It’s All About The People January 18, 2010
Posted by Devin Akin in : Uncategorized , trackbackBefore I start, here’s the disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this blog post are mine and mine alone and do not necessarily represent anyone other than me. I work for ‘the man’ now, and I write this blog knowing full-well that my mouth may get me in trouble because of some “between the lines” thing I implied (or didn’t), something I said (or didn’t), or someone I offended (unknowingly). You can’t please everyone…so, if my LinkedIn status suddenly changes to “Will work for food” and this blog post suddenly disappears, you’ll know why. 
Here goes…
I’ve worked in a many companies in my time, and I’ve heard all kinds of answers to the question, “What’s the most important thing the company has?” I’ve heard:
1. Customer base
2. Intellectual property
3. Market share
4. Management team
5. Investors
6. Cash in the bank
…and others, depending on the most pressing issue of the day.
/Soap Box – Start
Being both passionate and opinionated, I say that the most important thing a company has is its people (employees, volunteers, people volunteering to work for $1/year, and all the others). Why do I think that? Perhaps a series of questions will help answer that question.
* Who found and landed the customers?
* Who puts in long hours to make sure that customers stay happy?
* Who creates the intellectual property owned by the company?
* Who works their butts off to make the company all of that cash?
If one employee leaves, it’s another employee who picks up the ball and runs with it, no? This “people are the most important thing” fact applies to the CEO and the shipping clerk alike. It’s people who make the world turn, and without people there is no company. Sometimes, I think that everyone (regardless of their role within a company) forgets this.
/Soap Box – End
/Cool Stuff – Start
Lest you think that I’m “pointing my guns” at Aerohive, it’s quite the opposite. Aerohive puts people first, knowing that everything else will fall into place if you do. Dave regularly meets with everyone, regularly (and out of the blue) calls people, and department heads here genuinely care about their people. I’ve even seen some department heads (VPs) show outright compassion and concern for folks who aren’t even in their department.
As a quick side note, I just have to tell you that people at Aerohive even call their managers to make sure THEY’RE OK. When is the last time you saw someone check to make sure their manager was OK? I’ve seen people get raises without asking for them. I’ve seen people be incredibly encouraging to each other. I’ve seen people in one department praise someone in another department to “just the right person” that causes the praiseworthy person to get promoted. There’s some love going on around here. Neat, eh?
/Cool Stuff – End
/Advice (and Rants) – Start
This section is a mash-up of topics (by paragraph) that I feel led to talk about. These have nothing to do with Aerohive, but are rather my personal thoughts. There’s no rhyme or reason to the order. It’s just me spewing some solid advice (according to my own experience and sense of importance) that isn’t technical, isn’t company-related, and just have to do with me being me.
Because of the dynamic and multi-faceted nature of any ‘real’ company, there will be peaks and valleys. Luckily I don’t have to argue that point because the recent economic melt-down just strongly proved my point. During most of that time, most of us were very lucky to even have a job at all – any job. If you were making anything akin to 6 figures during that time, you should be insanely grateful to someone. Over the last 2 years, many people have been “stuck” in their jobs because of layoffs, flat growth, or any number of other reasons. Yes, I know you get tired of doing the “same old thing for the same old money”, but you could be much, much worse off. I konw at least a 1,000 people who would trade with you in 4.3 seconds (exactly). Be thankful.
You know how you sometimes get “stuck” in a position you don’t necessarily care for? I’ve been there more times than I care to admit. Fun? No. However, if you find yourself thrashing about like a caged tiger looking for an exit, consider the long-term rather than the short term. Have you ever heard those stories about the IBM mail room clerk becoming CEO after 30 years? How do you figure that happened? He starts in the mail room, then becomes the mail room manager because he knows how to do all of the jobs in the mail room better than anyone else. It’s call experience. Then, he may ask to be moved to tech support, asking for an opportunity to prove himself. Again, he learns to do all of the jobs there, until someone wises up and promotes him to manager. This cycle progresses through sales, marketing, operations, support, and more…until…he is the most experienced and knowledgeable person in the company. Who better to lead the company to success than this guy? Ever read the Bible story of Joseph? I highly recommend it. If you don’t like your current job, do it to the best of your ability, learn all you can, and move on to the next thing when the opportunity is there. I’m sure that sounds like “just common sense”, but you’d be surprised how hard it is to follow that advice. Follow this advice, and someday soon, it’ll be you in that VP’s chair. Don’t believe me? Ask a VP how he got his/her job. Be diligent.
