Resources | Blogs, News, and Insights

If you listened to Episode 6 of Decision Associates’ “The Aha Moment” podcast, you heard us reference a list of questions to ask potential employers during your interview(s) to give you a better sense of the organizational culture to help you determine if the culture that exists aligns with what you’re looking for. Here’s that list of questions that includes some context on why you should ask them…

What was the last change that was implemented as a direct result of employee feedback? Here you’re looking for signs that this is a psychologically safe workplace. Do they listen to the feedback given by the people executing the work or is it just lip service – they hear feedback but do nothing with it?
What’s something the person in this role could do within the first few months that would have the most impact? With this one, you’re looking to gain an understanding of what early wins they’re looking for in this role. If you go in understanding what they consider “success” to look like, you’re taking the guesswork out of determining what they’re looking for this person to accomplish.
Think about people in this role in the past – what differentiated the good from the great? This can be beneficial for a couple of reasons, one, it helps you understand what the hiring manager is prioritizing as most important for the person in this role, and two, it helps you determine if what they define as “great” is something you want to do/are capable of doing (i.e if they say “great” is doing whatever it takes to get the job done, including working longer hours in a role that’s salaried and you aren’t willing or able to do that, it isn’t the right role for you).
Can you share a story of a situation where you directly saw the organization’s core values at work? This one’s simple – do they actually live out their core values or are they just flashy words on their website?
If I were to be hired for this role, what does the pre-boarding/onboarding process look like? You’re looking for two things here – structure and intention. Do they put effort into making sure your experience before you even set foot through the door is positive or does it all seem like an afterthought?
If you could snap your fingers and solve one problem here (money, time, people-power are no object), what would it be? With this question, you’re getting them to speak about their organization’s “cracks.” Just like no person is perfect, no organization is perfect. Employers tend to paint a very rosy picture of their organization during the interview process, this helps you learn a bit about what isn’t working and determine if that’s a deal breaker for you.
If I were to ask an employee, “what’s it like to work here,” what would they say? This question is important for two reasons, one, it gives you insight into the organization’s culture from the perspective of the people who live it every day and two, it gives you the opportunity to determine how much of a disconnect exists between the team and the leadership of the organization. If you do know someone who works there, ask them what it’s like to work there and compare the two answers.
What are some personality traits that work well here? This is a simple one to help you identify what characteristics they’re looking for in their team members. It gives you insight into what’s important to them and if that aligns with what’s important to you.
What do you do when there’s more work to be done than time to do it? This is an issue that most organizations have at one time or another (for some it’s a constant) so asking this question will give insight into priorities – Is it an all hands on deck daily firefighting mission at any cost or is it a recognition that this is bound to happen and when it does, you shuffle priorities as needed and trust that if the work can’t get done now, it will get done later?
Tell me about the last professional development or continuing education opportunity you were part of. How did it come about — was it something you pursued personally, or part of a broader effort the company supports? This one is a must-ask especially if professional development/continuous learning is a priority for you. Their answer will tell you if continuous education is a focus that is supported by the organization as a whole or if you’ll be expected to seek out those opportunities on your own (which also sometimes indicates you’d also be expected to cover the cost on your own).

BONUS QUESTION!

Tell me about someone who’s grown into a new role or has taken on more responsibility here? How did that opportunity come about? We couldn’t finish this list without asking about upward (or even lateral) growth potential! If internal movement is something you’re interested in, ask this question to learn if career pathing is something they participate in and whether or not they look to their existing team to help fill gaps when needed.

It’s amazing what can happen when you step away from the office and refocus on what really matters: teamwork, collaboration, and shared goals. We had the opportunity to facilitate a retreat day for the team at Networking Technologies that included the perfect blend of strategy, connection, and fun.

The team got to participate in various mental and physical activities, take a deep dive into their individual and team Predictive Index results, and enjoy intensional time of mindfulness and mediation.

Wendy DeArment, Chief Operating Officer shared her experience with us:

Explain who you are, the position you hold, and the company you’re with.
My name is Wendy DeArment and I am the Chief Operating Officer at Networking Technologies, LLC. I have been with Networking Technologies since May 1, 2007 in various positions. My last position prior to COO was Director of Operations, in which I oversaw the day-to-day operations of the business making sure our teams work together. Today, as COO, I still am responsible for our operations, as well as leading our Executive Leadership team. I work closely with the CEO almost daily. For those familiar with the Entrepreneurial Operating System, I am our EOS Integrator, making sure everyone is following our core processes and ensure all key messages are properly cascaded to the rest of the organization.
Explain a little about the training program itself. The format, was it interactive, how it engaged the participants with the material being learned, etc.
I thought the training program was very engaging and interactive, compared to some that are more information providing. Throughout the day, there were questions to answer, activities to perform, feedback to give. It was not boring. Wrapping this around our organization’s core values and utilizing the Predictive Index assessments was very important and helpful.
From your perspective, what was the value of engaging with a third-party provider to facilitate the training program versus doing it in-house?
When you work with a third-party provider, they are unbiased towards the employees. They don’t come into the program with preconceived thoughts on how it’s going to go, or who needs pulled out of their shell to participate. Everyone is treated the same way, with the same expectations and the same experience. Also, this saves us time from having to come up with ideas on team building, etc.
How did the incorporation of Predictive Index enhance your retreat experience? What did the results teach you about yourself and your fellow coworkers?
Since we use the Predictive Index (PI) assessments as part of our hiring process, it was great to see how accurate the results were for every individual in our company. Reading through the results gives me an idea on how to approach each person on our leadership team, how to more effectively communicate with them, and how we can build better teams based on the team results and each person’s PI. Going through the team building scenarios, one with like-minded individuals and the other with at least one person from each quadrant really put into perspective how well we can work together and what brings the best results.
How did Decision Associates’ leadership training differ from other programs you have been a part of elsewhere in the past?
This one felt it was really tailored to our company and our needs. It was more interactive throughout the entire day, not just the second half of the day.
What positive changes have you witnessed in your fellow participants after having completed the training sessions?
Even as of last week, PI results were brought up and mentioned in conversation when talking about putting a team together (not by the Leadership Team either). Also, the meditation aspect had an impact as that also came up last week where we were talking about clarity breaks and coming back refreshed.
One of Decision Associates’ core values is continuous improvement. Describe a concept or skill you learned in Leadership Academy that has positively improved your current position, your organization, and/or your relationships with peers.
Being able to reference everyone’s PI’s when I am thinking about communications, or we are trying to build teams for specific projects within our organization has been helpful. Another concept I am trying to focus on is the meditation piece. I know I need to slow down a moment, take that break so I can come back refreshed and ready to go, but this will take practice.
What would you say to the leader of an organization who is considering Decision Associates’ as a leadership training partner?
This is worth the investment. It saves you time and energy from creating your own program, it’s tailored to your organization and the needs of your organization, and your employees will be more willing to participate.

