Bruce Cameron has seen just about everything in his more than 30 years in management.
“I’ve been with start-ups that have literally exploded with growth,” he says. “I’ve been with start-ups that, after a year, have closed their doors. I’ve been with dot-coms that were the eighth-largest IPO in 1999 and sold two years later for a fraction of their net worth at that point in time. I’ve been with $500 million companies and $5 million companies.”
But through it all, one thing remains constant, no matter the situation.
“I think the one thing that is very, very important is just getting back to the consistency of operation — setting your bar, setting your comp, and then being consistent with that year over year so that people can dig in.”
Now, he’s president of the $240.8 million CDC Software Corp. Building that consistency has been key to aligning the software development company and moving it forward.
“A lot of these, if we’re going to develop a new piece of software, it’s two or three years,” Cameron says. “Sometimes a big sale can take one or two years. Our ability to remain consistent through that period of time is very important.”
Oftentimes, leaders will try to change course right away if they see any sort of problem, but Cameron takes a different approach.
“A lot of people come in and change their strategy every week or every month, which indicates that it was wrong to begin with,” he says. “You have to put a stake in the ground and be consistent with your employees and, most importantly, consistent with your customers so they know what you’re all about.”
Here’s how Cameron uses goals, mentoring and a compensation strategy to drive consistency through his organization.
