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CEO's Diary: Easy riders
The CEO's team seem to have their foot off the pedal when it comes to billing
January 31 – Everyone here is suddenly aware that we’re a month away from our year end.
I’m also aware that most are on their targets and so performance related bonuses are in the bag. The net result is we have a shortage of billing forecast for February right now. There’s a marked feeling that March is somehow going to be a great first month of the new year.
Funny that. Time to get the management team to think cash flow, I think.
* * *
January 29 – actually, it’s almost January 30.
It’s been another exciting day. One such excitement was confirmation that West is looking to leave – although I’m not sure he will be pleased with the agency that called me for a telephone reference without his apparent consent. I’d be furious. Since I didn’t have his agreement either, I declined, but also indicated that if he had consented the reference would be favourable. That’s fair. He worked well for Ops. He’s not liked his departure or the changes I’ve made. He needn’t be penalised for that.
Then I noted with interest the suggestion here that I do an MBO. That added to the interest in the planning and I did mull on it. But seriously, why do it? I have shareholders who are Ok (ish). They don’t cause too much grief. They don’t leave me strapped for cash. They do like profit, but don’t squeeze the pips. They allow me room for manoeuvre. What more do I want?
The balance sheet here is light on debt, but even so could not be leveraged enough to buy this place out, I am sure, especially if the cash were stripped first. So I’d need funds. That’s likely to be privet equity. Do I want that? Screw all costs? Sweat all assets, including me. Put my house on the line? Be alienated form my people. Have people on the board who could be worse than the current crew? No thanks.
And anyway, do I want to do this forever? I’ve never had a job for more than five years before. This one pays well, I admit, and I enjoy it. But am I ready to walk away form an exit if I really want it? I’m not sure. And I’ve already been here well over 3 years.
Time to sleep on that one.
PS Friday's bash was really good. Christmas in January may not be so mad afterall.
* * *
January 26 - Who stole my week? Come on: own up. I thought this was going to be an OK week, and shucks, it's Friday night. I've got to go. My wife's got a work do. I'm amazed that some people want to celebrate Christmas in January, but apparently that's what tbis is (note my enthusiasm, not helped by the fact that I'm bound to be driving). And I'm just running away with ideas on planning.
Actually we all are.
The outcome of the sales work is a target of more than 15% growth - and that's on top of absorbing Newc's crowd. This poses real issues.
East's now looking at fixed costs and doing a plan on what we might need, just so we're aware of the issues we'll need to face.
Office is doing a training plan. And sorting an admin strategy. We don't want to pile on overhead at the same rate, although it's easy to do. This requires thinking.
#3 has a plan to cut the fixed cost of accounting. Some more automation, some reduction in handling (paying all small bills by return, for example) and we're being realistic: payroll processing is going out entirely so we just concentrate on gross pay issues. It's not worth our while keeping that expertise in house.
Newc is putting together his estimated costs. I'm looking over it all and making sure we are focussed on the aim, a high quality increase in earnings. That's what I'm telling the shareholders.
Now, I've got to clear out of here.
* * *
January 25 - Dear Diary, what a day it’s been. Woke up too late, wasn’t where I should have been.
Ok, not that bad (except that I think the above reveals me old enough to have been a Moody Blues fan once upon a time). But bad enough to mean that the only spare words I’ve got today are going into writing the justification to the shareholders for what we’re doing on the budget.
* * *
January 24 – Met West. He had no choice but talk. I was in his car, going to a meeting.
He acted as bag carrier at the meeting. That’s not my style. If I go with someone I give them the space to talk about their contribution. I sell teams, not me. I was not impressed.
On the way back I said so. I was direct. I asked what was wrong. I asked if there were issues I needed to be aware of affecting his performance. He said there were none. I took him back in to discuss what Newc and East (both his seniors now) have been doing on setting priorities and asked his view of it.
I got little response. So I made clear. He has to buck up his ideas or he will be at risk of a warning. I noted that on his file. His indifference suggests he really does want out.
I hope someone wants him. The I can have my dream team (OK – I know no team stays like that for long, but I can hope).
* * *
January 23 – East and #3 did deliver the sales plan, and we’ve now spent ages refining it. Not that there was anything wrong with what they did, but we wanted to make this a real plan.
