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Q&A with Altis CEO John Hoffman

20 November 2008

Altis CEO John Hoffman discusses the commonalities of the US and Australian Market... spoken english.

TDP: Can you give us a brief background on your history, where you went to school, first role and current position?

JH: I grew up in Silicon Valley and went to school at the University of California, San Diego where I graduated with degrees in economics and literature.  My first job was when I was fourteen, flipping hamburgers at the local snack bar during the summer break.  Today, I am running a private consultancy firm that specialises in Information Management, specifically data warehousing and business intelligence.  We have over 80 staff across five offices in Australia and New Zealand.

TDP: What are you current responsibilities?

JH: Jack of all trades but mast of none’, most definitely holds true in my current role.  One second I am coaching a team member regarding a presentation and the next I am working with our finance team around optimising cash flow and then I am writing an article like this. 

The most important responsibility is making the people around me successful.  We are strong advocates of the ‘Service Profit chain’ and therefore I spend a lot of my time ensuring that the team is engaged and happy.  If they are enjoying what they do then they will take care of the customer.

TDP: What is unique about Altis Consulting?

JH: Being a private company with shareholders who are strongly focused on culture has made this a fantastic place to work.  Our tagline is “Connecting with Courage, Heart, and Insight” and it is amazing the relationships the team have developed with each other, the customers and partners.   

TDP: What is the best hire you have ever made and why?

JH: When I first came to Australia in 2000 to open the offices for MarchFirst (15 year old large US systems integrator that went bankrupt) my first hire was a gentleman by the name of Peter Steel.  He provided the framework and insight to help me quickly build the organisation to 60 staff in 18 months.  More importantly his passion and inclusive approach quickly permeated the team.  Without him we would never have had the immediate success that we did.  

TDP: What is the most important lesson you have learned in business and life and why?

JH: “Life isn’t fair”.  My dad used to tell me this all of the time growing up.  Sometimes you just have to get back up and keep on fighting.  This approach is very important with our current economic situation.  Sometimes decisions are outside of our control and you have to take it on the chin and move on.   

TDP: What things do you look for in an employee?

JH: At Altis, they call it the ‘Hoffman mojo test’ and it usually takes no more then ten minutes.  I look for staff who can easily create rapport.   Our team is customer facing all day long so they need to have strong interpersonal skills to be successful.  On top of that, I look for people who enjoy collaborating and have had experience working in team environments. 

TDP: Having worked in two continents, are there any commonalities in how American and Australian’s do business?

JH: There is English.

In broad brush strokes I find Americans much more outcome focused, pragmatic and quick to try something.  There exists a strong sense of urgency that someone is about to catch you and destroy your competitive advantage.  This is probably a result of the amount of innovation and competition that exists in the US.  The negative of that approach is that there is less focus on work life balance.

Another example of a significant difference relative to this audience is the availability of seed and early round funding.  Most Australian high net-worth personal investors have put their money into real estate rather than innovation.  As a result, many of the Venture Capital firms in AUS are funded by superannuation and government funds that were “burnt” by the .com fallout; therefore are less likely to provide early capital because of the inherent risk.

There are some great ideas developed here, but we need to continue to improve the availability of seed funding and product acceleration, so that a firm can relocate to the US or Europe quickly and secure series A & B funding in a market large enough to build a start-up business with an increased opportunity to secure some form of exit transaction.

TDP: Leading Altis, what are you most proud of?

JH: The team, our attrition rate is significantly lower then the industry because the people enjoy working with their peers.

TDP: From a personal perspective, what are your next objectives?

JH: Get back involved in coaching water polo. Try writing a book.  I always hit page three and then come to a grinding halt.

TDP: What do you miss most about the US?

JH: The food, In ‘n’ Out hamburgers, good Mexican food, hot pastrami sandwiches, etc.

TDP: What is something uniquely Australian that you would like to take back to the US?

JH: Wedges with chili and sour cream 

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