We recently partnered alongside the folks at American Tinning and Galvanizing in Erie, PA to walk them through a multi-generational family ownership transition.

Hear from Robin Scheppner, third-generation family member and President of American Tinning and Galvanizing, talk about her experience working with Decision Associates’ succession planning team of advisors.

Explain who you are, the position you hold, and the company you’re with.

My name is Robin Scheppner and I am a third-generation, fifth family member to be President/CEO of American Tinning & Galvanizing Co. I am also a majority stockholder in the organization.

Explain the initial challenge your organization was facing when you first decided to work with Decision Associates.

We initially sought out Decision Associates to help find and/or elevate our current staff to succeed our owner in leading the company and to also prepare for my retirement.

What made you choose Decision Associates as your succession partner? How did Decision Associates’ process align with and meet your organization’s needs?

Decision Associates was actually referred to me by a good friend and local business owner. Right from the beginning, DA demonstrated an accurate grasp of our strengths and weaknesses and was able to help us focus on the actions we needed for change and structural growth.

Describe the value that Decision Associates brought in terms of accountability and facilitation.

Both Terry and Aaron are excellent listeners and really paid attention to our individual concerns and fears. They were very skillful (but gentle) in helping us see the shortcomings of how we were operating and putting us on a better path.

Many organizations try succession planning on their own. How did Decision Associates aid in the succession planning process at your company that you feel you couldn’t have achieved on your own.

Well, that’s just it: we were trying it on our own. I was beginning to step back from my leadership role but nothing below me was really changing or evolving. It took DA’s objective encouragement and coaching to foster the change in attitudes we needed to proceed.

What are the first words that come to mind when you think of Decision Associates?

Competent, knowledgeable and experienced.

One of Decision Associates’ core values is commitment to building long-standing relationships with our clients. Describe your current relationship with Decision Associates.

“Long standing”! They check in on us periodically and show a sincere interest in our progress. I could call them anytime for a refresher.

What would you say to the leader of an organization who is considering Decision Associates as their succession planning partner?

Go for it! Their help is worth every penny!

We believe one of the most powerful investments you can make is in yourself. We understand that it can be lonely at the top and that having a coach whose “been there, done that” before is extremely valuable.

We recently partnered alongside Lesley Ridge Allen, Vice President of Communications, Marketing, and Enrollment for the Erie Catholic School System, to provide her with a personalized coaching experience.

Read her full experience below!

1. Explain who you are, the position you hold, and the company you’re with.

I am the Vice President of Communications, Marketing, and Enrollment for the Erie Catholic School Systems. Our organization includes six K-8 schools in Erie County, Pennsylvania, and my role involves creating unified strategies to enhance communications, marketing, and student enrollment across the system.

2. Explain a little about the coaching program itself. The format, the tools that were used, the atmosphere created, etc.

The coaching program I participated in through Decision Associates was flexible, using a combination of virtual and in-person meetings, as well as other communication tools like Marco Polo to keep us connected and accountable. The atmosphere was supportive and collaborative, which created a conducive environment for growth and reflection.

3. From your perspective, what was the value of engaging with a third-party provider to facilitate your coaching versus doing it in-house?

Engaging with a third-party provider like Decision Associates offered an external perspective that was unbiased and insightful. It also allowed me to step outside of my immediate work environment and dedicate focused time to leadership development, which would have been harder to do internally. The objective nature of third-party coaching helped me explore areas for growth that I may have overlooked in an in-house setting.

4. How did Decision Associates’ individual coaching program differ from others that you have been a part of elsewhere or have looked at engaging with in the past?

Decision Associates’ individual coaching program stood out to me compared to others I have considered due to its emphasis on truly understanding my root experiences and working towards meaningful behavioral change. Elizabeth’s approach was highly personalized, and her accessibility and insight were key differentiators, making the coaching feel less like a structured program and more like a deep personal journey.

5. What positive changes have your witnessed in yourself since beginning individual leadership coaching sessions?

Since beginning individual leadership coaching, I have seen significant improvements in my clarity of purpose, which has translated into more effective decision-making and confidence in my leadership. It also helped me identify areas for personal growth that directly contribute to my ability to lead with empathy and understanding, ultimately creating a stronger foundation for success in my role.

6. What has been the biggest take away from your coaching sessions that has made the most positive impact on your leadership communication skills and career potential?

The biggest takeaway from my coaching sessions has been understanding how my past experiences influence my current behavior. This self-awareness has had a tremendous impact on my communication skills, allowing me to be more authentic and intentional, which has not only improved my professional relationships but has also opened up new opportunities for my career growth.

7. One of Decision Associates’ core values is commitment to long-last relationships. Describe your current relationship with Decision Associates.

My current relationship with Decision Associates is one of trust and continuity. Elizabeth is someone I feel I can reach out to for guidance whenever I need it. Her commitment to my growth goes beyond our formal coaching sessions – it’s clear that the long-lasting relationship is a core value for her, which makes me confident in the ongoing support I receive.

