Four years ago, when Dick Taton founded IntelliNet Corp. as one of the region’s first integrated network monitoring and maintenance service companies, he thought he had all the pieces in place for success — strong technology, strategic partners and the right work force.
But Taton found the early going rough. After inking clients, he and his executive team encountered difficulty executing jobs that should have been no-brainers.
“Our main mistake was getting the right people,” explains Edward Taton, vice president of business development. “We thought that if we hired people who came from big company and big vendor backgrounds that they would embrace this entrepreneurial idea and take to our grassroots mentality.”
That didn’t happen. As a result, the Tatons spent much of late 1996 and early 1997 retooling the management staff. And, they convinced clients such as Medical Mutual of Ohio and Parker-Hannifin to remain patient and stick with the company.
Today, the moves at IntelliNet — which provides network-performance analysis, continuous monitoring and professional staffing services to Northeast Ohio companies as an MSP (management services provider) — have paid off. Not only has it managed to retain its early client base, but the company has also added heavy hitters such as Penske Logistics, MetroHealth Hospital Systems, Marconi Medical Systems, OfficeMax and KeyBank to its portfolio.
Here’s how the father-son team has done it.
Assess your people
One business truism is that people are the difference between failure and success.
“People can learn techniques and new skills and technology, but they can’t learn attitude and work ethic,” says Dick, the elder Taton. “If you don’t have people with a great attitude and a strong work ethic, it doesn’t matter how smart they are. They won’t help you succeed.”
IntelliNet’s early employees had strong technology backgrounds, but were used to working in large corporations where a lightning-fast response time and the ability to shift directions to satisfy the needs of customers weren’t part of the corporate culture.
“We observed them and found they had difficulty adjusting to a start-up,” Ed says. “In order to succeed as a new company, people have to be able to embrace what’s happening. That simply wasn’t the case.”
But IntelliNet had two key elements on its side — technology that was in demand and strategic partners who provided not only support, but also expertise. With partners like Cisco Systems, Netscout Systems, SilverBack Technologies and Visio Corp. on board, Dick Taton realized what was needed was simply a change in personnel.
“We went to our customers and said, ‘We know we’re not delivering this product the way we — and you –want us to deliver it, but bear with us,'” Ed says. “We told them we were making adjustments in the delivery methods, and that involved people and the process. The technology was getting better — it was already great — and we came to them with backing from our partners.
“We ended up making a few concessions, but the customers stuck with us.”
Don’t be afraid to shake things up
Once the Tatons pinpointed where change was needed, they took action.
“We tried moving them (employees) around and giving them different roles within the company, but the bottom line was we had to let them go and find a lot of new people,” Ed explains. “It was a tough decision. But we knew that in the young stages of our company, we would have had a hard time growing.”
Dick came in and cleaned house. Then, he hit his Rolodex to find people he thought would fit better into the company’s culture. That included hiring executive vice president Brian Stengel, who had worked in high level IT positions with American Greetings and OfficeMax.
The difference, says Dick, is more than simply aesthetic. It has begun to show on the company’s client list — and in its coffers.
“Sometimes, you don’t realize you’ve taken a wrong turn in the road,” Dick says. “But you’re not judged on that. You’re judged on how quickly you can react, and more importantly, recover.” How to reach: IntelliNet, (216) 289-4100
Dustin Klein ([email protected]) is editor of SBN.
