As the leader of Discus Dental Inc., Robert Hayman’s mantra of “Do the right thing” dictates every action the company takes.
Though Hayman, who serves as chairman, president and CEO for the dental supply company, acknowledges that doing the right
thing doesn’t always mean doing the easiest thing, he says the long-term benefits are immeasurable. Fostering a culture that
emphasizes honesty, integrity and fairness, however, doesn’t mean the company isn’t aggressive, and for that, Hayman makes
no apologies. And although the company’s 2006 revenue of more than $150 million is nothing to shake a stick at, Hayman
expects Discus to approach the $200 million mark this year. Hayman spoke with Smart Business about questioning experts and
staying a step ahead of the competition.
Get to know the people in your company. I walk
through our building, I visit every facility
we have around the world a number of
times throughout the year and I get to
know our people as much as I can. It’s not
so much to give advice or to preach or anything like that, but just to let them know I’m
there. If they have questions or concerns,
I’m there to answer them.
It’s funny — People say, ‘You have a lot of
people working for you,’ and that’s weird,
because I feel more like I have a lot of people I work for. At the end of the day, I’m
only going to be effective if they’re all effective. Making them effective and making
them do their jobs better is the most important thing that I can do.
At the end of the day, the most important
asset a company has is really the people.
The people are not machines. They’re
human beings. It’s important that they realize the same of you as a leader.
You’re going to make mistakes every
once in awhile, because you’re also a
human being. Getting that personal element and getting that interaction and having a relationship with people is critical.
Otherwise they will just see you as some
sort of inanimate object that is sitting there
in a corner office and making all of these
cold-hearted decisions, and that couldn’t
be further from the truth.
Trust your instinct. Common sense is important, and we have learned that a number of
times. We have hired a lot of the ‘experts’
out there, and those experts are experts at
one thing — and a lot of times, it’s being
consultants and billing you. They are great
at billing you.
At the end of the day, if something does
not make sense, if something does not add
up to you and an expert is telling you, ‘You
just don’t understand’ — you have to question that. There have been times where we
have just blindly followed, and most of the
times that I have blindly followed something, especially when I don’t understand
why I’m following it, I end up getting
burned. It’s always good to question the experts and question what is going on.
Don’t stop at thinking out of the box. The old
saying is ‘thinking out of the box,’ which is
another way of saying being creative.
If it wasn’t for creativity, we’d be selling
commodities. Selling commodities is
trench warfare. We much prefer the
blitzkrieg. We avoid trench warfare any
way we can, and we always like an unfair
advantage.
Thinking around the box means you’re
not the only one thinking out of the box. A
lot of times, your competitors are trying to
think out of the box, as well. Thinking
around the box means thinking in terms of
not only what you can do but also what
your competitors are doing. It’s basically a
situational analysis of what you’re doing
and what the next steps are. What’s around
the corner? What’s around the next corner
after that?
Nothing ever seems to happen the way
you think it will. If you’re in a competitive
business like we are, it’s like a game of
chess. You’re going to make one move and,
trust me, your competitors are going to
make another, and they’re not going to do
exactly what you think.
It sounds like it’s paralysis by analysis,
but it’s not that at all. It’s just a way of thinking to make sure you don’t fall down a slippery slope where either you became the
victim of your own strategy or you became
the willing victim of your competitor’s
strategy, and neither is good.
Don’t count on getting lucky. You need to know
where you’re going in order to get there. If
you don’t know where you’re going and
you just head off in a direction, you might
get lucky. But good business leaders don’t
grow their businesses by getting lucky.
There’s a component of luck in everything, and there is some truth in the old saying, ‘I’d rather be lucky than good,’ but you
really need to know where you’re going.
The only way you’re going to really know
where you’re going is to have a goal in
mind. I’m very goal-oriented, and I love to
know where the goal is and push to the finish.
You have to be driven to succeed if you
hope to be successful. There are a lot of
businesses you really don’t have to be creative in, and it’s really a matter of execution. There are a lot of businesses that
aren’t so people-oriented, so the humanistic side of business is not all that important.
There are a lot of different types of businesses, but the one thing you find in every
single successful leader is the desire to succeed in any way that’s possible. Sometimes
you climb over the fence and sometimes
you crawl under it, but at the end of the
day, as long as you get on the other side and
you haven’t breached anybody’s ethics or
done anything wrong, that’s all that counts.
HOW TO REACH: Discus Dental Inc., (310) 845-8600 or
www.discusdental.com