8. What would you say the leader of an organization who is considering Decision Associates as his or her individual leadership coaching partner?

To a leader considering Decision Associates as a coaching partner, I would say that working with them will help you uncover deeper insights into yourself as a leader and empower you to make transformative changes that positively impact your team and organization. The personalized approach, combined with Elizabeth’s expertise, makes it an incredibly valuable investment in your personal and professional development.

By: Emma Steele

As our world continues to chase down efficiency and higher productivity, it is important to pause and assess how we plan to use these tools responsibly. Artificial intelligence (AI) is actively transforming the way organizations do business and without ethical clarity, it could result in transformation for the worse.

Let’s discuss how what AI is, how it is being used in, and evaluate it from an ethical perspective.

Understand AI

At the core, AI is a network of computer systems designed to solve problems in a way that mimics human reasoning. These computer systems must initially be taught by humans, which allows it to think and make informed decisions on its own. Over time, AI can continually improve itself by learning from data and experiences. This is called machine and deep learning.

Ethics and Issues To Be Aware Of

With any new technology comes a learning journey and considering potential risks. Ethical missteps can have irreversible impacts on your organization, its client-base, and the industry.

Privacy: AI thrives off of data. The more data it has, the more accurate it is going to be. Because of this insatiable data-hunger, invasion of privacy becomes a big challenge to navigate. User consent has a opportunity to become unclear or more easily muddled. Trust is what maintains a clientele base. Without it, there is no business. Holding your organization to the utmost standards of protecting its clients’ confidentiality and private information is not only essential, but illegal to do otherwise.

Bias and Inaccuracy: As we mentioned earlier, AI continually improves from existing data, and existing data contains bias and is not always 100% truthful (whether intensional or not). While this may be an improved area in the future as AI becomes more refined, we must be cautious with the level of confidence that we place in AI to give us responses that is not littered with various opinions and/or false information.

Transparency: While it may be obvious to consumers right now when they are interacting with a bot versus a human representative, it is likely this will not be the case in the future. People have the right to know when they are interacting with AI. If your organization chooses to integrate AI into any of its business operations (this includes both client facing and internal processes), disclose is a nonnegotiable. Trust and credibility will be breached, especially because of the technology’s infancy.

To sum it up, we cannot ignore AI and therefore, we cannot ignore the ethic considerations that come with it. Our goal with using AI is to become more efficient in our work to improve a customer’s experience, not to deceive them. Consider the following best practicing when implementing AI into your organization.

Data audits for bias: Conducting regular audits for your AI tools keeps flawed data at bay. Especially consider your CRM: the last thing you want is false information in your client basis! Data audits keep practices fair, processes smooth, and work honest.
Privacy/Personalization balance: This is specifically for anyone in marketing- AI is a great tool for consumer personalization, however it can become invasive. For example, a customer’s browsing history vs their financial status, health information, and location are very different types of data. Private information is to be kept off limits, unless very explicit consent is given otherwise.
Operate with an ethical framework: As AI will continue to evolve, you and your organization will need to stay informed. This helps with not only understanding how you can be best implementing it, but also so that you can ensure your organization is complying with all regulatory requirements. Because this is a technology that will be constantly changing, developing a baseline framework can bring consistency and accountability. Incorporate items such as data handling guidelines, bias presentation, and transparency to help prevent unnecessary challenges.

Resources: https://www.investopedia.com/how-small-businesses-can-use-ai-tools-8609366#:~:text=AI%20tools%20can%20offer%20small,marketing%2C%20security%2C%20and%20recruitment.

By: Elizabeth Cipolla, SPHR, SHRM-SPC

Are you an organizational leader who has been pummeled with what can seem like a relentless barrage of demands stemming from a rapid pace of market shifts, technological advances, and a competitive landscape that has you scrambling just to stay afloat? Have you started to notice that the decades-long trends you once could rely upon to plan for your organization’s future have been replaced with destabilizing trends that you’re still trying to wrap your head around?

You are not alone. Check out these statistics:

According to PwC’s 27th Annual Global CEO Survey, 45% of global CEOs think their organization will no longer be economically viable in 10 years’ time, if it continues on its current course, up from 39% in 2023.
According to McKinsey’s Global Institute’s 2024 Future of Work Report, by 2030, up to 30 percent of current hours worked could be automated, accelerated by generative AI (gen AI).

If only there could be a secret weapon to protect your organization from harm and turn the uncertainty into an opportunity to thrive when others will be clamoring to survive, right? Well, I’m going to let you in on a secret…

Investing in forward-thinking learning and development programs will be your secret weapon to prepare your organization to prepare for an excitingly uncertain future. Given the lightning pace of change, organizational leaders are realizing that learning and development is no longer a nice-to-have, but a must-have. Leaders and employees at every level now need to use skills they’ve never been required to use. In fact, the Institute for the Future predicts that 85% of the tech skills needed by 2030 don’t yet exist.

At a time when sitting still is not an option, it is time for organizational leaders to take a long look in the mirror and identify what must be done to become more agile. Learning and development is the key to equipping people to gain the skills needed to lead in ways that have never yet been required. Tomorrow will be here before we know it, and investing in developing your people to grow and develop in sync with your organization’s steadily changing needs is the very definition of agility.

Regardless of your organization’s industry, size, and location, the legacy you’ve worked hard to build rests upon one thing: your ability to reinvent and capitalize on change. Learning and development is your secret weapon to prepare your organization to do just that.

By: Amanda Kochirka

It was another fascinating and informative experience at this year’s Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) annual Talent conference and I’m excited to share my top four key takeaways on the topic that dominated the agenda this year, learning and development.

Continuing education is more important than ever

According to a recent SHRM report, by 2035 skill-based credentials and certifications will matter as much to employers as a college degree. The same report revealed that 88% of employers surveyed said that continuous learning is essential for today’s workforce.

