Old Article Repost for Newbies
SOURCE: Success Magazine
TITLE: A little old-fashioned service helps one new-media start-up sizzle
DATE: September 1998
The story of Rare Medium is one that any new-media company would wish to emulate. Founded two years ago in the heart of Manhattan's Silicon Alley (that's downtown, for the non-pierced or uninitiated) by five "creative types," the company, under the guidance of CEO and president Glenn Meyers, has grown into a full-service Web- development firm with 150 employees and a revenue of $3.9 million in 1997 and nearly double that projected for 1998. Among its clients are General Mills, Johnson & Johnson, Sharp, Viacom, and Mattel. And, if that isn't impressive enough, in April, ICC Technologies bought Rare medium for $45 million. Meyers, 37, a veteran tech entrepreneur who started his own systems-integration company (American Cable Products) after graduating from the University of Florida, became CEO and president of both companies. He talks about the role that service played in his company's fast growth.
SUCCESS: Have new-media companies been too arrogant? Have they suffered from a sort of "enfant terrible" syndrome?
MEYERS: I think many forgot that, as with any business, service comes first. You can feel you have the best creative solution, but ultimately it's the client's money, and that has to be respected. That in-you-face Gen X attitude went over okay in the beginning because the clients had little choice. But now there are lots of Web firms a company can go to.
SUCCESS: How do you appeal to corporate America but maintain a cutting-edge image?
MEYERS: Service your clients and provide them with a good-value proposition, and you're going to win. It doesn't matter if you have purple hair and a bone through your nose. I don't think people care what you look like. It's the attitude that's important.
SUCCESS: And how do you instill that attitude in your employees?
MEYERS: Give them an owner's mentality. Everyone from the receptionist to senior-level management has stock options in our company. That's the easiest way to make people care about every aspect of the company, especially the service.
SUCCESS: What makes the way you give service different from the way other companies do?
MEYERS: Our mantra around here is "Underpromise and overdeliver." When delivering service, you want to exceed people's expectations. That's how you're going to make them happy. And if you have happy clients, they stay with you, which, in turn, shows other clients that you're good.
SUCCESS: Underpromising must be hard.
MEYERS: It's easier with a new industry where the technology is constantly changing. The key is to be always educating your clients. It takes patience, but you don't invest in the client-service model, you'll never win with Global 2000 and Fortune 1000 companies. And that's where the real money is. --D.C.
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