Interviewee Name: Steve Kayser, Head of PR, Cincom Systems
Company Name: Cincom Systems
Website: http://www.cincom.com/, http://expertaccess.cincom.com, http://radio.cincom.com
Avil Beckford: Tell me a little bit about yourself.
Steve Kayser: A non-PR, non marketing, non-writer type running a national PR department for Cincom Systems, a global software company.
Avil Beckford: What’s a typical day like for you?
Steve Kayser: Without the curse words? Trying to figure out how to support a PR strategy (people relations) for multiple software and technology product lines – in the hyper-social attention deficit environment we operate in. And keeping up with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIN, Google+, Microsoft Company Crowd, YouTube, Content Curation, publishing an award-winning online business magazine http://expertaccess.cincom.com, hosting the new radio show once a week http://radio.cincom.com, and running the social media newsroom http://newsroom.cincom.com. I know it doesn't sound like much — but I didn’t even throw in 600 emails a day or 30 voice mails. Then it’s at least a 47 hour day.
Avil Beckford: How do you motivate yourself and stay motivated?
Steve Kayser: Caffeine, energy drinks, heart attack hamburgers, and deep theological ruminations while in the throes of the vicarious vodka diet-tonic spirituous introspection. Oh … And the blessings of 5 kids with the latest being LOURDES (AKA “BULU”) KAYSER.
Avil Beckford: If you had to start over from scratch, knowing what you know now, what would you do differently?
Steve Kayser: Be born to Bill Gates or Steve Wynn’s family. Probably Steve Wynn. But maybe Suzanne Sommers. She’s got that hormone replacement anti-aging thing going on that I’m quite keen on. And I PROBABLY would have taken seriously this thing called the “internet.” Who would have guessed?
Avil Beckford: What's the most important business or other discovery you've made in the past year?
Steve Kayser:
RISK & RELEVANCE
You must stay relevant. You must continually reinvent yourself. You must continually risk looking stupid to ever achieve anything. You must say NO to NO.
Also that the world has forever changed. No more will you stay anywhere for an entire career. Those days are gone until we create the new industries like nanotech and biotech that will save us from this economic Armageddon.
I riffed on this topic in an article called “Are You Still Relevant” never thinking much of it. But then it’s been read over 200,000 times now. My 2nd biggest article ever. So — it must be of interest to some others as well.
Avil Beckford: What are the three threats to your business, your success, and how are you handling them?
Steve Kayser: The business – the economy. The small-to-medium sized businesses around the world that Cincom serves are being hurt and mightily hammered by an economic environment of mistrust, over regulations and over-taxation.
My personal success is ultimate and intimately threatened by:
- Myself
- Myself
- Myself
Avil Beckford: What’s unique about the service that you provide?
Steve Kayser: Before Microsoft, before Oracle, before even the words “Silicon Valley” had ever been uttered, was a small private company called Cincom in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1968. Since then software, services and some truly unique people at this company have been solving complex business and technology problems for companies all over the world. Companies like Boeing, BMW, The FBI, NSA, Trane, Social Security Administration and Interpol.
Anyone can create software and technology. But having the people that can successfully ride the tsunami of technological change sweeping mother earth for 43 years — that’s unique. And — staying a private company. Passing up the billions of dollars in cash-out IPO monies to keep the company private – and responsive, flexible and not controlled by the latest Wall Street heart and headaches… That’s unique!
Avil Beckford: Describe a major business or other challenge you had and how you resolved it. What kind of lessons did you learn in the process?
Steve Kayser: Wow – just one? How about when I went out of business – a family fun center with 65 video games, 18 hole golf course, 7 batting cages, children’s arcade and 15 party rooms – when I was 37. Driven out by a public company with 10 million to spend in new facilities and games. Which beat my 250K.
Here’s what I learned.
It’s never over.
I was broke. Had 3 young kids. Big mortgage. No job. $50 in my savings that Christmas Eve.
Unless it kills you … it’s never over. I didn’t die. What I did do is learn new things that lead to great new opportunities in business and life.
That upside down business loss started me on a trek that’s been immensely rewarding.
Sure. It was scary. Sickeningly so now that I think back. But had it not happened I would not have met some amazing people I now work with. We would have never crossed paths without my colossal detour down life’s road. But.. question is, was it a detour – or the way it was supposed to be? Who knows. I’ll give you a couple of examples.
Creative impresario Ken Sutherland — we’re creating/writing and producing “The Lippi Musical” http://www.lippimusical.com. What an amazing adventure it’s been working with a guy that’s won 300 Clio’s. He originally offered me the job to write the script. But I turned him down. I didn’t know anything about Lippi – or musicals. Now he’s offered me the opportunity to turn the story into a book.
Or Marc Seifer. Marc is the bestselling author of Wizard: The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla : Biography of a Genius. I read the book and was mesmerized. Met him via email and over the years we have done interviews and stories together. Now we’re working together – along with Tim Eaton – on a movie about Tesla – http://www.theteslamovie.com – What a joy that colossal failure has sprouted.
And then there’s Tom Nies, a pioneering founder of the software industry (in the Smithsonian Institute) – and Cincom http://www.cincom.com. I would have not only never met Tom— I would have never worked for him.
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