What they did was look at all the existing contracts and assessed how likely it was we’ll keep them. East has given each major contract a risk assessment as a result so that people know what they’re meant to work on keeping. We want to link retention to bonuses. This will help.
Then he looked at the chance of upgrade selling to all major existing customers, and again has ranked the chances on each, and the hoped for value. This is also going to be part of the plan. Allocating probabilities to values results in a sales value.
For all this business direct costs have been calculated. So we have a ‘likely contribution margin’.
That was a great start. Then we looked at our capacity to sell new stuff. Newc joined in this debate. I’d have loved West to have done, but he’s showing no enthusiasm now so I left him out. I fear he may simply take the knowledge elsewhere. So we looked at the market, looked at major players, looked at who had them now, and have begun to work on a ‘hit list’. This will be ongoing with Newc and East, plus me. Then we checked we could actually do the planned volume of new work, or at least what stress it would cause. This was done by simply ‘flexing’ the plan and seeing what likely direct cost, which can be turned into the critical number of people equivalents that might be required depending on when things happened. Planning a sales bulge is OK only if we can deliver, I think. That concentrated the mind somewhat. Big owners of smaller units are our target. That gives us most new targets with maximum flexibility on roll out programmes.
And we changed the spreadsheets (yes, this is spreadsheet stuff) to ensure critical forecast data on things like people required as well as cash pressure is shown.
I’m not saying we’ve cracked all this. But this work has helped us identify our priorities in our existing client base both for retention and selling and given us a focus for new selling, and a list of those we might specifically target, based in part on the fact that we have some idea that what we offer is likely to be better than what we think they might be getting now.
This is business intelligence at work. At the end of it we agreed that Newc might need to manage a researcher to gather this gen for us on a regular basis. We’re still working on the student analysis from last summer and what we just know. But if we’re going to add value investment in this might be key.
The result in budgeting terms is a range of values, all of which can be tested in the cash flow, plus clear and communicable priorities. The latter seem so much more important than a budget.
I think we all felt well pleased with this. It’s been hard work, but fun. The team are motivated by it. Bar West. I’m going to talk to him.
* * *
January 22 - I probably shouldn't mention this, but I spent the weekend doing my tax return (and my wife's). I know, I should be more efficient. But even I have a phobia about such tasks. It really would make no difference when the deadline was for submission - I'd still leave it to the last minute.
The good news is it makes work seem positively welcome.
* * *
January 19 - Newc came to see me. He's trialled a couple of meetings with clients to see what would happen if we asked them about what we do and how we can improve it. He's excited by it. The reason is simple. It seemed that he'd stumbled more by chance than anything else into discussion about how we report. This is based on reception of our new report based product, which is sent as a PDF email attachment and by snail mail (because our people don't believe customers can print things). But what he found was that neither really works, although customers really value the reporting process. What they don't want is the responsibility of filing the resulting reports.
So he'd mused on this and suggested to a customer that instead of sending the reports we would simply create a file of such reports for them on our web site, with them having password controlled access to them whenever they desired. We'd send them an email telling them if there was nothing of concern on a periodic basis, in which case they had no further action to take, or if there were issues of some concern but which did not require immediate action, or if immediate action was required, in which case we'd also call them. In that case we’d also highlight the reasons for concern and the necessary required action in a mail, with full details in the report still.
This was received with some considerable enthusiasm by the customer in question. It basically means they have a quality recording system and have to do nothing to create it. And the onus of shouting falls on us if we find problems, as would logically seem to be the case anyway.
I wanted to bounce this on the team at large. Following advice offered here, I changed the venue for this Friday's lunch to a local restaurant. This was not a success. No one could agree on what they wanted to eat. But between gripes about that the reporting web site idea was received with interest. Office and Newc are going to explore it. The potential for cost saving whilst appearing to offer higher quality service appears good.
We also wondered whether similar one to one conversations weren't the basis for continuing this review. If they can produce ideas like this they might be.
A good week.
* * *
January 18 - West had another mysterious departure today. Office reported to me that no one knew where he was and he could not be raised.
It feels like Ops, but I'm just hoping he's job hunting.
I confess I ignored it and instead took his #2 with me to see our main supplier of kit. I asked for a meeting to do no more than find out where they are going with their kit, what we should expect and when and what supply deal they were willing to offer us for the coming year. There's good reason for taking a 'real' user who goes out and about on such trips. He knows the issues better than I can.
