Leadership
Inside or out
How Arcadia Resources’ Marvin Richardson answers the question of whether to promote from within or to bring in someone from the outside
By Mark Scott
Smart Business Indianapolis | February 2009
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It’s a question that every CEO faces when looking to develop
leaders in a growing organization: Do you promote from within
and rely on the internal knowledge and expertise gained by loyal
employees who have been with you for an extended period of
time, or do you bring in fresh faces from the outside who can
shake things up a little and challenge the status quo with some
new ideas?
The fact is that it takes a little bit of both, says Marvin
Richardson, president and CEO of Arcadia Resources Inc.
“At a senior level, you’ve got to find people who are dedicated and share
a common vision on where the company is going instead of having
opinions that may differ from the leadership.”
But it would be a
mistake to look for people who are simply going to agree with
everything you say and do.
“A lot of people want to hear validation that what they are doing
is correct,” Richardson says. “I couldn’t care less about that. What
I want to know is are we doing what’s right and is there a better,
more efficient way of doing it?”
Since Richardson came to the $151 million provider of home
health care products and services in early 2007, he has hired four
new executives. In each case, Richardson says he was looking for
both a friend and a critic.
“You want to get along and you want to make sure when you are
interviewing people that the personalities fit in well with what you
are doing,” Richardson says. “But I’m also looking for people who
are not afraid to tell me, in an interview or otherwise, what they
think about the business and what their philosophies are.”
Here’s how Richardson found the right mix of leaders, both internally and externally, to keep his 5,000-employee company moving
forward.
