Technology
Keep it burning
How Atticus Firey has led US Modular to fast growth by keeping his energy level high
By Mark Scott
Smart Business Orange County | September 2007
Atticus Firey believes employees often
take the lead from their boss on how
much energy they bring to work each day.
“If your troops see that you’re wearing
down, they’re going to wear down,” says the
president and chief operating officer of US
Modular, a memory and storage product
company. “You’ve got to keep the bar set
high with your level of energy. ... If energy is
a priority in your life, you’re going to schedule and calendar physical activities to keep
your energy level high.”
The 38-employee company has
grown about 40 percent annually
since its inception in 2001, and Firey
anticipates 2007 revenue of more
than $50 million.
Smart Business spoke with Firey
about how celebrating failure can
help your business succeed and why
you should make a move immediately if an employee isn’t working
out.
Q: What are the key aspects of a
healthy culture?
No. 1 is level of expectations. As a
culture, we want to expect more
than what is realistic. If I expect
more than you and you’re my competitor, I’m probably going to win.
No. 2 is preparedness. As a culture, we want to expect to go to
the moon, but we also have to prepare the spaceship.
No. 3 is sense of urgency. Now
that we expect the moon, and
now that we are prepared, we
want to move very quickly. But
the faster you move, the more
mistakes you’re going to make, so No. 4 is
attention to detail. The faster you move, the
more attentive you have to be to the details.
Like a (Formula One) racer, the faster they
go around those corners, the more precise
they have to be on their judgment. Without
question, you will always stumble, and that’s
where personal ownership comes in. You
need to take personal ownership.
You own this company. You’ve done something really well or something not so well.
Own it, identify the root cause and move on.
The sixth, and final one, is communication, communication, communication.
Q: How do you deal with failure?
If it’s the first failure that you’ve had as an
employee or that you have had as a group,
I reward or celebrate that failure as if I celebrate myself or my kids graduating from
college.
You just paid for an education. You just
failed. It cost us X amount of dollars or X
amount of time, and that was our payment
for your education. If you didn’t fail, you
may or may not have learned that lesson.
If you have identified the root cause of
the problem, and you have identified a
solution to fix that root cause so it won’t
happen again, it’s celebrated and you’re
rewarded for that failure. If you have not
identified a root cause, and you have not
identified a solution, it is not celebrated
because something is wrong with your
thinking process.
Your problem-solving skills are not up to
speed if you can’t identify the problem or
solution. If you’ve done it twice, then your
root cause and your solution and process improvement is fallible because it allows
you to fail again.
Q: How can you help employees succeed?
You need to set up a culture that is performance-based and constantly reviews
performance with the employees relative
to what the plan is. As an employee progresses with their tenure, if they are not
performing, it’s not a surprise to them.
You, as the leader, are right next to them
daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually
reviewing that progress and reviewing that performance with them in a
candid fashion.
You’re giving them every opportunity and all of the tools necessary to
succeed in your company.
Q: How do you deal with underperformers?
At some point, you’re going to
come to a decision that this person is
not going to make it. If you really care
about people, the best thing for that
employee and the best thing for your
company is to do it now and not
tomorrow. If that person is not going
to be around, why wait?
Do that person the favor of caring for
them and say, ‘Listen, you’re valued.
You’re fantastic in these areas. Here’s
where it’s not a fit, and I encourage you
to find another opportunity sooner
than later.’
I will often not terminate someone on
the spot unless they have stolen from
us or done something grievous. I will
often say, ‘Listen, for the next 30 days,
try to get your tasks accomplished here.
But use our fax machine, use our phone,
use our time, have flexibility to start pursuing other opportunities.’ Try to help them
along with getting to the next step. It does-n’t do your company any good to wait
either because that person that’s here is
costing you time and costing you money. If
you’re living a performance-based culture
and you allow someone to stay around that
is not performing, you’re going to drag
down the other people on the team.
HOW TO REACH: US Modular, (949) 770-6400 or
www.usmodular.com
