Q. How do you hold
people accountable for
that vision once they
understand it?
The way I did it was through
e-mail. So I’ll track e-mails as
far as deadlines.
The other thing we have is
we have conference calls with
action items: We need a new
contract for this professional
medical corp. Were they done?
If not, why not? Where are
they? People know they’re
going to be accountable, just
like they do in school.
Q. How does that benefit
your staff when you follow up?
It increases their comprehension. My whole goal is continue to push the level of comprehension until they can take
it on their own. Once they get
it, then they implement it, and
it becomes part of their operational maintenance, and I’m
off onto something else.
Q. Once you’ve successfully
communicated the vision,
where do you begin to look for
new opportunities for growth?
You’re not always right. I try
to keep at least 10 things
going. Some of them are not
profitable at all, and some of
them end up being profitable.
It’s similar to a venture capitalist who’s looking to invest in
10 biotech companies knowing that only two of them are
going to be successful. I look
for which opportunity is
throwing out the highest profit
structure, and that’s the one
I’m going to focus on.
You just accept risk as part
of the game. You can’t mitigate
it. There’s going to be losses,
which is again why you want
to be in a high-profit opportunity. If you’re a 1 to 2 percent
wholesaler, you can’t afford
risk. But if you’re making
200 to 300 percent profit, you
can afford risk.
That’s my goal. I try to go
into businesses that have high
profit, so you’re allowed to
make mistakes.
Q. What advice do you have
for other leaders who are
seeking opportunities to spur
rapid growth?
Don’t give up. They’ll fall,
they’ll falter, they’ll be plain
wrong. Everything that can
go wrong will go wrong. In
fact, that’s what I tell my
CFO: ‘If we’re not operating
at the brink of disaster, we
are not pushing hard enough.’
They have to accept that that
is the way the business
works.
This is what happens in a
growth-oriented company.
It’s very, very difficult.
Absolutely do not give up,
and when you stop growing
is when things will settle
down. <<
HOW TO REACH: HNP Pharmaceuticals, (800) 272-4767 or www.hnppharmaceuticals.com