And he proved his worth. To be candid they're not offering major technical advances at the moment, although on cost they can give us small wins. What they did accept was the need to have these meetings more often. West's #2 raised several niggles with them which appear to have been bugging our people for a while, but of which they appeared unaware.
They've agreed to work on them, and I delegated the follow up to him on condition he reported direct to me, cc to West and East. It's good for his morale. I think it may pay us.
I was pleased.
PS Thanks for comments on Vista. My IT guy was as cautious as one respondent predicted. He says stick with XP but let's do 2 things. buy one box o look at Vista and see what it offers. Fair do. I can live with that. we can always load the standard configuration of we don't like it. He's also asked to trial Office 2007. He thinks this might offer real productivity gains. I'm a sucker. I want to try that. You know what I said.
But it's XP for the rest.
Comments on 2007 also appreciated.
* * *
January 17 - I mentioned only yesterday the issues we face in the systems we operate. Today came a small example. It may be trivial, but it's important. We need a batch of new PCs. Nothing unusual there. Except that Windows Vista is now available.
I'm assured we have no reason to load Vista. We can stick to XP. But am I missing an opportunity by refusing the upgrade?
I don't know. I've asked my IT person to find out, quickly, but the reality is he's a techy so his heart will say yes and he'll read reviews in PC magazines to prepare his report, and they're biased as they have to promote change. That's what their advertisers want.
So what the heck do we do? I'm not convinced because it seems to me that few people here push technology at all hard (in fact we've some who still insist that PCs are typewriters and try to lay documents out using carriage return and tabs, and believe me; we've tried to train them ) so why buy lots of new kit?
But is this a short term view and will I regret this? Answers on the comments form right below please. Because I haven't got long to say yea or nay and this sort of issue requires my signature.
* * *
January 16 – Since being CEO I’ve out quite a lot of effort into sales. We have pretty much created a new product (well, alright, a variation on our existing product to suit a new market we have not previously tackled) and we’ve trialled this and found both interest and real sales. I’ve also met a fair number of key customers and got to know our people better. We’ve done one takeover, and it’s integrating well. The management team has been rebuilt and bar one member (who is expendable) they seem happy with the outcome, and so I guess I should be happy with progress to date.
But I’m not sure I am and I guess hat this is part of this job. I’ve realised that if ever I become content then it will be time to hand things over. I’m incredibly keen for Newc to hit our marketing hard, because I’m not satisfied with it. I’m also unsure we’re using the right technology still. We ran into problems with this some time back (is it two year’s now?) when the supplier of the kit on which we were reliant ran into a financial crisis and we had to rethink how we worked as a result. We got away with that, although not without some stress. But two years on we have not innovated much more and yet technology is moving apace. Could we make further progress? I don’t know, and think it’s time I asked.
The same is true of the organisation as a whole. I do wonder whether what we’re doing internally is good enough. I’m just not sure we’re using technology as well as we might to achieve our aims. I have no idea what that means right now. But I read about internet telephony, and know we’re not doing it. I’m not sure out people out and about are well enough served by the kit they have. I wonder whether there’s more to do on our internal systems.
That’s what I mean about this job. It’s the sense of dissatisfaction that drives me to ask questions to which I don’t know the answers. I love that. So different from preparing management accounts to a deadline.
* * *
January 15 – Met with East and #3 today to discuss sales forecasts and building them into the overall ‘budget’. This is not a ‘budget’ as such because we accept that it will change. It is instead where we are intending to use to coordinate the plans that various people produce to make sure that they make sense overall and that cash flow stays on track.
I originally thought I would create this. I think I’m wrong to have thought that. I’ve mentioned East and #3 have been working hard on building a variable sales model, so that different types of sales have different associated variable costs attached to them. We can work these out. This can generate a ‘contribution margin’. We then have a pile of costs which are conventionally charged to costs of sales but which are really semi fixed. In reality as we have our own fleet of vehicles this includes their cost, bar running variables, and it also includes supervision labour, the costs of stock holding and running stores and so on. These are being separately estimated to make sure we recognise their less flexible nature before GP is struck. Only then are overheads allowed for.
