Sam Cece, chairman and CEO of
StrongMail Systems Inc., has an irresistible compulsion to tinker with perfection. It’s served him well with StrongMail,
a quickly growing technology firm that
focuses on e-mail infrastructure software.
Even after his 80-employee team exceeds
its goals, Cece is quick to remind the team
that it can’t rest on its laurels. The next big
idea could be right around the corner, and
to stay alive, StrongMail needs to keep its
fingers on the market’s pulse.
“One analogy I use all the time is, ‘Hey,
I know that there’s a really smart 13-year-old Russian kid in Russia that’s
going to come up with something that’s
going to blow this world away,” he says.
Smart Business spoke with Cece about
how he fights complacency in the ranks.
Q: What are some pitfalls leaders
should avoid?
No. 1 is complacency. I look at this
company and its emerging market like
it’s a Rubik’s Cube. You’re trying to
find the exact right combination to get
enough airlift to make the rocket ship
take off.
If you think you have the cube figured out, and say, ‘This one side is
almost all red, there are a couple of
yellow and blue squares, that’s good
enough’ — that’s a fatal flaw.
I don’t like complacency or leaving
everything the same. In the three
years I’ve been associated with this
company, I’ve changed things in a
major way at least three times.
I set expectations with the entire company. We’re going to change things. Sometimes
it’ll be great, sometimes it’s not going to be
great. We’re going to break the system,
we’re going to flex the system, but we’re all
going to come out of the chute better.
If you think you’re here to sit in your cube
and do data sheets all day, it’s not going to
happen. We’ve got a company to build and
a market to make. That’s going to require
us doing different things.
Q: How do you motivate or empower
employees?
By giving them full responsibility for their
areas of expertise.
I have a very strong philosophy on changing things up. For example, a few months
ago, I changed up some organizational
areas to get a fresh set of eyes on things.
People will look at that as a new challenge. If I’m an athlete, I’m typically a running back, and one day, the coach says,
‘You’ve got a pretty good arm; let’s have you play quarterback the next two quarters.’ There’s something very invigorating
about that. Not only to learn something,
but to take something you’ve not managed
before and look at it with a new set of eyes.
I’ve always found it a very invigorating and
motivating thing to do with people in an
organization.
Q: How do you attract quality employees?
The people you’re looking for, there’s
no job board for them. All these people
that you want, these successful people,
are not necessarily looking for jobs. It’s
my job to go out and talk to them, to
outline the vision and get them to get excited about joining the company.
If you look at any successful person —
whether they be an engineer, a PR person, a marketing person — those people
who are very good and skilled are people
who are passionate about their jobs,
they are really heads-down and not looking for another job. Certainly, if you can
get them to buy in to the vision, especially
of the future of what we think
e-mail can be, that’s when people say, ‘Hmm, maybe I should
take note and see where the
market is shifting, and let’s see
where the new opportunities
are.’
Q: How involved should leaders
be in the day-to-day operations?
A leader should get involved. I
like to change my focus. My job
as chief executive of the company is to make sure the company
is moving in the right direction
and chasing the right hill.
I like to focus on different
areas throughout the week. For
instance, this week, my CFO is
thinking I’m a pain in the butt
because I want to drill down and
understand the financial issues
and come up with some alternative ideas there. Next week, I’ll
look at the marketing and PR side.
So, I like to change my focus, but
I’m not a micromanager. I won’t
bust in and say, ‘Hey, did you ship
that box, and did you do that data
sheet, and did you update the Web site
and did you write that press release?’ I
don’t have to say that to them. But I will
drill down on different sections of the
business, and I think it’s important to do
that — especially with all the crazy stuff
that’s happened in the last five years in
corporations.
We are (venture capital)-funded, so I
feel that I’m a steward of that money and
that investment, and I have a great deal
of responsibility to ensure that I understand every facet of the business.
HOW TO REACH: StrongMail Systems Inc., (650) 421-4200 or
www.strongmail.com
