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Earning success
Service Industry Research Systems Inc.’s Chris Ohlinger on why intelligence can be a lousy teacher
By Mike Cottrill
Smart Business Cincinnati | April 2007
Chris Ohlinger is a big believer in using laughter to shake off the
stresses of work.
“I believe that people rarely succeed if they don’t have fun at
what they’re doing,” says Ohlinger, CEO of market research company Service Industry Research Systems Inc. “And I don’t think
there’s anything so serious in business or in life that you can’t get
through it.”
Parlaying that attitude, SIRS has grown to more than 300 employees and has earned the Impulse Survey Award as one of the top 10
market research companies in the world. Smart Business spoke
with Ohlinger about keeping a loose atmosphere and finding talent.
Q: How do you keep the atmosphere relaxed and still get the job
done?
You can take your work and the people and their dreams seriously, but you don’t take yourself too seriously. We have some
interesting and fun things we do.
We have a Brain-and-a-Half Award for the person who has done
something so extraordinary that’s it’s worth special mention. But if
you have a Brain-and-a-Half Award, you also have a Half-Brain
Award, and that’s for something mindless enough that it’s worthy
of that.
It’s given to somebody that does something so over the top that
you can joke about it. It’s to lighten people up and create a fun
atmosphere. We’re willing to be a little goofy around here; this is
our dress-down decade. A lot of people have dress-down days or
something; this is going to be our dress-down decade.
Q: What’s the most important thing you have to do as a leader?
You have to be willing to do anything to help your people and
your clients, but focus on what you’re good at and delegate as
much as you can. Let’s say finance might be the most important
thing here, but I’m not very good at it.
Well, if I’m not very good at it, I better get it away from me. You
have to stay focused on what you’re good at and help make the
most of your talents while leading others.
Q: What’s the best lesson you’ve learned as the company has
grown?
Probably the biggest thing is that there is absolutely no substitute
for hard work. I’ve never been cursed by an overabundance in
intelligence but intelligence can be a lousy teacher. It can seduce
smart people into thinking that they can’t lose.
I’ve seen a lot of people lose, so I’ve had to rely on hard work.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m very passionate about what I do, but it is
still hard work. If you love what you’re doing all the time, then
you’re probably not doing it hard enough.
I’ve known a lot of hardworking people that are not successful,
but I’ve never known a successful person who didn’t work to the
point of exhaustion. People who say work smarter not harder generally aren’t hard workers. Just showing up for work every day
doesn’t make you a hard worker any more than standing in a
garage makes you a car.
Q: How do you find young talent?
When we look at the colleges, we look and see how someone got
through. We’ll look at activities but we also ask, ‘Gee, did they
work their way through college?’ Because those people know that
it takes a lot of hard work to get through.
I don’t think we’ve ever even looked at a grade point average. But we
do look at what type of work experiences they’ve had through college.
We’ve got special arrangements set up at colleges around the
country and we bring in co-ops, and it really is a great deal for
everybody. It gives them a chance to look at us, it gives us a chance
to look at them.
It gives them a chance to make some money and it fits in with our
philosophy of having people work through college, that’s a good
indication that they hold in esteem what we hold in esteem.
Q: How do you address the big challenges?
Once we identify the problem, we’ll give a single person the
responsibility to solve it. Along with that, we’ll give them the support
mechanisms that they need.
But the thing I try to stress is don’t come to me with a problem;
bring me a problem with a solution. I might not agree with it, but
don’t just bring me a problem. We try to steer away from group
committees.
Another thing we’ll do is the senior management will get together and say, ‘Who needs this challenge?’ If somebody comes in and
says, ‘Here’s a serious challenge,’ and they want to tackle it, that
will go a long way because we want people to attack challenges.
We want them to learn how to deal with change aggressively; we
think that’s about as important as any business skill you can have.
HOW TO REACH: SIRS Inc., (859) 781-9700 or www.sirsinc.com