Something related to the previous rant is a since of ownership. That is, treating the company like you own all of it – like it’s, “your baby.” You know what I’m talking about. Treat it as if you founded it, as if you knew every financial detail, as if you understood full-well why every employee was hired, as if every penny spent on anything was coming out of your checking account, and all of the rest. We’re talking about, “this company lives or dies by your hand.” Now that you know what I mean by “a sense of ownership”, I would like to say that every employee needs and should have this. Working at a company is a handshake deal between you and your employer whereby you agree to display a sense of ownership in everything you do, and your employer agrees to pay you for it. Compensation (often referred to as just “comp”) may be a mash-up of stock options, salary, benefits, and a variety of other things – each designed to give you a sense of ownership. Employers should always strive to address comp issues before an employee feels that there’s a problem, looking to fairly compensate employees. Employees, in turn, should (as part of that sense of ownership) consider that they are part of a team and that there is only so much money to go around. They should only ask for what’s fair and not try to strain the company to the breaking point. If it were (and since it is) YOUR company, how would you handle comp with employees given the opportunity? Are you fairly paid or over-paid? Only you can answer that, but you should answer that question – honestly. Do you bring the company more money than your paid? Are you sure? Take ownership.
Companies should realize that one experienced employee is worth more than one inexperienced employee. Sometimes that ratio may be 3:1, depending on the person and the job. Obviously there’s a limit to what a company can pay a person, regardless of position, but generally speaking (because there are always exceptions), a company is shooting itself in the foot to let a senior level (experienced and adept at their job) person walk out the door. A company is its people, and if you’re people are inexperienced and untrained, you’re going to suffer for it. Value people.
/Advice (and Rants) – End
That’s enough for one blog. I’ve never blogged on that topic before, but for some odd reason, I just felt strongly led to spew all of that this week. People are the most important thing, and nobody will ever convince me otherwise.
Comments»
I agree with your assessment on Employees being the most valuable asset a company has. That is true. But not all companies treat their employees as well as they should, and there are also many employees who are only out for as much as they can get for themselves.
You mentioned an employee should ‘Take Ownership’ – even when it’s not explicitly given. I wholeheartedly agree!
‘Act’ like you are part owner of the company… for in may ways you are… and add value to the company. Whether or not their are explicit ‘comp’ plans in place. Just do the right thing, and good things will follow.
Come on employees out there… take a bit of a risk and put in the extra effort ‘as if’ you were owner of the company and see what happens!
Wow, Devin. This reminds me of an amalgamation (I love that word) of many conversations we had in the BatCave back on Waddell. I really do hope that enough management types are reading this and taking it to heart, as these were many of the things that I always appreciated working with you at CWNP. For anyone who is reading this and thinking Devin is blowing smoke, I’d be happy to share that many of my promotions and pay raises at CWNP were provided to me without my having to ask…as a result of Devin. It’s also one of the main reasons that I take ownership in CWNP. That’s a wonderful feeling. Right from the start, this type of inclusiveness and “people first” mentality was a strong motivator for me to wake up early or stay up late to brush up on my 802.11 or to delete spammers from the blog or whatever else needed doing. I’d be happy to see more corporations embracing this mentality… similar to Google (from what I’ve read) really. Obviously, it’s a for-profit operation, but treating employees well is MGMT101, and if you remain faithful with these types of things, all the rest (money, for example) will likely follow.
Thanks for sharing, Devin.
Amen, The key to success in life is summed up in this, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”. There is a force stronger than that of an “Avatar”. Wheat and tare must share this earth…but those that work the fields know the good from the evil. The reward of the good harvest is another reason an season for sowing and reaping.
Reverend Reg