Beginning My Greatest Business Adventure
This adventure began with a phone call from a previous mentor Mike. If you recall Mike took a position as the assistant to the President of Diebold, Inc. in Canton, Ohio and I replaced Mike as the chief of staff for Owen at NCR. One day Mike called to ask me if I would consider a change in careers. He knew I was not totally happy with my position. I had been trying to find a position in the sales organization at NCR and every time I found an opportunity Owen gave me a lecture and a big salary increase. Mike caught me at just the right time. My frustration had begun to affect everyone around me and even my family.
I accepted an invitation for my wife and I to spend a weekend in Canton exploring an opportunity with Diebold in Canton, Ohio. Mike organized a day of interviews for me at the company and Mike’s wife spent the day showing Jan Canton, Ohio.
The position I was asked to consider, was the Remote Banking Product Manager. After spending about 30 minutes with Mike at breakfast, I was brought to the main office and introduced to Mike’s boss the President of the company, Raymond. At that time the company was relatively small and Raymond liked to be involved at all levels of the companies important decisions. Ray, as he preferred to be called, was an impressive and very formal figure upon initial introduction. As I got to know him he became very fatherly. In our initial introduction he expressed some of his philosophies of business and the vision he had for Diebold, Inc. He also expressed his description of the position I was being interviewed for. In his mind I would be the CEO of Remote Banking with the responsibility for all decisions and dotted line authority over all departments that would effect the marketing, sales, service, quality and costs related to this product line. At the conclusion of our discussion, he explained that the decision to hire me would rest entirely in the hands of the man I was to spend the rest of the day with. The man I would report to.
I was then introduced to Earl who became the most important mentor in my entire business career. He took great pains to spend the rest of the day showing me around the company from the offices to the labs and manufacturing facilities. I am not sure I even felt like I was being interviewed as much as sold the company and the opportunity that Earl envisioned. That evening Earl, Mike, and their wives took Jan and I to dinner. The next day we had a 4-hour drive back to Dayton to discuss what we might do if the job was offered. I liked the opportunity and Jan liked the community and its size (100,000 plus citizens) to raise our three girls.
The call came Monday the next day, I accepted and in two weeks we had found a new home and I started my new career. I had to commute every Friday and Sunday for about four weeks. That gave me uninterrupted time to earn my new team and as much as possible about my new company.
Lessons learned:
1. Never lose track of your mentors. You never know when you will need them or they will need you.
2. It is always a great benefit to have a partner who is willing to help make major life decisions.
3. Using the term CEO to describe a product manager is both enabling and motivating.
4. A great way to get a job candidate to open up and discuss what is important to them is to sell them your organization and show them around.
5. As you will see later, I learned the value of great customer relations.
