Buy-in by employees seen as crucial to companies: clarity of firms' goals brings better results

San Fernando Valley Business Journal, Oct 29, 2007 by Janet McIntyre

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Vision. Effective leadership. Building a team. Balance. Creating your own definition of success.

Some of the Valley's most successful young executives say those are the components crucial to building a winning organization that thrives on innovation. Seven decision-makers from a diverse group of businesses recently spent more than an hour together, sharing their philosophies. The fast-paced conversations were led by Lief Morin, president and founder of Key Information Systems in Woodland Hills, and Don St. Clair, who is vice president for university marketing at Woodbury University and regularly teaches in the Woodbury's master of organizational leadership degree program.

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Attorney Brian Koegle of the firm Poole & Shaffery believes successful organizations must carefully weigh risks and rewards and think about being progressive versus conservative. "You have to strike a balance to move yourself over the long term."

For Brendan Huffman, who leads the not-for-profit, advocacy organization VICA (Valley Industry and Commerce Association), the foundation of a successful organization starts with buy-in from stakeholders by setting out a clear vision that avoids in-fighting and confusion.

"You need a good strategic plan and it needs to be updated," he says.

Multiple plans

In Tony Safoian's ever-shifting information technology sector, it's important to have several strategic plans to avoid falling behind competitors by missing out on leaps in knowledge or customer demand.

"I think you have to have a Plan A, Plan B, Plan C and execute them all at the same time." the president and CEO of North Hollywood-based SADA Systems explains.

Scott Sachs, a CPA and managing partner at the San Fernando Valley office of Good Swartz Brown & Berns, also advocates setting out a vision that gives employees a compelling reason to accomplish their organization's aims, noting that "passion can be contagious." Sachs adds that clear communication about business goals gives employees ownership and avoids a "paycheck-to-paycheck" mentality where people work only for individual gain.

At Northridge Skateland, whose employees are typically teenagers, finance director Vickie Bourdas says the firm asked staff for their reactions to planned facility renovations both to build team morale and to use their reactions to gauge how their young customers would view the changes.

"The team is what makes the organization," she says.

When it comes to teams, Marnie Nemcoff, vice president of marketing at Matadors Community Credit Union in Chatsworth, looks for people who have different backgrounds and experience in other companies or even other industries. "I think that helps to make a more effective team," she explains.

SADA Systems' Safoian says his company tries to create a workplace where the leaders provide an optimistic, energetic atmosphere in order to attract and motivate employees.

"We hire for attitude and personality more than skills because skills can be taught. Attitude and personality cannot be taught," he says.

At VICA, Huffman knows that most staff will only stay with the organization for a few years before they' re lured to the private sector by higher salaries. He tries to make the office a positive and rewarding environment in which people want to stay, and believes that personal and professional development opportunities are crucial to those efforts. By encouraging staff to get out of the office and attend events and seminars, they gain new insights into their work that produces greater job satisfaction and leads to improved performance.

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Syndicated Insurance Agency president and COO Leslie M. Kaz's final piece of advice to those who are just starting to build a business, organization, or company? Find a mentor, or actually several mentors, who can provide sage advice on what it takes to succeed.

By JANET MCINTYRE

Contributing Reporter