Trust is very important to Pat Patel,
and it is one of the keys to his leadership of Intelliswift Software Inc.
Patel puts a lot of trust in the members
of his senior management staff, and he
empowers them with the authority to
make decisions. The founder, president
and CEO of Intelliswift says entrusting his
employees with information and responsibility shows them that the company values their work.
Intelliswift, which specializes in software services and systems integration,
has grown its revenue 367 percent from
2003 to 2006.
Smart Business spoke with Patel
about why hierarchies can be bad for
business and why you have to be prepared for the worst-case scenario.
Q: How involved should a leader be in
the day-to-day operations?
All the people in the company
should be involved in the day-to-day
operations as much as the leader is.
Now, ‘day-to-day operations’ doesn’t
necessarily mean diving down into
the nitty-gritty or micromanaging.
But at the same time, for a fast-growing start-up, the leader needs to be
involved in the operations side.
Now, once you grow the organization, the leader doesn’t really need to
go out and get the business, but
there are a lot of operational issues.
Even though we have senior people
who really do take care of the operations,
most people look up to the leaders.
When I say leaders, it’s not just me; it’s
the leaders I’ve delegated. People look up
to the leaders and expect them to know
what’s going on with the company, what’s
going on with the employees, what’s going
on with the products. At any given point in
time, the leader needs to know what’s
going on in each department. If there are
areas of weaknesses or strengths, leaders
should be aware of highlighting those or
bringing up the weaknesses and helping in
those areas.
Q: How do you manage growth?
That’s an area I’ve always believed you
should be ahead of the game. Instead of doing it as a reactive process, do it as a
proactive process. So, if we see we are
headed for major growth in the next two
quarters, then we end up hiring more people on the operations side first.
Rather than thinking, ‘Let’s first make
the money, then add more people to operations,’ we always think ahead of the
process to keep it running smooth.
At the same time, for a fast-growing
start-up, the financials play a key role.
When you’re growing too fast, your operations have to run at the same speed as
your growth and so do your finances. If
the leader is not able to really envision
the financial growth or put together the
right processes and finances in place,
eventually, the same growth can crumble
the company.
Q: How do you empower your employees?
Take people at a low level and start giving them autonomy. Let them put together
their own teams, run their own projects in
their area. It affects them in a very positive way. People with two or three years of experience do have the maturity, and if
you give them the autonomy, then they are
really excited to run with it.
They are so excited because of the autonomy that it starts reflecting on the people
who work for them. It has helped us retain
the excitement; the commitment flows
automatically, and the trust gets built up.
Q: How do you create an atmosphere of
trust?
Anybody can have access to any
organization without going through
the hierarchies. There’s always the
case where you have to talk to your
manager first, but that doesn’t mean
everything has to be documented
and flow through the hierarchy,
which takes a long time.
We are a very nimble company, a
very fast-growing start-up. If I try to
put hierarchies in place, then things
start taking their own sweet time.
People have access to all levels.
They can tap into different groups in
the company, so it’s more like a flat
structure. They don’t have to set up
appointments or get approvals from
multiple levels.
Access to different groups keeps a
healthy team spirit within the organization. People don’t feel intimidated by
not being able to have access to specific areas.
Q: What are some pitfalls a CEO should
avoid?
Most companies fail because there’s not
a vision during the growth phase. Market
conditions can change; financial conditions change. If things are going good,
that’s not always going to be the case. So,
you have to be prepared for the worst-case scenario. At the same time, you have
to have a vision of where the markets are
headed.
Keep abreast of what’s out there. Always
keep a close eye on your competition. You
can pretty much avoid the pitfalls of a
down market if you plan in advance. Like
IBM says, ‘Planning is half the job done.’
HOW TO REACH: Intelliswift Software Inc., (510) 490-9240 or
www.intelliswift.com