THE ACID TEST Eric Kriss ran two sessions at the conference and didn't mention Drucker or Mandela even once. He did drop one name, though: Ken Kesey. Turns out Kesey--yes, that Ken Kesey--was Kriss's playground director when he was growing up in Palo Alto. Maybe that's where he got his first exposure to the "vision thing."
"We tell our employees not to drink or cuss when they're on the job, but we also tell them that if they're going to drink on the job, they should make it scotch or bourbon, not vodka, so the clients will know they're drunk, not stupid."
--Harry Carter, President of Computer Sales & Services, in Columbia, S.C.
LIFE IN THE FISHBOWL Kriss told a story about the day an employee walked into his office and asked if the company was in trouble. "No," said Kriss, "why do you ask?" "Well," said the employee, "it's your car. People think we must be doing badly for you to be driving a seven-year-old heap like that."
REVERSE SABBATICALS Richard Doyle, chairman and CEO of Mass. Bay Brewing Co., said he knew some people who might benefit from "reverse sabbaticals," during which they'd be required to do real work in a real company for six months. We think he had consultants in mind.
FOUND WISDOM Stephen King, president of Virtual Growth Inc., said he borrowed his most effective marketing technique from Amnesty International USA, for which he served as chief financial officer for a time. Amnesty International was very good at a fund-raising approach known as "mail, phone, mail." You mail a letter, quickly follow up by phone, and then follow up again with a more specific personalized letter. That same technique worked wonders when King started Virtual Growth, an accounting firm, in December 1995. He got so much business that he hasn't needed to do a second campaign until now.
Built to Last
"How many of you have heard that there are two types of business leaders--the founder/entrepreneur and the executive/manager--and that you can't be both? Well, it's a myth. To build a great company, you must be both."
"Charisma is not an asset. It's a liability to recover from. Juan Trippe of Pan American was the quintessential example of a charismatic leader. He thought that the ultimate proof of his leadership ability would be for the company to go bankrupt after he died. To that extent, he was an unqualified success."
"People always ask me, how do you teach core values? The answer is, you don't. The goal is not to get people to share your core values. It's to get people who already share your core values."
--Jim Collins, coauthor of Built to Last
The job glut
We've never been able to resist the opportunity to poll the Inc. 500 founders who attend the conference. This year we learned that if a presidential election were held today, the overwhelming majority would vote Republican. No surprise there.
We also found out that, in starting their companies, both men (61%) and women (55%) were motivated most by the desire to "build or create something." Where they differed was in their attitudes about building wealth, with 52% of the men and only 25% of the women citing it as an important motivator. (Building wealth came in second on the men's lists but ranked sixth among the women.)
Then we asked, Has the current labor shortage affected your company's ability to attract and retain qualified employees? The response: 78% answered yes.
So we weren't shocked to learn that 56% of the respondents were upgrading compensation. What does come as a surprise is that 29% reported that they now recruit on college campuses, long considered a practice only large companies could afford.
The biggest surprise of all? Seven percent of the Inc. 500 reported hiring entry-level workers from welfare. That's amazing, considering the likely cost of training them, an expense many small companies cannot afford.
A stand-up guy
After an informal poll of Inc. staff members, the unofficial but much-coveted award for Outstanding Stand-up Performance by a CEO went to Doug Mellinger, founder of PRT Group (who was featured on the cover of our January issue). Some highlights from his breakout session:
On equity: "The biggest lesson I've learned in the past two years is the difference between the amount of equity you own and the value of the equity. I used to worry about losing control, keeping 51% of the stock, and so on. It's all rubbish. What counts is building the value."
On the value of titles: "I didn't think much about them when we were starting out. I gave everyone the title of executive vice-president. It made things easier if they were going to see a client. But all that changed when we got larger. I think at about $10 million, I decided we had to take titles seriously."
On the value of sharing equity: "Every person in the company owns stock. Some have had it from the first year on. One manager is worth millions today, at least on paper. He's been promoted and demoted at least five times. He accepts the philosophy of always hiring the best people for any job."
On investment bankers: "They have no concept of money. It's all monopoly money to them. Everything goes to 'use of proceeds,' so they spend money like water. You fly the Concorde. You stay in the best hotels. You go to five-star restaurants and order five of everything on the menu, whether you think you're going to eat it or not. It's insane."
On employee activities: "We will support anything, but we won't create it. People have to come up with their own ideas." --Bo Burlingham
