Failed President Hires

A story about how Randy Hetrick made mistakes when hiring presidents for his company based on private equity advice.

"I made mistakes hiring presidents, particularly when listening to my private equity partners who had their business school 101 playbook. They wanted to execute what they learned in business school, which was to hire a 'best practice' president.

The problem is, what is 'best practice'? Generally, they'll say it's someone from the upper mid-levels of a great big successful company that we've all heard of. What I've learned - and it took me two go-rounds to learn this - is that this is almost a disqualifier to be a good president of a small company.

These institutional capital investors haven't run businesses themselves, so they want to execute what they learned in business school. Big company leaders have large staffs, a lot of certainty in direction, and single-digit management objectives. It's a very long, patient, bureaucratic decision-making process. It's like trying to get a cat to bark - just because somebody operated at scale at a successful brand doesn't mean they can run a small company. They're playing a different game.

It's like Michael Jordan - arguably the best basketball player in history - when he went to major league baseball, he hit with a thud. Why? He's a great athlete, but he was playing a different sport. What works on the basketball court doesn't work when you're on the mound of a baseball diamond."