Boss Swap Brings New Perspective to Dyn and GY&K

Some people won't lend a friend a DVD for fear it might be damaged. So imagine how much faith it took for Jeremy Hitchcock, CEO of Dyn, and Travis York, president of Griffin York & Krause (GY&K) to swap roles on July 16 and take over each other's business.

What started out as a publicity stunt between two well-known, dynamic Manchester companies-a marketing firm and a leader in Internet infrastructure-as-a-service (managed DNS and email delivery)-turned into a genuine learning experience. We thought it would be fun to change jobs for the day and empower each other to become immersed in each other's organizations, says York. It's definitely like someone checking your work who you professionally respect, Hitchcock says. It's show and tell and [you] have to be ready for good stuff and bad stuff to come out.

On the day of the swap, York and Hitchcock gave permission for the other to have full access to the firm and the staff. They also had specific requests. York wanted Hitchcock to focus on GY&K's technology adoption. Hitchcock wanted York to share how to send a unified message that an outside audience could relate to.

Each of their staff put together an agenda for the new boss. My background is packaging and promoting things. We talked about how what they did fit in the bigger scheme of things. We focused on internal and external communications, York says.

Hitchcock spent his day helping GY&K think more strategically about how to leverage technology, and he also reviewed the firm's business strategy with employees. That was cool to see people thinking more strategically about the business, Hitchcock says. He also reviewed pitches to clients and discussed goals. That's where I was most out of my element.

Hitchcock and York ended the day together with a Q&A for staff from both companies. York sees Exec Exchange as a unique program to help other companies share knowledge and expertise and says his firm would facilitate that. The more we're open-minded to doing things like this, maybe the more successful we'll be collectively, York says. I've been a big believer in disrupting the status quo.