We haven’t looked at things like this before, but it makes complete sense to do so. It took a while to get here and agree how to do this, but having done so a log-jam between #3 and East was cleared and I reckon there is a good chance they can do most of the work on this now. So I’m going to steer clear until they come back with it. They’ve agreed to do so in a week.
I can’t tell you how good that feels.
* * *
January 12 - I am amazed. The police have arrested someone for the paint lobbing. I know I shouldn't say that, but it isn't what I expected to happen. CCTV is useful after all. That, and the fact that they spent ages working on the paint tins before they were removed from the site to assess forensic evidence (including my finger prints on at least one).
Progress with #3 too. She asked to see me and all was as unstressed as yesterday was not. I'll just remain perplexed on that one and ignore the issue.
What I couldn't ignore was Newc landing a first big order in the north - which is quite amazing I think given how little time he has been with us. Someone Ops had mentioned but said was not interested in upgrading their system was when Newc worked on them. He couldn't be at lunch today - he was still up there. But I was effusive. Now I've given him the real problem - recruit his replacement.
Actually, I think he's got ideas on that which he hasn't shared. I think this is another of those things I'm having to learn about being CEO. Sometimes people have to be allowed to run their own agendas, and you must have the confidence in them to let them do so. It doesn't reduce my stress as yet, but I think it's the right thing to do.
Well, with everyone but West that is, who managed to leave the office shortly before lunch today so he did not have to go to the pub. Now if he was off to an interview, I really would not mind.
* * *
January 11 - Management is about second guessing, I think. Who is in a good mood? Who is not? Who will buy? When to pitch? When to quit? How much risk to take? Who to upset?
I upset #3 today. We were going through the management accounts. A routine occurrence over the last few months, and as far as I know I managed it no differently. Or maybe the fact that I knew she and East had been working on cost allocation made me think she had insights that just aren't there. Whatever it was, it seemed I pushed my questioning too hard and she got annoyed when I pressed for more interpretation than she felt able to give. For a moment I thought she was going to blow a wobbly on me. Actually, I'm sure she was. Second guessing paid. I called a break. I've no idea what was up, and Office has been out at meetings and so cannot give me a view on this (for which she is invaluable being apparently aware of everything that is happening everywhere without ever appearing indiscrete) but at the last moment I think I got this one right.
* * *
January 10 - The paint lobbers returned last night, but temporary sheeting proved its worth. As did some juggling of where the vans are parked. A couple of cans came over the wall, both nicely filmed by CCTV this time though, and both hit the ground. The odd splashes on one van were inconsequential when compared with what the average van driver can do to a vehicle in the course of a normal working day. And the police now have a bit more to work on. What annoyed me was that the images looked as if they weren't kids.
I, meanwhile, have had to return to the road. There's business to be won and very slowly the world seems to be re-awakening to the realisation that the Christmas break is over. About time! I was at one of my own main customers today, with East's #2 who manages the day to day issues on the job (I appreciate these opportunities to work with the next tier down). This lot are marked as a real target for 2007 because they have some of the smaller sites we now want.
I wish I could say it went well, but to be candid if I was seeking to demonstrate my ability to close a situation today, I failed. The best I can say is that we generated interest. I suppose it's a start.
* * *
January 9 - East is forging ahead with his sales planning. He's working hard with #3, who's making it clear to him that he has to take different margins on different types of activity into account and I hear rumour this is now giving rise to some serious questioning on cost allocation which I'm sticking clear of, but am interested in hearing about if resolved. Newc is also a man possessed, doing more miles than I am sure is reasonable, but is seeking to cover the north, help on occasion with his old customers and plan for business development.
The last has lead to interesting discussion with me. We're trying to hone a question that summarises the whole customer survey process. So far the best we've come up with is 'what are your hopes for your relationship with us'? It's aspirational, seeks to look beyond what we actually do, puts the focus on their need, not our service and is short. Any comments welcome.
* * *
January 8 - The week did not start well. I got called out for a security alert in the middle of last night, being (unfortunately) the nearest senior key holder. Some friendly neighbourhood citizens took it upon themselves to redecorate some of our vans during the night by lobbing pots of stolen paint over the security fence around the yard, which as it's made of railings gave them the opportunity to admire their handiwork.