We continue to hear from a variety of sources in the talent acquisition space to re-think your requirements for job openings. Is a college degree really necessary? Are there certifications or credentials that are just as relevant (if not better) for the work the position requires? Is that something you could incorporate as a retention tool that would both enhance your employees’ skill sets and show them you care about their professional development? Finding ways to incorporate continuous learning into your employee experience will benefit not only the employee but your organization for years to come.

The skills we develop are relevant for less time

According to SHRM, the half life of a skill is currently 3 years. The more that technology develops, the shorter that time frame will become. Thus, agility in the learning and development that a company provides to their employees is non-negotiable. It’s incredibly important to make sure you have a focus not only on continuous learning, but that the learning and training opportunities that are being provided are the most current and relevant.

Create a pull for learning

Make learning and development enticing enough that your employees seek it out on their own instead of pushing it on them. If they have a compelling reason to participate in continuing education, upskilling, or reskilling, then it becomes something they look forward to doing instead of feeling like a chore or obligation. There are plenty of platforms out there today that provide a gamification element to continuing education, making learning fun and interactive.

There are also ways to recognize/reward the learning accomplishments of your employees. Completing learning programs/credentials and sharing that knowledge with the team for the betterment of the entire organization should be celebrated just like you celebrate signing on a big customer or reaching a fundraising goal. The more excitement there is among your team about learning, the more likely it is they’ll want to join in on their own versus feeling forced to participate.

Create a career map with specific skills identified

While we’re talking about hot topics, internal mobility also comes to mind. According to a report from LinkedIn, 63% of workers would be more likely to stay with their current company if it offered better educational opportunities. Creating a roadmap of knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) required to advance from one type of role to the next within your organization is a great way to help employees visualize the opportunities available to them. What’s even more impactful is being able to tie the KSAs to training programs you provide to the team through in-person sessions, online platforms, and other opportunities. If employees can see a clear path to the advancement they desire, the more likely they are to stay with your organization.

If you ask founders Don and Sue Moore, they would say that the spirit of Decision Associates remains the same as it was at its beginnings 40 years ago: customer-focused, poised for the next change, and driven by top level team members. Mission accomplished.

In 1984, founders Donald and Susan Moore started Decision Associates and its business consulting services from a home office in North East, PA, with the trust of a small number of businesses in the region. That deep trust quickly grew their client list to include businesses from many sectors that needed strategic business consulting services such as strategic planning, executive recruitment, marketing/sales advisement, compensation studies and succession planning for family-owned businesses.

Don says that, while a very simple concept, trust really has been the foundation of all forward growth for Decision Associates. “I had formed relationships through previous work with these leaders in previous employment,” he said. “I feel that if they had not had that trust in me, my earliest attempts to assist on a consultancy basis may not have been successful.”

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s the Decision Associates geographic reach, and their team, expanded to include subject-matter experts who best met the needs of the business community. This model, paired with a commitment to continual research of the competitive environment and the highest levels of partnership, remains intact today at the heart of the culture of Decision Associates.

With every level of change and growth, Sue was working behind the scenes and on the front line. At times, the growth was difficult, but was always seen as a good problem. “We were raising three boys while we built the business,” she said. “So, with all the travel and odd hours, that had its challenges. It was still a very good thing.”

Don added that while he was “the face” of Decision Associates, much of the overall success rests with Sue’s contributions. “Not only had she managed our home and children, but she managed our offices and each move and eventually came to do specific client work, like surveys,” he said. “She also managed our bookkeeping and designed, wrote, and edited our very first newsletter. Her impact is invaluable.”

Both Don and Sue point to the “right employees coming on board at the right time” as key to the Decision Associates story. “We have always had energetic, driven, smart team members,” Don said. “With the nature of the practice, we had consultants come and go, but it was always with respect and, honestly, good timing.

Current Decision Associates owner, Aaron Phillips, originally had interactions with Decision Associates in 2001 through his work with other regional employers. He went on to join the DA team as a consultant in 2016.

Don and Sue both agreed that they felt, early on, that Aaron had a long-time home at Decision Associates. “He was truly soaking everything in. He was learning, growing and already had a strong foundation from his previous ventures.”

In 2020, leadership transitioned and Phillips became the owner of Decision Associates. Since then, he and his team have continued the strong tradition of establishing and growing trust with the business community and staying on trend with the tools and services that organizations will need in their strategic future. While the core focus of offerings has remained the same, additional services today include culture assessments, leadership coaching, and merger and acquisition support.

Today – from its current home at Lovell Place in Erie – Decision Associates and its strong team of employees and consultants, celebrates 40 years of service and is committed to using the next 40 years to accomplish its strategic vision of becoming a nationally recognized team of advisors that offer a comprehensive and transformative suite of business services to the benefit of the organizations and the communities they serve.

The Challenge We Identified

Like many small machine shops, our client had a consistent and loyal customer base but was unsure of the best pathway to sustainable growth. Lacking a managerial team and unable to find reliable employees for a second shift, this young, second-generation owner was doing it all – supervising the shop floor while handling all business development efforts and project quoting.

In talking with our marketing and sales experts, the owner wanted to develop processes and best practices that would enable him to cultivate new markets and customers and subsequently grow his business.

