Chip Griffin: Pardon the Disruption

Don’t Be Afraid to Fire a Good Employee

One of the most difficult decisions in business can be to fire a good guy who performs well. Usually when we think of firing employees, we think about the incompetent or lazy workers. We envision people who are disrespectful, make mistakes, or alienate co-workers and clients.

The reality is, however, that sometimes people simply don’t fit their roles anymore – for a variety of reasons – and therefore must go. They may be great to be around and even do their jobs solidly, but they may not be the right person for the role anymore. Here are some reasons why:

When the Company Outgrows the Employee

A colleague of mind likes to say that employees need to grow at the same pace as the company. He’s right. Particularly in a startup environment it is vital for individuals to step up their performance and improve their skills at the same rate as the organization as a whole. Often that simply doesn’t happen.

Sometimes a growing company will sugarcoat a firing by “layering” an employee (bringing in a new person above them in the hierarchy) or by “promoting” the employee (what often is really happening when a founding CEO becomes Chairman suddenly). Call it what you will, the bottom line is the person has been fired from their current position because the company outgrew them.

When the Employee Can’t Seal the Deal

This topic came to mind for me because of the disastrous loss suffered last night by the University of New Hampshire men’s hockey team in the first round of the NCAA tournament. UNH came in as a #1 seed in their bracket and fell to a Notre Dame team that had managed to win just 4 of their last 13 games. Worse, they scored 7 goals after struggling to score throughout the past several months.

UNH has now lost in the first round in 4 of the last 5 years under respected Coach Dick Umile. They have never won a national championship, despite frequently being a Top 10 team in the country. Like coaches (and other employees) before him, it is time for Umile to go. Not because he isn’t a good coach, but because he can’t seal the deal by winning a championship. Sometimes when that happens regularly, it is time for new blood. There is a history of this in sports, including Mike Hargrove being fired as manager of the Cleveland Indians after 5 consecutive division titles (but no World Series victories).

In more traditional startup terms, think about the executive or salesperson who brings lots of deals to the table, but never gets a signed agreement. Whether or not it appears to be the employee’s fault, sometimes new blood is the best solution.

When the Company Changes Direction

If your startup changes direction, you may no longer have the right people in the right seats on the bus. Consider the case of a company that launched with a B2B focus, only to realize somewhere along the way that the technology might be better suited to a consumer application. The same people who may be great at enterprise skills may not be prepared to handle the new environment.

Of course, there are many reasons that a company may change direction. It could target new verticals, change the focus of a product, or invent some new technology. In any case, companies must not be afraid to make a change when the direction dictates it.

When the Employee Has Reached His Potential

It may seem odd to think that once an employee has reached his full potential he might need to move on. But the reality is that an employee who has no room to grow will often atrophy instead. This can be one of the trickiest situations to identify and act upon, but it can also be one of the most important decisions a startup will make.

Personal growth is incredibly important to the well-being of the individual and the company. When you have little left to learn, most individuals will fail to achieve the great things a startup needs from everyone. Worse, most solid performers will become bored in this state. The solution is to adjust the role to leave room for learning, or find the right time for the individual to move on to a new challenge elsewhere.

A Final Word

Knowing when to let a good employee go will help the company rise to the next level. You need not fire a good employee in the Donald Trump “You’re Fired!” manner. Though often difficult, especially in the startup world the decision can become a critical differentiator and impact future success.

(Hopefully UNH administrators will reach the same conclusion with Dick Umile. Though I admire and respect him as a coach, it is time for change in that hockey program.)

Drive and Curiosity Define a Good Employee

Marc Andreesen is on fire with his new blog.  Today, he has a great post on hiring good people.  I want to highlight two things he talks about because in my experience they are mandatory requirements for a good employee -- new hire or existing.  Of course there's more to it than just these two criteria, but these are absolutely essential and at the core of the person.

Drive

Marc writes that employees who are driven are:

people who will walk right through brick walls, on their own power, without having to be asked, to achieve whatever goal is in front of them. People with drive push and push and push and push and push until they succeed ...

I look for something you've done, either in a job or (often better yet) outside of a job.  The business you started and ran in high school.  The nonprofit you started and ran in college.  If you're a programmer: the open source project to which you've made major contributions.

Something.

If you can't find anything -- if a candidate has just followed the rules their whole lives, showed up for the right classes and the right tests and the right career opportunities without achieving something distinct and notable, relative to their starting point -- then they probably aren't driven.

And you're not going to change them.  Motivating people who are fundamentally unmotivated is not easy.  But motivating people who are self-motivated is wind at your back.

