Inside The Edge
About
The Executive Chair
The one question you always want to ask a successful person in a senior leadership role is “How did you get there?” In developing your own career, you learn more from hearing what worked – and didn’t work – from senior leaders and hearing their wisdom than from any other source.
We are embarking on a series of interviews with leaders who exemplify success for us. In their words are insights that can give you direction for moving your own career forward.
To read a summary, written by Michael DeVenney, of the past 12 interviews this year - click here.
| Mark Joseph - Relationships Shape Your Business |
Bluteau DeVenney and Company (BDCO): What did you do to move to a leadership role?Mark Joseph (MJ) I guess you could say I have always had the entrepreneurial spirit. In past jobs, I always felt that I could do things a different way, a better way. My original plan was to attend law school. The summer before I was supposed to start school I worked with an investigations agency. I liked it so much that I decided to delay going to school for a year. Before I knew it I had decided to delay law school for another year. It was at that point that I realized I liked it so much that I wanted it to be my career. Shortly after that I left that company to open my own investigations company. I then expanded the company to provide my clients with security services as well, and that brought me to where I am today. (BDCO): What is one thing that developing professionals need to do more of?(MJ): They need to educate themselves. I was self taught for the most part. I took some courses and some training along the way, but a lot of it I learned on my own. That was the hard way of doing it though. Education is key. They also need to focus more on how they deal with other business people. A huge part of business, this business especially, is relationship building. What we sell is not a quick, cheap, impulse buy. Our clients are investing hundreds of thousands of dollars when they do business with us. It is not the kind of that you are going to close in one day. You need to build a relationship, and that takes time. (BDCO): What experience helped you the most in your career and why?Failure. The key to success, however, is learning from those failures early on. We have had some failures in our business in the past, but I made sure I learned from them and I was careful not to make the same mistake again. (BDCO): What was the greatest challenge moving your career forward?(MJ): The greatest challenge for me was balancing family and business. My wife is also a part of the business so it was challenging for us to build a business and raise a family at the same time, but we did it, and she is still the person I go to for advice. (BDCO): What is the greatest strength of your approach to leadership?(MJ): I am very hands on. I love being involved in everything. I am still directly involved with the clients, as well as my employees. I meet with all of my department heads regularly so that I know what everyone is doing. That being said, I do believe in giving people the space to do their job. I just like to keep updated on how things are going. (BDCO): What has been the biggest surprise you have had since attaining a senior leadership role?(MJ): I am sometimes surprised by how well I can do. For me, I automatically stepped into a leadership role when I started my own business, and I am surprised by how easily I transitioned into that role. Being a decision maker allows you to take risks, some calculated and some not. I have taken some risks that have failed and some that have paid off. Overall I am pleased with what I have done. (BDCO)What is the greatest benefit to you in attaining a senior leadership role?(MJ): The greatest benefit to me would be the personal satisfaction of seeing our business thriving. (BDCO): What is the next achievement you want in your leadership career?(MJ): We are always focused on moving forward and exploring different growth opportunities. Atlantic Canada is of course our biggest focus. We recently acquired a local security company, and we are in the process of further developing our Newfoundland market. We are also interested in expanding our Ontario market over the next few years. (BDCO): What is the biggest challenge you face in achieving results in your work?(MJ): The biggest challenge for our business is having to deal with all of the government red tape that exists in this industry. It is a highly regulated industry, which is understandable given that you want the people providing these investigation and security services to be very credible. However, with the legislation changing so often, it can sometimes feel like they are making it harder, rather than easier, for us to work together. Also the economy plays a role. What we sell is intangible and during a recession people are often hesitant to spend money, especially on something intangible, so that has been a struggle. We still make money in a recession, we just have to work a lot harder to make that money. (BDCO): What is your greatest opportunity/goal for providing value for your organization?(MJ):Our people are very important to us. We provide a function that is service related, from our security officers to the technicians that install our security equipment. We have to provide our employees with a value added employment experience. If our employees are not happy our business will suffer. We invest a lot in our employees. We offer higher wages than the standard for our industry. We also offer good benefits, as well as perks and incentives as a thank you for all of their hard work. When an employee goes above and beyond to provide exceptional service for one of our clients I make sure that employee is recognized for their effort. (BDCO): What added support or capability would help you most in delivering on your goals?(MJ): Maintaining a strong management team would help me most. We have a very solid management team, but we are not over managed. All of our managers wear a couple of different hats and we all help out wherever we can. They have all been with the company for many years, which is a testament to how we operate. I think our management team is one of my greatest assets. Think about where you are now in your career and what you can take from Mark's observations. We would love to hear your comments about what are your key takeaways from our conversation with Mark. Tell us your progress – we want you to succeed. ______________________________________________________________
Northeastern has been providing quality Investigation and Security Services since 1983. Established as an Investigation agency, Northeastern has grown substantially its inception, moving into Security Services, Technical Services, and ID Systems in the following years. You can find out more about Northeastern Protection Service at www.protectionpartner.ca. |