Our Approach To The Problem

With any marketing and sales initiative, Decision Associates believes it is important to have a clear understanding of the company’s capabilities and capacity. After all, driving new business would be a disaster if the company cannot meet the production and delivery requirements of the customer. To that end, our strategic growth team:

Conducted a comprehensive assessment of the company’s current manufacturing capabilities and staffing
Reviewed the current organizational chart to understand the staff’s skill sets and accountabilities
Analyzed the company’s existing customers as well as its known competitors
Researched potential opportunities outside of the company’s current products and services
Assesssed the owner’s process for monitoring, managing and reporting his prospects and sales

As a result of these efforts, we:

Recommended one to two key hires that would free the owner from shop supervision and allow him more time to focus on business development
Refined the company’s marketing and sales messaging
Introduced new processes for evaluating and prioritizing prospects and managing the sales pipeline
Provided our client with two rounds of leads that aligned with potential areas for growth and then shared strategies for working the leads

What Has Happened Since

Most new machine shop sales require relatively long lead times. Relationships must be developed and often engineering teams must confer on part specifications and requirements. Working toward customer growth in new markets, new materials and new parts, our client has:

Began the process of evaluating and prioritizing his current customer base to focus on the most profitable work
Identified two internal staff for professional development (and to free up the owner’s time for business development)
Embraced our recommended approach for cultivating and managing his sales pipeline, including the two rounds of leads for prospective new customers

The Challenge We Identified

Ongoing success across 70 years in business certainly is something to relish. But our client, a contract manufacturer serving both consumer and commercial markets, wanted to better understand the sustainability of their existing marketing and sales efforts and where new growth opportunities might exist. Specifically, our client was interested in identifying and marketing to “best fit” prospects that had the same potential as their current pool of Fortune 500 companies.

Our Approach To The Problem

Given our client’s long-term success, Decision Associates’ marketing and sales team knew it was important to assess what had worked for the company in the past as well as how their markets, products, customers and competition may have evolved. To that end, we proposed and then implemented a multi-phase approach:

Five-year market opportunity study to assess which markets and product categories were declining, which were growing and which were likely to undergo change in the next three to five years.
Comprehensive competitor analysis to determine how our client measured against key competitors, including online performance of their website and social media marketing.
Assessment of their sales processes and ability to open new markets as well as incorporation of best practices for lead generation and sales pipeline management.

What Has Happened Since

The scope of work we recommended yielded exactly the data and insights our client sought. Each of the three primary phases of this initiative provided a foundation for growth in the year ahead, including:

Our research identified specific market and product categories for new business. In turn, we provided a “ready-to-work” data file of prospective customers that outlined the potential fit as well as decision-maker contact information.
The competitor analysis and website audit resulted in a correction action plan to fix errors and warnings of our client’s existing website and steps to improve the site’s search optimization and online ranking. We also provided recommendations for development of a new website focused on generating leads and driving sales in the new market and product categories suggested by the research.
The sales assessment included the sharing of tools, associated electronic templates and virtual training to help our client enhance their processes for sales planning and forecasting.

We look forward to continuing our work with this client as they implement our recommendations and pursue the new business opportunities that have been identified.

The Challenge We Identified

In nonprofit organizations, leadership changes often present unique challenges. Key stakeholders may see the nonprofit leader as the heart and soul of the organization. In fact, the executive director my even be one of the founders of the nonprofit. Or perhaps the previous executive director was long-tenured and his or her compensation did not keep up with the growth and evolution of the organization.

When our client engaged Decision Associates to conduct a search for a new executive director, we identified these very shortcomings. We also saw other needs, including:

Inconsistent management of staff
Over reliance on a single funding source
Mixed board expectations for the executive director role
Absence of organized fundraising or marketing initiatives

Adding to these challenges were the physical limitations for interviewing and travel amid the Covid-19 epidemic. Nonetheless, Decision Associates’ executive search team jumped in with a focused plan of attack.

Our Approach To The Problem

Given the lack of alignment among the organization’s board members, we knew it was imperative to help them redefine the executive director role. This included clarifying priorities and their metrics of success for the new leader. In turn, we provided the board with an analysis of competitive compensation for this type of role. For many of the board members, this data was particularly eye-opening.

During our national search for the organization’s new executive director, we candidly shared with candidates both the current and future desired state of this nonprofit. In time, we identified 15 strong candidates for the role. Via our customized interview and assessment processes, we helped the board choose and onboard a new leader for the organization.

What Has Happened Since

In the months since this recruitment project was completed, our executive search team has checked in regularly with both the new executive director and the organization’s board chair. This is a standard part of our process, one that we feel is critical for long-term success.

To that end, the new executive director appears to be on the road to taking the organization to the next level. Recent accomplishments include:

Established a strong relationship with the organization’s board chair
Re-engage donors and initiated several high-profile fundraising initiatives
Developed several new services
Paid off all the organization’s debt
Upgraded outdated hiring practices

The Challenge We Identified

With the completion of a market research initiative for a client in technical manufacturing, we learned that the company’s growth significantly trailed others in its industry. In turn, the company’s annual sales were tracking well below annual goals. Given these challenges, the company engaged Decision Associates to conduct a comprehensive assessment of its sales team and processes – from sales forecasting, reporting and evaluation to monthly, quarterly and annual sales goals to sales team and supporting resources to sales compensation and incentive programs.

Our assessment included a series of meetings with the company’s leadership team as well as individual discussion with the president, the vice president of sales and marketing and the engineering manager. From these discussions, we identified several critical shortcomings in the company’s sales function:

Recent elimination of third-party representatives, leaving sales leader as sole salesperson
Sales leader’s involvement in customer quote time and delivery time issues
Lack of sales pipeline management and reporting processes
Focused pursuit of markets with very high barriers to entry
Absence of an incentive-based sales compensation program
No marketing plan or dedicated marketing staff/resources

Our Approach To The Problem

Upon completion of the sales assessment, we developed strategies to support the following recommendations:

Focus the sales leaders’ time 100 percent on sales
Establish a sales culture of accountability with weekly/monthly/quarterly sales goals and reporting from the sales leader to the company president
Transition sales compensation from year-end bonus to an incentive-based model based on achievement of annual sales plan number
Keep sales reporting simple, limited to prospecting activity, pipeline projects and monthly/quarterly/annual performance to plan
Purchase a basic CRM (customer relationship management) platform to actively manage and grow the sales pipeline
Devote resources to clear the bottlenecks in quote process time and on-time delivery identified by sales leader and company president
Integrate company president in relationships with key customers
Invest in sales management coaching for company president to integrate best practices

What Has Happened Since

Initially, the sales leader challenged our sales assessment and subsequent recommendations. However, by involving the company president in the transition to new sales processes and procedures, we were able to implement all the initiatives. The company adopted new sales tools and metrics, committed to a regular cadence of weekly, monthly and quarterly reporting sessions and established performance-based expectations for the sales leader. Over time, the company reversed its sales decline and with a few years doubled sales revenues. During this transition period, the underperforming sales leader left the company while new sales hires embraced the company’s revised sales culture.

