Cerius Business Today

Ideas for Board of Director’s Compensation

Every once in a while, a newspaper or a business magazine publishes an article exposing overinflated salaries of board members. While it may be true for some big corporations, the same cannot be said for the rest. Companies have different options on how to compensate their board members other than handing over a colossal sum of money or equity in the company.

There are two major ways companies compensate their board members; either through equity or cash compensation. It is important that a company compensate board members in a manner that promotes their long-term interests and goals. We had an in-depth discussion with some well-experienced board members, and examined the pros and cons of both ways of compensating advisory boards or board of directors compensation.

Compensating with Equity

While researching her book, Marissa Levin, an expert on boards, came across a long-standing attorney and compensation expert. There are four different ways to use equity as board member’s compensation and according to this compensation expert: “Never give more than one quarter to one half of one percent to each board member you have.”

A hazard of compensating with equity arises when board members leave the company. Marissa advises, “Put in a one year agreement with a restricted stock clause that allows you to buy back that stock, basically at a penny, in the event that you roll off that board.” Because the last thing a company wants is to give a large portion of equity to somebody who only works part-time for them. And if that board member doesn’t work out, then the company has someone walking around outside the company who owns a large portion of stock with no interest in the organization.

Another thing for companies to consider is that you should be very prudent with the stock. This is something start-ups should especially consider because they usually have very little revenues so they cannot pay the board member very much or at all and, as a result, allot 5- 6% equity as the board member’s compensation.

Although initially that might not seem to be a big amount, but as the company grows that small percentage can amount to a large sum. Like Marissa says, “If you build a company to $5, $10, $15, $20, $30, $50 million dollars, that’s a lot of money to be giving to somebody basically ‘cart blanche’.”

Monetary Compensation

Jeff Thompson has served in the board of directors for 10 years at Edelbrock Corporation. He was also a member of the executive, compensation and audit committees. Talking about compensating public board of directors, Jeff explained that they do things a bit differently.

“We paid every member a fee for the quarterly meeting. It wasn’t a large amount of money but we also covered all their expenses,” said Jeff. The expenses included travel expenses, as the company had people coming in from all over the country.

An additional perk that public boards had was a small pool of stock for the board members, which amounted to 1-2% of the company. The money was vested over a 5-7 year period to ensure long-term loyalty from its board members. Jeff said, “In order to earn the stock, you had to have long-term plans and goals with the company. So if you left early, you didn’t get much of anything.” In the event a board member rolled off the board due to term limits, since they had earned that investment, they would have the right to either to keep the stock or sell it back to the company.

It’s important that you let go of board members in a way that doesn’t leave hard feelings between either party. Marissa said, “The most important thing you can do is keep the doors open and never burn any bridges because you don’t know if you might want them back at some later date or they could refer you to another advisor.” In her company, she sets up an ‘exit interview’ to make sure that there is closure in a professional manner so that everybody feels good about the experience.

A business is essentially a system of operations. When there is no organization and structure in the management of its processes, the company struggles to focus on new projects and growth, and spends most of its time keeping up with its day-to-day activities.

Successful businesses are organized businesses. If your employees are not informed and there is no plan, then an air of confusion surrounding the workforce will lower productivity and hinder creativity.

It is not difficult to be an operations specialist, yet the impact is immense. There are some key fundamentals to building a strong operational foundation that can help make or break a company’s growth. There are a few operational issues that are the most common. Focusing is the top issue to focus on that can make a big difference to both your employees and your profitability.

Clear roles & responsibilities

Often in growing companies everyone wears many hats and jumps in to pick up the slack where needed. Too much is going on every day and they consider it too cumbersome to put something like this into writing. Unfortunately, this is one of the cases where if it’s not written down, it does not exist. Any time spent gathering and documenting this information will be quickly gained backed and then some. This can serve as the launching pad for a number of uses:

• Employee Accountability – It is difficult to hold someone accountable when it is not crystal clear what they are accountable for.
• Loss of an Employee – Pull out their list of responsibilities and quickly divide them up between the staff. This can be done in less than 10 minutes and everyone is now clear that they are responsible for those tasks.
• Training – You now have a list to go through and discuss potential training gaps.
• Succession Planning – You now have a list of responsibilities for the next role an employee wants to take on. Go through the list to discuss the skills needed and training gaps to be addressed before they can move into the role.
• Processes and Procedures – Each person is responsible for creating their own process and procedures for the items on their responsibilities list. Provide a simple template to get them started. Start with one per month and move it up to one per week for those who catch on quickly.
• Cross Training – Having a list to start from makes it much easier to identify opportunities for cross training. Also a great time to cross check the process the responsibility owner wrote. Use that document to cross train.
• Getting The Right Employees in the Right Seats – Assess your employees (formally or informally) for what they do best, what they are good at and what they enjoy doing. What hidden talents are there that you never knew about. Compare list to the roles & responsibilities. Who in your organization is mismatched with skills to role? I have seen 180 degree turns in employees and the overall team effectiveness by making shifts as a result of this exercise.

The list goes on when it comes to the benefits this single operational focus can bring. Every post mortem I have ever been involved in was traced back to the project getting off track at the very beginning in one single area – there was no clarity on who was doing what and what was expected of them. As a result, the moment something didn’t go as planned, the employees were left playing hot potato and musical chairs.

A few more things to consider as you work on putting some operational fundamentals in place. Anything you do should be put to the test with the below:

5 Key Fundamentals of Operations

1. Be Clear – Can this be communicated on its own from the highest to the lowest level of your organization? Will it makes sense to everyone?
2. Communication – Remember the telephone game you played as a kid. Bring in a handful of your employees and put them around a table. Whisper to the first one “The brown cat bough a faucet, the black dog slipped on a tennis ball.” See what happens once it makes its way around the table. It can only be passed on once (no repeating). This is what happens when everyone is in the same room. What happens in day to day business operations.
3. Documentation – If it’s not written down, it doesn’t exist.
4. Flexibility – Leave room in the structure for a degree of flexibility. If it can’t accommodate a variety of situations and still work as it should, go back to the drawing board.
5. Scalable – It should work for both the current size and the next couple of growth levels of your company. It must be able to growth with you.

Companies are looking for executives who add value to the organization. Analyze the hiring company’s situation and find ways to achieve their objectives. Be creative with how you can help them during this executive contract.

Growing your independent executive business at any level is a complicated and difficult process. It’s not just applying for roles or projects you’re qualified for, but rather searching for places where your experience and values ‘fit’ with that of the organization.

At Cerius Executives, we have advised hundreds of executives through career, assignment and position transitions. A smooth transition between organizations requires extensive planning and consideration to detail.

We recommend 7 basic steps that can help you find your next executive contract.

Finding Your Next Executive Contract – Step 1: Identify what you want

First, purposefully determine what you want to do next in your career. With time priorities change and your interest moves towards other things. So take some time to figure out what exactly do you want to do in the next phase of your work life.

You need to know what path best suits your interests and experiences, towards maintaining a successful career. Are you ready to start up another company, step into a CEO role, gain some work-life balance, become an interim executive or a management consultant, or quite possibly focus on board work?

Finding Your Next Executive Contract – Step 2: Put everything down in writing

Start with your past. Get your entire history on paper so you can easily pull what you need as you need it. Jot down all of your work experiences, skills and achievements in a single document. You can then easily pull from that into your CV, resume and online profiles. Keeping your profiles up-to-date is crucial in any job search strategy and should be maintained on all platforms like LinkedIn and your professional website.

Finding Your Next Executive Contract – Step 3: Determine what you can bring to the company

Reflect on your past work history and make a list of the results you have and can deliver to your future customers. By determining what value you can you bring to a company, you can better market and sell yourself. Having a record of working in certain kinds of situations helps you narrow down your specialty, and narrows down your search for positions which you are experienced in.

Finding Your Next Executive Contract – Step 4: Broadcast yourself

Get it out there – everyone you speak to should be clear on what you do best and what opportunities you are looking for. With the current business and talent environment it is rare for anyone to not come across an open opportunity or position here and there. Companies and recruiters are looking for talent referrals more than ever. Make sure everyone you come across knows what you are looking for and when to keep you in mind. You are more likely to find your next opportunity through someone you know than through a posting.

