Hands on management: Lifelong learning key to business success

Judi Hand, president and general manager of Direct Alliance, a business process outsourcer, visited the W. P. Carey School of Business recently to speak to an audience of students attending the Executive Luncheon Series. Her message — that success depends on your ability to keep learning and keep questioning — is as true for mid-career practitioners as it is for students.

Direct Alliance, a business process outsourcer, is "hiring like crazy," according to Judi Hand, its president and general manager. Each Monday when she is town, Hand speaks with the latest cohort. Hand tells the fledglings, "My job is to make you employable. Not employed — employable."

Her goal is to develop in her employees the skills, resources and experience they need to be confident: to feel employable. "Because if you're employable, you're not going to be busy keeping your job," she quipped. "You're going to do your job." The problem with employees who expend energy trying to hang onto their jobs is that they often "hide the reality of what's going on in the business," she said.

And it's important to share that information. Hand visited the W. P. Carey School of Business recently to speak to an audience of students attending the Executive Luncheon Series. Her message — that success depends on your ability to keep learning and keep questioning — is as true for mid-career practitioners as it is for students.

A direct approach

Direct Alliance, which employs 650 at its Tempe, Arizona headquarters, creates custom business process outsourcing solutions for clients who sell their products either directly or through channel sales partners. Founded in 1993, the company is a wholly owned subsidiary of TeleTech Holdings, a business service provider based in Englewood, Colorado. Hand, who joined the company in April, has spent more than 20 years in sales, marketing, and customer service for companies such AT&T, US West and Qwest.

Before taking the job at Direct Alliance Corporation in April, she was senior vice president of enterprise sales with AT&T, a division with $6.4 billion in revenue. In her speech, she recalled a young woman in sales at Direct Alliance who came to her to discuss some issues at the company. The sales associate gave a frank assessment of the problems she saw, and suggested possible solutions.

The associate then wondered out loud whether she should have approached the president of the company directly. Hand replied that she wanted the young woman's perspective. Without input, she said, "I don't know what I don't know." "Be a student of whatever you're doing," Hand said. "Always be a student of the industry you are in, of the business you are in."

Small is beautiful

Direct Alliance Corporation provides sales and customer support for firms such as IBM and Best Buy. When in-store associates in Best Buy stores are tied up, the call goes to a Direct Alliance center in Arizona. Direct Alliance associates can see what a given store has in stock and can place an order that a customer subsequently picks up at the local store's dock.

Direct Alliance had sales of $77.4 million in 2005. The company's goal is to triple in size by the end of 2009, but even then Direct Alliance still will be smaller than the division Hand ran at AT&T. But running a smaller company was what Hand preferred. "That's really what I wanted to do … to come to a company and take everything I think I've learned and really mold the company," Hand said.

She wanted to "build the kind of culture and the kind of leadership" that she experienced with her mentors. The style Hand aspires to is servant leadership. "You can pick them out in minutes — [leaders] who believe they work for their people versus you work for them."

Holding yourself accountable

According to Hand, part of the learning process is holding oneself accountable. Outside forces sometimes create obstacles, she observed, but too often managers use these obstacles as an excuse. "Ninety percent of what you do in a given day is dependent on you," Hand said. "Always be your harshest critic." At the same time, managers must balance self criticism with optimism.

"I guarantee pessimism doesn't help you do your job better," she said. A good way to keep your outlook sharp is to "think like your replacement," Hand suggested. How would your approach look to someone who hadn't made the decisions and who didn't need to defend the past? New people often ask important questions such as "Why are you doing what you're doing?"

Choosing the right path

Hand's first job after graduating from the University of Nebraska with a bachelor's degree in business was with Northwestern Bell Telephone Company in 1984, where she worked in market research. It was a great place to start. "Find a job that requires you to ask questions for a living," she said. At one company where she worked, the protocol was to rotate promising managers, so they would have some experience in all phases of the business.

Hand did not relish the idea of being put in charge of billing clerks, however. "To this day, I have never managed billing clerks nor do I ever hope to manage billing clerks," she said. Hand feels that it's important to pursue a line of work for which you a have a passion. Be an expert in one thing, she advised. "I thought I would need to know about a function to truly lead a function." Hand chose to focus on marketing.

After 10 years in business Hand was ready for a fresh perspective, so she returned to business school at Stanford. It was a somewhat humbling experience, she said: "Ten years into my business career I thought I was hot stuff." But that decade spent working helped make graduate business studies more valuable, giving the discussions context, she explained. She advised students to get some miles in a company before diving into an MBA program.

Big companies have a lot to offer in opportunities and experience — including some chances to learn by observing mistakes. "The problem with a large company like an AT&T is that it hides a lot of bad management," Hand said. "And they're all like that. I guarantee it." Sometimes the situation at a company changes, and it's time to move on. Never be held hostage by your situation, she said. That's why it's important to stay employable and always keep questioning.

Bottom Line:

• Businesses need people who are curious, life-long learners and will raise questions about the way things are done. Sharing information is the lifeblood of a business.
• Just as business school is helpful in the real world, Hand believes the context of business experience helps in post-graduate studies.
• The best business leaders see themselves the servants of employees as opposed to autocrats.
• Big firms offer a variety of opportunities but often are bureaucratic and able to hide poor management decisions, Hand said. Smaller companies offer a leader the chance to make a real impact.