By Amanda Kochirka, MPA

Associate Consultant, Decision Associates

We’ve all heard and experienced the hardships associated with finding and keeping talent over the past few years. It’s no secret that recruitment and retention are two of the top areas of frustration for many organizations. As we prepare to move into 2024, it’s imperative for every organization, regardless of size, industry, or geographic location, to create a more purposeful approach to upskilling, reskilling, and training their workforce.

At Decision Associates, we have noticed a trend where an increasing number of clients are recognizing the importance of providing training opportunities for their team members to combat the issues of recruitment by investing in the talent they already have working within their organization. This is encouraging because the best recruitment strategy is retention, and showing your employees you care about them enough to invest in their development through training is an excellent step to take, but it’s only part of the equation. If you don’t have a culture of learning established at your organization, it’s highly unlikely that the team members who do participate in training activities will ever get to use or share what they learned in a meaningful way that will have a lasting impact.

So, what is the secret to unlocking the hidden potential that already exists at your organization to ensure key roles are filled, while also protecting your investment of time and financial resources? The answer is simple, yet it is frequently overlooked by well-intentioned business owners, executives, and nonprofit leaders: you must first create a culture of learning. This article outlines a few ways you can begin to build a culture of learning at your own organization.

Make Learning a Priority

Many organizations do this by including professional development goals in their employees’ individual performance objectives each year that is ultimately tied to their variable compensation. Whether that’s participating in a certain number of training opportunities each year, or obtaining a particular credential or certification, providing financial incentive in addition to the time and resources to complete the training is an effective way to get employees engaged in the training process.

Additionally, as with any element of company culture, it comes down from the top of the organization. If learning isn’t a priority for the company leadership, it won’t be a priority for anyone else. Are you expecting employees to implement new behaviors as a result of training, only to be stifled by the culture set by leadership? You must begin by getting buy-in from the leadership team and providing opportunities for them to lead by example, participating in training and development activities themselves and sharing what they’ve learned with the entire organization. A lack of prioritization of learning will make it extremely difficult for your team to put their newly learned skills into practice.

2. Audit Your Culture for Barriers to Learning

You’ve made learning a priority and that’s great! Now you have to ensure that the collective behaviors, practices, and systems within your organization (especially the behavior of the leaders on the team) model and support that focus. Take a look at how learning currently happens in your organization and address common barriers. Ensure you’re providing the time and resources for learning and regularly reinforce the value of learning. Incentivize experimentation, collaboration, and knowledge-sharing. Promote team learning over knowledge-hoarding.

Link learning to development by establishing career pathways throughout the organization, so it’s clear to employees what it will take to get from one position level to the next and beyond. Partnerships should be established between HR and frontline employees and managers to quickly identify any new learning/training needs and to develop potential solutions. If employees can easily see a path to advance through the organization and the training and knowledge required to do that, they’ll be more likely to take advantage of those opportunities.

3. Personalize and Socialize the Learning Experience

Remember that not everyone learns the same way or at the same pace, so build allowances for these facts into your training and development strategies. Creating diverse types of content (written, audio, video, in person, virtual, instructor-led, self-paced) increases the likelihood of team members taking advantage of the opportunities. If they can find a training method that works for them and how they learn, it’s much more likely that they’ll follow it through to completion.

Additionally, take the time to actually gather employee feedback on what they’d like to learn. If employees are part of the process in creating the curriculum and training opportunities, they’ll be more willing to engage in the learning process.

4. Incorporate Experiential Learning into Your Employees’ Development

When employees are given the opportunity to experience an authentic situation like those provided with on-the-job projects tied to new skills being learned through formal training, the learning becomes significantly more powerful. By incorporating structured, on-the-job projects, your employees will deepen their knowledge through repeatedly practicing and then reflecting on new skills being taught. Prevent another training disappointment and ensure measurable results by reflecting upon the missing link you can unlock within your organization.

5. Measure Progress

Finally, as we know, what doesn’t get measured, doesn’t get done. There’s absolutely no point to cultivating a culture of learning if you aren’t going to measure the impact it has on the team and the organization as a whole. Some metrics worth tracking as it relates to training and development are rate of completion, training engagement rate, training cost per employee, average time to training completion, training ROI, training experience satisfaction, learner drop off rate, and employee performance post-training. There could be other metrics to track based on the organization and the goals behind implementing a training and development strategy in the first place.

By: Emma Steele | Sept. 22, 2023

“You can’t improve what you don’t measure,” and if you work in marketing, you know the industry LOVES data.

Data can be the hero or villain of every marketer’s story. Whether you find yourself drowning in a sea of metrics or alternatively asking what the term “social analytics” mean, numbers have influence on your company. They send powerful signals about how business is being impacted in addition to setting expectations for future intentions. While tracking too many metrics can water down the focus of what is to be accomplished, incomplete metrics can limit business growth. There is a fine line between data-driven obsession and becoming data ignorant. How can balance be achieved?

It is useful to begin by identifying the goals to be accomplished. Take the company AAA for example – their products and service offerings are historically most popular amongst an older demographic. If you are under the age of 40, its likely your AAA membership was either a gift or someone older than you is paying for it. AAA set a goal to expand their target market of customers to include more of those in the range of 20-30 years old. With an identified goal, the marketer is now able to develop the steppingstones towards achieving it.