I agree in particular with looking at the things that people have done that they aren't required to do.  Starting a business or non-profit.  Working with others on a non-work project.  These are things that are very positive indicators of drive. 

I'm a very driven person myself and hate having to try to motivate the unmotivated.  I want to push people to go further, not simply to move.

Curiosity

This one is simple.  In Marc's words: "do you love what you do?"

Anyone who loves what they do is inherently intensely curious about their field, their profession, their craft.  They read about it, study it, talk to other people about it... immerse themselves in it, continuously.  And work like hell to stay current in it.

Not because they have to.  But because they love to.  Anyone who isn't curious doesn't love what they do.

I want employees who know the industry trends and keep up with them because they enjoy it.  I want to see people who find out how to push the envelope because it is exciting.  I want team members who are passionate about the company and its goals and understand the industry trends that impact it. 

And if you are a programmer or marketer or whatever, is isn't simply about the skills in your particular specialty that you should be curious about.  If you work for Flickr or Zoomr, you should be curious about photography.  If you work for YouTube or Revver, you should be curious about video.  If you work for TypePad or FeedBurner, you should be curious about blogs.  If you work for Topix or CustomScoop, you should be curious about news aggregation.  If you work at PodTech or PodShow, you should be curious about new media creation.

Other Traits

There's obviously more to it, and I encourage you to read Marc's post if you're an employer or an employee.  There's lots of great advice in there, including some tips on process that I plan to implement going forward.  Looking back at some of my bad or poor hires in the past, if I had focused like a laser beam on the qualities I was looking for and used a better process, I probably could have avoided some (but not all) of my mistakes.  And Marc does point out that even the best processes generate bad hires and you should just face up to it and deal with it directly when you do.

Technorati tags: hiring, recruiting, management, entrepreneur, startup, Marc Andreesen

When Does Twitter's Free Pass on Poor Performance Expire?

We in the tech community can be very forgiving of the growing pains of a startup.  Especially those of us who have been there or are there now.  That's exactly what has happened with Twitter ever since it exploded onto the scene at South by Southwest in March.  Despite my early reservations about the service, I came to adopt it and I find it valuable.  I know others do as well.

But the performance has been lagging the entire time.  Web site outages are routine.  Message deliver is delayed.  Pictures of cats fixing servers are amusing the first few times -- OK, they are still amusing -- but eventually the problems need to be solved. 

None of us who use the service pay any cash for it, but we do invest our time and energy into making it a success.  Like many Web 2.0 companies, Twitter is nothing without its users. 

System slowness made sense during SxSW and in its immediate aftermath.  What startup can truly be prepared for that sort of sudden explosion in usage?  Most established companies would (and do) have trouble with rapid traffic growth.

But the problems don't seem to be getting better.  In fact, they may be getting worse.  Neville Hobson reports today on something I have noticed myself over the past week -- tweets submitted to the system are simply disappearing into the ether, never to be seen again.  There seems to be no rhyme or reason to it.

So when does Twitter have to solve these problems before users abandon the service?  How much longer will they continue to get a free pass?  We all love innovation, but Twitter may be at risk of finding out the limits of user patience. 

This is a question all startups must ask themselves.

Technorati tags: Twitter, performance, entrepreneur, startup, scalability, infrastructure, coding, Ruby on Rails

Constantly Retest Assumptions

Just because you knew something 6 months ago, doesn't mean you know it today.  What do I mean?  I'm not talking about historical knowledge -- that doesn't change.  But let's say direct mail or online advertising was working really well for you or your web site achieved certain performance benchmarks consistently.  But is it the same today?  And I encourage you not to rely purely on topline numbers or facts, periodically dig a little deeper to make sure the data means what you think it does.

I had a situation just this past week where I sat down with my team and looked at some numbers that we believed still meant the same that it did a while back.  But when we dug through the details, we realized that the picture was significantly different than what we were perceiving and what the broad brushstroke numbers were implying.  When we finally had the true picture, we were able to make some important decisions that I think will prove to be profitable.

So don't spend all your time second guessing yourself, but on some sort of regular basis you should retest your basic assumptions and make sure that reality hasn't changed.

Technorati tags: assumptions, management, metrics

Dumb Data = Dumb Decisions

I'm a numbers junkie.  Heck, if I actually liked complex math, I'd probably have wound up as a quant jock for a hedge fund.  So when I'm managing a company or project, I like to rely on real numbers -- solid facts -- to make decisions.  I don't ignore my gut feel, but I've learned that numbers lie less often than my gut.

