When Sandra Hand, vice president of Virtual Voice corporation at
the time, took the phone call that would ultimately lead her to
walk away from the voice-messaging company where she'd spent 10
years of her life, her first thought was, "I'm pretty
happy here."
But on the other end of the phone line was Dylan Marer, an
entrepreneur's entrepreneur blessed with a gift of persuasion
that makes Johnny Cochran look like a piker. The 32-year-old Marer
had already launched one successful company, the $4 million Los
Angeles-based Innovative Meetings and Events, and needed Hand to
roll out his latest venture, BodyLogix.com in August 1999.
Marer wanted BodyLogix.com to crash the fledgling women's
alternative health and exercise market with a bang, grabbing market
share and creating a brand name in an industry that didn't have
many. The key was getting people like Hand on board to steer the
company out of port and guide it through the choppy seas of
e-commerce. Good plan. But why would anyone with a modicum of sense
leave a big, established company for a newer, smaller one with a
risky future?
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"I don't buy the notion that we're a small company
or a new company," says Marer, who expects BodyLogix.com to
bring in $38 million this year, "but I understand some people
do. I think you can attract top people to a newer or smaller
business by doing two things: paying them well and appealing to
their sense of adventure. And that's what we did with
Sandra."
For her part, Hand thought things were getting a little stale at
her own job, and she was at a point in her life where she felt like
taking on new challenges--not that she didn't want some
guarantees first. "I'd be lying if I said money isn't
a factor in going to work for a small company, especially a
dot.com," she explains. "But we spend so much time at the
office that you realize you want to be in a place you enjoy and
where the work really challenges you."
Lured by Marer's offer of a healthy chunk of equity in
BodyLogix.com, and by the company's cutting-edge concept, Hand
agreed to climb aboard as Marer's new executive vice president.
"When Dylan first approached me to come work for BodyLogix, I
was intrigued by what the company would be doing and excited about
the idea of slugging it out in the e-commerce market," she
says. "As an executive, you want the money, you want the
challenge and you want the opportunity to get involved with a
company that has great long-term growth potential. When I looked at
BodyLogix that way, it was actually a pretty easy decision to
make."
Hotshot execs moving from stronger and more established
companies to smaller, more nascent ones may not be a new concept,
but it's one that's attracting more attention these days.
Eyebrows were raised all over Wall Street last year when Lou Dobbs,
president of CNN Financial News, left his high-profile job and
moved over to Space.com, a space-travel and astronomy Web site with
a much lower profile. Dobbs told reporters that space travel was
his first love and he wanted to spend the rest of his working life
up to his elbows in it.
Neither Hand nor Dobbs is alone in taking on new risks. Today
more and more corporate heavy hitters are foregoing the
showroom-floor-sized corner office and reserved parking privileges
for the relative uncertainty of 70-hour weeks at shoe-box-sized
offices where they may have to fight for prime parking spots with
the rest of the staffers.
How are small businesses attracting such talent? Good financial
packages--usually with a piece of the company included--big-time
titles like CEO or COO, and a Braveheart-like call to arms
that appeals to the Mel Gibson in most corporate big shots.
"I recently hired one of the highest-ranking executives in
my industry," says Scott H. Korn, the 37-year-old founder,
chairman and CEO of York Paper, an $80 million Eddystone,
Pennsylvania-based paper-products company. "It took a heck of
a lot to get him--enough equity in the company where he's set
for life--but what sold him on us was the idea that he'll have
as much freedom and flexibility as he can handle. As long, that is,
as he produces."
Brian O'Connell is a Framingham, Massachusetts, freelance
business writer who aspires to be a big-shot executive, or at least
be married to one someday. His most recent book, Generation E:
How Young Entrepreneurs are Changing the Corporate Landscape
(Entrepreneur Press), was released in September 1999. He can be
reached at Bwrite111@aol.com
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