John Linton ......is that you don't fit the expectations of so many people who wish to 'do business' with you.
I don't know whether its a sign of the 'GFC' beginning to affect communications companies or just the time of year but over the past four weeks I have received far more than the usual number of enquiries from people who were interested in exploring whether they would be able to add to Exetel's development over the coming year in a 'senior management position'. I always return the enquiries politely with a "thank you for considering our small company but....".
I have to admit that as the work load has steadily increased over the last five years (which has directly coincided with a decline in my personal physical and mental resilience to adapt to such an increase) I have considered, and Exetel's board has considered, whether we needed to employ some 'senior management' to more sensibly operate the company. We have seldom considered this for more than a few minutes at a time for a number of reasons - though when the work load occasionally appears to near 'breaking point' it seems to be the only way we should go. So we have considered how the future management of Exetel should be structured on more than a few occasions and have looked at, albeit, very briefly the capabilities and remuneration/operational requirements of some people who have expressed an interest in working at Exetel in various 'senior' positions.
Over the weekend I received two resumes from two different 'placement agencies' of people with considerable management experience (and apparent success) in the communications industry. Both agencies stated that they had been asked to make contact with me personally on the 'instructions of our client' based on the fact that both 'candidates' knew me personally and knew that Exetel would be a 'good fit' for their abilities and backgrounds.
It is true that I had worked with both of the people previously, though that was quite a long time ago, and at the times they had worked for me it was in quite junior positions. Since those far off days they, at least according to their resumes, had made considerable progress in their careers and had reached very senior and responsible positions within communications companies much larger than Exetel - much larger by a very long way.
I returned the resumes with a brief explanation of the reasons for deeming the people concerned as being unsuitable for a small company and, surprisingly to me as it was a weekend, received telephone calls from both 'head hunters' shortly after seeking a more detailed explanation - which I provided. (where do so many people get my private contact numbers from?). My main point was that Exetel was a very small and very 'hands on' company that operated in ways that were totally alien and would be totally unsuitable for people who had become used to the ways large Australian communications companies operated.
However I pointed out that the sort of 'remuneration packages' that the head hunters stated would be acceptable when I asked them what they thought a General Manager of a small company like Exetel should be paid was something like three times what I am paid (and that excluded the levels of 'performance bonuses' such executives would expect on top of their base packages). I also pointed out that there were no PA's within Exetel nor were there any 'manager's offices and personal meeting rooms nor even a car parking space let alone a company car. There's not even a receptionist to 'run their errands'.
Being 'head hunters' these negative comments didn't seem to deter them and they both attempted to persuade me of what real value Exetel would obtain from the skills and knowledge an "outsider" would bring to Exetel which has had to rely on the 'inbred' thinking of people who have been too involved in the minute by minute development and operation of building a business to have had time to plan strategically.
I ended the conversations as soon as reasonable courtesy allowed and assured both of them that Exetel wasn't a company they should ever consider for any 'senior management' placements in the future.
I'm not sure how Exetel can develop "top management" given our size and our very different methods of operation. I'm not sure that we have currently built, or ever intend to build, a company structure that needs, let alone depends, on hiring in experienced "General Managers" and "Operations Managers" or "CFO's" or even "CIO's". As the company has grown each year over the past five years we have further automated more of our processes and continued to refine the processes that had already been automated relying on the growth of knowledge and familiarity with this 'philosophy' to allow the people who have successively joined the company to manage ever increasing levels of responsibility with no 'leaps' in knowledge or skill required at any time - just a gradual process.
Maybe I'm missing something? That could easily be the case but whenever I get so tired I actually consider such actions semi-seriously I review the difficulties that an 'import' to Exetel's very, very different operational 'culture' would have to try and deal with and realise that, even if we were prepared/able to pay the remuneration such people are used to receiving we could never begin to address the gap between the way we operate and the way every other commercial entity I have some knowledge of operates.
It's irrelevant anyway as we don't make enough money to pay 'senior managers' what they apparently need to turn up to work.
I guess we'll just have to continue with our "inbred" ideas and ideals.