That said, it's vital to be looking at accurate data and comparing apples to oranges.  Working on solving a problem this week, my team and I looked at a flood of data.  Stream of numbers were laid out in front of us.  We organized them into different formats -- tables, line charts, bar charts, and more.  We adjusted numbers to control for different factors.  One guy was hard at work discarding "outliers" and calculating standard deviations.

At the end of the day, though, I realized that it all comes down to having good data.  You have to collect the right data points and then analyze them correctly.  The right data will help you make the right decisions.  Otherwise, you'll find yourself making dumb decisions based on dumb data.

Technorati tags: management, decision-making, statistics, data

You Can't Really Know It If You Don't Do It

Some great advice from Charlie O'Donnell:

I think marketing & PR firms, VC firms, anyone who has any kind of business interest whatsover in social media needs to mandate that the decision makers on your staff, right on up to the top, all "walk the floor".   Maybe Fridays should be "social media days" where the whole office plays in MySpace, Second Life, blogs, plays World of Warcraft, Twitters, etc...   Like Google's 20% time.  Take some Flickr photos, poke some people in Facebook...   

I'm not sure an entire day every week is required -- I think that depends on precisely how social media fits into your company and job.  But I do believe it needs to be a significant investment by everyone involved.  More important, it shouldn't be mandatory.  If employees aren't interested in social media and inclined to use it of their own volition, they may not be the best fit for a social media-focused company or job position.

This is the same reason why most managers and coaches are ex-baseball players.  It's hard to coach a team if you haven't been there yourself.

(via Brian Oberkirch)

Technorati tags: socia media, employees, employee training, Charlie O'Donnell, Brian Oberkirch

What Baseball Teaches Us About Business

Ah, the first day of spring is upon us.  It doesn't quite feel that way here in New Hampshire where it is about 19 degrees with lots of ice and snow on the ground (and more ice reportedly on the way).

Nevertheless, Brian Oberkirch got me in the springtime mood with his post today that shows the lessons that baseball teaches those of us in business.  So go read his post and then come back here to read my additions. 

Brian's list is excellent and I agree almost uniformly with everything he wrote.  I do have 10 of my own to contribute, though:

• It's Not All About Superstars.  You need a solid team from top to bottom.  Having one superstar and a bunch of also-rans won't get you as far as a team full of solid performers.  Remember that especially if you have a top performer who doesn't play well with the rest of the team.
  
• It's Not All About Money.  Billy Beane and Moneyball anyone?  In business that means you don't need lots of VC funding to compete with the big boys.  You need a great idea, passion, a solid team, and excellent execution.
  
• Pitching Matters in the Playoffs.  Once you reach the post-season, you can't expect to bash your way through games.  The competition is tougher and it will likely come down to pitching.  Your business has some component that rises above the others in its significance.  Make sure you invest properly in it, whether it is technology, sales, customer service, etc. 
  
• Free Agency Rules.  Players want to go where they are well-compensated, appreciated, and can win.  You need to create the same environment for your employees.
  
• It's a 162 Game Season.  You need to try to win every game, but you won't.  Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and play the next game.
  
• You Need to Know How to Bunt.  Even my beloved Red Sox who in recent history have avoided the bunt like the plague occasionally need to employ it to win games.  It's not sexy, but it is necessary.  Remember all that hard, boring stuff in your business and don't ignore it.  If you can't bunt, make sure you have a specialist on your team that enjoys it.
  
• It's Not Just About Tickets Anymore.  Major League Baseball teams couldn't survive on individual ticket revenue alone.  That's why there's club seating, outfield advertising, stadium naming rights, merchandise deals, TV deals, etc.  Don't forget you might be able to find non-traditional revenue streams, too.
  
• The Brushback Pitch.  Most of the time players accept the brushback pitch with a glare and move on.  But sometimes they fight back.  Fighting is costly, so you need to pick your battles wisely.  Sometimes you're better off filing the information away for later use.
  
• Six, Two and Even.  The "other" Joe Morgan -- he who managed the Boston Red Sox in the late 80's and early 90's and was known as Walpole Joe throughout New England -- famously said "six, two and even" a lot, usually to reporters.  Nobody ever knew what it meant, but it kept 'em guessing.  A little mystery is healthy for any business.
  
• Keep It in the Clubhouse.  Baseball managers try to keep the private business of the team private.  When reporters start sniffing around about internal disagreement, many managers will say "we're going to keep that in the clubhouse" or some variation of that.  Businesses would be wise to do the same and not let dirty laundry or simple dissent come out in public.  It's family business and should stay that way.

Thanks, Brian, for putting me in the mood for spring.  Opening Day is just 12 days, 1 hour, 12 minutes, and 5 seconds away as I write this...

