Creating the Organization 345A Question of Balance
Orbital Data thought it had found the right
person for the job. During his tenure as Chief
Operating Officer and Executive Vice
President of Inktomi, Richard Pierce had
helped that company’s annual revenues grow
to over $200 million and had made it the
leading vendor in its technology niche. But
Orbital Data founder Paul Sutter and his ven-
ture-capital investors wanted to be certain
Pierce was the right person to join their soft-
ware venture’s TMT. So they hired Pierce on
a 30-day, no-strings-attached basis in
January 2004 to see if the fit was right. Both
Pierce and Orbital Data later decided to
extend the trial to 120 days, allowing Sutter
to become thoroughly acquainted with his
potential hire. “We spent many a weekend,
four or five hours at a time, getting to know
each other,” Sutter recalls. The trial period
turned out to be a good investment; Pierce
formally joined the company as Chief
Technology Officer that year, and now serves
as Orbital Data’s CEO and Chairman of the
Board.
While trial employment periods are rela-
tively rare, it is not unusual for an entrepre-
neur to offer the number-two slot to someone
he or she has met and liked. Brad Elliott,
owner of Elliott Building Group, was
impressed by real estate broker John
DiPasquale, Jr., when they met to discuss a
piece of land. “I saw that he had a lot of deal
making energy, which is what you need in
this business,” Elliott says. He offered
DiPasquale a job as head of marketing and
land acquisition for his home construction
business and later promoted him to CEO.
Revenues are up $5 million since DiPasquale
joined the company. “I wanted him to help
drive me and take the business to the next
level,” says Elliott. “We balance each other
like an old couple.”
Personnel experts suggest that entrepre-
neurs do a thoughtful assessment of their
company’s needs and an honest appraisal of
their own strengths and weaknesses before
starting to search for a new TMT member.
“Then they can figure out what they want in
this other person,” explains Carl Robinson, a
management psychologist at Seattle’s
Advanced Leadership Consulting. “Nine
times out of ten, an entrepreneur wants to
bring on board an operations person who
knows how to execute and create efficiencies
to optimize the organization.” Searching
without a clear picture of what the company
needs isn’t effective. “Creating a job just to
strengthen your executive team isn’t a good
enough reason,” says Steve Katz, an execu-
tive coach from Potomac, Maryland. “That
person should bring some ability or knowl-
edge to grow the company.”
A good match isn’t always obvious.
Carolyn Gable, owner of the New Age
Transportation trucking company, had a
hunch the young woman she hired to be her
children’s nanny could also be an asset for
her company. So Gable made Jenny Talley
her office assistant, placing the inexperienced
woman in charge of accounting, dispatching,
and other duties for the $18 million, 48-
employee company. Talley proved adept at
learning on the job, and twelve years later
she holds the company’s number-two slot,
vice president for operations, and was
recently voted Leader of the Year by the
other employees.
In contrast, Frank Bell, CEO of software
company Intellinet, had high hopes when he
hired Harvard MBA Travis Lewis to be his
Chief Operating Officer. Bell now admits the
two of them didn’t meet often enough, and
Lewis’s job wasn’t clearly defined. Company
sales foundered instead of growing, and
Lewis left after five years.
Whether it’s based on instinct or experi-STREET STORY 9.1