The essential traits I look for are success and passion. But the way around it is to dig up people who will speak candidly. Admittedly, this is hard if the person is 22 and just out of college—but for someone with 10 or 15 years of experience who has worked at two or three companies, you must have some mutual acquaintances.
Search firms do this by making a lot of calls, and we try to do the same thing. We also look at LinkedIn profiles to find shared contacts. A while back someone called me for a reference check on a guy named Fred.
The next day a college friend named Kevin phoned me. The hiring manager had asked Kevin to get the real story from me. But this was a longtime friend asking for my candid opinion. Instead, leverage your network to find mutual contacts who can provide candid feedback. Make some calls yourself. What were some of the best things this person accomplished?
What could he or she have done better? In what type of culture, environment, and role can you see this person excelling? In what type of role is he or she unlikely to be successful? Would you describe the candidate as a leader, a strategist, an executer, a collaborator, a thinker, or something else?
Can you give me some examples to support your description? Do people enjoy working with the candidate, and would former coworkers want to work with him or her again? For one hire, an outside recruiter that helped with the search had checked some of the references. Ordinarily we try to do this ourselves. They told me what they thought of him—which jibed exactly with our negative experience. Recruiting is so important that we intentionally overinvest in it. We have 10 full-time recruiters on our staff—a lot for a company our size.
We also frequently use external search firms, especially for senior positions. We hired 65 people last June—and interviewing every customer-support person would have been a bad use of my time. Even so, I interview many more people than CEOs usually do. I probably interview at least one person every workday. Is there anything I can do to help with your decision? Can I fly out to meet you? People talk about certain rules of thumb in talent management.
One is that the great people in any company are usually underpaid. Another is that A-level people generally hire other A-level people, but B-level people hire C-level people.
We did exit interviews when people left DoubleClick, and they were almost always leaving because of a manager. I want all our senior people focused on that issue. I think, too, that the hardest quality to find in a new hire is the ability to bring things to closure. Of all the duties facing a CEO, obsessing over talent provides the biggest return. You have 1 free article s left this month. You are reading your last free article for this month. Subscribe for unlimited access.
Create an account to read 2 more. Compensation and benefits. Most new […] by Kevin Ryan. Reprint: RA Ryan believes that a CEO should spend more time on recruiting and managing people than on any other activity, and that the head of HR is one of the most important people in the company.
He was one of the first twenty or so people in the company, but he didn't report to me. No one has actually ever resigned who reports to me, since the beginning of DoubleClick.
I've never had someone come in and say, "Kevin, I'm really sorry, I'm going to a different company. I know you're a fan of throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks KR: I never, never said I believed in throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks, but I know what you're getting at.
I do believe companies should be trying one or two big things per year. Sometimes you can determine, "What we're trying is pretty good, let's keep it.
And then other times, it works really well and you keep it. We'll continue to launch new verticals, new businesses and new ideas. KR: We've never commented on the appropriate price. Jetsetter is a separate company, which most people don't realize. We have never given any price expectations on Jetsetter. I saw that number but it didn't come from us. Are flash sales still a viable business? They don't seem to be what they were when the recession first hit and Gilt Groupe took off. KR: Here's what's really happening in flash sales and Gilt is a part of it.
The large flash sales companies are all doing well. That's bigger than some publicly traded companies. Then there's Fab and One Kings Lane. One Kings Lane is solid and I think it's going to do well. Fab is growing quickly; I think they're a long way from profitability, but they've accomplished a lot.
No other sector has four, maybe six companies that are getting to break even. The sector is doing amazingly well. What if it continues to drop?
But the law of large numbers catches up to you. So I think at our size, the sector is growing at a really healthy rate. As for growth continuing to drop, yes, I guess everyone who runs a company worries about that.
It's inevitable. But I think on big numbers we're growing quickly. You've had a spectacular career, having founded all of these companies after rising through the ranks at DoubleClick. But you departed DoubleClick before its [even bigger] exit to Google and now you're leaving after taking over Gilt. Every great business person has strengths and weaknesses. Are you a better visionary than someone who can take companies to the finish line?
Let's not forget I was at DoubleClick for nine years. I think for me, and for most people, after four or five years of doing something, they actually should do something else. I think you are sharpest and best in your first five years. Some people like to keep going and some like to stay too long. But I think it's great to have new energy at companies and excitement as someone else comes in.
For me, it's not about doing smaller things versus bigger things. I wouldn't exclude that I would go on to run an even bigger company someday. But then if I did, that would be new and exciting and, even then, I wouldn't do it for ten years. There are people who like to run companies from zero to 30 people.
Most of my companies are at scale. I didn't spend much time at 10gen when it was 20 people. I do spend more time on it now that it's heading to hyper-growth and more complexity. I like when you come up with an idea yourself. But in terms of running companies, I actually like it when they get into that bigger stage. What's next for you? Will you be taking a permanent position at 10gen?
Will you found more companies? No, I won't be taking a permanent position at 10gen, but I will spend a little more time there.
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