Technorati tags: Brian Oberkirch, baseball, spring, business advice, entrepreneur, startup advice, opening day

Build It And They Will Come vs. Sell, Sell, Sell

OK, that's not really a fair way to characterize it.  But Ian Muir, one of the developers at CustomScoop, poses an interesting question and starts a thoughtful dialogue:

What’s more important; making money or making good software?

In the comments, I argue that it isn't really an either/or question:

Sales and product are very much interdependent. You simply cannot have one without the other. Even the best salesperson can’t acquire — and as important, keep — clients if a product stinks. And no matter how good a product you create, there are precious few examples where companies have successfully followed the Field of Dreams style “build it and they will come” philosophy.

But there's a lot more to the discussion, so I encourage you to check it out and leave your thoughts over on Ian's blog.  Since I blog about the interesection of marketing/PR and technology/innovation, I find it to be an especially intersting topic, and I think you will too.

Technorati tags: Ian Muir, CustomScoop, sales, product development, marketing, management

Rackspace Goes the Extra Mile -- Actually 2,086 of Them -- For Customer Service

I started using Rackspace back in 2000.  At the time, they were basically a startup managed hosting company.  Today, they are an industry leader.  Over the years, virtually every company I have been involved with as a founder, investor or consultant has used them.

Throughout that time, they have always gone the extra mile for customer service.  But they impressed me -- and I know the tech team at CustomScoop -- when they came for an on-site visit.  That's 2,086 miles from San Antonio, TX to Concord, NH. 

Now, I know that they were in the area for other meetings.  And I realize we're a decent-sized customer, though I doubt anywhere near their largest.  The fact that they sent two people for several hours was a great gesture that I know was appreciated.

One of the members of the CustomScoop tech team, Ian Muir, blogged about the experience and the importance of connecting with customers generally:

Most companies may send an occasional e-mail or make a monthly phone call, but there are a few that really go the extra mile. This meeting is just one example of how Rackspace has exemplified good customer service. We’re always working with the same team and their support is always prompt and helpful. They also take measures like these meetings to stay connected and make sure that our needs are met proactively.

I don't mean for this post to sound like an ad for Rackspace, but if it does, so be it.  They've been great to us over the years, and I wanted to take this opportunity to offer them a tip of my cowboy hat to them.  (The hat, after all, was a gift during a Rackspace customer appreciation event I attended in San Antonio years ago.)

I can only hope that our customers feel as strongly about us as I do about Rackspace.

NON-DISCLOSURE: I don't get compensated by Rackspace in any way.  In fact, my companies pay them a tidy sum of money each month. 

Technorati tags: Rackspace, customer service, Ian Muir, CustomScoop

Companies and People Make Mistakes

An excellent post from John Moore at Brand Autopsy reminds us that every company makes mistakes. 

No business is perfect. NONE. Business is a game of progress, not perfection. No business will be perfect. It's an impossibly unattainable goal. But while that goal is unattainable, the most endearing and enduring businesses seem to always aspire to reach perfection. They always make progressive steps to improve their business and how their business connects with people. Sure, they will stumble along the way. But the true measure of a company is how they recover and forge ahead making progress along the way to overcome their mistakes.

Every company I've ever worked for or owned has made mistakes.  I've made mistakes personally.  What I always tell employees is that I don't mind mistakes, as long as they are honest ones.  Typically the only ones that get to me are ones that are repeated.

Make a mistake, make amends, and don't make the same mistake twice.

Technorati tags: Brand Autopsy, John Moore, mistakes, customer service, entrepreneur

A $30 Million Problem

I promise to leave the JetBlue thing alone after this.  Probably.  I've already whacked them and praised them.  And now I'm simply sharing what Bulldog Reporter says:

The chief executive of JetBlue Airways said this week that reimbursing passengers stuck on about 1,000 delayed flights and updating its operations to prevent further problems could cost the airline $30 million or more, MSNBC reports.

"It's going to be very expensive," CEO David Neeleman said in an interview on NBC's "Today" show. "I don't have the final number, but it's going to be maybe $20 million or $30 million and maybe a little bit higher."

This clearly demonstrates the importance of solid and timely crisis communications.

Technorati tags: JetBlue, crisis, crisis communications, Bulldog Reporter

JetBlue Turning It Around

What a difference a day makes.  Yesterday, I had JetBlue up against the ropes.  Like a prize fighter, under the leadership of David Neeleman, they are fighting their way back to the center of the ring.

