Whenever Dr. Stanley Crooke feels the weirdness levels start to drop at Isis Pharmaceuticals Inc., there is a problem brewing.
“We always say that whenever I feel the weirdness start to go down around here, I go out and recruit for weird,” says Crooke, founder, chairman and CEO of the prescription drug producer.
In this case, “weird” isn’t a pejorative term. Recruiting for weird means recruiting for the creative game-changers who can devise and develop the next great products around which Isis can build its future.
Building and sustaining a company takes finding and retaining the right people for the job. If you have a company that thrives on new products and new ideas, that means finding innovators. Crooke says recruiting innovators takes a willingness to accept different personalities and maybe even some eccentricities.
You need to be willing to accept some quirks or different thought processes among your employees if you want to bring in the different perspectives that can lead to the creative moments you seek.
“You need to accept that innovation is the heart and soul of what you’re doing,” Crooke says. “Recruit the people who can lead it, accept that they’re going to have quirks, build an organization that appreciates all of that, and give them the room to lead. Above all, brilliant leaders are central to all innovation, and a culture that accepts brilliant leaders will be different.”
It’s an approach that takes an open mind from management and constant communication that focuses on the vision and core values of the company. Crooke has used that approach to grow Isis from a start-up pharmaceutical business in 1989 to a 260-employee company that generated $107 million in 2008 revenue.