Finding Your Next Executive Contract – Step 5: Keep your information consistent

Don’t tell a networking group you are looking for your next CEO role, when the last 4 positions on your LinkedIn profile are all board roles. It’s understandable to want to look for roles in an entirely different direction, but hiring companies want executives bringing years of relevant experience to the table. So make your information consistent with your history and what you want. It is also confusing and frustration for someone you meet to have nothing from the dialogue you two had reflected on your LinkedIn profile. Keep it consistent across all channels.

Finding Your Next Executive Contract – Step 6: Get creative in creating solutions

Companies are looking for executives who add value to the organization. Analyze the hiring company’s situation and find ways to achieve their objectives. Be creative with how you can help them as an executive. Stay focused on where the company wants to arrive and how you can get them there. It may not be obvious right from the start. Help provide the solutions including a creative incentivized comp plan tied to goal achievement rather than the usual job description. It should coincide with the direction the company is headed in and helping to get them there. Whether it is a full time, interim or project role, there are endless possibilities for structuring the contract.

Finding Your Next Executive Contract – Step 7: Don’t be short sighted in the negotiations

Keep in mind the end goal for both you and the company. At the executive level there are too many ways to count to accommodate your bottom line and that of the company. Ask questions to make sure you understand what their parameters are and be clear on yours from the start. Once you have an initial agreement, don’t get greedy. Too often in the current economy we have seen executives try to negotiate up after an initial agreement and lose the job or the contract. Going back to an earlier suggestion – remain consistent with your communications and keep the curve balls to a minimum. As much as a company will appreciate your negotiations skills once it is on their behalf, now may not the time to fully demonstrate them.

Transforming information technology from a cost center to a profit center to a competitive advantage should be a key imitative of any company with an IT spend. An accomplished CTO or CIO is the key to success.

There’s a number of reasons a company of any size would need a CIO or CTO for additional expertise. Whether you are looking to have your current IT structure assessed, needing a technology road map and plan, considering implementation of an ERP or needing to fill a vacant position, technology executives have a select expertise that often is not available or duplicated elsewhere within the organization. Bringing in an interim executive or management consultant can be a great way to quickly address the need and keep the focus on results without committing to long term overhead costs. At Cerius, we have seen the strategic use of an Interim Technology Executive include:

• Enterprise Architecture
• ERP selection, implementation, or fine-tuning
• Business Process, Information, Technology and Planning
• Information Technology Improvement
• Data Centers, Cloud Computing, Technology and Help Desk
• Program, Project and Portfolio Management
• System Evaluation and Selection Process
• IT / Technology and Business Alignment
• Global Outsourcing

Interim technology executives have an in-depth understanding of business process improvement and technology along with the hands-on experience to drive your IT organization to become a strategic and competitive asset.

Interim CIO’s fill a gap between the departures of a senior IT executive and the start date of the new hire. Part-time CIOs work for a designated period of time to build and lead the IT organization in a SMB, or to lead a key IT initiative within larger organizations.

We are often asked the difference between a CIO and CTO. In its simplest form, a CIO is responsible for the technology the company depends on to operate and the CTO is responsible for the technology the company depends on for its revenues. The CIO focuses on the internal technologies the company needs to operate and deliver its services or products. This role can have an impact on bottom line profits through increased productivity, product delivery and company communications. The CTO is more of a customer facing role involved in product development and the end product the customer is using. The impact of the CTO role is more focused on revenues and delivery a top level product to the end customer. Whichever technology expertise you need, the benefits and results for bringing in outside expertise can be limitless. Here’s a few of the most common ones we see from clients at Cerius, how they were addressed and the types of results the client experienced:

Professional services and banking industry

Interim CIO: 5 days/week, 11 months

Situation

• Independent review and assessment needed
• Obsolete systems in place
• Significant system outage occurred
• Large project 6 months overdue
• Technology and business unit not working together

Implementation

• Restoration, recovery and remedial actions created and executed for system outage
• Hired Director of IT Operations – department not functioning in part due to key role missing
• Completed large project within one month of start
• Established back-up systems
• Hired Director of IT Operations – department not functioning in part due to key role missing
• Created SOP, increased discipline and predictability of IT operations
• Established annual budget
• Set up performance testing program
• Initiated change management program
• Initiated business intelligence and reporting