Brad Feld point early in the day to a New York Times article:

In this article, Neeleman shows he is very aware how badly JetBlue has screwed up dealing with this situation.  The article states “Mr. Neeleman said he would enact what he called a customer bill of rights that would financially penalize JetBlue — and reward passengers — for any repeat of the current upheaval. He said he would propose a plan to pay customers, after some amount of time, by the hour for being stranded on a plane.”

In addition to finally speaking up, Neeleman is quoted as saying “I can flap my lips all I want. Talk is cheap. Watch us.”

Shel Holz praises the company for effectively saying "I'm sorry" and notes it is one of the hardest things for companies to say (for legal and other reasons).  More Shel:

A typical corporate response would have said, “JetBlue regretss any inconvenience the storm in New York may have caused passengers.”

What the spokesperson said was that JetBlue apologizes, adding, “What happened last Wednesday was totally unacceptable.”

Totally. How human.

The other Shel, Shel Israel, also weighed in generally favorably.  He says, "JetBlue may not blog, but it is transparent."  He also lauds Neeleman for overcoming likely pressure from the lawyers and speaking clearly.  Note also what he says about blogs:

This is transparency and it is a case study for how a CEO can use it. Using a blog would have been a better communications tool, but I think it's important to remember that like a hammer, a blog is just a tool.

JetBlue has sinned, it has suffered and it has repented.  The guy at the top probably ignored a whole bevy of lawyers telling him not to admit any kind of culpability. He says they'll do better and next time the suffering passengers will be compensated.

The point about a blog being a tool and not an end in itself is one that I like seeing made in the blogosphere.  I sometimes think we bloggers take our medium a little too seriously sometimes and are too quick to dismiss those who don't blog.

In any event, kudos to David Neeleman for providing the necessary leadership to again put JetBlue in a favorable light.  Though I have never been able to fly the airline (my routes tend to take me on USAir most often and Manchester, NH is not served by JetBlue), I am hopeful that their promised passenger bill of rights will eventually spill over to competitors.  As someone who takes nearly 100 flights a year, anything that can improve service and reliability would be welcome.

Technorati tags: Brad Feld, Shel Holz, Shel Israel, JetBlue, David Neeleman

JetBlue Hurting Badly

A snowstorm in the Northeast last week could prove extraordinarily costly for JetBlue.  Accustomed to positive press coverage, the company has been besieged by a multimedia attack from customers and reporters alike. 

First there was the plane stuck on the tarmac for 10 hours while passengers suffered.  Now, the airline has been forced to cancel about a quarter of its weekend flights to try to get back on schedule.

All Saturday and Sunday flights on JetBlue were canceled in and out of 11 airports: Richmond, Va.; Pittsburgh; Charlotte and Raleigh/Durham, N.C.; Jacksonville, Fla.; Austin and Houston, Texas; Columbus, Ohio; Nashville; Portland, Me.; and Bermuda.

As of 6 p.m., about 170 flights had been called off, out of about 600 scheduled for the weekend.

Paul Kedrosky has it right when he says this could have a long-term business and stock impact:

The inmates are running the asylum at JetBlue, with passengers now flipping out pre-boarding at the least sign of a possible delay. As an investment aside, this story has now crossed over from human interest to investment, with there being a large and growing number of people who will not fly JetBlue, and a long list of others who'll try to avoid it.

Once again we are reminded that how companies handle a crisis can make a big difference with customer perception of the brand.  People expect snowstorms to cause problems for airlines; they don't expect to be trapped on planes, receive conflicting information, and see effects for days after the weather has cleared.

Technorati tags: JetBlue, snowstorm, Paul Kedrosky

 

Remember Occam's Razor

At some point years ago when I was still in school, I learned about Occam's Razor.  A 14th century English Franciscan friar, William of Ockham, is said to have opined about not making things overly complicated when solving problems.  In a nutshell, "the simple solution is almost always the correct one."  (Wikipedia has considerably more background for anyone interested.) 

I suppose today one would be more likely to describe it as the KISS principle.

Though frequently applied in the world of science and math, communicators and entrepreneurs would be wise to adhere to the same advice.  When communicating with an audience -- be it the general public, your customers, or your employees, just be direct, transparent, and honest.  If you're developing software or hardware, focus less on the elaborately elegant solution and instead develop simple and effective code or designs.  In solving tricky business problems, don't let the difficulty of the solution match the challenge of the problem; find the most direct path to a solution and take it.

Seven centuries later, the logic holds up.  If you can think of a simple answer, use it.  Remember Occam's Razor.

Technorati tags: Occam's Razor, Ockham's Razor, entrepreneur, pr, KISS principle, problem-solving