Tech Firms Starving for Skilled Leaders

Forget about high-priced programmers or suave business-development staffers.

What technology companies really need as they enter the new millennium are tried-and-true managers.

So say venture capitalists, consultants and recruiters who watched more than 210 dot-coms go down the tubes in 2000, according to a recent study by Webmergers.com, a San Francisco research outlet for companies in the market to buy competitors or sell themselves.

“There’s no question in my mind” that corporate leaders will grow more important in 2001, said Maryland-based venture capitalist Steve Walker. “Before, there was lots of money. People could be relatively inefficient in what they were doing. They could just raise another round of money and take off.”

Since late last year, prying new dollars out of venture capitalists has been a relatively futile exercise for most technology concerns. Same with the once-favored source of capital, the initial public offering. Many companies have indefinitely postponed their IPOs in the wake of stock-market turmoil.

That means firms will have to rely on penny-pinching managers to do more with less, and to persuade an antsy work force to remain patient and focused in uncertain times.

It’s a job description that too few executives are prepared to fill, said Isa Campbell, East Coast coordinator with the Center for Leadership Excellence. Campbell, who coaches managers on leadership issues, called the gap between supply and demand “an exaggerated problem.”

“Often it’s very young people who haven’t managed before or people who are very technically oriented and haven’t considered or learned how to manage,” Campbell said.

Nearly 1,000 chief executives stepped down in 2000, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a Chicago outplacement firm that tracks executive departures and layoffs.

It’s an issue not only for dot-com start-ups but also for more traditional companies, said Bernadette Kenny, executive vice president with Lee Hecht Harrison, a New Jersey outplacement company.

“It’s important that leaders in high-tech environments have profit-and-loss experience and experience in managing expectations around profit and loss,” Kenny said. “Almost as important, they need leadership and communications skills. These transcend both ‘old- and new-economy’ companies.”

Today’s managers need to listen to their trusted underlings for signs that their businesses are running into trouble, inspire employees without micro-managing their every move and remind key investors and board members of their companies’ focus and larger purpose.

“People are concerned about inexperienced [venture capitalists] on some of these boards not doing their jobs,” Walker said. “Optimizing your investment is not the same as running a company. It can not only be not helpful, it can be a source of annoyance and distraction to the management team.”

Executive job seekers should ask about the composition of the board and others they’ll report to, Walker advised.

Beyond that, managers should question themselves about what kind of environment makes them most comfortable: “a stable, mature market or a volatile, highly charged setting,” Kenny said.

The answers to those questions could lead top managers to environments where they’ll have a greater chance of succeeding.