"I had been talking to Jo on a regular basis, and I knew the company was going through a tough time," says Geck, who agreed to act as interim CEO. DeMars was also hoping that Geck's hands-off management style and his dearth of industry-specific knowledge would force her employees to step up to the plate.
For their part, DeMars's employees were skeptical at first. Natalie Fleury called her boss the day she left and asked how the company could ever move ahead "with no captain at the rudder." DeMars reassured her that the company was in no danger, but that did little to assuage the company's young staff.
Geck's strategy was to stay focused on the big issues; he devoted his time to developing long-term growth strategies and to following through with proj- ects that were of specific interest to DeMars. At the same time, Prentice immersed himself in market research and discovered that although the company and its CEO enjoyed an excellent reputation in the industry, DeMars was largely perceived as a one-client business. "We had to look at expanding into new markets, and we had to change the perception of the company in the marketplace," Prentice says. Neither Geck nor Prentice was inclined to micromanage, so Zielinski and Fleury were forced for the first time to make decisions on their own. With Fleury attending to policy issues and Zielinski taking care of process-related concerns, the two came into their own as managers. Fleury, for instance, was free to oversee a dispute-resolution program as she saw fit and to develop a training program on her own. "It really did force me to take things by the reins," she says. "If Jo had been here, I don't think I would have been able to spearhead things that easily. There would have been more need for checking in." And Zielinski emerged as a first-rate operations manager.
In the meantime, DeMars spent lazy days at her 40-acre farm in Boscobel, Wis. "I sat, I read books, I crocheted, I walked, and I hired a personal trainer," she recalls. "And I didn't worry about the company." Not much, anyway. She did return to the company for meetings of a newly appointed advisory board, and she attended a six-month review with a client. But when there was a request to write a proposal for a potential customer, DeMars restrained herself. "The idea that someone else could do it seemed impossible," she recalls. "But Natalie did it, and she did a beautiful job."
Louis Ravenet also chose his temporary successor carefully. Mark Barrett, a manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers, had hired Invoke consultants to solve thorny software problems. "I called him and said, 'Aren't you tired of calling in the A team? Why don't you come work for the A team?" recalls Ravenet. Like Geck, Barrett had already earned credibility among the employees he was being asked to steward. He was also exactly the type of manager Ravenet needed. "He's funny, but he's also a structured, organized manager," says Ravenet. He explained to his 89 employees that Barrett was being brought on as COO but would act as CEO for several months during Ravenet's provisional defection.
"What Mark will bring to you," Ravenet told his staff last June, "is process, organization, and structure that will scale the company to the next size." To some employees that sounded like a nightmare, and a few went with Ravenet to iCommunicate. Invoke's attrition rate jumped from an enviable 1% to 8%. "People who felt very close to Louis didn't like the company without him," says Barrett. "It was disheartening because some of them were key people. It was confidence rattling for me." But the dust eventually settled, and under Barrett's watch Invoke began to evolve as Ravenet had imagined it should.
"Instead of working 90-hour weeks, we can now deliver projects without people having to kill themselves," says Barrett. The result: "Under Mark's guidance, people who were formerly good performers have blossomed into superstars," says Ravenet. Jamie Birger, a senior developer who has been with Invoke for five years, says he's happier and more productive now. "In a very passionate environment you can burn out from exhaustion," he says. "With Mark, things are more structured, and I feel that things have calmed down a bit. That's a good thing."
"It's like it's not my company anymore. It's grown up."
-- Louis Ravenet
In June 2000, Demars returned to her company. "I feel much more energized and enthusiastic, and I'm encouraged by the growth I've seen in people," she says. Fleury says her boss is "much more laid-back and willing to delegate and leave it delegated." Geck will stay on as CEO, with DeMars, who still owns 100% of the company, as president. She admits to a few initial "turf issues" with Geck but insists that the blending of their management styles has been "enormously beneficial" to the company. Prentice continues to spend time at the company as well; he hired an advertising agency, is revamping the company's Web page, and has put in place an aggressive new business-development plan. "We're now being invited to bid by clients who we have never bid for before," he says. Perhaps even more important, he perceives a dramatic shift in company culture. "There's increased confidence among the young management staff," he says. "And Jo has confidence that the staff can do the work; she's learned to take a broader view."
