Discussion: Finding People Who Are Passionate about What They Do

Answer the questions to the case, “Finding People Who Are Passionate about What They Do,” at the end of Chapter 3. Include at least one outside source supporting your answers. Explain your answers in 200 words.

Finding People Who Are Passionate about What They Do

Trilogy Enterprises Inc. provides software ;solutions to giant global firms for improving sales and performance. It prides itself on its unique and unorthodox culture.

There is no dress code and employees make their own hours, often very long. ;They ;tend to socialize together (the average age is 26), both in the office’s well-stocked kitchen and on company-sponsored events and trips to places like local dance clubs and retreats in Hawaii. An in-house jargon has developed, and the shared history of the firm has taken on the status of legend. Responsibility is heavy and comes early, with a “just ;do ;it now” attitude that dispenses with long apprenticeships. New recruits ;are ;given a few weeks of intensive training, known as Trilogy University and described by participants as “more like boot camp than business school.” Information is delivered as if with “a fire hose,” and new employees ;areexpected to commit their expertise and vitality to everything ;they ;do. Jeff Daniel, director of college recruiting, admits the intense and unconventional firm is not for everybody. “But it’s definitely an environment where ;people ;who ;are ;passionate ;about ;what ;they ;do ;can thrive.”

The firm employs ;about ;700 such ;passionate ;people. Trilogy’s managers know the rapid growth ;they ;seek depends on having a staff of the best ;people ;they ;can find, quickly trained and given broad responsibility and freedom as soon as possible. CEO Joe Liemandt says, “At a software ;company, ;people ;are ;everything. You can’t build the next great softwarecompany, which is ;what ;we’re trying to ;do ;here, unless you’re totally committed to that. Of course, the leaders at every company say, ‘People ;are ;everything.’ But ;they ;don’t act on it.”

Trilogy makes ;finding ;the right ;people ;(it calls them “great ;people”) a company-wide mission. Recruiters actively pursue the freshest ;people ;in the job market, scouring college career fairs and computer science departments for talented overachievers with ambition and entrepreneurial instincts. Top managers conduct the first rounds of interviews, letting prospects know ;they ;will be pushed to achieve but will be well rewarded. Employees take top recruits and their significant others out on the town when ;they ;come to Austin for the three-day preliminary visit. A typical day might begin with grueling interviews but end with mountain biking or laser tag. Executives have been known to fly out to meet and woo hot prospects.

One year, Trilogy reviewed 15,000 résumés, conducted 4,000 on-campus interviews, flew 850 prospects in for interviews, and hired 262 college graduates, ;who ;account for over a third of its current employees. The cost per hire was $13,000; Jeff Daniel believes it was worth every penny.

QUESTIONS