Five vans were hit in all. Three have quite impressive dents in the roof to go with colour schemes varying from a hint of blue to gloss red. A couple should just be capable of careful washing down. The rest will need serious bodywork before use. We can probably just cover this out of the usual slack we have in the fleet, but that's not the issue. I hate the pettiness of this sort of crime, and the immediate concern about how to ensure they aren't back tonight to have another go.
The immediate outcome of that is that we've been advised to line the railings so that people can't see into the yard. We'll put that in hand, but it's cost for such negative reason. I guess that's part of life.
* * *
January 5 - I've missed my old lunches with Ops. I know he became pain, but they were a good way of chewing over the events of the week, getting a feel for what needed to be done, and just knowing the man. So I'm suggesting that on Friday lunchtime all members of the management team who are in should go to the pub together. I don't enforce no alcohol, but I don't condone lunchtime drinking either, but that's not what this is about. It's a chance to share a meal with each other, be relaxed on occasion, and to talk as a group or in separate conversations about the things that are of concern to us.
I may be wrong, but I reckon this will be a better team building exercise than any amount of white water rafting.
* * *
January 4 - So, the initial results of the consultations on future roles are in.
East is ecstatic. Absolutely 'over the moon' about his promotion.
Newc is as happy, so long as he doesn't keep the North for long. He won't. He realises he could not be my deputy. I believe him. There's no problem there.
Office and #3 were both pleased to be given director titles - they clearly feel they're being treated fairly, especially as this puts them on a par with West. That's important to me.
And West? He's not happy. Not happy at all. He didn't say it. he didn't need to. But he asked why East had the deputy's job, why he had no strategic role and why he was on a par with Office and #3. I explained he was not being asked to do any more or less than before, but was being better rewarded for doing so. Others had been promoted. There was no reason why he might not be so in time.
But I'll be candid. he thinks I've given him an invitation to apply for a P45, and I'm sure he's going to take it. Although that was not my strict intent (in fact I hadn't really anticipated this) it's made one decision easier. I had wondered whether west's deputy should be offered the job in the north. I think that would be unwise. I think I'll need him in the West soon enough. I'll keep him happy with special projects for now, but we can't afford to lose our succession in that key area.
This means we're recruiting for the north after all. But that's a decision made. In the meantime, I'll expect less than full cooperation from just one member of the team. I guess that makes me luckier than many CEO's. I can live with it. For now.
* * *
January 3 - The best laid plans of men do not always work. Today I meant to start meeting people under the cover of budget discussions to actually discuss new roles and titles, as mentioned before Christmas. But yesterday afternoon my stomach and I entered into what can best be described as hostilities and I had to be taken home. This morning, weakened but at least upright I'm reduced to working from home.
The good news is I think I have resolved the titles issue, which I may not have done otherwise. The problem is always the support roles. What, for example is 'Office' to be called? I've decided that the reality is that just about everyone is going to be an 'operations director', so East will be deputy CEO and operations director, east of England, Newc will be business development director and operations director, north of England, West will be Operations director, west of England, #3 operations director, finance and Office will be operations director, head office. If the last two want to play around with the ordering a bit so Office is Head Office Operations director I won't mind, but the point is to stress each has a key role in delivery whilst some also have strategic responsibility. I think that's fair: the divide does exist. I want to recognise it.
Tomorrow, all being well, I'll start telling them.
What I do know is that the budget idea is popular - with everyone, including East, who I bounced it off, and #3, who thinks the idea a revelation and is keen on reporting alternatives. This last point I found very welcome. Maybe I am under-rating her, or she's maturing into her role. Either way, a discussion about how to report against key objectives without necessarily using a P & L format was not what I immediately expected. The omens are good!
* * *
January 2 - Taking time off is never good for me. I just think about things.
Take the budget. I've been agonising about why we have one, especially in a year when I feel pretty much unable to delegate much of the deatiled budget planing to those supposedly responsible for it. I had to fathom this.
The reasons are in fact obvious. We've been through a lot of change. We have an entire new company to absorb. Our situation in the north is uncertain. Most people are fairly new in their jobs. We're launching a new product range. Recent profit margins have caught us by surprise, but at least pleasantly. So, what's the use of a budget. How the heck can any of us know what will be happening a year hence? Would the process have any meaning?
