InterimExecs: On Leadership

Rackspace became successful and well known for their mission of fanatic support, but how did it come to be – and how could a $2 million company manage to grow to $2 billion?

Rackspace’s former president, Lanham Napier, credits a chunk of their success to hiring a coach, Jim Camp, to train the team to become better negotiators.  They had been mired in purely transactional selling, which didn’t feel good and wasn’t helping them become remarkable. Lanham transformed the culture, with Jim’s help.

This interview took place in conjunction with Penguin Random House’s release of the unabridged audio version of Jim Camp’s bestselling book on negotiation, Start With No. Jim’s son Todd Camp, CEO of Camp Negotiation Systems, took over the family business and joins Lanham on this podcast, describing key points to Jim’s secrets for how business people can improve their negotiation game.

It is easy to think great CEOs need no coaching once they’ve arrived, once the public cheers them along and their success is apparent or conspicuous, but the reality for most leaders is more nuanced, complicated – and revealing.

In the case of Silicon Valley legend TJ Rodgers, his prowess at semiconductor design and successful track record launching and growing Cypress Semiconductor, and then running Sun Power, made it seem like he was invincible. But when his crisis came, he called a coach. TJ’s coach, Jim Camp, helped TJ take on a challenge that threatened to destroy the company. More long lasting was Jim’s impact in teaching the Cypress team how to become better negotiators. TJ describes the crisis and the bold solution.

This interview celebrates TJ’s work with Jim Camp, author of Start With No, on the release of the unabridged audio version of Start With No.