Some will take the high road and track everything, while others will use trial and error, completely disregarding numbers. Neither path is efficient – this is when understanding the basics of a marketing metrics dashboard becomes useful. A smart, data-driven marketer will only focus on 3-5 primary metrics at a time, while only being aware of the rest. For example, if the goal is to expand the audience demographic to those in their 20s and 30s, tracking audience size may be useful, but not the most efficient. It should be a metric to be aware of, but not the primary focus. Tracking engaged demographics (the age, marital status, geographical location, etc. of those who interact with your social posts) would be more useful, as it would show what types of people enjoy what types of content.

Let’s compare it to a road trip- there’s a handful of metrics the driver cares about in the moment of getting to their destination. The amount of gas in the tank, the car’s speed, the temperature of the engine. However, those are not the only metrics your car tracks! The oil level, cleanliness of the air filter, tire pressure, and the amount of tread left on the tires are all important metrics for the driver to be aware of, but not necessarily at that moment. If the driver were to focus on all of those things while driving to their destination, they might get distracted and cause an accident! On the other hand, if the driver were to ignore all of those essential parts, there would be major problems in getting to the final destination, if they were to make it at all!

The same goes for marketers: trying to juggle too many metrics opens an opportunity to drop the ball, while juggling nothing makes no impact. Success is more easily found when a handful of carefully chosen metrics are purposefully selected and then centered around achieving a specific goal.

I challenge you to identify and think about the marketing-related goals your organization currently has set (And if none are set, it’s time to develop some!). What data is backing those goals? Could any data be added, subtracted, or be replaced to improve efficiency? How will you translate the quantifiable data into actionable steps of influence and growth?

To get you started, check out this article published by Hubspot. Although it is an extensive guide of metrics, remember: a data-driven marketer focuses on 3-5 primary metrics that are centered around their predetermined goal!

Happy tracking!

As experts in executive recruitment, our Talent and Organizational Performance (TOP) Practice team knows a thing or two about interviewing. Our experience screening hundreds of candidates in various industries and positions has given us quite the tool box of interviewing “dos” and “do nots”. Here are our top 5 tips for executive search candidates looking for their next role.

1. You are interviewing just as much as you are being interviewed.

A common misconception is that the purpose of an interview is solely for the company to get to know the candidate when in reality, the candidate is also there to get to know the company! Do your homework on the organization, its leaders, and the position. Ask questions that will help you learn more about why the position needs filled, what the expectations are of the one who fills it, and how that person can expect to grow their career within the company.

2. Be prepared to discuss compensation.

Pay transparency is here, and here to stay. This means both the employer and candidate must be ready when it comes to discussing salary. Are you flexible with pay? Say so. Do you have a range you are specifically looking for? Make sure to mention it! Compensation does not need to be a taboo topic.

3. Tailor your resume.

Did you know, the average recruiter spends between 6-8 seconds reviewing a resume? That’s not very much time for a candidate to pitch themselves! Experiences that are most relevant to the position being applied for should always be placed at the top. Remember: not all job descriptions are the same, so neither should the resumes being submitted.

Don’t forget about your online resume too! Platforms like LinkedIn are essential to keep up-to-date so that recruiters can get an initial sense of who you are. A good LinkedIn profile may also qualify you as a passive candidate for a job you did not know existed.

4. Maintain communication.

Just as much as you hate being ghosted by companies you’ve applied with, recruiters hate being ghosted by those they’ve interviewed! Poor communication is detrimental to the chances of being extended an offer because it shows lack of true interest and is an indicator of how that person will perform in the role. Even if interest has lessen, communicate that with the company.

5. Know your experiences and skillset.

Be clear about what you want and why you want it! Use past experiences and projects to show off your skillset and then explain how you could use them in the position. Share AND show why you think you would be a valuable asset to the company.

Meet Julian Torres, Vice President of Engineering at American Turned Products. Julian first connected with Decision Associates in September 2022 and accepted the job offer in mid-October. Julian has been in this new role for just under a year.

Read his full interview below!

Explain who you are, the position you hold, and the company you’re with.

My name is Julian Torres, VP Engineering at American Turned Products. I recently re-joined the organization in November 2022. Prior to this appointment, I held roles in program management and engineering within the aerospace industry. In addition, I previously held roles within manufacturing engineering, including engineering and quality management with American Turned Products between 2004 and 2013.

What was your reaction to the initial contact from the Decision Associates team, whether in response to your application submission or reaching out to you as a passive candidate?

My initial reaction was a mix of curiosity and excitement. I had a strong working knowledge of American Turned Products already and was familiar with Decision Associates as well, so it was an easy decision to explore this executive position further.

Describe the communication you received from the Decision Associates team throughout the interview process. What was one aspect of it that stood out to you?

The communication I received from Decision Associates can be summarized as professional, consistent, and clear. One aspect that stood out was the promptness of response to any questions and follow-up coordination needed for the interview process. It was very clear there was a proven framework in place and the entire team (Julie Hayes, Elizabeth Cipolla, Amanda Kochirka, and Jim Ryan) made sure the process moved forward as efficiently as possible.

What value did having a member of the Decision Associates team facilitating each interview provide to your overall experience?

Elizabeth Cipolla’s facilitation at various stages in the interview process was incredibly valuable to help effectively communicate the needs of the American Turned Products and to provide many opportunities to highlight my own strengths. Elizabeth was able to get the most out of our scheduled time to make sure this opportunity would be mutually beneficial to both parties!

What value did having a member of the Decision Associates team facilitating the presentation of your job offer and the subsequent negotiation provide to your overall experience?

Again, Elizabeth’s facilitation during the job offer phase was very helpful which resulted in a fantastic overall experience to the entire recruitment process. Elizabeth made sure all questions were addressed, the terms were clear and I came away with the impression she was dedicated and focused on ensuring my that needs were met.

