[PCO Profile] Joe Mallon is...The Exterminator

With a company goal to "reinvent the pest management industry," Isotech Pest Management often does things a bit differently than others in pest control. So when Mike Masterson, president of the Los Angeles, Calif.-based company, decided to begin a new termite division, he went down the less-traveled road and ran an international contest seeking "The Exterminator."

Loosely based on NBC’s The Apprentice (on which contestants compete to be an apprentice to billionaire Donald Trump), the contest was a search for a director for Isotech’s new division. The company decided to expand into termite services but was not finding the right fit through personal interviews or acquisition discussions. Company officials realized they needed to do something uniquely different — and hit upon the idea of "The Exterminator" competition.

Announced early this year, the contest accepted applications through late spring, then went into the decision-making mode in early summer. It was designed not only to recruit a director, but to bring new creative blood to Isotech and provide a unique opportunity for an entrepreneurial professional. "We knew there were a lot of people in the industry who had a lot of great ideas, that there were fantastic workers with a drive to pursue their ideas, but no avenues to pursue them," Masterson says. "We wanted to provide that opportunity to them."

But to find the right person, who would be willing — and able — to be an innovator, to fit in with the company’s outside-the-box thinking, Masterson knew they had to find an innovative way to recruit. "We don’t want to do things the way everyone else does it," he decided, "let’s do something a little more creative."

The resulting contest, he says, attracted a number of qualified individuals. But after rounds of application review, interviews and cuts, Isotech made its final decision in late July, naming Joe Mallon as Isotech’s new director of its termite division.

THE WINNER. Mallon was chosen because, though he had a great deal of experience in the industry and in termite service in particular (which was a key requirement of the applicants), he was not stuck in the old ways of doing things, Masterson says. Rather, he is innovative and open to new ideas. "He was a guy that came in like a sponge. He had a lot to offer, but he asked, ‘What are you doing?’ He was one of the only people who really listened to what we were saying."

And, in fact, it was Mallon’s own budding interest in Isotech and his mutual admiration of the company’s innovation and creativity that led him to enter the contest — though he never expected to win. "I thought it was a really interesting and really novel idea. It shows a different side to a company that we don’t often see in pest control," Mallon says. "I thought it’d be a really interesting thing to do, that I’d really like to do it; but I didn’t think I’d be someone who’d actually be considered."

Though a Californian himself, Mallon had not known of Isotech prior to the contest. He first saw reference to the company in the contest article in PCT magazine (see Pest Control’s Donald Trump, April, 2006), which gave it definite credibility, but before completing the application, he also checked out Isotech’s Web site and spoke with a few vendors — all of which confirmed his impression of the company and furthered his desire to be a part of it.

"It was quite an honor to be selected," Mallon says, and within the first month, he had already found the job and the company to be what he expected — and more. Mallon has held a California Termite (Branch 3) license since 1980. He owned his own pest control company for 18 years, then decided to completely change professions and took up professional photography for four years. After working in architectural photography, though, he realized he missed the pest control industry and decided to come back. "I really missed the people. I missed the problem-solving part of it," he says. He’d been back in pest control for two-and-a-half years when he decided to try for The Exterminator.

While Mallon’s innovation and ingenuity were traits that gave him the edge in the final draw, his extent of termite experience also was crucial to his selection. Prior to this, Masterson says, Isotech had been more focused on general pest control, so Mallon brought a new angle of expertise to the company, "an understanding of the rules, regulations and procedures for California law and getting things done in the termite industry."

As winner of the contest, Mallon jointly runs Isotech’s new termite service branch. He is responsible for developing termite programs, setting up and directing a sales force, generating marketing materials, and fulfilling branch and legal requirements; basically, taking complete responsibility, and as Masterson says, "making sure that all is in order." Though the contest awarded a one-year run, including salary, a percentage of the new division’s first-year profits, 100 percent medical benefits, company vehicle and a 401(k), the expectation on both sides is that Mallon will remain an intricate part of Isotech’s team and the contest award is simply the start of a long-term position and relationship.

When in his new position for only a few weeks, Mallon had already established his value to Isotech and expertise in the area in which he’d been cast. "We started out in one direction and ended up going in a whole different direction because of his expertise," Masterson says. Having been in the termite business for more than 20 years, Mallon "knows what’s out there," he explains, adding, "we’re moving at lightning speed because we’ve already got all the answers to the test."

It was, in fact, one of the things the company learned through the contest. Although they received resumes from all over the world, Masterson said, in talking with the candidates about termite services, they came to realize that "California is whole different beast." Along with other termite regulations, companies need to be knowledgeable about the state’s specific reporting requirements, Masterson says Mallon explained. "His experience and knowledge is what started us thinking in a whole different direction. We really need that."

Mallon’s goals are to build the department, to train its people and "get it together so we have an efficient operation." It takes a lot of work and he is wearing a lot of different hats to get it accomplished, but he says he is getting "terrific support from everyone concerned," and he is truly enjoying his new position, his new company and its novel approaches to doing business. "It’s been enjoyable every day," he says. "It’s innovative, fun stuff. If you have an idea, no matter how wacky it might sound, [Masterson] says, ‘Let’s see how that might work.’ The guy just really loves what he does, and that imparts on all of us."

THE CONTEST. In looking back, Masterson says he feels the contest was not only a great success but a good way to recruit. Standard recruiting techniques — newspaper ads, Internet job sites, employment agencies — generally bring those who are dissatisfied with their current jobs, he says. "I feel we got a much higher quality turnout because this was a challenge. People saw it as something that could change their lives."

One of the most interesting things Masterson found through the contest, he adds, is the diversity of the pest management industry and the backgrounds from which people come. "It doesn’t look like there’s a lot of people who say, ‘When I grow up, I’m going to be a pest control operator.’" And once you are in the industry, he adds, you either like it — and stay, or you don’t — and you get out.

What advice would Masterson give to job applicants as a result of this experience? Do sell yourself, he says, but don’t let an interview turn into a brag session. Too many well-qualified applicants for the job focused on what they had done in the past and what they would do for Isotech along the same lines. "It was their way or no way. When I started talking about the direction we were going, I could see the walls going up," and applicants’ body language, if not their actual words, stating, "That’s not how we did it." It’s imperative for the industry, as a whole, to continually progress, Masterson adds. "If everybody keeps doing things the old way, we’re going to move at a snail’s pace."

Would Isotech do it again? Most definitely, Masterson says, although next time he would make sure the contest language was clearer. From the wording in the contest ad, he says, "a lot of people thought it was a one-year job," when in fact, "it takes one year just to get it up and running."

The author is a frequent contributor to PCT magazine. She can be reached at llupo@giemedia.com.