Most people who read my blog regularly will probably have a pretty good sense of who I am by now. If you are a technical writer or doc manager and this is your first time reading one of my mid-week brain dumps, let me start by saying that over the last 10 years, I have sat in hundreds of meeting rooms, listened to lots of company pitches, watched a lot of companies succeed and even more fail. In all of that time, I learned to trust my instincts and some basic business principles I learned way back in high school. I have also acquired a number of great mentors (and friends) along the way. If you don’t have a mentor or someone you look up to, I recommend finding one ASAP.
Michael Eisenberg (one of my mentors) has published a Hummus Manifesto. Inspired by his take on things, I’ve come up with my own version -- one that I like to call “the banana manifesto.”
Many years ago, the original founder of Tech-Tav (another one of my mentors) remarked that “if a company is selling bananas, they better make sure they protect and nurture those bananas.” If they don’t, the company won’t last very long. Companies who operate according to the banana manifesto usually succeed, and if they don’t, at least they usually go down in style.
We at Tech-Tav are incredibly proud to do our part in making the world a little bit greener through our work at Better Place. Now, this is a place that knows how to treat their bananas! I remember the first time I set foot in their corporate offices tucked away on an unassuming block of buildings in Rosh Ha’ayin (no swanky Tel Aviv address for them!). I was struck by the simple lobby and the unpretentious waiting area built out of really uncomfortable but cool-looking chairs shaped like electric docking stations. The offices were sparse, and the break rooms didn’t have any million dollar coffee machines. Immediately I began to get excited.
I have unspoken rules about new customers. If they are showy, I am pretty much not interested in working there. IMHO, R&D budgets should not be spent on cool offices, they should be spent on making happy employees and producing great products. Shai Agassi, Better Place’s top banana, seemed to be my kind of start-up guy. He has vision, but knows that you have to make the investment money last, spend it on the right things and your people have to be happy.
And happy they were…they were smiling, they were friendly and they were acting like people at happy start-ups act. There was camaraderie in the halls, people interrupting meetings casually and no one gave nasty looks. People were actually sharing ideas, excited to bring on new staff and helpful when training. Admittedly, I did not cross-examine every employee at Better Place, but I consider myself pretty good with vibes. Better Place was indeed a better place and I really wanted to work there. There was spirit, energy, heart, respect and that quest for success that someone who has not experienced the inner workings of an Israeli start-up just cannot understand. Shai Agassi’s dream and vision of Better Place was alive in every room I entered. It was palpable and it was so exciting!
Shai Agassi definitely got my memo about not wasting money on shi-shi offices and expensive coffee machines, but did his management style filter down the line? Was he bringing in great people, identifying business needs correctly, planning well and investing in his bananas? Oh yes! Their fabulous HR manager (who, by the way, should be giving courses to other Israeli hi-tech companies on how to work with recruiters), recognizes the importance of hiring the right people and invests the time needed for interviews, background checks, tests and verification.
During the past two months, I have witnessed their vetting process first-hand through my involvement in recruiting for a documentation manager position. Most companies interview a few people, ask for some writing samples and pick one. But not Better Place. They carefully reviewed each candidate and assessed their qualifications against their requirements: management experience, technical aptitude, production capabilities, localization management know-how, content management system implementation and a host of other skills. And because they recognize the key role of content in their organization they are making sure to get the absolute best fit.
Time for me to make like a banana – and split! But before I do, I just want to share one more thing: in the midst of a tight deadline this week, my manager at Better Place took a few minutes to let me know that I should be happy and have more fun when working on a project. I consider myself pretty fun and lighthearted anyway, so this sort of came as a surprise to me. But when he told me that the deliverable could wait a few hours so I could pick up my kids and have dinner with them (Without my even asking!), I thanked my lucky stars once again for the honor of working with the team at Better Place.
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