IQ Interview: Kerry Munro, GM of Yahoo Canada
By Bruce Powell
Less than ten years ago, Yahoo had all but pulled their operations from the Canadian market. Then in 2005 Yahoo renewed their focus on the Canadian market and brought in Kerry Munro as General Manager to rebuild the business and the brand. Since then Kerry has grown the team from 6 to 150 employees and turned Yahoo Canada into the 4th largest and best performing of all Yahoo businesses worldwide - and the largest digital media company in Canada. Last quarter the business grew 80% year over year.
In this month’s IQ Interview we sit down with Kerry to hear how he re-built Yahoo Canada into the team of top performers they have in place today, and his Top 4 Hiring Tips.
Questions:
IQ: Do you have an overriding people strategy?
YC: The approach of Yahoo businesses worldwide has always been to hire the biggest and the brightest minds available. Our approach here in Canada has definitely been the same with the added qualifier of always taking into account how the pieces of the puzzle fit together with respect to people. For us the whole definitely has to be bigger than the sum of the parts.
Fit is hugely important for us because our people have to work together every single day – if the fit is off, then there’s a good chance the performance and productivity will be off as well. We’ve interviewed people who were the best at what they do, but we had to turn them down because they didn’t fit our puzzle from a cultural standpoint.
At Yahoo Canada, we look for people with the defined skills, but who also have what we like to call “runway”. Having runway means a person shows the potential to grow, is a smart problem solver, and is willing and eager to learn – yet can admit they don’t know some things and are willing to learn from others who do. It’s important for people to have that in our industry since opportunities aren’t always clearly defined – we rely on our people to identify trends and create new opportunities for both themselves and the company.
IQ: Can you describe your hiring process in more detail?
YC: Until we got to about 50 people, I used to have a hand in every new hire. Now, I typically only get involved in hires at the People Manager level and above, and rely on the senior leadership team to continue driving our goal of hiring great people.
Step 1: Assess for Skills
Our first round of interviews is typically done with the Hiring Manager and they’re really looking for whether or not the person can quite simply do the job. They’re looking more at skill sets and if those of the candidate match with the job requirements.
Step 2: Assess for Abilities & Delivery
The second round of interviews are usually done by members of the team with which that person would be working. Again, they’re assessing the candidate on how well they could do the job on a day-to-day basis, but also on how that person would ultimately impact our customers and their level of delivery.
Step 3: Assess for 'Fit'
Usually I’ll come in for the third round of interviewing and I’m assessing the candidate at that point for fit. It’s usually less specifics about the job itself and I’m listening more for how they answer certain questions – what their approach and outlook on certain things is like. I also try to not so much ‘sell’, but inform candidates further about Yahoo Canada, what we’re about, what we’ve accomplished, and how we’ve gotten to where we are – to tell our story and help them realize the opportunity they have in front of them.
IQ: How has your hiring changed as you’ve grown?
YC: As I mentioned, because we’re bigger now and there’s just so much more going on, I’m not as involved in the hiring as I was in the beginning.
In terms of how our hiring has changed in general, it’s really a reflection of how the business has evolved over time. In the beginning it was easier because everything was clear. We were re-building so it was a matter of determining the key areas of business we had to focus on to grow, and then going out and finding people who had that specific experience. For instance, we needed to build our Front Page, Finance, and News properties so we went out and found people who had that experience.
The next phase of hiring was probably the most difficult because it was such a grey area for us. There were more opportunities than we could address and it was tough to juggle the competing corporate and Yahoo Canada priorities with limited staff. As a result we had to look for people who were less specialists, and more broad in their skill sets and approach and who could grow beyond a specific skill. It was here that we saw some of our talent grow into larger Greenfield roles that are now big parts of our business.
Now we’re in a more stable phase – it’s not as easy as when we were first starting out, but not as difficult as that high growth phase. We’re able to predict trends and create market opportunities, in large part due to the quality of people we have brought in and the direct influences they have within the business. That makes it much easier to target the next wave of talent into the business.
IQ: How do you attract top talent to Yahoo Canada?
YC: Back when we started re-building it was tough – we had to go out and make more of an effort to not only source people, but also to sell them on the opportunity and what Yahoo Canada was looking to do. Again, we were looking to hire the best of the best and usually those people have a number of options as far as where they can work. We weren’t in the position we were now so it was more about selling the vision I had created and looking for those who wanted in on the ground floor opportunity.
As we gained momentum though, people started to see we were executing on the vision, taking share in the market and creating opportunities for people to own a part of the fastest growing business in Canada and Yahoo. When people started, I told them what they were ultimately responsible for and that they were free to go about achieving it however they felt made sense. That’s incredibly attractive to top performers. As a result we were able to have people join us who previously had been V.P.’s, and S.V.P.’s elsewhere and who understood the opportunity to create their part of Yahoo Canada was something that sometimes only comes around once a career. They could build a business and impact change in an industry.
Now, being the largest digital media company in Canada and having the employer brand that we do, we find people come to us for the most part.
IQ: What future challenges in hiring do you foresee for Yahoo Canada?
YC: Probably the single largest challenge will be maintaining the pace of growth and being able to hire along the same dimensions that got us to this leadership position.
While the internet and media is ever changing a lot of our ‘early stage’ growth is behind us and looking forward we have the ongoing economic challenges, the larger global competitive landscape and how Yahoo corporately is going to address them head on, as well as how Yahoo Canada is going to play – both globally within Yahoo and domestically in Canada.
One thing is for sure. This is a people business and the need for top talent who possess a demonstrated level of success will be in high demand by those who want to be market leaders.
Yahoo Canada’s Top 4 Tips for Hiring and Retaining Top Talent:
- Hire for functional expertise first but look for individuals with a lot of runway to grow beyond their current role.
- Hire smart, grounded individuals who know what they know but aren’t afraid to ask questions – egos get checked at the door.
- Fit is everything – whether that’s from a cultural standpoint or from the perspective of having complementary skills/talent – like fitting a puzzle together.
- Give people the opportunity to run their own business – it will demonstrate those who are ready to advance with the next new opportunity.
-
Bruce Powell, Managing Partner, established IQ PARTNERS as a leading recruitment firm to help entrepreneurial companies hire better, hire less, and retain more.
[Full bio]
|
IQ
Insight is published by IQ
PARTNERS Inc.
IQ
PARTNERS helps intelligent companies hire better,
hire less and retain more. Our services include
Executive Search & Recruitment, Qualification
& Assessment, Employee Retention, Career
Management and Contract HR Services. We specialize
in Marketing, Communications, Media, Technology,
and Financial Services, and operate at
the mid-to-senior management level. IQ PARTNERS' head office is in Toronto with partner offices across Canada, and internationally
via the Aravati
Global Search Network.
|
