What Does it Take to Lead an E-Commerce Venture? (page 2 of 2)

"Your team members must come with a set of skills and deliver," says Berry. "You need people with lots of experience who know how things are done, and go out and do them." A corollary, he adds, is that team members must have confidence bordering on arrogance. In addition, they must have enormous amounts of energy and stamina—because the environment often requires 18-hour days and weekends that blur into the work week.

Leaders of e-commerce ventures must strive to create a specific type of work culture, Berry notes. This culture is high-energy and result-oriented. It doesn't allow time for studies or leisurely thought-processes. It fosters decision-making based on incomplete information. "We have an aggressive culture," Berry says. "We always ask ourselves, 'So what?' And we have a culture that is highly solution-oriented. If you have a problem, you've got to come up with at least three solutions."

While the work culture must emphasize hard work, it must also be fun. "People love to win," he adds. Among other things, the work culture must be athletic and competitive. It must be driven by people who hate to lose, who will fight every battle to the end, and who will be prepared to die for the cause." They must also be driven by a sense of urgency. "There's a time window within which we can do something, and it is closing," says Berry.

Another crucial capability of Internet leaders, Berry notes, is that they must be constantly upbeat and uplifting. "It is like being on stage all day long," he says. "Your work has to be a constant euphoric event." ICGCommerce uses a method to sustain the euphoria. Everybody in the company regularly gets an e-mail about "Five Great Things that Happened Today."

Other panelists agreed with Berry. Fannie Mae's Kelvie points out that leaders of e-commerce ventures must be visionary—in addition to being as tenacious as shelty dogs. He adds that a vital aspect of leadership in e-commerce ventures involves the ability to attract and retain talented staff. "I used to draw upon talent in other companies, and now I'm getting raided," he says. "I live every day with the war for talent."

Joseph and Larson, who have been working with Useem on a website about leadership in the Internet age, based their presentations on interview with leaders of e-commerce companies as well as those in traditional companies. Quoting David Perry, founder of Chemdex, a B2B site for the life sciences industry, Joseph says that leadership often entails developing a virtuous circle of "raising money, so you can hire good people, so you can make and sell good products, so you can raise more money." He adds that other leaders of e-commerce ventures emphasized the importance of nurturing a strong culture, which begins with hiring the right kind of people—who are enthusiastic, passionate, and share the organization's values.

Larson points out that the speed at which the Internet world moves has often made it difficult for traditional companies to compete effectively with dot-com companies. The reason is that leaders of dot-coms often do things "that are probably correct—or correct directionally—but may also turn out to be wrong." This requires a mindset in which the organization views failure as the tuition for success. Traditional bricks-and-mortar companies, however, are not built to tolerate failure. "You need leaders who are willing to be taught as they lead," she says.


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