CEO's Diary: Impressed

Initiative saves the CEO's time

I was impressed by East's #2 last night. He rang me to say he'd been talking to the customer we were meant to see this morning and the outstanding issues had been discussed. Agreement so close to the scenario we'd wanted had been achieved he'd used his initiative and agreed the deal.

It's a result for him. There's commission in this. It's a result for us. It's a good contribution. It's a result for me. I'm in the office and will be out on time. On Fridays before holidays that matters.

* * *

May 23 – I did speak to the Chairman about training.

To put it nicely he lobbed this one straight back at me. Work out what your objectives are, he said. Make clear what strategy might secure them. Identify what the tipping points that will ensure success with both your staff selling this stuff and the punter buying it might be. Then see what is needed to get to those points.

Then talk about training he said.

Which I guess was a lesson in not trying to delegate upwards, even when you’re the CEO.

* * *

May 22 – I’ve been out selling the ‘smaller premises’ idea in which I have some faith.

OK, I combined the visit with a day out with Promo, which I thought of use, but I also wanted to try this out.

As ever, it seemed to me that the problem was essentially a simple one (I see the world that way). Put bluntly, if the customer is presented with a large building solution to a small property need they will perceive, however incompletely, a mismatch between the offering and their requirement and will have sufficient doubt to back away.

Our solution does meet their need. My belief is that the way we’re presenting it does not. It’s back to the drawing board on that. Newc is having his work cut out here.

Thankfully I retrieved enough with this customer that there’s a real chance of going back. I doubt Promo would have done that. This shows where retraining is needed (which I’ll need to discuss with the Chair – his skills lie in this area).

But I’ve enough to go on. And as I said, I do think it’s a simple problem. Of course, that doesn’t mean cracking it will be that easy.

* * *

May 21 – Promo has chosen a car.

Office tells me this has been a massive success on his home front.

I really do have to understand the psychology of this, alien as it is to me. Can anyone get that excited about a Toyota?

* * *

May 18 – I’m pretty sure I’m right. Yesterday’s meeting was a waste of time. We’ve been asked to be one of four people bidding for a contract for a major company through their outsourced consultant / supplier. So we have to visit a lot of sites, prepare details, submit in their required format, attach endless paraphernalia, and details. And will we win it? Who knows? Will we want it if we do win it?

That’s the question Newc and I have been debating. I took him with me as I want him to manage these bids in future since a standardised approach seems to be needed. But in this case the first task is to look at 10 sites on the estate, price them and then see what they’re worth. Putting together a bid like this costs a lot. But so does the level of service commitment it requires if we win it at low margins. We’ve already go a couple of low performers. What I want to be sure of is that this doesn’t stretch our capacity to limits that stop us winning better work.

All that takes careful planning, and a lot of time. But I’m willing to let Newc run with it for now. I think we have to. But I’m mildly resentful. There are better ways to work, and we’ve got plenty of work that isn’t managed in this daft way.

* * *

May 17 – There’s been some discussion of outsourcing around here of late. I have an opinion on it. I thoroughly dislike it.

Some of the properties we service are managed by outsourced facilities management companies. We hate dealing with them. Quality matters for nothing. Price is the only issue. They want everything for 10% less than the ultimate customer would pay as that gives them their margin. They rarely have much clue about what they’re doing and worse, they don’t really seem to care.

Those who are running outsourced PFI contracts take the complete biscuit on this. Give me a local authority in all their glory any day rather than a PFI contractor.

I guess it comes down to pride in what you’re doing, and the only pride in an outsourced contract is the margin you’re making. Which means you seek to screw everyone who supplies you into the ground. It’s not a way to do business.

Having said which, I’m seeing just such an outfit this afternoon. I really don’t know why except that the bid is big. But so what if we can’t make money on it? And I bet we won’t be able to. Sometimes though you just have to play the game of being bid fodder by making up the required quotation numbers. Which is another stupid part of the game of doing business by numbers.

* * *

May 16 – The Audit Manager called me this morning. She asked if all was going well. I think her staff had sensed my irritation yesterday. I wish she wasn’t so charming. I said all was fine.

She hinted otherwise. She thinks Ops is working for a competitor. I asked her how she knew, and she said a standard audit procedure of her firm was to search all directors of the company at Companies House to make sure they had best chance of picking up associates. Sneeky! And Ops has appeared as director of a concern I have never heard of that does appear to be working in our field.

I didn’t know this. And his contract does forbid it, technically, although I’m sure we won’t do anything about it. She wanted to know if I wanted her to follow this up. I agreed she should. It seems wise at least to learn more.

But it’s created another day when people have bugged me unnecessarily. I reminded me just how well most of the team are going to regain equilibrium. That, and Newc and North calling to say that a contract has been landed in the North, and right therefore in Ops part of the world made me feel better. Newc started it, North has closed it. I like that.

