Find a leader
You need to find a person that can help you carry the torch for your new idea. If nothing else, it serves as a visual reminder to others that you’re not the only one who believes in it.
“You just have to find a person who you can depend on,” Chen says. “You want the emphasis initially on marketing. It is more critical. You want a marketing-type personality because on the financial side, we can have a back-end office to support that. You need to see how to target the market first and how to negotiate with the suppliers.”
Chen doesn’t put a lot of stock in the resume when he’s considering someone to lead a new project for him.
“A resume may help a little bit with some background,” Chen says. “But I use the interview process to see what kind of behavior and emotion will match. I’m looking for a long-term relationship in the sense of, ‘Can I trust this person? Can this person trust me?’ I don’t know how to describe in words, ‘Yeah, you can trust this person or this person.’ I usually ask them what’s necessary for the compensation package they want. That will give me some indication.”
Chen does make it a point to ask leader candidates to present him with a brief plan of how they would lead the group he wants to create.
“I ask them to give us a very brief plan of what they plan to do so I will know what kind of capability and potential they have,” Chen says. “It’s very good to ask a potential candidate, ‘OK, give me a couple pages or a page on how to run this business and then give me your compensation package,’ and see how they do. I don’t want to be dictating and totally telling them my ideas. I would rather utilize their talent more.”
As Chen’s thoughts began to coalesce and he had seen and heard everything he felt he needed to with regard to his biofuel idea, it became clear that it would work better as a stand-alone organization, albeit connected to Telamon as a subsidiary.
That person selected to run National Biofuels is Reggie Henderson, who had been president of Telamon’s industrial manufacturing group. Henderson leads the nation’s alternative fuel solution management company.
“It’s kind of a small company within the company that he can run himself,” Chen says.
NBD got up to speed quickly and announced in February its plans to supply biofuel to ARCA West, a NASCAR feeder series. The company has been working with racers from all motor sports to develop a racing biofuel and came up with Ignite Racing Fuels.
Chen says success in trying something new is all about identifying opportunity and pursuing it.
“What kind of strengths and core competencies can you leverage?” Chen says. “What are your strong suits? What is your competitive advantage? If you can cover those three, it will minimize your risk.”
How to reach: Telamon Corp., (317) 818-6888 or www.telamon.com
