Smart Business Magazine, Sept 2012

16 Smart Business Florida September 2012 I feel like my role here is to drive strategy so if were going to stray from the strategy that is a decision I would want to be involved in DiBenedetto says Not all decisions in the company should be pushed down the ranks either When it comes to large financial transactions debt M A or strategy you definitely want your top leaders to take the lead As CEO DiBenedetto still offers his input if there is a major decision that people want feedback on or when its a hire or fire decision where his expertise may help At the customer level however hes rarely involved in decision making When the company opened its first office in Dallas for example DiBenedetto told Managing Director Bobby Priestley that he was charged with making all the decisions concerning Dallas and not just some of them but all of them People closest to the decision make better decisions he says We have consultants in the field and 3500 customers Theyre out there making decisions for a customer They are in the best position to make the decision They understand the customers needs They understand what the firm can do So to have them elevate that through a series of management layers is ridiculous Rarely if ever has DiBenedetto seen a good decision that satisfied a customer but impacted the company negatively Thats because the customer feedback loop can typically tell you whether or not employees are on the right track with their decision making Weve got a nice built in check and balance there where if decisions are good for the customer theyre good for Tribridge DiBenedetto says In my 14 years at Tribridge Ive never felt like Oh my gosh this person is such a rogue decision maker and I have to reel them in Ive never felt that at all zero Say what you need to say When you have a lot of people making decisions every day effective internal communication becomes much more critical If communication breaks down and decision making becomes siloed your company invites conflict within departments and across them We probably have 100000 decisions made a day and the way our business works we have 450 people making those decisions every day DiBenedetto says A lot of times we make decisions but we dont tell somebody either why we made it or even that we made a decision So you might do something for a customer and not tell them or you might do something internally and not tell somebody Being able to communicate the decision is another lesson learned One way to keep everyone apprised of important organizational changes or information while preserving decision making autonomy is to have set meetings to share updates talk strategy and discuss progress on goals At Tribridge the company currently holds a monthly meeting for its national leadership team in Tampa as well as an all company meeting each February where more than 400 employees meet in person at a chosen location In addition it conducts an allemployee phone call once a month Regular meetings are a great opportunity for people to bring topics to the table submit questions and voice any issues or concerns that could require outside attention But a two hour meeting about bottled water Absolutely not DiBenedetto says In the case of the watercooler incident it wasnt the meeting itself that caused inefficiency Rather inefficiency occurred because the people in the meeting didnt need to be there So instead of vilifying meetings which can contribute to productive creative and helpful communication the company does the opposite it encourages them One of the culture points for us is the very open communication process DiBenedetto says Most people here are very comfortable raising topics So anybody can call a meeting Titles are not involved We dont put titles on our business cards Its an open culture where people can call a meeting if they need to However another rule at Tribridge is that if people ever feel like they are in a meeting that they dont need to be in they are completely free to excuse themselves The easy decisions arent the ones that you are worried about Tony DiBenedetto co founder chairman and CEO Tribridge The culture of the company is not just to meet for meetings sake Tony DiBenedetto co founder chairman and CEO Tribridge Cover Story Tribridge