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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Monday, July 25, 2005

Leadership Corner: Earl Ford

Interviewed by Alan Yonan Jr.,
Advertiser Staff Writer

EARL FORD
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NAME: EARL FORD


AGE: 35


TITLE: PRESIDENT

Organization: SystemMetrics Corp., an information technology consulting company with eight employees founded in 1996 and located on Fort Street Mall.

Previous position: Reconnaissance officer, 65th Engineer Battalion, Schofield Barracks.


BORN: DETROIT

High School: Fraser High School, Fraser, Mich.

College: University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. B.S. in Aerospace Engineering

First job: Working in my uncle's pathology laboratory

Breakthrough job: Intern for Freudenberg-NOK conducting research and development of vibration control dampers for automobiles.

Little-known fact: My original career intention was to be a pilot. At age 17, I tried to enlist in the Army to fly helicopters.

Mentor: Rich Lee, retired CIO of First Insurance, taught me about maintaining balance and the power of "win-win" in both business and personal relationships.

Hobbies: Automobiles, motorcycles, boats — anything that moves fast.

Books recently read: "Death by Meeting," and "The Five Dysfunctions of a Team," by Patrick Lencioni.

Q: As an information technology company, SystemMetrics faces a lot of competition in a crowded field. How do you make sure the company maintains its competitive edge?

A: We do a lot of research and development. We also analyze not only the technology but also how the businesses are using the technology and how to make the technology more useful to those businesses. We do a lot of prototyping in new technologies that come out. We're more risk takers in that aspect. And we've taken a few risks that really paid off in our technology development. We also emphasize the social side of technology, which a lot of our competitors don't. Our job is to basically make that technology interface with the human side of the operation. That has been more of our competitive edge.

Q: Does this mean that when you hire engineers you look for candidates with strong interpersonal skills?

A: That's a major factor in our hiring criteria right now. In the technical field that becomes more of a problem operationally because computers don't talk back to you. We'll generally take someone that has good interpersonal dynamics in their character, and maybe not know as much, over someone who is really technical, but can't interact as well. Because once they go on site, they're the forefront of our company. Being able to interact with people and pull information out of them and give them what they need, that actually helps in the engineering process. If they can't communicate with the customer then that poses a significant hinderance to the way we develop the technology.

Q: Where do you recruit job candidates?

A: It depends on the expertise. If we're looking for sales people we try to recruit locally — people who are familiar with the market, the personalities of Hawai'i and the dynamics. If it's engineering, then we also try to recruit locally, but that's been very difficult. Most people at that level will either be working for government, or for carriers like Hawaiian Telcom, larger companies, or on the Mainland. For us, it's been harder to bring people in because that's a risky proposition. You never know if they're using that as a jump point to get into the state. Only one of our engineers is from Hawai'i. The rest of the staff was in Hawai'i at the time of hire, transitioning out of other (companies) in Hawai'i, and then we brought them on board.

Q: How would you describe your leadership style?

A: I lead by example. It's very natural in our industry for the management not to really understand, and be kind of disjointed from the team. They're not usually there in the thick of things. I'm probably one of few CEOs, or management at my level in these companies here, that can actually go and do what my technicians do. They know that when I'm telling them what to do, they understand what I'm asking and that I wouldn't be telling them to do something that I wouldn't be prepared to do.

Q: You started SystemMetrics after a military career in which you rose to the rank of captain. Have you found that your military background has helped you in the private sector?

A: There are a lot of parallels with the Army. It taught me how to feel my way around and work with a diverse sampling of people. (Ford was a platoon leader of the 2nd Engineer Battalion in South Korea, and was responsible for a 27-man combat engineer squad.)

Q: How do you motivate your employees?

A: Showing them progress in the company, that's a big thing. They see that the company's not stagnating, which drives us forward. Also, everyone in the company feels like they have role in where the company's going. Making them part of where the company is going is key, I think, in maintaining motivation. Especially when you get a call (from a customer) at midnight when something is wrong — we don't get complaints from our staff over that kind of thing because they know it has to be done. They understand what's expected. They know we're gaining new customers and the fact that we're becoming more recognized in the market. So they look at those indicators, not just the financial aspect. Of course that comes along and they get paid more. What I've found over the years is that the success of the company as a whole has more of an effect on motivation than a single factor like salaries.

Q: It seems there is a lot of demand in the job market for workers with the kinds of skills your employees have. Have you had a problem with other firms trying to hire away your members of your staff?

A: There's quite a bit of competition in the marketplace for these skill sets. Each one of my technical personnel has had offers, but people enjoy working here. For some of the technical people, this is the longest they've been at a job. We're looking for people who will be here for the long haul. I enjoy coming to work every day and dealing with these people. We're constantly challenging our people, pushing them, and helping them grow personally.