CEOs Learn to Deal With Technology Dependence

It’s official: Americans have developed indispensable bonds with their technological devices in the workplace.

Ninety-six percent of working adults use cell phones, email and/or the Internet, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

Technology has become powerful but addictive, and researchers with the Pew Project cited increasing concerns that Internet users can develop an overall sense of impatience, a need for instant gratification, and that users may struggle to engage in deep thinking.

Last year, the term “Internet use disorder” was considered for inclusion into the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, considered the authority on mental illnesses.

With these challenges in mind, we begin 2014 with a look at how a few business leaders in Northwest Arkansas rely upon their devices and how they manage their time in light of — and in spite of — today’s hyperconnectivity.

 

Road Waves

Executives’ attitudes about technology vary greatly and are often influenced by the type of business they’re engaged in and whether customers are physically present.

If your boss is Hank Henderson, CEO of America’s Car-Mart Inc. of Bentonville, your workplace may be more relaxed about technology use. Henderson prefers a good telephone call to an email.

 “Email conversations can be time-wasters,” he said. “I personally don’t do well starting and stopping things, so I try not to get caught up in the back and forth exchanges. We tell employees to handle email like their regular mail: Check it once a day.”

At the company’s 125-plus car lots, employees are encouraged to focus on customers, not computers, Henderson said, though corporate employees might need to conduct more business via technology.

“Some employees have their [mobile phone] alerts turned on, so they’re constantly on their phones. That doesn’t work for me,” Henderson said. “If I sent our CFO Jeff [Williams] a message, he’d respond in a few minutes, whereas typically I check once a day. But I also might go a day or two without checking.”

Henderson carries one cell phone and an iPad, which he uses to handle emails while traveling. When he’s on vacation, everyone will know he’s gone and a handful of people can reach him at all times. He’ll be copied on a lot of emails, but he’ll wait until after vacation to respond.

“I think you have to control your personal habits. There’s a point of being too accessible,” Henderson said.

 

Air Waves

CEO Scott Van Laningham recalls the early days at Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport (XNA), when contract negotiations drove him to the fax machine — where he’d huddle for long periods of time, receiving documents, marking them up and faxing them back.

Air travel may not be much faster today, but taking care of business certainly is.

Despite efficiencies, remaining on-call is customary for staff at XNA. Precision and a quick response are vital to serving more than one million passengers per year, so cell phones are constant companions.

“We are just now starting to get big enough so that our head of maintenance can train and work with someone else to respond,” Van Laningham said. “This helps our people get some relief.”

XNA executives still handle all public relations calls themselves, a rarity for a government entity in this age, perhaps because Van Laningham is a former newspaperman and knows the benefit of personal contact with journalists.

“It’s a challenge, but I tell folks all the time: ‘I don’t care if it’s 9 p.m. I’d rather you call and clarify something than not get it right.’”

Since the first flight departed from XNA in 1998, Van Laningham has remained available all but a handful of times. “There might be a rare occasion one of us is, say, on the White River, and doesn’t have cell coverage. If I’m not going to be reached, [airport director] Kelly Johnson takes my calls.”

 

Community Waves

More than one million visits are made to The Jones Center in Springdale each year, and behind all the coordination of activities is an exchange of countless texts and emails between staff members, CEO Ed Clifford said.

Immediate responses are the norm, and sometimes an employee must step away from a meeting to handle a message.

“Nobody waits anymore. We have incidents that arise, or groups arrive that nobody knew were coming. You’re less effective if you can’t give your staff an answer immediately,” said Clifford, who previously worked 17 years in management at Wal-Mart Stores Inc., and also served as president and CEO of the Bentonville/Bella Vista Chamber of Commerce.

During his early days at Walmart, Clifford remembers sending orders via telex and waiting two days for an answer.

“Walmart was all about business, but here it’s all about operations: Are we taking care of our customer?” Clifford said. “I’m never away from the job. I have 52 full-time people who need an answer when they need an answer.”

This technological rigor forces an executive to balance personal and business lives, Clifford said.

“I’m always monitoring my phone, iPad, and computer from home. I have no kids at home — it’s just me and my wife, and she understands how technology has grown,” he said.

The Jones Center offers recreational and educational facilities to Springdale and neighboring communities. A large part of the Springdale population speaks Spanish and Marshallese, which must be considered in staffing, Clifford said.

“We look to hire to reflect the demographics of our area, Springdale and Northwest Arkansas,” he said. “Technology is not always a strong part of life for Hispanic and Marshallese. So we look for the potential for technology use and give in-house training. It’s not fair to require something when a person hasn’t been exposed to it, so we look for potential rather than experience.”

Clifford doesn’t speak Spanish. “And I don’t have a cell phone that talks to me in Spanish, so my assistant does a lot of my translation. So that’s kind of a three-way technology,” he said.

 

Customer Waves

Technology lays a foundation for Sheila Moss’s career as a public speaker, corporate trainer and president of Bentonville-based Information Solutions.

Technology allows her to be nimble and respond quickly, and it streamlines her costs.

“We choose to be almost exclusively mobile. We have a phone in the office, but I can switch the office to my mobile device and I won’t miss anything. It’s extremely reliable and there’s no down time. During the last ice storm, our people were stuck in their subdivisions but our customers were covered because we redirected calls.”

Information Solutions has provided employment eligibility services since 1996. The company makes heavy use of consultants but has five full-time employees. The go-to device for her staff is the iPad, which Moss uses for presentations and most communications. She believes iPads increase productivity and keep training costs low.

“Being completely mobile is a luxury,” Moss said. “The down side is that you don’t turn your brain off. That can be detrimental, but to me it’s always worth it. We are service-based; we have to be reached by our clients. This way, we can support them at any moment.”

Does Moss ever turn off her phone during personal time?

“No, I don’t do that. Probably two times during the past year I was completely unavailable. When I’m teaching a class or at a client site, my phone is silenced. And a few select people can always reach me,” she said.

She admits the lifestyle can be mentally draining.

“It’s a matter of personal choice and there has to be a time to turn yourself off,” she said. “In my case, I’m happier helping someone and being available.”

 

Flexible Waves

When Brooke Laman Vines started Vines Media LLC a decade ago in Little Rock, ads were still delivered the old-fashioned way, by courier.

Today, ads are designed, built and delivered in a matter of hours across the state or country.

Vines has a vigorous expectation that staff at her media-buying firm remain available at all times, but the payoff is that she’s ultra-flexible about time off and employees can shape work hours around family needs. As a mother of 4-year-old twins, Vines understands.

“If they’re finished for the day at 3:30 p.m., and they want to go get their kids, that’s fine — but I need them to always be available,” she said. “In exchange, I don’t have a vacation policy.”

Vines closed her office for 10 days during Christmas vacation and still was able to keep up with occasional work while in Northwest Arkansas.

Vines has a Bluetooth speaker in her ski helmet and said one winter she negotiated one of her biggest deals from her snowboard. On the flip side, face-to-face contact with clients has diminished.

“I sometimes go a year without seeing a client, which is really different,” she said. “I used to meet clients more often for lunch and happy hour.”

Technology and social media reshape the way she does business every year.

“Nobody knows quite where it’s going next,” she said.