Interesting CEO profiles: Myths vs Realities

Everyone's frothy right now, like a bunch of rabid dogs chasing a bone truck. There's money to be made, gold to be mined, in technology right now. It's a risk-on environment for sure. But classic mistakes are being made in hiring, or at least contemplated, daily.

My advice for CEO recruiting? Don't fixate on "big personality/big resume" CEOs thinking they'll make the difference for you. Focus on what your candidates say they'll do for your company as they get close to it, and that will drive your decision process. Don't get hung up on style or even resume. The best CEOs, in my view, behave like level 5 leaders, are calm and measured, mature, and seldom come into the success stories armed with a big resume and gaudy track record. They come in with a plan or at least an approach that makes sense. Ready to listen, to understand the work, develop relationships with Founders, management and Board. The ones to watch out for are the heroic, "get out of my way and let me at this thing" types, the ready-fire-aim strategy. And if anyone asks "what about Steve Jobs," please stop reading this, refer back to history, and many of the points here will be made for you...

Examples of solid CEOs who were not "big personality/big resume" profiles before their last success (this list is a mixture of current CEOs and a couple of big notables from history):

1. Fusion IO ($2B market cap, 2011 IPO); My firm ran a CEO search there and talked to a bunch of veteran CEOs with big resumes, ultimately recommending that the Board stick with Dave Flynn. He had a great plan and management was behind him. We're glad the Board made the right call. Because sometimes, the right call is a non-call!

2. 3Par ($2B acquisition after IPO); Dave Scott is a solid engineering type guy, not a lot of hype. They plugged away and outlasted competitors stuck to their knitting and never took their eye off the product vision. Solid execution drove value here, even though they burned too much VC money en route.

3. Data Domain (2B acquisition after IPO); Frank Slootman is a competitor. He’s very polished but hard nosed, serious minded and holds peoples’ feet to the fire. Working for him is a labor of love. And I consider Frank a good personal friend, so I say all of this with great respect. He is NO hype, NO handwaving. Hired young, unproven people with just OK track records and made them work like animals, focused them, didn’t let anyone BS him, ever, especially not sales people. Slootman would say “execution, not sales nor even strategy, drove us. The strategy became apparent as we executed.” Frank had a so-so resume before DDUP.

4. NetApp (huge hit, still public, industry leader); Dan Warmenhoven: engaged the Founders successfully, has the scratchy voice of a smoker, has a sort of nervous energy to him, was fired in his previous role but was a steady, no-nonsense hand on the wheel. He was anything but the glamorous hire when Lee Schweichler found him for NTAP...

5. Cisco; John Morgridge. He was frugal, and humble. He had a great eye for talent. He’d been fired from his previous company and was pretty measured stylistically, though driven (people see "measured" and think "low energy." Huge mistake far too often). He hired John Chambers. Another great Lee Schweichler discovery (both Morgridge and Chambers).

6. Microsoft; Bill Gates. Geek. Founder/CEO...Maybe Andreesen Horowitz is onto something here? People should think twice before taking out the Founding CEO in some cases.

7. Mark Zuckerberg. Geek. Founder/CEO...hates being on stage. Didn't even HAVE a resume coming into FB...

Let me illustrate an example of where big personality/big resume loses. A few years ago, I hired a CEO who’s a huge personality, very compelling, extremely articulate. Big, gaudy jobs in a globally recognized company mixed with a couple of interesting startups. He took a 20 person company worth almost nothing to an IPO worth a billion. But it hit the wall and is now worth a fraction of that because this person is a victim of his own success as a salesman and didn’t line up execution with hype. The company will be acquisition bait, ultimately, and declared a success. But it could have gone a lot farther had he dialed back the hype and focused more on quiet, focused execution--managing investor expectations and outperforming them, vs going for huge valuations which wouldn't ultimately hold up. To be sure, this guy has done more with the company than anyone could have dreamed, but it could have done a lot more. Ironically, he'll probably be a much better CEO the next time around!

So in my opinion, the difference between flash in the pan startups and those who really make it big is about walking softly and carrying a big stick. Staying quiet until you are ready to knock someone out and punch big companies in the mouth with a brass knuckles equivalent product and business plan. It isn’t about the resume, nor is it about the big personality of the CEO…And history will easily show this when/if people get around to doing their homework to reach the same conclusion...

Enjoy!