Results

• Brought strategic product to market within one month delivering 3% increase in revenue
• Bridged cultural divide resulting in ability of business units to continue plan execution together
• Full recovery within 6 months of system outage

Large Healthcare provider CIO: 4-5 days/week, 6 months

Situation

• Company lost prior CIO and needed immediate leadership
• Broken relationship between business and IT existed
• Need for strategy and standards
• Disorganized department

Key Challenges/Issues for Interim

• Projects were behind schedule and over budget

Implementation

• Established project management and governance
• Established standards within IT including architecture
• Organization management realigned teams
• Reduced costs to overall budget
• Projects adjusted and moving forward with clearer direction
• Brought strong leadership with both IT and business background

Results

• Reduced IT budget by $7 million
• Put in motion plans for additional $1.5-2 million of reductions
• Projects have turned from red to green – on time and under budget
• IT and business units are working as a team

Though no two companies and situations are the same, we find there are often common themes within organizations and at Cerius, we know how to find the right expertise to address the need and provide results. If you have more questions about interim executives and management consultants click here some of the most commonly asked questions and answers.

 

Pam:               I’m Pamela Wasley, CEO of Cerius Executives, one of the largest North American providers of contract executives for part-time, temporary, interim and consulting assignments. These executives are available to step in the companies on short notice to fill sudden gap in leadership, to run a key initiative, or to provide specialized skills and knowledge for a temporary period of time. Today we'll be talking to members of the Cerius team who are experts in either hiring or placing executives in full-time, part-time or on a consulting basis. So let's meet the Cerius team. First we have Kristen McAlister, President of Cerius, next is Matt Saur, Chief People Officer, and then we have Maria Hillman and Kim Person, both Vice-Presidents of Client Solutions. Let's get right to the questions, shall we? Let’s do a rapid fire session here and each of you give me one answer to each of the next 3 questions. Things to avoid when hiring an executive. Maria, let’s start with you.

Maria:                   Anyone that uses the word “I” too much and not “we”, meaning they’re not a team player.

Pam:                      Excellent. Matt?

Matt:                     Don’t hire somebody in my image.

Pam:                      Ah yes. Kristen?

Kristen:                I would like to be careful from recycling within your industry. You may have an expert in your industry but they’re just going to recycle ideas and other concepts that are within it and not bring a great outside innovative perspective.

Pam:                      Great. Great answer. Kim?

Kim:                       Hiring an executive that cannot talk about his or her accomplishments.

Pam:                      Alright. Next one. Things to ask an executive that you want to hire? Maria?

Maria:                   I would ask them, what would you do in the first 30 days on your job.

Pam:                      Ok. Matt?

Matt:                     What were you brought in to do on your last assignment, and what did you accomplish?

Pam:                      Right. Thanks Matt. Kristen?

Kristen:                Ask them about the results from their last couple of assignments or positions. Some one can’t come up top of their head. What type of numbers, what type of impact that they’ve had? Especially using numbers other than, I just increased morale. They weren’t measuring it then, and they’re not going to measure it for you.

Pam:                      So you want specifics. Correct?

Kristen:                I want specifics. Better have it all on the top of your head because if you don’t have it from your past, how are you going to measure it and monitor it for me, and get me results.

Pam:                      Exactly. Kim?

Kim:                       I’m just going to reiterate. You’ve got to talk to executives what can you do for the company, not what you can do for the executive.

Pam:                      Oh perfect one. Thanks Kim. Alright next one. Company X needs to diversify its revenue stream. What type of an executive should they be looking for? Expertise, duration of contract, etc.

Maria:                   I would think expertise would be a marketing person or an innovation officer, and 3-6 months. And somebody from, that has some industry experience but that also has other verticals that you may be looking at.

Pam:                      Right. Thanks Maria. Matt?

Matt:                     I don’t know that I could add any more than what Maria said. I agree completely. To me it’s sales marketing, it’s experience. It’s having experience and multiple, looking at multiple organizations and being able to look at where they’ve been, where they need to go and how to get them from here to there. So still the marketing will be the obvious but I do think that there are other disciplines that could also get, make that happen.

Pam:                      Great, thanks Matt. Kristen?