Maybe I should ignore irritations. But I am human, even if I’m still not sure Promo is convinced.

* * *

May 15 – Auditors are very tedious. First they want the minute book. Then they want to know why I dated a form 288 a day different from the minuted meeting date and I don’t know but it’ probably because that’s they day I did it. Then they asked for the annual return. Neither Office nor I can find it (heaven knows why – that’s very unusual for me). So I downloaded one, which seemed strange to them. Then they wanted to quiz me about our terrorism cover on the insurance. We do work at airports, so this they think is an issue (I don’t). And at the end of the morning I was very happy to turf them out of my office and say I needed to get on with something else.

I know they have to do it. But, I’m also allowed to get frustrated, I think. Mind you, having seen that chap on Panorama last night, I was a model of restraint.

* * *

May 14 – Talked with some of East’s people today, with Newc also joining in as we wanted to know what the problem of selling to smaller properties is. These are our current target and since some of our customers have quite a number of them which we have not been servicing we thought it an obvious market extension.

As usual when dealing with people the answers provided varied in quality. Some just sounded like excuses where our staff member did not want to be moved out of their comfort zone. The most telling analysis came from a person who’d obviously tried. His problem had been that whilst the larger premises we’ve been servicing come under a head office facilities management function the smaller ones are under the control of regional managers, and we just don’t know them. As such selling into these is just as hard as starting afresh, especially if head office is not giving clear indication that they want the service.

Others latched onto this plausible explanation once it had been offered. How universally true it is I don’t know, but it suggests that we’re missing vital information on our customers. If we don’t know how they make decisions then we can’t target the right people to ensure they decide in our favour. In this new sector we might not know that. Newc and I agreed that this is market intelligence we need to have.

It adds to another idea we’ve discussed but not actioned for a while, which is tracking people as they move round the industry so that people who’ve bought from us in one company can be targeted to do so again when they move to a new (and often more senior) post elsewhere. It’s obvious, but it takes time. But it’s what I want Newc to do. Pretty brochures are a part of marketing. Knowing who to talk to is a much bigger component of it. We have to be in command of that.

* * *

May 14 – Meant to do this on Friday, but time ran away with me. I did however think it worth noting that I’m learning some things. I realised on Friday that one thing Promo had not got as a result of this promotion to the management team was a new car. Now people tell me this is important, and our managers do have reasonable cars (and use them, a lot). Promo had only been given a short term lease car, and it didn’t compare.

I realised this was an error, and asked him if he’d like to spend the weekend thinking about what car he’d like, having given him the list of what we might pay for.

I gathered later that this was absolutely the right thing to do. Office, who is very often my eyes and ears now, reported that little could do more to raise his status at home than this. As this is an issue it looks like I got cars right for once (in the end).

Whoever said business was easy, it’s the people that are complicated was right.

* * *

May 10 – Having spoken to East I had little choice but talk to Promo. There’s nothing unusual about doing so. I speak to most managers most days for some reason or other, whether they’re in or out. Promo was in this afternoon – which is true much less of the time than for East, largely because his patch is more far flung and so is his home in relation to the office. I grabbed the chance whilst I’d got it to ‘have a chat about how things are going’.

Three things emerged. The first is he’s worried that he’s on trial. I told him he isn’t. He’s not going back whence he came. His only way is up. I admit I didn’t say his trial period was over, but that’s because I’ve no idea what this means legally (to be candid). The reality was though that he’s not on trial. He’s only in the job to succeed.

Second is the fact that like so many people he’s having problems letting go of the job he’s left. This is so often true of people who are promoted. He’s not sure how to relate to his old peers, is not sure he’s relating to his new peers, clearly still feels there’s a gulf a mile wide between him and me (which I always find scary because little does he know that I feel just as human as him). And that’s leaving him unsure as to what authority he has. In turn that means he’s dithering. He didn’t before.

Third, I read between the lines that this is having an impact at home. His wife is not one of the world’s most flexible types, I gather. He works around her, rather than with her support. But he is the main bread winner. And the have young children. So he’s taking his concerns home, not getting support and is getting it in the neck for working hard. That’s tough. I counted my blessings. If there’s a reason why my wife doesn’t feature here often it’s because she doesn’t need to. Our game is to support each other.

That was more than enough to learn. None of it came out quite like that of course. But it’s clear to me I’ve got to do three things. The first is to convince him he’s got my confidence. Maybe I made a mistake having East mentor him but I also had Newc and North to worry about. I’ll take on the task for now. Second, I have to reframe the way he views his new role. He doesn’t have to do his old job and this one, he only has to do the new one. Third, we’ve got to give him flexibility in the way he works. I’m going to make sure, for example, he really can work well from home.

