{"id":2528,"date":"2016-03-03T10:00:32","date_gmt":"2016-03-03T18:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/?p=2528"},"modified":"2025-05-06T13:42:14","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T20:42:14","slug":"leaping-off-the-cliff-making-your-business-virtual","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/?p=2528","title":{"rendered":"Leaping off the cliff: Making your business virtual"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dave’s note: \u00a0I am so pleased this week to introduce my co-author of “Get Scrappy,” Kim Shepherd, CEO of Decision Toolbox. \u00a0Her firm is a model of a virtual company, with over 100 employees and absolutely no office other than a post office box. \u00a0Wow! \u00a0You’ll enjoy her style and resonate with her message. \u00a0Here’s Kim…<\/em><\/p>\n

By Kim Shepherd<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

At my CEO roundtables, all too often I listen to leaders who are perfectly positioned to transform their company into a virtual one to great financial gain, but who are afraid to take the first step. These same CEOs sit in their corner offices and email the COO in the next\u2013door office and call their VP of Sales rather than walking down the hall. What they don\u2019t realize is that this is virtual work<\/em>, and the only hurdle that needs to be overcome is ego. Ego prevents leaders from accepting that the company can function without its leaders\u2014especially it\u2019s CEO\u2014as a physical presence.<\/p>\n

In 2000, I joined the company as president, and he and I led the company on a rapid \"Leaping_off_cliff\"<\/a>growth clip. In just over eighteen months, we were on track to double in size. Then along came September 11th. Overnight, just about every company went into a hiring freeze and massive layoffs dominated the news. Not a good time to be in the recruitment business. About 65 percent of our competitors went out of business during this time; it was our industry\u2019s version of the Great Depression.<\/p>\n

[Email readers, continue here…] \u00a0<\/em><\/span>We brainstormed with a consultant and each other.\u00a0 One idea kept rising to the top of our list: abandoning our Class A office space which had been designed and decorated with great love. It was much more than an office.\u00a0 At the time, it seemed like the very heart of our firm \u2013 and to close it down would mean the end of our company\u2014and our dream. Fortunately, our financial consultant was on hand to coldly point out that, actually, staying<\/em> in the office space would mean the end of the company.<\/p>\n

So we moved out.<\/p>\n

The flexible work environment at our virtual company goes beyond work\u2013from\u2013home options.\u00a0 The entire company is virtual and all of its team members work from home offices. Sophisticated, proprietary technology coupled with technologies such as VoIP phones, IM, and social networking tools keep the team linked together, while a progressive, results\u2013focused management style keeps performance and productivity at a \"Get<\/a>high level. The company has team members throughout our home state and now even the world, with three of our members working from as far as 7,500 miles away.<\/p>\n

The glue that holds the company together is technology and our unconventional culture. Our experience hitting rock bottom helped us to open our eyes (and keep them open) to new ideas, no matter how outrageous or impossible they might seem.<\/p>\n

Getting into a suit, commuting hours to work, spending time at the water cooler, \u201cearning\u201d two weeks of vacation time each year, requesting time off to tend to a sick child\u2014technology has antiquated all of these conventional ideas. <\/em><\/p>\n

Your leap into the virtual world doesn\u2019t have to be dramatic; simply start with using it just one day a week, and monitor not only the productivity but the health of your culture.<\/p>\n

(You can find the book at booksellers or by clicking here. <\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dave’s note: \u00a0I am so pleased this week to introduce my co-author of “Get Scrappy,” Kim Shepherd, CEO of Decision Toolbox. \u00a0Her firm is a model of a virtual company, with over 100 employees and absolutely no office other than … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,20,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-growth","category-protecting-the-business","category-surrounding-yourself-with-talent"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2528"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2528\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5776,"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2528\/revisions\/5776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}