Cover Story
Building credit
How Ian MacKechnie drives teamwork at Amscot Financial
By Brian Horn
Smart Business Tampa Bay | March 2010
Page 1 of 4
Ian MacKechnie doesn’t care where an idea comes from. It can come from him, someone on his management team or someone who’s been with the company for two days. If it’s a good idea and can help the company, sign him up.
“A lot of my ideas get shot down,” he says. “And I don’t mind, because that’s OK. We want the best idea to win.”
MacKechnie has used that attitude to lead Amscot Financial Inc. from $85 million in revenue in 2006 to $145 million in 2008.
The chairman, president, CEO and founder of the financial services firm checks his ego at the door for most decisions. Of course, being the leader, if he really believes in a decision, he wants the organization to buy in.
“If I’m passionate about it, it’s kind of first among equals, if it’s a pretty important decision,” he says.
But that doesn’t happen often. If it did, MacKechnie would be driving away those who have good ideas or have valuable input. He could also be consistently making the wrong decisions since he is more at the 30,000-foot level of management than those who are below him and on the front lines dealing with customers.
“We want the best solution,” he says. “We don’t care where it’s coming from. It’s not who’s right; it’s what’s right. It truly is because you have to remember, why would I not want the best thing? When you’re running a company, if you are a leader, you want what’s best.”
Such was the case when the company wanted to tweak its brand. It wasn’t MacKechnie on his own who came up with idea of referring to Amscot in advertisements as “The Money Superstore.” It was everyone involved in the process.
“If you don’t mind other people getting the credit, you’ll be really successful,” he says. “That is the trick. You are going to get a lot of the credit anyway, if you are the leader. So who cares where the ideas come from?”
And that’s what MacKechnie wants Amscot’s atmosphere to revolve around.
“Running a company is not about me, and it’s not about the chief executive,” he says. “It’s about all of us growing the company. It’s not me that built this company. I’ve helped to get it started, but it’s all these great people around that are making it happen. The bigger it gets, the more they are making it happen.”
Here’s how MacKechnie drives that message home by inspiring people, setting guidelines and coaching those who fall short at delegating.
