The Hindu Business Line : Wrong man

I am fervent about my work. As a venture capitalist who finds convincing reasons, besides only money, behind an entrepreneur’s dreams, it becomes important for me to know my people. So to respond your question, there were times when I too made mistakes. I will tell you about this particular one.

My partners and I had invested a sum in a later-stage company. We had to hire a CEO. I will say right here that I got carried away by stereotypes. Typical MBA — very good with PowerPoint presentations and, yes, not perceptive to people around!

Within a short time his off-putting effects were evident. The most imperative thing for a new executive in a company is that people should like you. If you ain’t liked, that’s bad news! Now you know why flourishing people get strung-up when moving jobs?

But this new CEO was getting in everybody else’s way. Interfering, indifferent and, above all, with no reverence for his colleagues. In retrospect, I should have known that he was possibly not a right fit, the minute he drove out the company’s president for eight years. But as it turned out, I didn’t.

I asked him, “What’s wrong?”

His reply was short. He didn’t have a clue.

The guy didn’t have any idea what people around him were thinking about him. He was like sheltered in a ‘glass cube’ of his own, happy and content. The company was far too much in trouble to mend. We exited.

But it taught me a few lessons on hiring the right people, even if it’s the Chief Executive Officer.

Things I think people should know:

Measure success wisely;

Live with people with whom you work, to get better insights;

A new appointee has to know how to build the ‘new house’;

Something new is like glass. Critical to not let it be fragile;

Don’t go by stereotypes. They usually mislead; and

Dismissing people is easy. Building is not.

(Ms Venetia Kontogouris, Managing Director, Trident Capital, as told to Kumar Shankar Roy)

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