Anything You Want

Trust, but verify

In 2005, CD Baby's main business was doing digital delivery of music to al the

digital music retailers: iTunes, Amazon, Napster, Rhapsody, MSN, Yahoo!, and

fifty more.

This  role  was  life-or-death  important  to  the  company  because  it  was  the  main

reason most of our new clients signed up. And there were lots of competitors in

this field, so it was crucial that we did everything wel .

I built a system that did most of the work, but it stil required someone to run the

outputs, connect hard drives, and ship them to the retailers.

I hired a guy who seemed good. I sat side by side with him for a week, showing

him the system, running it myself, and explaining how it al works.

He got it.

The key point was that we had to get every album delivered to every company,

every week, no matter what. The guy I hired signed a contract with me that said,

in  huge  letters,  “EVERY  ALBUM,  TO  EVERY  COMPANY,  EVERY  WEEK,

NO MATTER WHAT.” We talked a lot about how absolutely crucial that was—

that  it  was  real  y  his  only  job  requirement  because  it  was  that  important.  He

signed and agreed.

---

His first few weeks, I watched closely to make sure everything was going wel .

It was. So I turned my attention back to other things.

A few months later, I started hearing a lot of complaints from musicians, saying

that their music hadn't been sent to these companies.

I logged into the system to see what was wrong. It turns out that we hadn't sent

any music to Napster, Amazon, or some other companies in months.

Months!

I cal ed the guy in charge of it and asked what was going on. He said, “Yeah, I've

been real y backed up. It's been real y busy.”

I said, “What's rule number one? The sole mission of your job?”

He said, “I know. Every album to every company every week no matter what.

But I've been swamped. I just couldn't.”

I flew up to Portland and let him go. I've never fired someone so fast, but this

was extreme. Our company's reputation was permanently hurt. This job was so

crucial to the company's survival that I decided to do it myself for a while. Not

just do it, but build a system that wouldn't let mistakes go unnoticed again. So

for the next six months, I lived at the warehouse in Portland, and my sole job

was  digital  deliveries.  It  took  fifteen-hour  days  to  catch  up  on  months  of

backlog, but eventual y we had a smooth system again.

I learned a hard lesson in hindsight:

Trust, but verify.

Remember it when delegating. You have to do both.