“Actions lie louder than words.” Carolyn Wells
I was helping a friend and ex-colleague by being a professional reference for a potential new employer. At least I hope I was helping.
Anyway, he finished First Runner Up to a person who “had a better Rolodex” in the area of M&A (Mergers and Acquisitions). Interesting this person who scored the job came from a company that had just filed for Chapter 7. That is, they went bankrupt. Seems to me a person with a great M&A rolodex could have brokered a deal to sell the company and prevent the doors from closing. I’m sure there’s more to the story, but it makes you go “Hmmmm”.
Having a rolodex is a funny term, especially since most people under the age of 50 have probably never used, hell, seen one. But the meaning is clear. It’s someone who knows and has the ability to contact large numbers of people who can help move business.
For me it’s also become a giant flashing yellow light. It has been my experience that anyone who touts their rolodex is immediately suspect. This is because I have been disappointed and frustrated multiple times by these alleged rainmakers.
In my “You can’t fix stupid” blog from January 11th I refer to a situation I was in that couldn’t be fixed. My big flashing light that I saw, understood, but continued to try to fix, was when given two choices for a head of sales the owner took the name-dropping, rolodex-waving, flashy young dude whose reference list included a relative and a girl friend over the understated, highly professional, middle-aged person whose reference list included a collection of C-level people who bought millions of dollars from him over the years but without any recognized names.
I, of all people, value a great network but only when it includes real people not just names and numbers.
Hiring people is the most critically important yet most neglected part of running a business. Good ones make you rich and successful and bad ones make you poor and bitter. Yet we choose people with less intensity than we pick fruit at a market.
I recently read a Fortune Magazine article about Target Corporation and how the CEO personally interviews the people in the top 600 positions of the company. Any way you do the math that is a large chuck of time. But maybe there’s reasons they’re one of the most successful companies around.
I was helping a friend and ex-colleague by being a professional reference for a potential new employer. At least I hope I was helping.
Anyway, he finished First Runner Up to a person who “had a better Rolodex” in the area of M&A (Mergers and Acquisitions). Interesting this person who scored the job came from a company that had just filed for Chapter 7. That is, they went bankrupt. Seems to me a person with a great M&A rolodex could have brokered a deal to sell the company and prevent the doors from closing. I’m sure there’s more to the story, but it makes you go “Hmmmm”.
Having a rolodex is a funny term, especially since most people under the age of 50 have probably never used, hell, seen one. But the meaning is clear. It’s someone who knows and has the ability to contact large numbers of people who can help move business.
For me it’s also become a giant flashing yellow light. It has been my experience that anyone who touts their rolodex is immediately suspect. This is because I have been disappointed and frustrated multiple times by these alleged rainmakers.
In my “You can’t fix stupid” blog from January 11th I refer to a situation I was in that couldn’t be fixed. My big flashing light that I saw, understood, but continued to try to fix, was when given two choices for a head of sales the owner took the name-dropping, rolodex-waving, flashy young dude whose reference list included a relative and a girl friend over the understated, highly professional, middle-aged person whose reference list included a collection of C-level people who bought millions of dollars from him over the years but without any recognized names.
I, of all people, value a great network but only when it includes real people not just names and numbers.
Hiring people is the most critically important yet most neglected part of running a business. Good ones make you rich and successful and bad ones make you poor and bitter. Yet we choose people with less intensity than we pick fruit at a market.
I recently read a Fortune Magazine article about Target Corporation and how the CEO personally interviews the people in the top 600 positions of the company. Any way you do the math that is a large chuck of time. But maybe there’s reasons they’re one of the most successful companies around.
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