Kristen:                Let’s start off with a very specific strategic product individual. Someone who knows how to productize, because optimally you’re not just looking at the revenue streams not just within the industry. It’s what is the product, how I describe the product and is it marketable within that. And a great marketing product person will know that and be able to carry out the messaging, so that not just the market gets it but your team as well. And then one great news about management consultant is that from that point is they diversify more within other industries. An Industry is vertical specific to executive, so we already have the contact say they know how to do it and they’ve done it many times.

Pam:                      Great, thanks Kristen. Kim? Anymore to add?

Kim:                       Really no. I just, I agree with everyone but also agree with Kristen that if you can productize, you’ve got to have someone that understands other verticals and other applicability’s for the product.

Pam:                      Great. Thanks Kim. Alright before we wrap up here today, let me ask one last question to all the panelists. What last minute advice would you give business owners for thinking of hiring a temporary, part-time or contract executive? Kristen, why don’t we start with you?

Kristen:                Telling them what I needed done. I’d want to know that they’re done it at least 3-5 times in other companies. I talk to those companies, I talk to the co-workers because I know that they’ve had used that expertise in those situations.

Pam:                      You like the experience that they bring?

Kristen:                Yeah, I want to know that they’ve got the expertise that I need and they’ve got proven results on it. Not just they’re a great person to work with and they’ve accomplished so much. Have they accomplished what I need done?

Pam:                      So you don’t want somebody that just have an MBA and right out of college. Correct?

Kristen:                Not just right out of college. There’s some incredible executives out there that have accomplished a lot of things. They just haven’t actually done and they have light team for balance. They haven’t actually done and been involved in my types of situation. It needs to be specific.

Pam:                      Great. Anyone else have anything to add?

Matt:                     I would add it. Our interims have both depth and breadth of experience in their specific discipline. The other thing that they have is that they come with usually 20-plus years of experience in a larger organizations or in large consulting firms. So what they bring to a CEO is that they bring that expertise, that is far-reaching under than just what that CEO is looking for us to come in and help them with. They can come in and provide advice on their whole organization, not just on the specific discipline that that CEO is looking for.

Pam:                      Great, thanks Matt. So thank you all for being here today and sharing your expertise on things CEO’s need to know when hiring part-time, temporary and contract executives. Next month tune in for our podcast on the advantages of boards and advisory boards, especially the companies today. Should be a great topic and one you won’t want to miss. See you then.

 

Pam:               I’m Pamela Wasley, CEO of Cerius Executives, one of the largest North American providers of contract executives for part-time, temporary, interim and consulting assignments. These executives are available to step in the companies on short notice to fill sudden gap in leadership, to run a key initiative, or to provide specialized skills and knowledge for a temporary period of time. Today we'll be talking to members of the Cerius team who are experts in either hiring or placing executives in full-time, part-time or on a consulting basis. Let's get right to the questions shall we? Matt, why would a company hire a management consultant? And what is management consulting?

Mat:                      Well the reason that a company would hire a management consultant. One is that there may be difficult decisions that current management team doesn’t really want to make such as a downsizing situation or a situation where the company is in dire straits and they need to bring somebody in to help them make the most difficult decisions about how to streamline a company to make it profitable and there may very well be that the current owner is having difficulty making that decision on their own. Another one that I always like to use is, I’m the CEO of a company and my brother-in-law is in charge of sales. You know you realize that I’m never going to fire my brother-in-law but sales are stagnant. So I bring somebody in, I bring in a management consultant to head out my sales team and to teach my head of sales -my brother-in-law- how to do this job, how to go out and get new sales, grow organically and find new markets. And I get to keep my brother-in-law and the management person that we brought in at the end of the time when they’ve done their job they move on and they go do that for somebody else. As far as management consulting. Lots of different definitions, I think Kristen talked about it a few minutes ago, but management consulting is really that business where I have an expertise in a specific discipline and I no longer do it for a company, just one, but I provide that service to multiple companies. I go in, I look at what their needs are, I make an assessment, I help them put together a solution to that particular issue or problem and the difference I think between Cerius and most management consulting is that once I’ve made that proposal I move on and I go to another company and I do the same thing again. Cerius, we go in and we make a proposal on how to help them solve their problems and then we stay on and we become part of that management team long enough to actually execute a particular solution that we provided then.

