Brian NeSmith has seen his industry change, change and change again. From feeling helpless during the technology bust at the turn of the century, to watching his company, Blue Coat Systems Inc., explode to roughly 900 employees with nearly 400 percent growth in the last five years, NeSmith is constantly adjusting his strategy on the fly.

It’s no surprise, then, that NeSmith, Blue Coat’s president and CEO, works nonstop on ways to get the right employees for that adaptation and to prepare them to evolve with the changing industry at the company, which secures Web communications and accelerates business applications across the distributed enterprise. To do that, NeSmith has developed a system of informing employees about the development of the business and then letting them help redesign the company’s path, a tack that has pushed Blue Coat to $177.7 million in revenue in fiscal 2007.

Smart Business spoke with NeSmith about why you need to make sure you’re hiring someone who really wants the job you’re offering and how to get people motivated for change.

Involve employees in change. It always starts with explaining the context, why the change needs to take place, the vision of where you’re going — not with complete clarity but that we’re going to figure it out together — and then articulating that.

It works most by saying it. You get your managers to say it, you say it every chance you can — even to the extent people are poking a little fun at you, like, ‘I’ve heard this speech before, Brian.’ OK, good, can you repeat it back?

You explain what you think you know, you explain what you think we need to answer together, and you challenge people. Say, ‘I think this is right, but I’m looking to you to provide leadership in this area.’ Then ideas come from all over and the picture evolves. It’s being as honest as you can and not presenting what you don’t know but something you think to be true and why.

The more people who are involved in the creation of where we are, the stronger they get involved in the success of that outcome. The line between success and failure, both as individuals and companies is, yeah, there’s the elegant strategy, and we all admire that when we read Harvard Business Review, but there is nothing like a person passionate about a result.

That person, to some extent, could make poor decisions, but they’re so passionate about it that they inspire everyone around them, and you power through the mistakes you make.