It’s a start. I don’t want to lose him. The fact is I really do believe he can do this job.

* * *

May 9 – East called into my office this morning. And stayed quite a long time. As someone astutely said on this site recently, the role of the CEO is to just be there sometimes for those who need to share their load.

East has identified a problem. I’ve already alluded to it here so it wasn’t really news. Promo is struggling a bit. He was a good deputy to West, and we thought he’d be a good team leader. He might still be. But he is taking a lot of support from East and this is impacting his own work.

It’s also becoming obvious that although we might have a flexible budget Promo’s not delivering as well as he might. With an increased management team and other new overheads as we plan better marketing and market expansion we need his team to perform. I’m realistic. I’m not expecting miracles from people new in their jobs. But I do expect them to ask for appropriate support when it’s needed to achieve acceptable outcomes.

Promo is clearly having a problem with this process. He was good when his priorities were given to him. Now he’s trying to set too many of his own, and not always succeeding (by which I mean I think some priorities are not being set). And he’s not asking for help, at least not from me.

As far as we can see we have no similar problems with North or Newc. Both seem able to work well on their own initiative, but know when to ask for help (even if disguising it well, as male egos sometimes seem to require). That’s pretty much my definition of team play here.

So, what to do with Promo? He’s technically on a trial. But let’s be realistic. He either makes it or he has to go. He could not go back. And his going would be expensive. I don’t want that as a cost. I also don’t want to considerate it as an option. I want him to succeed. But how do I get him to be as innovative now as he was as a number 2? Or is this really a case of the Peter’s Principle at work?

* * *

May 8 – I took the weekend off. East was on call. We always have someone who is as teams are out and about in case of problems. I was therefore surprised to find that Newc and #3 had both been in the office yesterday. It wasn’t hard to discover. I had mails from both, sent internally. I admit I don’t encourage overtime working on bank holidays. I’ll have to address this. Some balance in life is important.

Having said which I’m heading off home early with a pile of papers as I’m baby-sitting our brood tonight and Stock has given me some of his findings on costing manufacturing. I need to turn them into something that looks more logical than his intuitive, but ‘back of a fag packet’ approach to such things.

Success is of course dependent on getting homework done, nappies changed, children to bed and general mayhem under control whilst my wife is out.

Maybe I am an optimist. Is it any surprise we’re thinking of moving so we can have some live in help?

* * *

May 3 (when I started this and May 4 when I ended) – This is a week where it looks like meetings will dominate all else.

As CEO this is still something I find hard. As a company we’re technically an SME, although I find that a fairly useless definition which extends from micro one man bands to quite reasonably sized companies. We’re at the top end of that scale. I enjoy this type of business. It’s why I’m here. But as an accountant it meant I was hands on. Sure the accounts team had about 5 in it, which is bigger than some, and my role did relate to policy, but it was just as much about actually getting things like the monthly management accounts done.

As CEO I do get things done, but not in the same way. I don’t produce a pack of accounts. I don’t produce the product. I don’t secure many of our sales, although I help close some of the more significant ones. Ops did do things, but I now realise that was part of his problem. I’m increasingly learning (and I’m not sure how this can be done but by experience) that the job of CEO is not to do things, but to create the environment in which things can best be done. That’s very different. And it seems to require a lot of meetings.

* * *

May 2 – A long day in the north. Went for one reason, and that was to sit in on a team meeting between North and his crew.

I was impressed. He has the knack required to keep people happy. It’s a massive advantage.

I chose not to ask any questions on selling or anything else. But I came home late, and happy.

* * *

May 1 – Things are beginning to gather pace here.

North is out on his own now (by and large).

Newc is beginning to hit marketing ideas (at last). The web site is finally going to be kicked. We’re going to be more interactive for quoting. We’re going to make a lot more information available so that people see as a reliable source of data. Not just our own but as a gateway to other’s information too (which seems so rare on commercial websites, but why should we pretend we know all the answers when, for example, there’s better health and safety data elsewhere?).

My team looking on manufacturing are going at it great guns.

East is driving people along. Summer is often busy for us. Orders are reflecting that.

But for all that I’d like them to, they’re not really coming from the new smaller style property I want. It took me some time to work that out today so I’m asking our in house IT chap (about whom I often despair if I’m honest) to change the order reporting so that I can find out the square metreage of the site we’ve taken on. You’d think it was obvious, but we haven’t been recording this in the stats that I can readily used when looking at orders.

And then I want to work out why that is. Because I remain convinced that’s where our opportunity is right now. So why are people pitching elsewhere? Might we win more if we looked where I want?

I don’t know. But I think that’s the sort of question I need to ask.

* * *

In April the CEO finally got his whole team in place, and his mind turned to acquisitions and expansion, again.

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