When Peter Anderson co-founded
Bayshore Technologies Inc. in
1997, he wanted to create a company that he would be proud to work for.
To do that, he drew on his background as
a professional soccer player and coach and
began with the principles of teamwork.
Anderson, president and CEO of
Bayshore, discovered that the work ethic
that helped him succeed on the field did
the same for him in the business world, and
by implementing a team-based culture that
values hard work, he was able to
build a $22 million IT powerhouse.
Smart Business spoke with
Anderson about what he looks for
in employees.
Q: How do you get buy-in from team
members?
It’s the team concept. We don’t
want anybody to be just a number.
Employees want to work for a
company like us, where they are
treated like an individual.
The best soccer teams I ever
played on, there were no super-stars. We’re a team, we’re all
important. We don’t have any dark
clouds here because it’s like cigar
smoke — it permeates. It brings
everybody down. You come to
work in a good frame of mind.
We’re very much into being
upbeat.
Q: How do you develop a vision?
We do our best work in crisis.
You never know when a crisis is
going to happen, so we’re very
much in tactical mode most of the time. So
for my job, being strategic is kind of a
switch on and a switch off. It’s difficult to
do that, but you have to work on the business rather than in it.
Overall, it’s all about long-term superior
service. That’s my vision for the company:
to create long-term superior service
against my competitors, to out-service and
be known for that.
That strategy has worked for us. We have
more engineers than we do salespeople.
So, in times of crisis, we do well. We don’t
just sell the product and then [you] can’t find us — we support it, too. We’re able to
turn negative situations into positive ones,
and customers remember those. That’s
why we have such a loyal customer base.
Q: How do you switch between strategic
and tactical management?
When you work in small business, the
great thing is that so many things are happening. But the bad thing is so many things
are happening.
I always find that the list of things I
write down at the beginning of the day
that need to be done, by the end of the
day, it might be a completely different
set of things that I’ve actually done.
There are certain things that come up
in your day that you need to take care of
— things like preparing for this interview. You just make sure you do it right.
Take things seriously, and do a good job.
For the most part, everybody I see, it’s
all about growth and hiring people. Most
businesses last a year. They can get it off the ground, but then, how do you grow
it?
How do you keep that same philosophy, then grow to 40 people, then 80,
then 200, then 400?
We do business with some of the
largest companies in the world. I’m fascinated by how they hire, by finding out
how they grow that fast while keeping
the same culture. We look after people’s
networks, so every company has a network. I’m lucky that, with my customers,
I get to learn their business models.
It’s been fascinating to meet people and help them in their business. They’ve certainly helped me
in mine, too.
I network a lot. You’re always
learning to be a better CEO. These
pitfalls come at you pretty fast.
Q: How do you find good employees?
I’m pretty simple. As soon as
you’re labeled a keeper, it’s almost
whatever you want. People are
proving themselves all the time.
They like this culture. There’s a
certain person who gives more than
takes. For them, Bayshore is a perfect fit. If you’re a taker, you’re not a
good fit.
There are people who are going to
find the easiest way to do a job, half-heartedly. We hired a young lad for
our help desk, and straightaway, you
meet him for the first time, you know
he’s a keeper. Now, he’s going
through, the next thing he’ll go into
our technical group, and in five years,
he’ll be a lead engineer. You need to
allow people to progress through
your company.
As you get into building companies,
you talk about givers and takers. We’ve
got tremendous givers who go the extra
mile, who do things that are fantastic for
the company.
We work pretty hard here. I want to
work with people I like and admire.
That’s the group of people I want to
work with — people I like and admire.
HOW TO REACH: Bayshore Technologies Inc., (813) 889-8324
or www.btfl.com