Huma Gruaz was not in a good place 14 years ago. She was a single, stay-at-home mom who needed to find work to support her children. She volunteered at a PR agency, working long hours for no money to get re-acclimated with the industry so she could ultimately get a job. She eventually was hired by this agency and in four years rose through the ranks to become a vice president.
More than 10 years ago, she was offered a position with a prospective client, Shark Euro-Pro. Instead of relocating to Boston as the job required, Gruaz convinced Euro-Pro to become her founding client in a new business venture.
Alpaytac Inc. was born.
“I was able to put myself through an executive MBA program, build a company, employ more than 30 people and have four offices,” Gruaz says. “If I can do it, anybody can. I had no investment money to start with, nothing except my desire to produce good work.”
One of the keys to being an effective leader is to look beyond the idea of simply being successful.
“I don’t think success should be a goal,” Gruaz says. “I hear these young entrepreneurs who try to start their business and the goal is to grow it to become a multibillion-dollar company and retire at 40. It’s good to have that big dream and vision. But it really should be about the work and how you can deliver the greatest work, the greatest product and the greatest service.”
Gruaz, who serves as the company’s CEO, experienced plenty of challenges getting Alpaytac off the ground. She says the key thing to keep in mind when you start to question your ability is to look for the opportunity in every one of those challenges.
“It’s a glass half full attitude,” Gruaz says. “It’s easy to be a leader when the cycle is up, sales are good and everything is dandy. Your clients are coming to you. The true leader shows their talent and ability when you’re in a downturn and you see the open doors when other people only see the doors that are closed.”
Adjusting expectations
There was a time at Alpaytac when turnover was pretty constant.
Every three years, the firm went through a new batch of people, especially at the junior level. As tough as that was, Gruaz also found herself having a difficult time relating to millennials, who just didn’t approach work with the same gusto that she did.
“I put myself through school and never took a cent from my family after the age of 16 or 17,” Gruaz says. “For me, 9 to 5 doesn’t exist. I work night and day, and for me, good is not good enough, which is the motto for our agency. So I unrealistically expected this from every single employee, including very junior people right out of college. And I realized I cannot set myself as the standard when hiring or evaluating employees. It’s unfair.”
She realized she couldn’t force people to be like her. She had to adapt and find a way to coexist with her employees in a way that would lead to good things for customers.
“We are working with millennials who are incredibly talented and very hard-working, dedicated and motivated,” Gruaz says. “But they are motivated by different things than we are. They value their free time and their weekends. They work really hard, but certain things are much more important to them than the way I grew up and the way I attack work.”
Gruaz makes it a point to sit down with employees and talk to them about how they want to be led. In order to build the business she wants, it has to be done.
“I would love to work with a team that answers emails 24/7 and works night and day,” Gruaz says. “But I also recognize that people will burn out and lose motivation to deliver excellence if they are forced to work like that. They will stop being happy and passionate about their job. So I think that is a balance that you have to weigh very carefully.”
Keep in touch
As Alpaytac continues to grow, Gruaz says it will become more of a challenge to stay in touch with what’s happening in her business on the ground level — both with employees and customers.
“Every time you take on a new client and your business starts growing, you need to scale it,” Gruaz says. “That means the CEO will be further and further away from the front line. You need to ask the question whether you have the kind of senior or midlevel staff that you can rely on before you experience that growth.”
The foundation that she builds now in finding common ground with her employees will provide more confidence for the future, when Gruaz has to rely more on those people to service Alpaytac’s customers.
“I’d rather not take on a client that I can’t service well just for the sake of taking it on,” Gruaz says. “If you’re so busy that you can’t trust the people under you to service that client, step away. It’s a tough decision to make, but you have to step away from that business.”
Fortunately for Gruaz, her team has come through and has been able to support steady growth.
“Some of our clients haven’t even met me,” Gruaz says. “We have grown to the point where I can proudly say that I can trust my very talented team to manage those clients. I am pulled in when there is a crisis. I have a team that is very intelligent and knows when to pull me in and say, ‘This is a Huma matter. We need your advice.’”
One of the best signs that Gruaz is good at what she does is the fact that Euro-Pro, her founding client, is still with her firm after more than 10 years and revenue of $1.2 billion.
“You can imagine, as big as they are, they’ve been approached by every agency in the world,” Gruaz says. “But they have stayed loyal. They are a symbol to me of a company that believed in me when nobody else did.” ●
