A Reputation of Success
Interviewed by Olivia Wolak

Interview with James Jones		 Date Interview: 09/17/2009
Date of Credentialing:
Credential expiration:
 

You are a partner and co-founder of the Executive Partners Group.

What charged us to start our company back in 2005 was that my associates and I could see that the IPO marketplace was drying up. We decided that the M&A marketplace, which wasn’t even a marketplace, but kind of a side issue that companies did once in awhile was going to be a big player over the next number of years and in fact that’s exactly what has been happening.

What type of assignments have you taken on?

I just finished one in Houston, Texas where I was working with a New York seismic oil and gas company. I stepped in to run and head up their research and development engineering and coached the CEO. I did that for about eighteen months on an interim basis, and replaced myself twice. They kept both guys and I ended up helping them take it up to over $1billion market cap.

That is a pretty serious number.

I’ve got a long history of successes and driving some of this stuff. I built a reputation of successes and people can see that I can make things happen, get the job done.

What gets you excited about your work?

Getting a company stabilized, growing rapidly, getting a good team in place, and seeing it really take off. I like to get into the meat of things and fix it. If it’s just a repetitive situation then I would just as soon delegate that, or give that to someone else and let them take it from there. I just would not stay in the same position for years and years and years.

Give me an example of your best work.

I had an assignment in the disk drive business with a big California based company. They acquired a small operation from Digital Equipment Company in Colorado Springs. There were about 40 people in the operation, but their expertise was not in manufacturing and logistics, it was in engineering and sales. I took the company from practically nothing to $1.25 billion in 9 months. In that time I grew it to 650 people internally and around 1,500 people in outsource mode.

 

 

James Jones has extensive C-level experience as COO and president of multi-divisional, international manufacturing companies in a number of disciplines. Jones has significant Supply Chain, Outsourcing and NPI (New Product Introduction) experience with start-up to Fortune 500 companies.

That is the essence of fulfilling, creative work.

I took it through installation of cellular manufacturing practices and ISO certification. And by the way, I met my wife, who had just moved a division of UNICES from the east coast to Colorado. I met her and brought her back to California with me.

Really! A success in your personal life and in helping a company hit it big time, all in one assignment.

Yea, my wife is my soulmate.

Is there a recipe for continued success?

I try to stay really healthy. From a leadership standpoint you have to be able to have a lot of go power in you. Sometimes you will be putting in 12 hours a day, so you have to be able to hang with it and really roll hard. I’m a racquetball player. I usually play 8-10 hours a week so I can run with the young guys all day long.

Give them a run for their money. Other attributes?

I’m sensitive to the situation that I’m stepping into. You have to really do well with the people situation. I really like the interim types of roles and assignments, too. There are a lot of people that are good people, but they don’t relish in the interim role situation.

For the last 16 years you served on the advisory board of the Technology Ventures Corporation. What have you made happen?

The government labs have developed a lot of new technologies that never see the light of day. They are in these laboratories and never come out into commercialization for years and years, if ever. We helped the government start up people who would want to get involved in commercialized products.

How many companies got involved?

We helped develop, over the last 16 years, over 100 companies. We helped train them and showed them how to put their business plans together— the intellectual property, sales/marketing, and engineering. The teams that run the business have grown to over 13,000 employees and they’ve had investments of over $1 billion.

"You really need to have a strong network of people that know you or know of you."

What are you great at?

Pulling the team together and getting the kind of results that people like to see. Whether in a turnaround situation or just making things happen, if you have a dysfunctional team you have to look at how to restructure. How do you get people working together so that they are pulling in the same direction? Sometimes you have to change players, but a lot of times it’s a development issue in your team, so mentoring and coaching is a big part.

Where do you see interim management going?

It’s really challenging in today’s environment with the economy the way it is. It is quite clear that there are a lot of companies that are not sure exactly what is happening, what the direction is in their company, and they are reluctant to hire people right now. That is one of the reasons why there is a high unemployment rate. But what a lot of them are doing is going for interim or temporary roles. They don’t want to get fully committed yet because they are not sure what is going on in the economy and interim roles are really growing.

Jim, you are a veteran at this. Any advice for someone just starting out?

If you’re going to be successful you really need to have a strong network of people that know you or know of you so that you can easily step into an assignment. The board and/or others are very picky about who they put into that interim role. It’s not a normal consulting role where you just give advice. You’re an operating person. You hire and fire and do whatever is necessary to fix the situation. You’re making decisions and you need to be able to do that very well and very effectively.