helped create the opening for Rykodisc. "We're not in the CD business," he stresses. "We're in the business of delivering music to the consumer." That medium-is- not-the-message philosophy has enabled Rykodisc to best its competitors, not only with the product it offers, but also in the way it keeps itself connected. And as Rose would be the first to point out: if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Hal Plotkin (hplotkin@netcom.com) is based in Palo Alto, Calif.

 PREV  1 | 2 | 3 

Read more:

Sign-up for our Leadership and Managing Newsletter

Email Address: