Why
the Most Important Person in Your Company Probably Isn’t the CEO
We take far too many of the folks we
work with and around for granted, and regularly fail to appreciate the
contributions they make.
EXPERT OPINION BY HOWARD TULLMAN, GENERAL MANAGING PARTNER, G2T3V
AND CHICAGO HIGH TECH INVESTORS @HOWARDTULLMAN1
Mar 24, 2026
I’ve maintained for many
years that until we outgrow the stigma that we’ve traditionally attached to
vocational education—and unfortunately already passed on to the next several
generations—we’ll be wasting the opportunity to direct millions of eager and
energized young people into careers and opportunities that are appropriate for
them and likely to offer them both job satisfaction and successful paths to a
reasonable income and lifestyle. Four expensive years at a fancy liberal arts
college and a mound of accumulated debt aren’t for everyone.
Jobs in the basic
trades, such as plumber or an electrician, aren’t going away any time soon,
offer union protection and benefits, and have established progress and
advancement paths that plenty of “white collar jobs” no longer offer if they
even still exist. I remind my friends all the time that my car mechanic works
9-to-5 with no after hours stress, makes more money than any recent liberal
arts college grad, spends more time with a keyboard than a wrench, and—as the
average age of cars on the road continues to lengthen—has pretty much locked-in
employment for his lifetime because those millions of cars won’t fix
themselves.
The average age of cars
on the road in the U.S. has increased for the last eight years in a row and
reached a record high in 2025 of 12.8 years, so the demand for skilled
mechanics will only increase for the next decade or two. In addition, it looks
like most of the major U.S. vehicle manufacturers are bailing on EVs, which were touted as easier and less expensive to
maintain and repair, but which simply haven’t caught on with U.S. dealers, much
less buyers.
But the facts alone
won’t get the necessary changes made unless we change the attitudes of millions
of snobs in this country who are giving our kids the wrong messages. We take
far too many of the folks we work with and around for granted, and regularly fail
to appreciate the contributions they make to our lives and businesses.
Anyone who’s worked in a
busy restaurant knows that talented and professional waitresses can manage nut
cases of all kinds just as well—if not better—than a shrink on a couch
somewhere. And anyone who’s watched The Pitt knows
that the nurses probably save at least as many lives as the doctors, and get
little or no credit for it. It may be the only medical show where the main
charge nurse plays a recurring and prominent role throughout each episode. This
is the kind of messaging we need to have far more of in order to move the
needle. No pun intended.
If you’ve ever walked
into an office and found a receptionist who’s too “busy” to pay attention and
acknowledge you while you cool your heels and feel like an imposition, it was
probably a place that didn’t understand that receptionists are the face and front
line of a business, and that you don’t get a second chance in this world to
make a first impression. If you’re not eager to please, ready to help, on the
case, and raring to go, you shouldn’t be at the desk.
All of which brings me
to The Rhonda Rule. Years ago, in Chicago, I built and ran 1871, which was the
Number 1 university-affiliated technology incubator in the world, with more
than 500 startups under one massive roof. We hosted tech
geniuses, hundreds of VCs and investors, foreign leaders, ambassadors, and
other dignitaries, President Bill Clinton, many U.S. Senators and Congressmen
(when those people still had working spines), and thousand of other visitors
every month for a number of years. The place was huge, the energy and
enthusiasm were through the roof, and the excitement was palpable. It was the
best show in town, with Chicago’s Mayor Rahm Emanuel acting as a regular
cheerleader. The receptionist at the front desk’s name was Rhonda.
Years later, as I
travelled all over the world to meet with many of our diverse guests at their
various venues and company sites, the first question they asked me was always
the same. They asked if Rhoda was still there, and if so, they asked me to be
sure to please say “hello” to her from them.
Rhonda was at 1871 for
many years, and the impression she consistently made on these serious
businessmen and women from around the world was the best sales tool for 1871
and the strongest single memory that these folks had of our entire institution.
She never had less than a happy smile on her face. She never forgot a name. She
treated everyone who came through that door exactly the same—as an honored
guest who was welcome—and as a respected individual. What really came through
the daily interactions was just how much she loved what she was doing. That
warmth, openness and attention set the stage for everything at 1871 that might
follow, and she did it with great style and made it always seem effortless.
Every job can be
challenging and rewarding if you let your people make the job their own,
encourage them to add themselves to the equation, and have them take control
and ownership of the work. All work is creative if it’s done by someone
thinking about what they’re doing instead of repeating a routine they learned
from others in an uncritical stupor or following a set of rules and procedures
that make no sense in the real world. Any job worth doing is worth doing well.
The real goal of every
service business is to create the intangible but crucial feeling of being cared
for and that’s the responsibility of everyone—top to bottom—working in the
business. And sometimes, the measure of those feelings is not simply how you
feel in someone’s presence, but how acutely you miss the person when they’re
gone.
