If you were a jet pilot who just
learned that there was a nuclear device on board and the
jet would blow up if you landed
it, how would you react?
That is one of the hypothetical questions that Kevin Hell’s
interview team at DivX Inc.
asks potential management
employees, and Hell says the
boldness of the candidate’s
answer speaks volumes about
that person’s character.
“We need to be able to think
creatively and boldly about
where the market can go
because we are pioneers as a
company in this space,” says
the CEO of the 341-employee
company. “From a leadership
perspective, we’ve got to be
able to look at things completely fresh and not accept certain
things. That’s an important
aspect in the leadership team.”
Hell, whose digital media
company posted 2007 revenue
of $84.9 million, has assembled
a leadership team whose experience levels and skills represent every area of the company.
Smart Business spoke with
Hell about how to organize your
managers to move your company forward.
Combine experience and fresh
thinking. We have a mixture of
a couple of guys who’ve been
here from nearly the beginning
and some new leadership that
has joined more recently over
the last year or so. It’s a good
combination of deep knowledge of the space and continuity, plus some new folks who
really have some tremendous
world-class backgrounds.
It gives our company the
best of both worlds. Having
people here who’ve been with
the business from the very
beginning — and who know
all the ins and outs of the business — is very helpful, but
also bringing in some new talented management, as the
business scales, allows us to
continue to improve our
processes and the overall
focus for the company.
