Slow Cooker

Raj Narayanaswamy has his sights set on a billion-dollar bottom line–no wonder the CEO of Replicon Inc. isn’t satisfied with merely exponential sales and staff growth.

When you walk into the 7th Avenue offices of Replicon Inc. on one of downtown Calgary’s famously casual Friday afternoons, two things stand out. An ascending diagonal of Fastest Growing Company awards follows the high-tech mover’s progress from various top-10 positions – including last year’s runner-up plaque – to the blank patch of wall reserved for the 2005 victor’s trophy. Equally intriguing, though, is the fact that the CEO himself takes a turn asking visitors if they’re being helped. Which is quite convenient when you’ve come to see the CEO.

Asked to account for their company’s exponential curve, both Raj Narayanaswamy (the aforementioned CEO) and his wife and co-founder Lakshmi Raj (vice-president sales and marketing) express the initially astonishing view that growth has been much slower than what they expected. It’s an astonishing statement because the decade-old Web-based solutions provider has experienced revenue growth topping 58% in the last three years. Astonishing because the company now has about 1,800 corporate customers (some big names among them) and more than a quarter million individual users of its market-leading Web TimeSheet software in more than 40 countries. Astonishing because Replicon has doubled its workforce since its success story last appeared in Alberta Venture just one year ago.

“To tell you the truth, we wanted to be a billion-dollar company by this time,” says Narayanaswamy, thinking back to the early days of frustrating struggles and disappointing product impact. “Until 1999, we didn’t hire anyone. For the first years it was me and Lakshmi. Then we started hiring and we defined our core values as a company.”

Hiring. Core values. These are excellent themes to explore (which helps me avoid awkward questions about the seriousness of Narayanaswamy’s billion-dollar claim). Every business, of course, is a people business; no savvy entrepreneur would suggest otherwise. There’s no shame in having a jaundiced view of corporate slogans, but when the founders of Replicon tell you, “It’s not about people – it’s about the right people,” you quickly learn that these folks aren’t kidding. Merely listening to a summary of the hiring process is enough to stir feelings of professional commitment, even in the neutral listener.

n this particular afternoon, the Replicon payroll, which adds new staffers almost every week, stands at about 85 people. All of them have been through one of the most thorough series of interviews outside reality television. At the heart of the process are the seven sets of core values, which in many organizations are little more than fodder for the deleted e-mail folder. But here, these values are genuinely respected as the foundation of every action.

Narayanaswamy starts describing the values that apply specifically to people. “Honesty,” he says. “Are they an honest person? Are they committed to growth? Are they intelligent? Are they respectful of others? Are they fun and professional?”

“Do they enjoy their role and their work?” VP Raj continues. “We look at what sort of person would succeed in this company. Once we defined our core values we said, ‘These are the personality types, these are the points of view that they should have to be able to work with us as a team and really succeed and cohere.’ So whether it’s me looking at that person, or Raj, or one of our managers, we all look for the same personality, so who you’re hiring is going to fit right into that role.”

The process is indeed intense. Interviews can last between three and five hours. Narayanaswamy tells a story about a guy named Doug who was brought back five or six times; Doug decided he really wanted to work for Replicon because they took hiring so seriously. “It’s not like a grilling process,” Raj insists. “It’s, ‘Okay, let’s see if we both get along.’ Eighty to 90% of the time in the interview they talk. Some people find that too stressful and some say, ‘This company takes so much interest in me. They want to make sure I succeed in this role. They’re putting in so much time and planning up front. If this is what they’re doing for hiring, that’s what they must be doing in other things.’”

“There are no bad resumes,” Narayanas-wamy chuckles. “There’s the classic thing that goes on in companies. They look at resumes and think, ‘Wow, this looks impressive, good credentials,’ and the person joins the company. Then it’s downhill afterwards. Six months later, they’re forced to think about releasing that person back into the economy. That’s very painful. An up-front commitment of six hours per candidate can save six months of [failed] integration.”

Narayanaswamy is especially proud of Replicon’s hiring success rate, which he estimates at more than 85% compared to average rates of 60 to 70% (which dip to as low as 50% for some employers). “I hate letting people go,” he says. “It’s the toughest thing that I have to do.” (A light-hearted allusion to Donald Trump helps ease the vaguely sombre tone that has crept into our conversation. We all try to picture the rusty-haired billionaire saying, “I’m going to have to release you back into the economy.”)

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