Jimi Hendrix often sang of
cosmic coincidence, but even he would have been surprised to find that a concert he
played in 1969 would ultimately
change the strategic direction of
Napster. It was at that concert
that Chris Gorog, now chairman
and CEO of the 139-employee
company, saw a performance
that defied convention. Hendrix
was unique, empowering and
made an unforgettable mark by
taking enormous risk, Gorog
says. More than 35 years later,
the CEO has fostered unprecedented growth — from 2004
revenue of $11 million to more
than $111 million in 2007 — at
the digital music provider by
evangelizing some of those
same characteristics.
Smart Business spoke with
Gorog about how to convey
excitement to your employees
and how to predict the unique
behaviors of customers by
examining the market from
30,000 feet.
Share your excitement. I try not
to get involved in anything that
I’m not almost zealot about.
Therefore, it’s not difficult to
become very excited and passionate and want to evangelize
things.
It’s really being comfortable
with sharing your enthusiasm
and not trying to be too rigid or
formal. It is only effective if it’s
coming from a genuine place. If
you’re just sort of buoyantly
bouncing around through the
halls with a ridiculous smile on
your face, that’s not going to get
you anywhere because that’s
not going to be real.
When there are obstacles,
when there are challenges, it’s
deeply important to really be
frank about those. Then you
can, over time, establish credibility, so if you’re showing great
excitement, people will have the
tendency to believe that you
may be on to something.
Everyone wants to work in a
situation where they feel that
they’re doing something special.
What they connect with is that
they are involved in something
special, and they want to excel
in their role and really make a
contribution to that special goal.
Evaluate the market from 30,000 feet. People entertain themselves on
airplanes now with their own
personal gadgets. It really is a
leading indicator of where consumer behavior is going with
technology.
You can take any hardware or
software or service, and the first
time you’re going to become
aware of it, oftentimes, it’s probably gong to be in an airplane.
Airplanes are filled with early
adopters, so really pay attention
to what they’re doing.
Connect with the customer. It’s
being very focused and always thinking about what consumers
want to do or what they will
want to do and what they will
respond to emotionally.
I always start first and foremost as a music fan looking at
my own product saying, ‘How
do I want this to be better?
What is it lacking? How can I
make it easier to use?’
Everything flows from that.
It’s being obsessively respectful
about the consumer in the first
place. A company can become
very insular. We’re constantly trying to put ourselves in the position of that first-time user or
even that long-time user. How
will they react to the product?
It’s just really trying to stay
in touch with the customer and
then just being heroic, obsessing
over the product to try to make
it better.
Find your superstars. It’s really
important to not insulate yourself just with your very senior
team. Try to find and understand who the superstars are in
the middle level and just spend
time with them and get to know
them.
One way to do that is, if there
are presentations from your
senior team, to get those second
and third lieutenants in the
meetings. Often, they’re deeply
involved in the preparation
materials and so forth, and you
can very quickly form your own
opinion. It’s really giving yourself the opportunity to see people in action.
Create an atmosphere of access. Try to do a good amount of one-on-one communication — just
sort of the occasional e-mail if
there’s something significant
that’s happening. Do it in a congenial and somewhat informal
way, but at the same time, again,
in the electronic age, you have
to recognize that everything you
send out is there for posterity,
so you also have to have some
caution about that, as well.
You want to create an atmosphere where people feel that
they have access. Otherwise,
they feel closed off, and they
feel not really part of the engine
that’s driving the business.
Filter decisions through the mission.First, I start from a foundation
and a belief system about what
we’re trying to do, to be extremely clear with myself, with
my board and with my employees what the mission and goals
are of our product and of our
company.
If you’re diligent and disciplined, every decision goes
through that filter. If we decide
affirmatively to pursue something, is it specifically in line
with those goals or are we getting a little off strategy? That’s a
very critical filter to start with.
I kind of think about Wilbur
and Orville Wright when they’re
trying to create the first airplane. If they had too much
diversion off of that path, it
wouldn’t have happened. You
have to be pretty obsessive
about that. You have to really
believe that man can fly, and
you have to pretty much close
your ears to everything else.
HOW TO REACH: Napster LLC, (310) 281-5000 or www.napster.com