Think about growth
As Ambit’s reputation and revenue grew, the resumes starting coming in, but Thompson then had to start looking ahead to know what holes he had in his team and employee base before he could hire anybody.
“The better you can define what you’re looking for and describe that, the better you’ll find the person that fits the bill,” he says. “That’s a hard thing in a small company that’s growing quickly.”
To better define positions in the company, Thompson challenged his management team.
“My challenge to each of them was to groom the next generation management so we can all take a hypothetical two-month vacation and come back and things were better than they were when we left,” he says. “That required everyone to think about what does that mean for a level of responsibility and training and confidence that each needed to have. It helped them focus on holes in their organization that, in my absence, somebody would have to do these duties. No one’s doing it, no one’s aware of it, no one knows how and [you need to] bring somebody in. It helped them think through where the holes were that they needed to fill.”
Another way is to look at the future of your company and what would the organization look like if it doubled or tripled.
“When that happens, what will your organization look like and what pieces of it are missing today?” Thompson says. “Let’s not wait to a point where we’re behind on everything. Let’s anticipate certain levels of growth and bring in those people so they’re here when we need them and they’re not people we need to bring in a mad rush long after we needed them, so they’re ready when we need them and it’s not a mad rush after we needed them.”
Also look at how positions may become more specialized as you grow.
“As you grow, you begin to specialize more and more,” he says. “Just because of the volume of the organization, you begin to see things that aren’t getting the attention or that you can now justify higher levels of investment in having people specialize in those things and you bring them in. The whole thing is as you grow, there’s more specialization that takes place in the company, and that specialization helps you define somebody who can handle that specific task or those sets of tasks. That’s really how we built it — just gradually adding it little by little, year after year.”
How to reach: Ambit Energy LP, (877) 282-6248 or www.ambitenergy.com
