Retail
Playing to succeed
How Richard Simtob communicates his vision at Wireless Toyz
By Brian Horn
Smart Business Detroit | May 2007
Years ago, Richard Simtob heard a story that he still uses today to illustrate his philosophy on mistakes.
A president hired a guy to run his company, and his first month on the job, the new hire made a decision that cost the company $1 million. The guy tells the president he knows he is going to be fired. The president responds, “Are you crazy? Your education just cost me $1 million. Now go earn it back.”
Simtob, president and COO of wireless retailer Wireless Toyz, shares the same beliefs.
“We all make mistakes,” he says “Use it for the learning experience, and never let it happen again. I’m not a big finger-pointer,
but I like to hold people accountable. I’m going to let them know it was wrong and ask them how they are going to fix it. I’m going
to work with them on how to fix it.”
Simtob has used the philosophy to help lead the company of more than 120 employees to 2006 revenue of about $80 million.
Smart Business spoke with Simtob about how he keeps employees involved in the vision of the company.
Q: What are the keys to being a good leader?
To create a vision. I believe in open discussion. Taking people off-site usually works. Doing a lot of brainstorming and look at
the future where you want to be 10 years from now.
We just came back from a three-day executive retreat where we took our executive level off-site, basically to focus on where
we are today, where we can improve and where we want to go in the future. It put us all on the same page. When we left there,
we knew exactly where we were going.
Coming in, we all had an idea, but now we’re focused more on what it will look like. We got more buy-in. There are too many
phone calls and distractions in the office.
Q: How do you communicate your vision?
You do it in letters, monthly meetings and weekly executive meetings. It’s repetition. It’s not something you do and say once and
it’s done. It’s something you do every day. People hear it and say it sounds good, but it becomes vital when they hear it all the
time.
Some people change the message and vision, and that confuses people. By hearing the same thing over and over again,
it’s, ‘This is the vision, and I know I’m working toward the right place.’
It’s not a moving target. It could be impactful, and it has to be relevant. It’s not repeating the same story over and over
again. It’s making it relevant. Our vision is to be the premiere national wireless retailer. I can’t just get up in front of the
group and say ‘We are going to be the premier national wireless retailer, next.’ It’s ‘We’ve made a decision or hired someone today that fits with our vision of being the premier national wireless retailer.’ Your activities tie in to the vision.
Q: What do you ask during job interviews?
I’m always asking where they want to be in five years and what areas do they need most improvement on. If someone says the
thing I have to work on the most is my communication skills, and 50 percent of the job is communicating, you might have an
issue.
If they say the thing I’m working on is organization, well, at least you know going in that they are strong enough in other areas
to make up for that.
Q: How do you retain employees?
Keeping the job fun and interesting. You have to give them challenges. If you come to work and you get bored, you start
looking for another job. A lot of it is high fives, ‘You are doing a great job,’ recognition in front of peers and taking time
to coach and develop people. At the end of the year, they feel like they grew this year or they got better, and can’t wait to
start a second year at the company.
Someone who is an executive assistant, that could be a mundane job. I keep it interesting for my assistant. We have a
written job description and I keep adding things to it, and I throw her new challenges and things we’ve never done before.
At the end of the year, it’s, ‘This job really grew into a great position.’ She’s always developing to really excel at the skills
she has.
HOW TO REACH: Wireless Toyz, (248) 426-8200 or www.wirelesstoyz.com
