Kevin Delaney

The Magic of the Flywheel

In Jim Collins book, 'Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...and Others Don't', he describes the many reasons why some companies make the leap to greatness. Among those many reasons is the concept described as the flywheel transition.

Simply put, Jim Collins postures that the time, energy, diligence, focus and time (did I mention time?) are the essentials required for good companies to become great companies. During an interview, Jim explained:

"As I was talking to Walgreen, I said, "Can you put your finger on the moment when the leap from good to great happened? Is there a key transition point that you can identify? If so, when?"

After thinking about my question for a minute, he said, "Well, I would say that was probably sometime between 1971 and 1980." That is a really profound statement when you think about it. It is like turning  this giant

flywheel. You are pushing on the giant piece of metal to make it go faster and faster over time. If you push really hard early on, you make very little progress. But if you keep pushing in a consistent direction that ultimately ties back to the hedgehog concept, you will eventually build more and more momentum in the flywheel.

Some turns may be big pushes and some may be small pushes. The key is the accumulation of the pushes over time. If I ask you when the flywheel made its transition to break through rotation, you wouldn't be able to tell me because of this cumulative process."

As I look at Decade Software, I am inclined to believe we are near or at the flywheel transition. I've noticed that we create better quality products, establish better relationships, hire better, meet commitments better, and improve quicker. I've also noticed that our culture fosters the climate that makes it possible.

I'm sure some readers will say, "What would you expect the owner of the firm to say about his firm? He better be careful or he might get hurt patting himself on the back." But, the truth is this: the credit belongs to our staff.

Thanks, everyone.

Tis the Season...

When I was young, Christmas was just about the most exciting time of my life. I couldn't sleep, was always looking for my gifts, and loved opening the gifts.

Today, like most parents, I live Christmas through the eyes of my children. Even though one is in college and the other is not far behind, they still look forward to Christmas and getting together with friends and family. And, of course, opening their gifts. But, nowadays, they seem to enjoy giving gifts just as much as receiving gifts.

My wife and kids will say that I'm hard to shop for. Each year they ask me what I want for Christmas and I will either say, "Nothing", or, "A new car". My wife used to buy me pajamas each year (pajamas must be somewhere between nothing and a new car). This struck me as strange since I rarely ever wear pajamas. I once had about eight sets of pajamas that I'd worn maybe once or twice. I figure it will take about ten years before I need to buy more pajamas.

This year our family is behind schedule. We just barely got our Christmas lights up, and tonight we will buy a Christmas tree. Just in time to take it down next week. We have lots of excuses why we are so behind, but none of them are very good.

Still, I think this is going to be a great Christmas. We may be decorating all the way until Christmas morning, but the whole family will be together. Now that I'm old, being with my family is just about the most exciting time of my life.

Hope you have a great Christmas!

Me, a salesman?

After Madera County began using Envision, and we had received a few inquiries, my wife and I decided to advertise. We printed a flyer on cream colored typing paper using our dot matrix printer and sent it to all of the California environmental health departments.

We didn't know what to expect, so we were very surprised when more than 40% responded with a request for more information. We knew then that there was a real need for a comprehensive software package tailored for environmental health departments. As you can tell, though, we were not very accomplished or polished at marketing and sales.

I didn't know or enjoy marketing or sales. Yet I knew it was important and it had to be done. Although I eventually became fairly competent at it, I enjoyed software development, meeting with the clients, and solving problems (I was pretty technically inclined back then) more than creating sales material.

Turns out that being polished or accomplished wasn't as important as I thought. In fact, the few times that I tried to be so worked against me. No, it turns out the old maxim, "Treat your customers right" works.

For example, one day I got a call from Mike Chapman, from the Kern County Environmental Health Department. They had seen my software demonstration and were interested in talking to my clients. Mike wanted to let me know, "I've called every client of yours and not even one had a bad thing to say about you or your company!" Jokingly, he added, "You must be paying them, right?"

Another time Azeb Aberra, from the Seattle-King County Environmental Health  Department called to let me know of her due diligence experience. She had called Lorraine Lew-White of the San Mateo County Environmental Health Department to learn more about us and our products. Lorraine told her that she'd be glad to talk to Azeb, but it would have to be later that afternoon. 

Azeb, sensing that Lorraine needed a private time and place to dish the dirt on Decade, made the call at the appointed time. She was surprised when Lorraine put  the call on speaker phone and introduced several people to her. Each of them answered Azeb's questions and overall gave Decade a very good recommendation.

