On Getting Grounded In A New Management Role

On June 1, I started a new endeavor as COO of 21Publish, a leading cooperative publishing and hosted multi-user blogging service. Being clear so as to not divulge any confidential information, I thought it would be useful to share some general thoughts on getting grounded in any general management role.

Early on stuff:

• The first few days are like drinking from the firehose – Learning more about the subtleties of operations overwhelms one in the first few days. In general management roles, one covers lots of ground including sales, systems, pricing, unknowns, competitors, psuedo-competitors, different uses of terminology, what’s working, what’s not, conversion rates, buzz in the blogosphere, PR outlets, international resources, etc. After the deep dive, step back and figure out the high leverage points.
• Figure out how to position oneself in the company – People’s roles shift about when new people get introduced. Have to be diligent to make sure that tacit knowledge gathered by people in the organization is harnessed.
• Get talking to customers, prospects, and employees – Figure out how the product really gets sold and the decision-making process people use to buy. See what roadblocks and concerns people have. As an example at 21Publish, perhaps people aren’t getting a clear understanding of how to integrate existing individual blogs into a community. Or perhaps people have a hard time understanding how the 21Publish system enforces greater aspects of community interaction (say with non-profit memberships, university alumni groups, classrooms, or church communities) as compared to blogging platforms targeted at individuals (like TypePad). Or maybe people don’t understand the concept of a hosted service/no software/no hassle model. In any case, get way down in the trenches to see what is happening in customer service, lead generation, etc. Figure out how to resolve these issues for marketing and sales operations.
• You should have no delusions about the company having a right to fire you if you do not perform – Perhaps I’m a little harder on myself than most people, but having been a traditional management consultant, I’ve always believed that if I do not perform as a manager within a firm, the company has every right to put me out on the street. In the case of 21Publish, I have sales, marketing, and operating goals. For me to meet these expectations, I need to deliver and add value to customers prospects first (which may in turn, "turn strangers into friends and then strangers into customers", in the wise words of Seth Godin). The company one works for needs to get indicators from customers and the market that one is doing a good job. Otherwise, why are you a senior manager there?
• Eat your own dogfood – A classic example is development of one of the operating systems at one of the Big Corporations. The development team had to develop the new operating system using applications on the prior version of the operating system. This structural arrangement clearly got bugs out of the system faster and put company employees in the shoes of the customer. In the case of 21Publish, I need to become a user of the product in blog community settings. As such, I will be starting some new blogs to give me an appreciation for 21Publish’s unique offering at different levels. 21Publish has sometimes been referred to as "the TypePad of group blogging and multi-user blogging services (i.e., turnkey blogging communities)". Although I’m stumbling over the words a bit still, I’ve got to learn how customers (like Amnesty International, 20six, Mercury, Whittier Elementary School ) and customer prospects define the product in their own minds. This will help me to refine what 21Publish means to me, and this will in turn help 21Publish to better adapt it’s message.

In closing, general managers need to create tension to perform and to get grounded in reality very quickly. I always ask myself, where can I add value and make my mark?

Steve Shu

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