Pam:                      So you don’t just advise, you also execute?

Matt:                     That’s correct, we do. Cerius, we do both of them.

Pam:                      Great. Thanks Matt.

Kristen:                 Pam, I would like to add on to that.

Pam:                      Sure.

Kristen:                One of the biggest challenges is that the company is hitting that plateau and it’s really hard to come up with the solutions and see your company from an objective standpoint when you’re inside of it. You need that outside perspective and as much as you can hire in individual to your company, those individuals come with needs and a handful of other company experiences because they’ve not always been there full-time. Management consultants may have experience that you get when you work with 10 companies within the given year. They can bring that perspective into your company and give a whole different view and take on things. You and I both know as business owners, sometimes it’s just too hard when you’re inside of it. You need someone from the outside.

Pam:                      Excellent. Yeah, I totally agree with that. CEO’s today do not get enough outside perspective. They get very myopic. I get myopic in my business and all CEO’s complain that the same thing and they just need somebody from the outside to give them a different point of view. So thank you Kristen. So thank you all for being here today sharing your expertise on some things CEOs need to know when hiring part-time, temporary and contract executives. Next month, tune in for our podcast on the advantages of boards and advisory boards, especially in companies today. Should be a great topic and one you won't want to miss. See you then!

Pam:               I’m Pamela Wasley, CEO of Cerius Executives, one of the largest North American providers of contract executives for part-time, temporary, interim and consulting assignments. These executives are available to step in the companies on short notice to fill sudden gap in leadership, to run a key initiative, or to provide specialized skills and knowledge for a temporary period of time. Today we'll be talking to members of the Cerius team who are experts in either hiring or placing executives in full-time, part-time or on a consulting basis. Let's get right to the questions shall we? What last minute advice would you give business owners for thinking of hiring a temporary, part-time or contract executive? Kristen, why don’t we start with you?

Kristen:                Telling them what I needed done. I’d want to know that they’re done it at least 3-5 times in other companies. I talk to those companies, I talk to the co-workers because I know that they’ve had used that expertise in those situations.

Pam:                      You like the experience that they bring?

Kristen:                Yeah, I want to know that they’ve got the expertise that I need and they’ve got proven results on it. Not just they’re a great person to work with and they’ve accomplished so much. Have they accomplished what I need done?

Pam:                      So you don’t want somebody that just have an MBA and right out of college. Correct?

Kristen:                Not just right out of college. There’s some incredible executives out there that have accomplished a lot of things. They just haven’t actually done and they have light team for balance. They haven’t actually done and been involved in my types of situation. It needs to be specific.

Pam:                      Great. Anyone else have anything to add?

Matt:                     I would add it. Our interims have both depth and breadth of experience in their specific discipline. The other thing that they have is that they come with usually 20-plus years of experience in a larger organizations or in large consulting firms. So what they bring to a CEO is that they bring that expertise, that is far-reaching under than just what that CEO is looking for us to come in and help them with. They can come in and provide advice on their whole organization, not just on the specific discipline that that CEO is looking for.

Pam:  So thank you all for being here today sharing your expertise on some things CEOs need to know when hiring part-time, temporary and contract executives. Next month, tune in for our podcast on the advantages of boards and advisory boards, especially in companies today. Should be a great topic and one you won't want to miss. See you then!

 

Pam:               I’m Pamela Wasley, CEO of Cerius Executives, one of the largest North American providers of contract executives for part-time, temporary, interim and consulting assignments. These executives are available to step in the companies on short notice to fill sudden gap in leadership, to run a key initiative, or to provide specialized skills and knowledge for a temporary period of time.

BT:                  Welcome to Business Today brought to you by Cerius Executives, one of the largest interim executive and management consulting firms in North America. Today we are joined by Donald Nobel, a technology CFO who has spent a portion of his career as an interim executive. How are you doing today Donald?

Donald:            Oh terrific, terrific! Nice to meet you Raj.

BT:                  Nice to meet you too! So you actually have a pre-existing relationship with Cerius Executives. We’ve kind of tapped into you to be one of our interim executives and a CFO for some of our clients. That just leads me to wonder. When you work with companies, are there types of leaders or companies that you enjoy working with specifically? Do you like have a sweet spot with personalities or industries?

