Song of Myself

• Company president crowns employees as kings of the new economy

• HarmonyCom builds corporate ethos by offering perks

• Generational values profoundly affect team dynamism

Curtis Begley is a 23-year veteran of the telecom industry. As president of HarmonyCom, a Michigan-based developer and marketer of broadband service management software, he’s responsible for driving the company’s business and marketing direction and establishing operations in the United States. He spoke with Telecom Business recently about what strategies he uses to keep his employees singing in tune with each other at HarmonyCom.

TCB:During the span of your career in the telecom industry, you’ve witnessed many changes, to say the least. What would you say that the evolution has been in terms of how companies operate, are organized and are managed?
Begley: Ooh, the employee is king. [Laughs] I don’t say it that way. The employee has a lot more clout these days — especially the technology employee — so I think that the technology company of 2000 and beyond — and certainly the late ‘90s — has had to change practices, workplace processes and policies to really be geared more toward making the individual comfortable. That includes flexible hours, free time and doing more things than you’ve ever done in the past. We’ve done some great things for our employees. We have regular events. We can take virtually the whole company off on a day’s event; we’re small enough. We recently just got back from a company trip where we took everyone and their families on a three-day cruise to the Caribbean.

TCB: Get out! That’s very nice!
Begley: We put a lot of money into the employee and trying to make the work experience better. And we think it makes them happier and it makes them more committed.

TCB: And more productive when they’re happier.
Begley: Yeah, exactly. I don’t want to say, ‘We do this just to get more out of our employees.’ I think that you need to do it to keep pace. I think that the companies that aren’t doing this are losing employees because the guys that are grabbing the best people, they’re doing it. And the people out in Silicon Valley are setting the pace.

TCB: How do you set the pace at HarmonyCom? What does leadership mean to you, both professionally and personally?
Begley: I think that it means setting a standard for people to follow, communicating a vision for people to share and articulating that vision and living that vision as often as you can. I think it also means communicating with your people as much as you can, regardless of whatever level they’re at in the organization. The whole community feels comfortable enough to walk in and chat with me.

TCB: So that’s your corporate culture: openness.
Begley: Yeah, it certainly is one that we’re trying to build. Our culture is still being defined: We have 55 people and we’ve hired 35 new people this year. So what we try and do right at the get-go is to encourage our executive team to spend time with all new hires; we do it in groups. Then I spend time within the first two to four weeks of when they’re here and articulate my vision and what I think the future of the company is and let them get to know me a little bit. We do that with all our executive team. I think that’s part of leadership: Leaders are here for you to follow, but we’re just one of the people as well. We’re human and we’re going to make mistakes and we’re going to admit them. One of the other key things about being a leader is being up-front and open that there’s going to be change and that we are going to make mistakes. It’s a strength to learn from them and admit them because of the 100 decisions that I make every day, I can guarantee you that not all 100 of them are good. The best thing to do is to figure it out as quickly as you can and go the other direction.

TCB: Do you have any thoughts on the blending of cultures and generations at telecom companies? Or in other words, do you think high-tech companies in the new economy are struggling to blend veterans with, let’s say, Gen X bosses?
Begley: I think that it’s an issue, but it’s really always been an issue — we’ve just got new terms for it now. I think that we have to be cognizant of what different generations like as a rule. For example, the next one — Generation Y (1979 to 1994) — well, I have two kids that are Generation Y. And these two fellas are growing up with the Internet as being their primary means of communication. It’s an incredible difference from what we’re dealing with right now: the Generation Xers who figure that if you work somewhere for six months, that’s good enough and you can go somewhere else. And, you know what? We’re not punishing them for that anymore because we need people. We have to, if we’re going to be good managers, continue focusing on fundamentals like that — and it’s not generational: It’s age, it’s culture.

TCB: The fundamentals of em- ployee retention?
Begley: No, just the fundamentals that people and generations are different. This isn’t a case of ‘one size fits all’: You really need to be careful with your approaches; you need to be cognizant of change and the requirements for change and how you handle people and what your business policies are and human resources policies and you have to work real hard at it. And you better have all of your managers cognizant of the needs of different generations, or else you’re losing people for reasons you don’t even know or understand.

TCB: Is there anything during your career that you wish you had done differently?
Begley: No, I don’t think so. If my career was over today, I would say that I think it’s been a pretty successful one in terms of how I measure it. To this day I don’t have a major, earth-shattering monetary success, as the way the industry looks at it these days. That’s certainly one measurement of success. I’d like to think that most of the people I’ve worked with over the years feel a little bit better off than worse off for having known me and worked for me, and that’s certainly one of my goals — that maybe I’ve improved their lives and their careers a little bit. I don’t think that I would do anything incredibly different than what I’ve done. I think that fate has worked out fairly well for me.