As I've mentioned before, I've made mistakes. And for a while, our references weren't as positive as they once were. Nowadays, though, I'm getting a kick out of hearing my staff tell others their own stories of happy clients.

That's not to say we are sitting around slapping each other on the back. Just the opposite, in fact. We know we still have our work cut out for us, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't enjoying the great feedback. 

I started with practically nothing...

and I still have most of it left.

That's an old joke that still makes me laugh. But that is how we started Decade. In fact, my desk was an old throw-out I got for nothing. It was from the early sixties, when desks were made of steel, and the desktop was about as big as a ping-pong table (the one in the picture isn't the same model; it is too small). It took three men to carry it.

If ever there was a nuclear war, I felt comfortable knowing I could sit under my desk and be safe.

It had a typewriter tray that is similar to a cutting board in a kitchen. 

My chair was an all wooden thing that a hippie must have once owned. It was painted in five different shades, the seat was a piece of plywood covered with what looked like the material used to make those pants hippies wore during the 60's. I put a pillow on it to keep me comfortable.

After Madera County Environmental Health started using Envision, someone (we still don't know who) wrote an article that appeared in a newsletter for  environmental health specialists.

Soon we started getting calls. Little did I know where it would lead.

It's easy to start a software company

When I started Decade Software Company, it was because my wife was an Environmental Health Specialist at Madera County. Her boss was dissatisfied with the software currently available at that time and wondered aloud where he could turn to automate their office. Since I had just finished a project to automate a business, she suggested to him to give me a try.

It didn't take much to begin working on their system. A few hundred dollars for development software, a personal computer, a desk, and I was in business. My goal was to make a little money to bolster my retirement fund, and possibly learn  something about this burgeoning personal computer platform (yes, 8 inch floppy disks were the norm at that time -- "64k on a single disk!"). 

Much to my surprise, once we finished the package for Madera, several agencies from across the state started calling. Soon I had a tiger by the tail: if I let go, I'd be just another programmer that started something he couldn't finish. If I held on, I'd be pulled all over for one of the wildest rides I could never have imagined.

I held on and I set a new goal: build a business that would last, one that would withstand the vagaries of the economic scene, technology, and government budgets. To do so I had to be cautious, pragmatic, driven, and focused. 

Over the years, the company slowly grew and established a good reputation. During that time I saw many companies enter our market space with a blaze of glory. Much  like a comet, they came on the scene with much excitement and flash. Just like a comet, they burned out quickly.

That's not to say that we were perfect and didn't make mistakes. I wish I could boast of a perfect record in all matters business and otherwise. I was lucky to have clients and staff that were patient, supportive, and, yes, demanding at times.

Today you can read HL's, Darryl's, John's and Maria's blogs about EnvisionConnect, our new clients, our successful implementations and more. Much of our success can be attributed to the several years of effort, learning, and personal growth as a team. But, that success was not easy.

Which is why I say it is easy to start a software company. It's another thing to last more than 20 years and know that the best is yet to come.

Company mascot

Okay, I've been remiss in not keeping my blog up to date. Although this entry doesn't cover anything concerning leadership, trust, transparency and other business-related subjects (HL seems to have it covered), it covers something pretty important to me.

My dog, Loki.

I'm lucky; I get to bring my dog to work (I guess that's a benefit of owning a company). He doesn't visit every day; he can't handle the walk to and from the office because he's a bit arthritic. Therefore, I bring him on the days when my wife isn't working so he won't have to sit outside in the Fresno heat and suffer.

As soon as he gets to the office he makes his rounds, visiting everyone who has ever fed him a snack. Even though I've warned everyone not to feed him, it is to no avail. He has a way of making a person feel obligated to feed and love him.

Thanks to the movies, Rottweiler's have a bad rap. During my walks to and from work, I cross several people's path, and in many cases the reaction is fear (or outright panic). Here at the office, there were a few who originally weren't too keen about a large dog walking freely amongst the cubicles. And, although I usually introduce each new hire to him so they won't be surprised when he suddenly appears at their desk, at least two of the team were quite shocked when one day a big Rottweiler walked into their cubicle and stuck his nose on their lap.

On the other hand, during my walks, I've had several people honk and wave, stop and pet him, tell me about their dog, or simply comment on his good looks.

And, in case you didn't watch The Mask starring Jim Carrey, the name "Loki" is from the Norwegian God of Mischief.