Donald:            Well let’s start with industries if you don’t mind, and in with regards to that even breaking it down further, I prefer the challenge of really high growth companies. Where you walk in the door and they are doing a 100, 200, 300 percent a year, and those are very exciting and challenging for me and I love them. I love being in the door and I’m already hit with 5000 questions. Those are amazing. When you expand that to the industry, one of the things I love most is technology companies and today that’s a very broad term. A technology company could be software, it could be medical devices, it could be professional services. There are so many types of companies lumped under technology but again, love it because they are very fast moving and they are usually challenged a lot. As regards to people, leaders and CEOs, I tend to work best with those that have an organization where they trust the people below them, they trust that a CFO coming in can be part of the team and not micromanage ever single detail. The worst thing in the world is for a CEO to micromanage his team. And I think its best if I and the CEO are on the same page. That there are functions for the CEO and there are functions for the CFO and that’s the best atmosphere to work in.

BT:                  And what do you do if you walk into a scenario where the CEO is micromanaging and doesn’t have a whole lot of trust with the people that work with him?

Donald:            I probably try to do the best I can, but then shortly I recommend somebody else coming in. Again my job is not the long-term type job situation. My job is to do best for the company and sometimes the best for the company is a change.

BT:                  When we look at the interim executive industry the consulting work that comes with it, it can be challenging, obviously, which seems to be a driving factor for a lot of executives who do this type of work. But at the same time it also, it could probably have its nuisances, constantly having to look for new clients or customers or contracts or... How do you do some of that, how do get yourself out there in the market place? So people know that you’re there and these are the services you have to offer and basically how does an interim executive in today’s day and age market themselves?

Donald:            A very good question. I chuckled a little bit because I remembered something that a colleague said to me once and he said, “You are either working or looking for work, you cannot do both.” And I find that to be true in the interim game where again I think a common theme of our conversation today Raj is that interims do tend to get put into situations where they have to work very hard and they have to get a lot of things accomplished in a very short amount of time. So you don’t have time to you know kind of be searching while you’re dong this work for this company. So what I tend to do is, I tend to do two different things. Obviously I have an extensive network of companies I’ve helped and I get referrals. But the other thing of course I do is I partnered with Cerius Executives and work with them because they are one of the few firms to take the extra time to match the right executive or management consultant with the company that can benefit the  most from our expertise. There are a lot of companies out there doing it but it seems like Cerius has the best model for accomplishing both goals which is utilizing the expertise and helping the company.

BT:                  Well Don. I wanted to thank you for your time. We really appreciate you joining us. And sharing some of this, actually not some of this, all of this great knowledge and information with us and our listeners. For our listeners we will be back every week with a different podcast covering a different topic, so please stay tuned. Subscribe to us on iTunes, Play Store. And until next time, this is Raj Prasad for Cerius Executives.

 

Pam:               I’m Pamela Wasley, CEO of Cerius Executives, one of the largest North American providers of contract executives for part-time, temporary, interim and consulting assignments. These executives are available to step in the companies on short notice to fill sudden gap in leadership, to run a key initiative, or to provide specialized skills and knowledge for a temporary period of time.

 

BT:                  Welcome to Business Today brought to you by Cerius Executives, one of the largest interim executive and management consulting firms in North America. Today we are joined by Donald Nobel, a technology CFO who has spent a portion of his career as an interim executive. How are you doing today Donald?

 

Donald:            Oh terrific, terrific! Nice to meet you Raj.

 

BT:                  Nice to meet you too! So you actually have a pre-existing relationship with Cerius Executives. We’ve kind of tapped into you to be one of our interim executives and a CFO for some of our clients. That just leads me to wonder. You must have quite a few stories that have to do with startups or situations in which you’ve parachuted in. What’s one of your most memorable assignments, and the results that you achieved?

