Time for Growth!
“Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so." Douglas Adams, author of “Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy”.
If this were a week or two from now I would be crowing about the new faces that were joining Simplex-IT. Some joining because of employment. Others (ok, just one) joining because of that whole birth-miracle thing.
If this was a week or two from now I’d be encouraging folks to apply for our open positions.
But…we’re smack dab in the middle. In one case we’ve hired someone but they haven’t started yet. For the other positions we’ve completed our first round of interviews and are starting this week and next to have second interviews.
By the end of the month, we should be fully-staffed. This means we will have added 3 new positions here at the Dungeon in 2018. Roughly a 25% increase of staffing (depending on how you count part-time folks).There’s been a lot of resume reviewing and interviewing going on.
Woof. Growth is great. I thiiiiiink we’re doing a good job of managing it, but honestly 2018 is the first year where I think the overall planning and management represent what I think Simplex-IT will be.For those keeping track (seriously, get a hobby<g>!), I made the conscious decision back in late 2014 (I think) that we needed to make serious changes to the organization because of the challenges that the future would bring. It wasn’t so much that we needed to make the changes then as it was that we would need to make the changes in the future. Better start early.
And so we did. And I thought by the end of 2015 that we would be pretty much there.
Therein lies my first folly. But that was ok. We were making process, and still maintaining a healthy organization, both fiscally and in terms of customer support. 2016 and 2017 came and went. For the most part I modeled our growth loosely based on “The Rockefeller Habits”.2018 is the first year where most of the pieces are in place. Not completed, by any stretch of the imagination. Honestly, I don’t think that’ll ever happen. And that’s ok by me.
Just like it was ok to give out about 250 copies of my book “A CEO’s Survival Guide to Information Technology” at Wire-Net’s 30th anniversary meeting. We love that group, and treasure the way we play and work together. Whether it be providing them with webinars, co-sponsoring their meetings, it’s a great time for all.
Just a brief thought on that…if you ever ask me to sign a book, don’t make a joke about what book or what I should write. I will take you up on that. Thankfully my handwriting is close to illegible. But still…May brings (finally) true spring in Northeast Ohio, and you know what that means! Yup, the accountants come out to play! I’ll be speaking in Youngstown and Dayton to meetings of the Ohio CPA Society. Yup, it'll be about Cyber Security.
And Kevin (Tech Director) Dutkiewicz and I are heading out to Vegas, baby. Our cyber security partner Sophos has their annual Partner conference in late May.
On a personal note, my wife Julie and I are taking 3 of our grandkids for an adventure down in Hocking Hills. For many years that’s been our Christmas present to them, some kind of adventure. In theory I’ll be doing some zip lining, so if you hear some kind of high-pitched screaming…yup, that’s probably me.
Oh, and I’m glad to say that soccer (outdoor) season is once again upon us. How do I know that? Because I’ve spent the last two Friday nights playing in windy 40-degree freezing rain, with guys who are mostly 10-20 years younger than me.
It’s also how I know I’m an idiot. And I wouldn't have it any other way...