I'm pretty sure it hasn't. The more I've thought about it the more I've decided against spending vast numbers of hours working on this with people. All I want to do instead is to set some targets. These will cover sales targets for existing and new markets, margins to be achieved by market, head count targets (including turnover) and indications of where planned increases might take place. There will also be some working capital targets e.g. debtor days, stock and WIP turn, and on creditors we're going out of our way to pay all smaller suppliers in the first payment batch following receipt of invoice (because we reckon it saves us time by not having to consider small payments twice and means 70% of suppliers will be very happy people, and they're often the ones who do favours for us at short notice). We also need a marketing plan, a capital expenditure programme and some clear thinking about where IT is going. Once that lot is covered though (all of which people can do without for a minute thinking its budgeting) what's the point of the rest? If phone costs aren't right, let's review the contract rather than guess what they might be next year, and so on.
The only problem is that the shareholder agreement requires a budget. I think though that I'll do this at high level. All the above plans need to be pulled together to make sure they're coherent, but I can do that (I want to do that still). And that will do as a budget. I just don't want people bogged down in what they think as an accounting issue when I actually want them to be planning what they;'re really going to do on the ground.
Is this just semantics? I don't think so. But I'll try it on the team and find out.
In December Ops left the company. The CEO's takeover was complete.
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Number of comments: 27
AccountingWEB.co.uk 31-Jan-2007
Categories: Business Features, CEO's Diary
Times read: 26234
by 4 user(s)
If people are lifting off the accelerator because they have hit their targets then the question is do you have the right bonus mechanism.
Bonuses are part of the operational controls.
I have come across issues where
- people who have met target or
- people who have no hope of hitting target
start to put deals aside ready for the new year.
One of the worst bonus structures I saw had a daily cap.
Sales staff who hit it would then trade any extra deals for the day to their colleagues for cash (OK - that was outside the UK). Since there were contractual reasons to know exactly who had sold what, this could have been a dinosaur killer!!
Perhaps you want every billing to count towards bonus calculation. Then there is every incentive to keep selling...
If you want to involve your sellers in making sure there is good support for the installation and make them the customers advocate within the company, you could also link bonus to cash collection (generally - customers who still want problems solved don't want to pay).
Depending on the nature of the business, linking bonus to cash can also make sure that sales are real sales - probably less of an issue in your company but I have been places where we had to solve problems with salesmen selling vapourware.
The CEO was a Deaf School fan back in his youth.
Great band. Wish my tape of thei first album still worked.
As for privet finance - I might copyright that!
Privet Equity? Is that some new type of hedge fund?
About 5 years ago, while I was still working in industry as FD of a privately owned group, I looked at the out source of payroll.
I felt that the danger was you out sourced the easy bit and were left with the problems. The problems we had were normally in coming to the gross pay, walk in questions from staff, and once a failed BACS batch due to wrong bank information on a starter!!
Also the rest of the board were hoping for a significant saving which was not there to be had. However, it would have delayed the need to add another member to the finance team.
One action that I used to take some of the stress out of payroll was to seperate the reimbursement of expenses from the payroll. We were then able to pay the expenses earlier in the month.
With both expenses and gross pay the problems were often branch manager related. One plus point for out source is that the deadlines are seen as externally imposed. This can aid the enforcement of them.
If you do out source your payroll you should ensure you use a service where they initiate the BACS batch for you. This avoids the need to have the correct people in the office on the correct day to run their swipe cards through the machine or however your BACS setup works.
No doubt long-standing readers of this diary (e.g. those who can remember why there is no #2 in the cast) will agree that the CEO has undoubtedly added a lot of value to the organisation. While not being very clear as to his package, I would think that the CEO should be thinking of a management buy-out at some stage.
The team is coming together nicely; the ex-CEO and ex-Mrs ex-CEO are not closely involved; they are eager to get cash; there is funding available out there; the business appears to have good prospects.
Why should the CEO not reap more of the benefits of his ideas, skills and general drive? I think he is entitled to more. As we say in Ireland: Fair play to him.
the forecasting that you describe would work well in the Cognos planning app, and I am sure there are other similar apps to evaluate. The power of this type of app is the flexibility to flex the forecasts, do what ifs, and generally play with the numbers, including "break back" from end to start. Perhaps (apart from the cost of the app) the downside is that you have to develop the models, but that is also a cost in Excel, and the upside is you get a more reliable model. maybe worth a look see?
