Building a Culture of Excellence:Recruiting, Hiring & Managing. Rick Alden, Dennis Wood, Jim Elliott

Creating a culture of productivity where every person, in every interaction, performs with excellence.
Recruiting talent from out-of-state.
Attracting in-state talent.
Utilizing employees as finders and recruiters of top talent.
Landing great talent when you've identified it.
Managing so performance stays at excellent levels.
"Pay to Quit," as a strategy for weeding out those who don't want to be there.

Bring or send in your own question for this panel of experts!

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Registration and Networking: 11:30 AM
Lunch, Panel, and Q & A: Noon to 1:00 PM

Rick Alden
"If you’re not working hard and playing harder, all while doing what you love, than you’re not really living,” states Rick Alden when referring to his career. Alden is an entrepreneur who has spent his entire life blurring the lines between work and play.

After graduating with a political science degree from the University of Colorado and a strong passion for snowboarding, Alden founded his first company in 1986 - National Snowboard Inc. (NSI). NSI was a successful events and marketing company that produced consumer, amateur and pro snowboarding events nationwide. Alden later sold NSI to the American Ski Association in 1991. After spending years on the snow and much frustration at the types of snowboard bindings available, Alden launched his second venture, Device Manufacturing, in 1995 to figure out a way to build and offer better bindings. His passion and creativity resulted in the first ever step-in snowboard boot and binding system. After four years, Alden sold Device Manufacturing to Atomic Ski Company in 1999.

In 2001 while working at Atomic and traveling frequently for business, Rick noticed commuters’ constant battle between the use of their music headphones and their mobile phones. People were constantly missing calls because they couldn’t hear their cell phones ringing. Later, while riding a chairlift at a Utah ski resort, Alden set out for a typical day of snowboarding wearing headphones and listening to music when his cell phone rang – resulting in a frantic search for his phone while removing his gloves and headphones to answer the call. Alden thought to himself, "It can’t be that difficult to integrate your music and the use of cell phones.” The inspiration for Skullcandy was born – a company that would find a way to integrate audio and mobile technologies into snowboard gear.

In 2003, Alden formed Skullcandy with the goal of designing products that offered a solution and that also fit into his active lifestyle. The first Skullcandy product – the Skullcandy™ Portable LINK – was introduced at the 2003 International Consumer Electronic Show (CES) in Las Vegas, where it won its first Design and Innovation Award. A few weeks later, the brand was launched to the action sports industry at the Snow Industries America show (SIA).

Fast forward five years after the first round of trade shows, and Alden has now created 35 skews of headphones that are nationally available on the market under the Skullcandy brand. Alden is a successful entrepreneur who realized his dream of making products that fit his own lifestyle and that his outdoor industry friends would enjoy. Along with being the Founder and CEO of Skullcandy, Alden has been married for 18 years to Holly Alden and currently lives in Park City, Utah, with his four children: Tyler (16), Autumn (12), Brooklyn (10) and Preston (8).

Dennis Wood
Dennis Wood currently heads the human resources practice for one of the country’s fastest growing, and most innovative companies; Fusion-io. Under the direction of David Bradford as its CEO, Fusion-io has amassed a world-class team, recruiting the founder and creator of the Apple Computer, Steve Wozniak as their Chief Scientist. Prior to joining Fusion-io, Dennis was the Director of Human Capital for vSpring Capital, a premier $400 mm venture capital firm in Salt Lake City, UT. At vSpring, Dennis had responsibility for helping to build the executive and technical teams in 63 portfolio companies located throughout the US.

Jim Elliott
Jim Elliott, Chief Operations Officer, joined Access Development in 1992. He has been a member of the executive management team since 2000.

Before joining Access Development, Jim served as President of Elliott’s Inc., an appliance, electronics & furniture retailer with a chain of stores headquartered in Columbia, South Carolina. Jim’s 17-year experience included serving on the General Electric Advisory Board, and received multiple "Dealer of Distinction” awards.

Jim earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of South Carolina. He also completed certification from the Institute in Management from the University of Western Kentucky.

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Building a Culture of Excellence:Recruiting, Hiring & Managing. Rick Alden, Dennis Wood, Jim Elliott