There’s a fine line between being a hands-on leader and being an intrusive micromanager. Tom Mosure, chairman and president
of ms consultants inc., says executives need to understand their industry and develop an information network to monitor their
company’s direction. His 320-employee firm provides engineering, architecture and planning services for the transportation,
environmental, architecture, commercial and construction markets. The firm had $34.3 million in 2006 revenue, and Mosure
expected a flat 2007. The company has offices in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, West Virginia, North Carolina and Florida; its sister
company, ms consultants international, recently opened a United Arab Emirates office. Smart Business spoke with Mosure on
how taking growth slow and steady helps him win the race.
Create an entrepreneurial environment. Everybody needs to be a stakeholder in providing
good services to your clients, and everyone
should be engaged in the quality of what
you’re doing. Everyone should have a vested interest in your growth and your success.
You do that by providing people with information on how you’re doing and how
they’re doing on their specific assignments.
Don’t hide information from people about
sales, project budgets and leads.
The more information people have at
their disposal about their performance and
successes, the better they’ll do. You can’t
do very well in a vacuum.
A lot of people like the ability to have
entrepreneurship as part of the day-to-day
philosophy and attitude of the company.
Make employee education a priority. We believe in continuing education, training
and involvement with trade associations,
national committees and writing papers
— those are all incentive programs for
employees here. We’ve been doing that
for years, and our employees are aware
that we encourage it.
There are not enough young people
coming into technical education areas to
fill the voids, so you have to have a system in place. We just visited 12 universities and their career fairs. We’re trying to
bring in young people, train them in the
ms way and develop the skills through
their careers.
Don’t be afraid to change your business concept. We used to have branch managers who
reported to a regional vice president and
then to myself. About four or five years
ago, we changed that to a sector-based
organization with 20 different technical
service areas.
We’ve become better because we’re
focused on the quality of that individual
sector. We’ve also seen good results in
internal coordination. People are working
together and going to the right people for
the right answers. We’ve developed standards in each of these units that’ll assist in
our efficiency.
Companies focus on improving the business of their clients. The better you understand your clients’ problems and concerns,
the better you can deliver expert knowledge to them. You learn and improve every
day, and you maintain a focus. In the long
run, the name of the game is keeping your
clients happy and satisfied.
Seek information, but stay on track. You have
to keep tabs on the trends of the various
industries, and with that knowledge of the
industry and society in general, you’re able
to predict and be in a place that the world’s
going to go. You can look at a number of
different indicators, but eventually, you’ve
got to make a choice.
You can’t be everything to everybody, so
you’ve got to lock down on that understanding of your business, make those necessary decisions and pick that direction.
You might tinker with it and refine the
exactness of it, but stay focused on what
you’re trying to accomplish.
I often say that I’m a tortoise, not a hare.
I’m in for the long haul, not for the short
gain. You have to look at your business for
the long-term; where will that business be,
and will it be sustainable?
You can do a lot of things, but if there’s no
market for it, then what value is that?
There’s not going to be growth if there’s no
market for it. Sustainability is the key.
Learn from being a mentor. Everybody gets
mentored every day by their life experiences. It’s very important that all managers
keep in mind that they are mentors,
whether they believe it or not. You’re sending a message; the question is, which message are you sending?
There’s a saying: God gave you two ears
and one mouth for a reason; you should listen twice as much as you talk. Knowledge
and good ideas are not something that is
constrained by position. You can pick up
nuggets of good ideas and information
from everyone.
Uncover your employees’ skills. When I was a
young man, I always thought in business
that everybody was trainable in a lot of
different skills. One of the things I’ve
learned is that everybody has a skill that
can fit into the team. The leader has to
identify what those skills are and get the
right people in the right places.
How do you frame an organization that
allows the best skills of the team to come
through? You need to establish your organization to identify those types of issues and
deal with them; it’s not easy. It starts with
hiring but that’s just the beginning. It’s
more in the day-to-day performance.
Establish strong relationships with your managers. As a leader, you establish the framework of the system, and that’s carried forth
through your organization. When you have
50 employees, you can do that personally
but as the company grows, you can’t do
that as an individual.
Part of having a good relationship with your
managers is communicating and engaging
with them. You have to continually communicate what your vision is. That extends not
just to where you want to be in the marketplace but also to your day-to-day internal
operations and philosophies. That vision is
what keeps people happy, wanting to stay
around, wanting to grow and doing good
things. That’s how it all comes together.
HOW TO REACH: ms consultants inc., (614) 898-7100 or
www.msconsultants.com