You know your team feel comfortable in the pub and the chemistry wasn't quite right in the restaurant. On the other hand you want to ensure the team can talk freely without being intruded on by other staff.
Does the pub have a function room?
I was sory to hear that the restaurant idea was not a hit. I still think it is a better option than the pub. Maybe a different venue next time. I may also be change if they are more comfortable in the pub.
Thanks to everyone who's contributed to the Windows Vista debate - there seems to be a pretty strong consensus to wait and see what happens before considering an accross-the-board upgrade.
In an opinion piece that AccountingWEB has just published, Alan Wright is even more anti-Vista.
I take on board Peter Ibbotson's warning of "backwards compatibility hell", but given the way the week panned out, I think the CEO and his IT colleague are right to look into the potential of Office 2007 (which presumably would come bundled at an advantageous price on a new PC with Windows Vista).
The idea of serving up performance data to web portals from internal systems is something that is being written into Excel 2007 (so long as the CEO's company also has the foresight to run its systems on top of Microsoft SQL Server).
Recent articles in ExcelZone have highlighted the potential for tools in Excel 2007 to connect to SQL Server databases and the SharePoint Server web portal tool. There will be some tinkering required - and more investment in Microsoft software - but theoretically, at least, the equipment is there to deliver what Newc is suggesting.
However the development, roll out, training and maintenance around a project like this is a completely different challenge to upgrading your office PCs - and one which the CEO and his team will need to consider in real depth. One of the comments Alan Wright makes in his article is about "so-called production systems... hacked by together using elements of Microsoft Office". Such "applications" tend to be poorly written, he argues, and inevitably become a major maintenance headache.
John Stokdyk
Technology editor
AccountingWEB.co.uk
Vista currently is running as my main OS (I was on the beta) BUT for business use I wouldn't bother just yet. Too many bits of packaged software won't work correctly just yet, mostly this is because by default the users account is locked down and a lot of software just hasn't been tested yet in this sort of environment (Microsofts main development tool Visual Studio still has minor problems with some of these issues).
I suspect we'll be looking at six months of backwards compatibility hell before developers get their heads around the changes Microsoft have made for compatibility purposes.
However if you have already setup a windows domain with locked down user security you already have done most of the work and the upgrade would be worth looking at because it closes down some other security holes.
For home users who want to:
a) browse the web, send emails etc
b) Do simple wordprocessing and spreadsheet work
and don't want to run the latest games it is a MUCH superior environment in terms of security and if you are buying a PC today I would recommend it (If you can afford 2GB do so, it will run in 1GB but it's happier with 2GB)
Whilst not generally working on IT issues for my clients I can comment on Star Office. Like the previous post I too have recently installed it at home and my wife son and I all use it quite happily. It is a free system [at least for home users - I'm not sure re company installation] is robust and will run either on Linux or Windows. In a previous job I installed Star on a number of new PCs that were networked on NT and where existing machines ran Office and all ran Lotus Notes. I didn't encounter any problems.
I would suggest that you download and test a copy of Star office and of Foxedit [an alternative to Adobe acrobat] and compare it to Office 2007. You may be pleasantly surprised.
There are several questions to be answered before you should feel comfortable switching to Vista.
These range from how stable will the early releases be (and the Vista version of MS office) through to how secure will it be against viruses (the way it handles security is very different to previous versions of windows - anti-virus products will need new strategies). I would let the product bed down first rather than being an early adopter.
As a separate (and possibly controversial) question, you could also consider do you want to be a Microsft user? Have you looked at Linux as a low cost and effective alternative? I installed Linux and Star Office on a home PC and my wife and kids (previously windows users) took to it with no problems.
I think what you really need to assess is how often to upgrade your systems from what you sell to the hardware in the office. Is your current kit on site working according to ME , XP protocols? Does it work well on this? When are contracts due to expire and systems upgraded at site? Can these events be tied in to a company wide system upgrade for example if majority of site kit system upgrades are due to occur in 2008 can you not upgrade all your IT kit at the same time. Hence you have seemless ( I hope) integration of new technologies and not a potpurri of systems.
You may need to upgrade every 5 years or so, company wide but it would mean you are cutting edge in terms of Information Technology which is what I believe you are asking.