I'm a little jet-lagged, but otherwise okay

It's good to be back, but it was a great time and I'm grateful to have had the opportunity to be away from the office for more than five weeks. I learned a few things on my trip:

• 'Air conditioned' in some countries is just a saying. The same goes for 'ice-cold'
• Lucerne, Switzerland is very romantic
• Italy is expensive
• I missed the staff at Decade
• Sometimes it takes five weeks to reconnect with your kids.
• I want to go back to London -- there's a lot of WWII museums that I never knew existed
• No matter what you tell them, your wife and kids will pack more clothes than they'll ever use
• Steam from a shower can set off a hotel's fire alarm
• I can sleep in just about any position
• The negative stereotypes attributed to nationalities is largely untrue. Everywhere we went we were impressed with the friendliness and helpfulness of the citizenry
• France and Sweden are super clean

When we started the planning for our trip, it was well before Decade had established its 90% goal. So, it was very rewarding to return to the office and discover that our Development team had met their goal. And, that the Client Services team upgraded San Bernardino to EnvisionConnect as well!

Most readers of this blog did not start a software company in their converted garage as I did. Therefore, the events just mentioned may not strike them as they do me. But if you knew our humble beginnings you too would be excited and impressed with how far we've come.

Thank you, Decade, for all that you've done!

Stockholm, Sweden

Well, so far, so good. The family is intact, the people have been great, and I'm enjoying myself.

Hello from Sweden!

Seems like old times...

Back in the good ol' days, I met with the clients every month at the User Group Meetings. The time I spent with them during those days really made a difference in my understanding of their business and Envision's features. We usually had a pretty good time, too – donuts and discussion in the morning, lunch, and then training on the subject matter at hand. I learned as much as I taught, I’m sure of that.

We were pretty comfortable with each other, and pretty direct, too. After repeating the same quip in more than one meeting, I can recall Mark Bergthold telling me, “You say that one at every meeting!” Which was true (but I liked it – and that's what counts, right?).

I didn’t realize it then, but those meetings were more than just a group of people getting together for donuts and training. We had a tight community dedicated to improving each other’s lives. What I mean is we listened to each other’s needs and worked out a design that worked for all. We taught each other a lot, about all kinds of things. In a word, it was neat. But, around three or four years ago, I saw that community dissipating and worried that we’d never get it back.

Now that we have quite a few EnvisionConnect Prototype Review sessions under our belt, as well as EnvisionConnect WebEx-based training, it seems like old times. As an outsider looking in (I don’t run the meetings, as you well know) there seems to be the same sense of a community where people are interested in each other’s lives. That same sense of give and take that I enjoyed when I was attending the User Group Meetings seems to be alive in this group. Better yet, the group is larger and spans several states.

Now, don’t get me wrong – I’m not advocating the abolishment of the User Group Meetings, but I couldn’t help but see the similarities between today's meetings and our User Group Meetings of the good ol' days.

In a word, neat.

Running the glass through the mill one more time…

Several years ago, a consultant we hired described a situation at a glass-manufacturing firm for whom he consulted. They had a policy that required the broken glass from the assembly line be reintroduced to the manufacturing process so that it could be used to make more glass. The process eliminated scrap and the cost of dealing with it.

Staff noticed that the glass that was run through the mill more than once was purer than other glass. This led to an interesting phenomenon; staff became more interested in determining the highest level of purity they could achieve instead of producing marketable glass. In fact, perfectly fine glass was being fed through the mill several times. Of course, this hurt production and the company’s bottom line.

There was a time at Decade when we would routinely ask ourselves, “Are we ‘running it through the mill just one more time?’” in reference to the exorbitant time we were spending on developing a new feature. In other words, we wondered if the amount of time and money was worth the extra value we perceived could be achieved.

We don’t ask ourselves that question nowadays.

When we began our weekly prototyping sessions, we knew we were undertaking a lengthy and expensive approach to our software development. It ultimately led to restructuring the company, and the establishment of many new policies and practices (as well as the removal of several).

As the owner, I worried that this approach was going to hurt us in the marketplace because it is such a time consuming process. And, in some cases, I know that we lost some bids to the competition because we haven’t finished building EnvisionConnect. But, I think a comment recently made by the retired Director of one of our clients was very accurate, “Well, you’ve certainly put to rest the question of whether you listen to your clients!”

Still, it has taken a lot longer than we had imagined, and occasionally I find myself wondering if the clients think we are taking too much time. I wonder, too, whether the clients are getting tired of the process. But then I see the number of attendees at the sessions and I feel it is safe to assume they are not. And, as we had hoped, EnvisionConnect is starting to show well in marketplace.

All in all, it seems like the current approach is working well. I’m interested in hearing other’s thoughts on the matter, though.