Execute through
management

Joseph Ram
president and CEO, InfoSonics Corp.

Joseph Ram, InfoSonics Corp.’s president and CEO, turns to his managers for
help implementing his plan.

“I provide the managers with the strategic vision and some parameters, and they
provide the detail that will execute the
plan,” Ram says. “We work from three
sets of goals, which all have timelines.
The plan includes macro goals, such as
where you plan to be in the global marketplace, tactical goals, which detail the
execution of the plan, and then the financial goals that result from the completion
of the macro and tactical goals.”

Flushing out the details of the plan is a
process that is often extended throughout
several weeks as the exchange of information crosses the desks of managers
stretched out across InfoSonics’ global
footprint. While each manager authors
their respective portion of the plan, Ram
checks in weekly with each one in order
to gauge his or her progress. Ram says
that, if it occurs, he welcomes disagreement among the team members during
the process of laying out the tactics.

“It’s important to have your most influential people be in charge of executing
the plan so they can lead the other
employees,” says Ram, who was featured
in April. “I think we thrive on disagreement here because it really helps us look
at a problem from different angles, and as
the CEO, you really don’t want to brainwash people.

“I think that most people come into a
planning session understanding that they
aren’t always right, so they are open to
other suggestions. Usually, we can come
to a consensus about our tactical plan. I
also think everyone understands that as
the CEO, you often have to make difficult
decisions, and unless the team can reach
an agreement, you’ll have to step in.”