To answer your specific question, no do not upgrade to Vista just yet.
Don't go on to Vista until it's established. I'd also be very surprised if your IT guy wanted to do it, given how new Vista is. In my experience the average IT guy is more risk averse than the average accountant.
which means it will probably be buggy. If you are going to switch you should make make sure that all of your existing software will work with it, and that there are no problems with running Vista and XP side by side, in your environment. Until you have this assurance I would stick with XP SP2.
I understand that Vista requires a higher PC spec than XP, with a particular focus on the graphics card - to my mind this means that it will run slower than XP on the same kit, but on the other hand I don't think this was true between ME and XP or 2000 and XP.
You should expect problems if you have a network and a mixture of XP and Vista workstations. I would want positive confirmation of no problems.
What will the impact be on support? If you outsource then you should take the advice of your supplier.
You are clear that there are no pressing business requirement that force an upgrade, so you could viably do nothing.
You would probably do best to buy new kit that will run Vista but with XP SP2 installed, and work to an upgrade to all your kit when you have got through the replacement cycle, and confirmed that all your kit will run it, and it will run all of your systems.
It looks like you are now getting more comfortable with the role as CEO.
You are asking the hard questions and not just sailing the ship in the direction it was set.
It may be a can of worms that you open up - but sometimes that is the exciting side of the role.
Expect the unexpected.
surely, it had to be Ops Revenge!
it looks like industrial sabotage to me
i would be interest to hear CEO's comments on the Statoil 'no budget' debate as noted below
Given that it's not just kids, and that they have tried again even though they can't now see what they are achieving, has it occurred to you that there might be a connection between the person you sacked for racism last month and the vandlaism that you are suffering this month?
I must say I agree with John & Steve, my advice would be stear clear of the Pub and chose a restaurant if possible.
It doesn't take the alcohol away, but gives a better impression to both the group going and the staff whom are not.
You may also want to consider what impact this may have on those members of staff whom do not get to go with you on a Friday.
Although they may not be part of your senior management team, I tend to look at what the impact of a jesture like this has on those not involved.
Is it possible to have a "working lunch" in the office with some outside catereres. You then take away the alcohol issue (Assuming there is no alcohol on site) and it looks like businees as usual and not something for those in "higher places"
Just a thought !
I had just finished reading the statoil article at the top of the newswire and it does seem quite relevant to what you are envisaging. Looking for alternative methods may also identify any "game playing" as a result of budget related incentive schemes.
I think that Stevie Smith's point is relevant and that you may need to stress that it is a management team meeting held over lunchtime and not just "a group of us down the pub". Are there any suitable small restaurants within reach?
like this is that a) you might not like the answers, and b) you may make them start to think about what you provide them with, which may then lead into where else they could get it. Rather then survey them, why not try for a more informal (but scripted) approach during routine visits
This is only a knee jerk response but the question you pose sounds a bit 'managerial speak' and therefore insincere (I don't doubt your sincerity).
Might 'what do you want from us' sound more down to earth, inviting and more demonstrative of a purely customer focussed approach.
the usual slack we have in the fleet
..... but what if other members of staff want to join you?
If you're not going to place a great deal of emphasis on budget preparation then why not use it as a training ground for your Director of Finance?
This way you can also get used to the review aspect of the budget, which is entirely different from preparing it yourself.
You can use the budget as an objective for your DoF. Are her GP%, overhead, cashflow and working capital assumptions correct? Let her prepare it and then constructively use the outcome as experience for her as well as questioning your own perceptions of the finances of the business.
And of course next year she will hit the ground running. What will you be doing in twelve months? Will you be able to hold her hand through the process? No-one knows these answers but I bet you'll be busier than you are now. I'll also wager that you'll have let go of the Finance Department a little more. I hope so anyway - otherwise something will have gone astray.
Focussing on absolute performance in key areas, rather than variances to budget, is a good way of keeping your managers minds where they should be in changing circumstances
The only caveat (and this may well not apply in your business) is that a trad budget is often needed as the basis of a cashflow forecast, that could reveal pinch points (especially in a more seasonal business).
If you can persuade the owners to keep enough cash in reserves to cover contingencies, then hooray!
(I am well aware that I am teaching Egg Sucking for Beginners here. You have this under control, I am sure)
Good luck and Happy New Year
