Move ahead with your plan
As he moved forward after the acquisition, he needed to make sure that the new Quantum was on the right track, so he created a scorecard to ensure that happened.
“It would be based on a set of objectives of what we think the most important priority is,” he says. “Virtually at any point in time, I’ve got a very short list of the things I think we need to get done, and so I will communicate those. We will have metrics around them.”
Some of those are a year in duration and others will have more intermediate check-in points. He shares these across the company and they grade themselves on meeting them. Having check-ins helps ensure they’re on the right path.
“I like to lock things down and run hard for six months,” he says. “Then you kind of reflect on what’s gone well and what’s not working and what’s changed, and then you alter it and go put your heads down and run for another six months. That’s about the rhythm that we were on. We’ve not changed the goal, but we do change how we get there.”
In addition to the data, Belluzzo was also careful to pay attention to his instincts.
“There’s data and it’s intuitive,” he says. “You have to follow your intuition about it. For me, the way I know to make a change is if I’m going down a path, and I get really uncomfortable and I start challenging myself, I have a lot of internal turmoil over something, and I reach a point where I say, ‘OK, this turmoil has been here too long, and I need to find a different path.’ The faster you go through that process, the better off you are.”
When you combine your numbers and your intuition, you should know if you’re on the right side of gravity again.
“You can look at your scorecard and look at your results and say, ‘Are we improving in this area as fast as we need to?’” he says. “I would say that if my intuition feels right and the numbers and the progress look right, we keep going. The difference being you spend time looking at the future — you’re always trying to assess whether you’re moving in a direction that’s ultimately going to be successful.”
Now, more than four years after the acquisition, Quantum has reached $681.4 million in total revenue in fiscal 2010. The business has successfully transformed and is profitable.
“Borrowing money was a pretty controversial move,” Belluzzo says. “Yet that’s how we were able to put together enough of the strength that we needed to get to the point where we are today, which is a very profitable tape business and a growing disk and software business.”
How to reach: Quantum Corp., (408) 944-4000 or www.quantum.com
