The panel featured three smart leaders of prominent PROFIT 100 companies: Tony Lacavera, Globalive Communications; Rebecca MacDonald, Energy Savings Income Fund; John Nemanic, former CEO of Tucows/InternetDirect, now with GeeksforLess.com and TransGaming Technologies.
Q: What did you do that made your companies successful?
Nemanic: “I hired people smarter than me, because if they're not smarter than me, we`re not going to get to the level we need.”
MacDonald: created a flat management structure where you are never more than two phone calls away from a decision.
How do you deal with employees who can't grow with your company?
Lacavera: has had to fire friends five or six times. It’s hard to do, but it usually works out for the best for everyone.
Nemanic: “My experience is that the employees that give you the biggest headaches are not the ones you fire, but the ones you should have fired.”
Update 2
What other activities are getting your attention now?
Nemanic: Learning to surf (he has a house on the water in Panama); developing a closer relationship with his sons; working on alternative biotech projects.
MacDonald: Expanding into the States: “Try doing business in Texas when you're a woman with an accent.” She has a five-year goal for Energy Savings to become the dominant player in North America.
Lacavera: Buying up bandwidth to create a national wireless platform that will reduce telecom costs.
Go Yak!
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