Otis Perrick founded his Disruptive Media Publishers Canada business in his 20s after working as a project manager at Electronic Arts. Perrick’s company concentrates on the niche area of personalized avatars in gaming.
In 2014 he launched Ripe Rides, a car service that, like Uber, lets users arrange rides through an app – but, unlike Uber, is fully licensed through B.C.’s Passenger Transportation Board.
In the early days of Disruptive Media, Perrick said, he made some big mistakes around hiring that threatened to slow the growth of the company. He had to let one key employee go – a step that wasn’t easy for the first-time business owner.
“If you don’t have the right people who can grow with the companies, you can run into a few problems,” Perrick said. “Ensuring that you have an understanding of where you are, but also where you want to go, helps you hire the right people.”
Following the advice of business mentors, Perrick now closely ties hiring to Disruptive’s strategic plan to make sure new employees have the skills and attitude necessary to help the company meet its future goals.
For instance, a new area the company has identified for growth is virtual reality. “We’re in a position to be a leader in content creation,” Perrick said of the new technology. To try to capture this new business, his company recently hired an experienced project manager from Electronic Arts.
“This person also has a ton of experience with partnerships and understands today’s marketing world, and understands what we’re trying to achieve with virtual reality.”
On managing two businesses | “What’s really important when you have one company over here being disruptive [is that] you don’t spread yourself too thin to start something else over here. I was going between two offices. … What we had to do is combine the two. What we did was we brought some of the success we’ve had at account management and [didn’t have] to retrain or bring someone [new] in. … The [businesses] still operate differently, but there’s a ton of creative resources that we don’t have to go outside for."
Has a work or life challenge taught you a key career lesson? Contact Jen St. Denis at [email protected]