 

Donald:            Well let’s continue on on the example I just gave. A few years ago I was called in by a friend who had a CEO who couldn’t understand why his company was not profitable. And his company was heading over a 100 million in sales and they were doing a lot of business, a lot of satisfied customers. But believe it or not, he was considering laying off staff members because he just couldn’t figure out what the bottom line problem was. I come in and within a month after analysing the entire company, I realise the sales people were not being compensated correctly and didn’t have the correct incentives to do the job. So I proposed and implemented a compensation plan based on gross profit, not revenue. Within two quarters, gross profit tripled. This enabled the company not only to survive but thrive and continue on by expanding the product line, doing some mergers and acquisitions. And even implementing an entire professional services department.

 

BT:                  Well Don. I wanted to thank you for your time. We really appreciate you joining us. And sharing some of this, actually not some of this, all of this great knowledge and information with us and our listeners. For our listeners we will be back every week with a different podcast covering a different topic, so please stay tuned. Subscribe to us on iTunes, Play Store. And until next time, this is Raj Prasad for Cerius Executives.

Pam:               I’m Pamela Wasley, CEO of Cerius Executives, one of the largest North American providers of contract executives for part-time, temporary, interim and consulting assignments. These executives are available to step in the companies on short notice to fill sudden gap in leadership, to run a key initiative, or to provide specialized skills and knowledge for a temporary period of time.

 

BT:                  Welcome to Business Today brought to you by Cerius Executives, one of the largest interim executive and management consulting firms in North America. Today we are joined by Donald Nobel, a technology CFO who has spent a portion of his career as an interim executive. How are you doing today Donald?

Donald:            Oh terrific, terrific! Nice to meet you Raj.

BT:                  Nice to meet you too! So you actually have a pre-existing relationship with Cerius Executives. We’ve kind of tapped into you to be one of our interim executives and a CFO for some of our clients. That just leads me to wonder, why continue down the interim executive path? I’m sure you get approached with full-time opportunities. Has the right opportunity not come by yet? Have you just fallen in love with being an interim executive so much that your interim executive career might become your next full-time career? I mean what keeps you going with it?

Donald:            Wow. Good question. I’ll answer in part Raj, that of course I get approached by companies that want full-time work, long-term employment. I have also been approached by some of the interim companies I’ve worked for and said can you continue on as a full-term role. I am not sure I explicitly choose not to pursue those, but I do love the challenge that interim work brings to me. I am a puzzle solver.

BT:                  So let me ask you this – next question’s a little hard – Give me one mantra of Don that you use or give when you go into a company that’s either hitting a plateau, or going through growing pains or in the need of a turnaround situation. A Rajisim, one of mine, is what’s the difference between a butter knife and a sword? How you use it. You got a  Donism for me?

Donald:            Well there are some serval mantras that I live by but I would probably say the one I use most often is ‘hope for the best and plan for the worst’. The reason I say that and the reason I use that is when you go into any situation, whether it be a company or a life challenge or any situation, it’s OK to hope for the best outcome possible. However a good CFO, a good COO, a good management consultant should always be planning for all the scenarios that might or could happen. And I try to do that when I go in. I don’t just look for the best outcome and say that’s the one we’re going to pursue. I look at that one and say let’s pursue that one but here are five others ones that I am keeping in my back pocket.

BT:                  That’s actually a really good one. I’m probably going to steal that Don, I’m going to be honest with you.

Donald:            Oh I have a few more if you want them, so.

BT:                  Give me one more. That was actually a really good one.

Donald:            It’s interesting you should ask that Raj because one the other ones that comes up quite often, especially when both entering a company as an interim or choosing an interim, is something I heard from a CEO that I respect probably way more than he knows and it’s a simple statement that says, ‘fast, cheap or good, choose any two’. The purpose of that is you can either have it fast or good, but don’t expect it cheap. You can either have it cheap and good, but don’t expect it fast. There is very rarely a situation where you can have fast, good and cheap and I live by that because that’s true. There are many times that you have to pay more for something that you want fast and you want extremely high quality and there are times where when you come in and try to give the lowest bid whatsoever and have it done yesterday, you’re not going to get the quality. So it’s a good maxim to live by.

BT:                  Well Don. I wanted to thank you for your time. We really appreciate you joining us. And sharing some of this, actually not some of this, all of this great knowledge and information with us and our listeners. For our listeners we will be back every week with a different podcast covering a different topic, so please stay tuned. Subscribe to us on iTunes, Play Store. And until next time, this is Raj Prasad for Cerius Executives.