CEO

Why it’s nice to know a CEO…

I am a CEO.  I hire people… a lot of people… at all levels.  I am desperately trying to find people to fill my 4 open positions (as of 8/15/13)… http://keyingredient.com/blog/jobs .   And I know a lot of people.  So why is it nice to know me???
The answer is simple.  The same reason it is nice to know any CEO:

  1. Because if you know one, and they know you, you’ve got a leg up on ANY job role they are trying to fill.
  2. If they know you well enough, the CEO might even reach out to you pro-actively!
  3. Because a CEO of a company today, will very likely be a CEO of a different company tomorrow… e.g. they will likely be in future hiring positions as well.
  4. If you know them, you know what they are like to work with, and the kind of culture they build at companies.
  5. Because there are plenty of Business Development opportunities that come up all the time with the CEO.
  6. Because we are cool (see the picture from my most recent family hiking picture above!)
So, come on people, get to know a CEO!  They just might be able to actually help you with your career some day!  * I’d be glad to help any of my friends or acquaintances as best I can, for example.

The Importance of Ethics: Engineering Ethics vs. Business Ethics

When I was CEO of Bigfoot Networks, I rarely encountered ethical ‘problems’ of any kind; I thought business ethics were a fairly useless thing to learn.  Now after being involved in many different start-ups and companies, I find that ethical issues can and do actually come up quite often… and I realize that I was addressing ethical issues at Bigfoot, even though I didn’t realize it.

As a student of engineering and business, I’ve been exposed to two very different interpretations of ethics.  In Engineering, we talk about the ethics of “bad calculations”, “building a bridge with errors”, “cutting corners”, or other things that can actually get people KILLED.  This kind of ethics always seemed like “real ethics” to me.  Business ethics seemed like a silly thing in compared to people dying.

I guess I’m starting to finally understand the importance of Business ethics.  I realize now, that I’ve always had good business ethics, and that’s why I never had to deal with ethical problems.

At Bigfoot Networks, I was using very ethical business practices without realizing it:

  1. I never even considered buying stuff without some form of purchasing/payment contract or pre-paid:
    1. thus avoiding the ethical issue of “no contract”
  2. I always treated partners and customers as valuable customers and nothing else.
    1. thus avoiding potential conflicts of interest and complex issues like “customers as investors” or “partners determining our product direction”.
  3. I avoided making promises I couldn’t keep, or would not put in writing.
    1. Thus avoiding confusion and frustration.
  4. I always treated people with respect and courtesy.
    1. Thus avoiding employee issues and problems.
While I can’t say specifically all the ethical issues I am facing today… I am glad that:
  • The issues are not “Engineering Ethical issues”!!!  e.g. they are not life or death issues, thank goodness.
  • I do know how to avoid business ethical issues, even though dealing with the problems themselves are a challenge.
  • My 7-Habits training and my years of running companies has prepared me to handle these issues, so I am confident I will do my very best to resolve them.
My advice for everyone: JUST AVOID THESE KINDS OF ISSUES!  It’s way easier than dealing with them.

Marketing CEOs vs Engineering CEOs

There are pros and cons to both/either.

Pros:
Marketing CEOs might be more likely to inspire market/customer orientation, differentiation, and brand equity focus.  This kind of leadership might seek to inspire cooperation and collaboration across departments.

Engineering CEOs may empower development teams to be more creative, have more power, and reduce “feature creep”.  This kind of leadership might be more organized and measured.

Cons:
Marketing CEOs might put too much fluff into products, and not truly enable disruptive innovation.  This kind of leader may also have trouble leading engineers, and other technical types.

Engineering CEOs may invest too heavily in non-market-driven ideas and be inclined to ignore customer needs in favor of their own ideas.  This kind of leader may be too rigid for creative types.

Which am I?
Early in my career I would say I was definitely an Engineering CEO.  I had a vision where I wanted to go; and the market be damned (disruptive technology is like that).  Now, I lean more towards Marketing CEO… with a tighter focus on customer/market, and more faith in the power of brand.  However, having experience in both, I think I also have a good ability to know when to be which.  I can work with engineers or creative types equally well, and see a disruptive idea (and support it) when needed.

Best of both worlds? 🙂

Culture is not corny to Engineer-types.

Many people think that the “culture”, “mission statement”, “values”, of a company is ‘corny’. We are often embarrassed by it, feeling it a kind of fake thing. If this is you, you may be in the wrong company. A strong company culture is absolutely the #1 most important thing for a businessman and especially a CEO to consider and stick to. For engineer-type minds, it sets a standard of measurement for the intangible. All our lives, we’ve been graded in two ways: factual ‘right’ answers (Objective) and ‘intangible’/feel answers (Subjective). All our lives, we engineer-types have failed (or not excelled) at the subjective. Culture should not be a corny thing to engineer-types, it should be thing #1. Most (if not all) of the engineers I’ve hired know this, and that’s a MAJOR reason the decide to work for (really with) me.

There are companies known for great corporate culture: National Instruments, Intel, and Google to name a few. People, myself included, seek out these companies and prefer to work at them. I spent many years at Intel blissfully unaware of my under-payment, because I was happy. I thrived in the culture that put a standard of measure on the subjective: and my performance ratings prove it.

More than just ratings and rankings though, a company culture sets forth a ‘norm’, a code of conduct, a code of honor, that permeates who you are as a company. In many companies that have “weak” corporate culture, this is not a good thing. Yes, they have “the mission statement and values” list like everyone else, but the measurement system is broken. Instead of ‘calling it’ when someone breaks the code or doesn’t live up to the corporate culture: it goes ignored if results are good. In fact, in most companies throughout the USA, results matter most of all (enter Enron). I believe, as do most Engineer-type minds, that the ends do not always justify the means: and that doing something ‘right’ and winning is better than doing it ‘wrong’ and winning bigger.

Culture should be used to select who you hire, who you fire, and how you measure success. In fact, when a company gets bogged down in ‘the hard stuff’ and can’t find its way, looking to culture there is always a way out. Culture can also seriously impact how others view you.

The Rich Dad’s Advisor: Building a Business Team that Wins is a practical guide to how to build, and more importantly how to enforce, a company culture.

For myself, I believe I have found the perfect company culture for both success and for my personal belief structure (an excellent match)… more on that on another post. In the mean-time here is Intel’s excellent corporate culture statements, which I can say generally speaking, was heavily enforced and rewarded in a very positive manner. (no I’m not re-joining Intel at this time, though I would work there again in a heartbeat for the right position).

Customer Orientation

We strive to listen and respond to our customers, suppliers, and stakeholders; clearly communicate mutual intentions and expectations; deliver innovative and competitive products and services; make it easy to work with us; and be a vendor of choice.

Discipline

We strive to conduct business with uncompromising integrity and professionalism; ensure a safe, clean, and injury-free workplace; make and meet commitments; properly plan, fund, and staff projects; and pay attention to detail.

Quality

We strive to achieve the highest standards of excellence; do the right things right; continuously learn, develop, and improve; and take pride in our work.

Risk Taking

We strive to foster innovation and creative thinking, embrace change and challenge the status quo, listen to all ideas and viewpoints, learn from our successes and mistakes, and encourage and reward informed risk taking.

Great Place to Work

We strive to be open and direct, promote a challenging work environment that develops our diverse workforce, work as a team with respect and trust for each other, win and have fun, recognize and reward accomplishments, manage performance fairly and firmly, and be an asset to our communities worldwide.

Results Orientation

We strive to set challenging and competitive goals, focus on output, assume responsibility, constructively confront and solve problems, and execute flawlessly.

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