Restating the Goals

As Published in the August 2006, Issue of SmartBusiness; written by Daniel G. Jacobs  

How Mark Perlberg Put Oasis Outsourcing Back on a Growth Track

When Mark Perlberg became president of  Oasis Outsourcing in 2003, there wasn’t a need to change much  of anything. The company was one of the largest professional employer organizations (PEOs) in the country, and although revenue had flattened, Oasis was profitable and paying the bills. But Perlberg thought it had only scratched the surface of its opportunity.  

“This was not a turnaround,” says Perlberg, who is now also CEO. “Oasis had grown; it was already one of the larger PEOs in the country. It was profitable.”   But Perlberg did not think the company, which provides administrative services for small and medium-sized companies, was anywhere near its potential.  

“The challenge was a growth challenge,” Perlberg says. “The business had plateaued a bit. If you look at that approximate period of time, the business was not growing much in its recent history. So the challenge was, how do you come in and develop a sound set of growth strategies to take Oasis to the next level?”  

While Perlberg had some ideas about how to do that, he knew that before he could rework the system, he needed to gather the support of the employees. The only way to do that was to show them he knew what he was talking about, so Perlberg spent three months studying the company and the industry.  

“You have to do the homework first,” Perlberg says. “You’re way more open to valid criticism of, ‘You may have done this or that in other places, but you don’t really know the PEO business’ if you haven’t really taken the time to do the homework.”  

Perlberg’s homework included talking with employees at every level of the organization. He went on calls with salespeople and talked to customers.   “It really was an education process for me that I wanted to go through as quickly as possible but as completely as possible,” he says. “I will sit down with them in small groups, sometimes one-on-one, usually both, and have a very open-ended discussion covering things like what they do, but also getting them to talk about issues and opportunities—things that they struggle with in their day-to-day jobs, things that they see as great opportunities for the company.  

“I use that opportunity to do my own due diligence so that I can develop a view of where we are and where we need to go.”  

While that approach was particularly intense during his first three months at Oasis, Perlberg says it is an ongoing part of his management style.   “I want to maximize the likelihood that the course that I help set is going to be the right course,” Perlberg says. “It’s also important from an internal and external credibility standpoint. If you come in and say, ‘I’ve been in a lot of different businesses, here’s what we need to do,’ and it’s very clear to everybody that you haven’t done your homework, you’re not going to get the same level of buy-in that you will get if it’s clear that you’re trying to do your homework first before you come up with any strategy and implementation plan.”  

Mission and Values

Armed with company and industry knowledge, Perlberg then developed mission and value statements.   “Fundamentally, if an organization has a mission and values, you’ve got to decide whether this is going to be a poster on a wall or something that the organization lives and breathes,” Perlberg says. “Some CEOs don’t believe in them at all. For me, they’re extremely important. The mission is a strategic compass, and the values are a moral compass.  

“They ground an organization in important ways. They help people understand why we’re doing what we’re doing. I can always use that as a reference point.”  

No matter what the company is doing, whether it is developing a new service or offering a new product, Perlberg can explain how that relates back to the mission or values.   “One of the first things you have to do is keep bringing the organization back to it,” he says. “You have to explain the things you’re doing in the context of your mission and your values. You have to tie it back.”