Q. How would you describe the economy during the last two years?

A. I use the word “challenging”. It’s tough on everybody because of a combination of things. The high-tech industry that lifted the economy got to the point where things started to level off. It hasn’t been the best of scenarios.

Then you have Sept. 11. New York being the financial capital of the world, the attacks put a damper on a lot of things. Also, the business we are in requires a lot of flying to get to different parts of the country to interview people. That came to a screeching halt for a while. We’re starting to come out of it slowly.

Q. What hiring trends are you seeing?

A. I see CEOs are hiring, but they are doing it in different ways.
They are either replacing people who are not performing or adding selectively to their staff. It’s not like it was a couple of years ago when there was a lot of venture capital out there. Now if it is being distributed, it’s being distributed very carefully.

So, business has to be very careful when it hires or expands. And companies that want to hire are taking a lot longer to hire. Where we used to be able to expect a hiring in 30 days, it now takes three to six months. And there are no guarantees. Companies will take us through the process, and after three months decide not to hire.

Q. How are you adjusting?

A. First, you have to make sure you stay in business.
We’ve definitely held our own over the past couple of years, where other search firms have gone under. Two, some say you should look to expand in bad times because there may be opportunities you might not see. You have to look at being creative and innovative and trying to do things differently because times are more challenging. You can’t sit back and wait for the economy to improve, not as an entrepreneur. You have to be aggressive. So, I am looking. Maybe high tech is not growing.

We’re looking to diversify into other areas of discipline that are growing- health care, pharmaceuticals and biotech.

Q. Are you confident times will get better?

A. If people really focus and be somewhat proactive instead of sitting back waiting for things to get better, it’s only a matter of time until the economy turns around and we will be better than we were before.

It’s going to be a slow road, but overall 2003, when all is said and done, will come out in a positive way. This is the third recession I’ve been through. When you look back at all three, it was very simple. I went back to basics.

You have to work harder and things maybe you didn’t do in the past just to get back to even. Business owners have gotten away from some of the basics. You have to look at the glass as half full, not half empty.

What really turned me around was reading Michael Gerber’s book, “The E-Myth.” I had read other business books, but this one hit home.

Like most entrepreneurs, when I first started my company, I relied on my technical expertise and what I had learned from working at other places. But after a few years of building the foundation, I wanted some sort of infrastructure that would help me grow CIS.

Our first move was to develop a system for training employees. The program is split into two components: candidate development and client development. New recruiters spend six days in a company classroom, then apply those lessons by working with a mentor in an incubator setting for the next month. Once they’ve mastered this side of the business, they go back into the classroom for client development and repeat the incubator experience.

This training program not only makes it much easier to bring new people on board, it also provides our clients with a consistent recruiting experience-everyone at CIS is conducting business the same way.

Some of our other systems include:

OPERATIONS These procedures encompass everything from office hours to administrative reports. If reports aren’t filled out in a consistent manner, the resulting data won’t be meaningful.

HUMAN RESOURCES This year we developed a hiring system to make sure that each job applicant was interviewed in the same way. We’ve also created a “position contract” that spells out everything the new hire is accountable for – from the number of weekly search assignments they conduct to the level of revenues we expect them to generate. It goes far beyond a job description. We have them review this contract before they join; that way, there are no surprises when they show up on the job.

MANAGEMENT Right now we’re working on our management procedures. One new system we’ve created is a weekly employee-development meeting where supervisors sit down with account executives to discuss specific goals or strategy.

I have to admit that this is a lot of work. We started in 1995, and our systems are still a work in progress. One of the biggest challenges is to document everything in writing. If it’s not in writing, you might as well not bother. Documenting allows you to break down a process, analyze it and then teach it step-by-step. It’s not a system unless it’s documented.

One good thing: I don’t have to do this by myself anymore. Employees have input into improving the systems, which gives them an opportunity to help build the company.

Since we’ve embraced a systems mindset, revenues have tripled to more than $3 million. Without our infrastructure, my business wouldn’t be able to grow; I would be forced to remain a technician and do it all myself. Systems give me the freedom to be a visionary, to try other ventures.

It also gives me time to relax: Last year I took the month of July off and went to the beach. I wasn’t worried that my business would fall apart. People here know what to do; they’re thinking like owners, which keeps the company running like a machine.

Corporate Information Systems, an executive-search firm specializing in high-tech sales professionals, was born in the basement of Marinaro’s parents’ home in 1987, and by 1989 had moved to an 800-square-foot space in Rutherford.

That space then morphed into CIS’s current 3,000 square feet of office space in Rutherford, where Marinaro, 37, works with his 10 employees. CIS does “well over $1 million in revenue” each year, Marinaro reports, and will be growing bigger in the future. “There is so much business out there that we need to expand,” he says. Those expansion plans involve an eventual move to the technology-laden West Coast, where Marinaro hears the hunting is good.