Alittle fear can go a long way in helping a CEO to keep his or her eye
focused on success, says Mat Orrego.
It certainly did back in 1993, when
Orrego, president and CEO of Cornerstone
Information Systems, wondered if the professional services company he had just
founded would generate enough sales to
meet its next payroll. Ultimately, the sales
were made, Orrego was able to pay his
employees and a valuable lesson was
learned.
“We got the affirmation that what we
were doing was truly something that had
benefit in the marketplace, and people were willing to pay us money to
do it,” Orrego said.
With 56 employees now on board,
Cornerstone’s revenue has increased from $5 million in 2003 to
$7.5 million in 2005.
Smart Business spoke with
Orrego about the importance of
creativity and using fear to your
advantage.
Q: How do you find employees who
fit your vision?
You’re constantly recruiting. Our
success is predicated on bringing
people in that understand our
industry and understand a specific job skill that we need as a company.
Ideally, they have worked in
other industries where they can
apply some of their insight and
creativity.
I like to see people that have
taken a problem from its infancy
and developed a solution around
it. The people that we have here
have a culture of figuring problems out.
We don’t have a structure that says, ‘This
is the way we do it, and this is the only way
we do it.’ We leave it open to opportunities.
Q: What skills must a good CEO possess?
You have to be able to navigate situations
and deal with them with a high degree of
objectivity and not have too many things
stick to you. Good leaders are ones that
continue to see things in an objective manner. They don’t get burdened by not being
able to make a decision because they’re
weighted down from the past decisions
they have made.
Ask an athlete what’s the [key to] success
for them, and they’ll say, ‘Keep your
strength up, follow a good workout routine
and keep your weight down.’ It’s the same
thing to survive as a CEO.
You can’t get burdened by events and decisions. Don’t let decisions hang on to you,
because that adds to your emotional weight
You’ve got to stay very limber and not
assume the weight of decisions.
Q: Describe your leadership style.
The role of a CEO is to try to continually reaffirm the direction that I want to
take the company in, constantly looking
back at anything that is tactical and
drawing a direct line to the strategy, and
communicating that as frequently as
possible.
I tend to put a filter around tough decisions that need to be made at various junctures, whether they are decisions to
release a product or develop a new product or dealing with a customer issue. I
try to provide that filter of strategy and
vision.
It’s a constant affirmation that whatever decision needs to be made, or whatever action needs to be taken, does it fall
in line with the vision? I explain, ‘This is
why we’re making this decision, because
it’s in line with the vision,’ and I repeat
the vision again. Repetition gets you into
habit, and then it becomes a natural
process for people to act upon.
Q: What skill does a CEO need to
succeed?
A great skill for a CEO is time
management. I’ve got a couple companies out there that I’m involved
with and a lot of different issues that
come to me on a day-to-day basis. It’s
a matter of prioritization.
It’s a process of keeping your mind
clear at all times. The way that you
do that is, ultimately, you are fanatical about your organization methodology.
If I can’t deal with something in two
minutes, then I file it or categorize it.
This is when it’s due, and this is when
I’m going to work on it.
I really believe in the philosophy that
if you have everything categorized and
in place, then your mind is clear and
you are ready to deal with the ad hoc of
life. I try to keep my mind as uncluttered as possible. I’ve got a ton of stuff
on my to-do list, and that’s where it
belongs. It doesn’t belong in my head.
You can’t get paralyzed by fear, but
there’s nothing wrong with running a little scared. It fine-tunes your perspective. You put it through that litmus test,
and it just makes you more acute and your
senses more heightened.
I’ve gotten used to running a little
scared and looking at things that create
that level of acute senses to situations so
that you can constantly make sure you’re
looking out for that point where things
can go bad.
HOW TO REACH: Cornerstone Information Systems,
www.ciswired.com