Describe the value that the structured onboarding check-ins have had to getting you comfortable in your new role and acclimated to the company.

The structured onboarding check-ins (5/30/60/90-day) with Aaron Phillips were great conversations to make sure everything was going well. The questions provided in advance helped to drive the conversation with a focus on both short-term and long-term outlook. The structured check-ins with Decision Associates complemented the regular 1-on-1 sync-ups that I have with our COO, which continue today to make sure we remain aligned with strategic goals.

What would you say to the leader of an organization who is considering Decision Associates as their search partner?

I would strongly recommend utilizing Decision Associates as a search partner for executive recruitment. As a candidate, I felt that I had a team of experts with me from start to finish; always ready to answer questions and provide support as needed to ensure the recruitment process remained efficient. From an organizational perspective, this was a very thorough and detailed evaluation, through multiple interviews and other assessments, to make sure that I was a good fit for the organization. Decision Associates really made the process clear and straightforward. I’m grateful to the entire Decision Associates team and appreciate all their hard work with this successful recruitment experience.

How can AI benefit HR?

AI has been the hot topic of the year. The technology has made significant strides over the past few years, making it a viable tool to begin incorporating in the workplace. Some industries are more weary of it than others, the world of HR being one of them. Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool, but is it going to take the “human” out of human resources?

A recent article published by LinkedIn describes how companies can benefit from incorporating AI-infused training processes for their employees. These new processes are called Instructional Design. Instructional Design makes training one-size-fits-one. With the ability to provide personalized feedback, it can identify areas of improvement and provide targeted training to address those areas, resulting in more efficiency and effectiveness.

Anjela Mangrum, founder of manufacturing recruitment agency Mangrum Career Solutions, sees potential for AI in maximizing employee development.

“I … think there’s a lot of potential for AI to customize employee training, creating data-based career paths for each individual instead of the traditional generic focus on helping employees gain in-demand business skills,” Mangrum said. “By tracking the unique learning methods of professionals, AI can help develop your workforce by providing individualized recommendations for skills training.”

Larger corporations have begun implementing Instructional Design to training and further develop the skills of their frontline workers. There are a few companies who have found success after enacting AI-infused training.

Walmart uses AI to provide personalized training to its employees. The AI system analyzes data and provides targeted training to employees. This has resulted in improved job performance and increased employee satisfaction.
McDonalds uses VR to provide immersive training experiences to its employees. The VR system simulates real-life situations and provides employees with an opportunity to practice their skills in a safe and controlled environment.
IBM uses AI to create personalized training programs for its employees. The AI system analyzes data and provides targeted training to employees. This has resulted in improved job performance and increased employee satisfaction.

While some HR professionals have easily embraced AI in the industry, others are more weary of its advancements.

A study by Business News Daily stated that 73% of surveyed HR leaders stated that they use AI for recruitment and hiring processes. More recently, a study by Harvard Business school found that of that 73%, 88% learned those tools were rejecting qualified candidates.

This was due to job descriptions having too many qualifications, creating a long list of data for algorithms to check for in resumes. Extended work gaps for legitimate life events, like pregnancy, military deployment or illness, would also pose as a red flag when filtered through AI software.

AI on its own cannot give the complete picture of a candidate’s situation.

While AI continues to enhance how companies develop and retain talent, it is important for professionals to realize that AI shouldn’t replace the human touch in HR!

Meet Joanne Rogers!

Decision Associates first connected with Joanne in January of 2022. By late February, she had accepted the position of Vice President of Finance and Administration at Villa Maria Cathedral Preparatory Catholic School System. Joanne has been in her new role as VP for a little over a year.

Read more abut her candidate experience below…

Explain who you are, the position you hold, and the company you’re with.

“My name is Joanne Rogers, and I am the Vice President of Finance and Administration with Villa Maria Cathedral Preparatory Catholic School System, which is comprised of Cathedral Preparatory School and Mother Teresa Academy.”

What was your reaction to the initial contact from the Decision Associates team, whether in response to your application submission or reaching out to you as a passive candidate?

“My reaction to the initial contact from the Decision Associates team was that I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly I was contacted. Typically, when applying for a job you don’t expect to hear anything for several weeks, but Decision Associates reached out within a few days. I thought this to be particularly helpful because it not only kept me engaged as a candidate but made the conversation more efficient as all the information regarding the position was still very fresh in my mind.”

“Describe the communication you received from the Decision Associates team throughout the interview process. What was one aspect of it that stood out to you?”

“Very similar to my initial reaction, the communication from Decision Associates was always very timely and very thorough too. I was never left wondering what the next steps were or what was required of me in those next steps. I really felt like they went the extra mile to make sure the experience for both myself and the prospective employer was a positive one.”

“What value did having a member of the Decision Associates team facilitating each interview provide to your overall experience?”

“Having a member of the Decision Associates team facilitate each interview was very helpful to not only my experience but to the overall process. They were very skilled at helping both the interviewers and myself get to the heart of the question or answer. As I got to the final round of interviews in which I was giving a presentation, they also facilitated all of the technology needs and so I was able to come into the room only concerned about presenting the content and nothing else. I felt this gave me the ability to better showcase my talents to the hiring team.”

“What value did having a member of the Decision Associates team facilitating the presentation of your job offer and the subsequent negotiation provide to your overall experience?”

“The Decision Associates team knew my salary expectations up front and I believe that helped facilitate a good offer up front and we did not need to get into negotiation. Almost immediately following my final interview, I received a call from Decision Associates to tell me that I was the selected candidate and I was going to be receiving an offer within the coming days. Again, the prompt communication was excellent!”

Describe the value that the structured onboarding check-ins have had to getting you comfortable in your new role and acclimated to the company.

“The check ins were very nice as it gave us all time to just make sure everything was going well between employee and employer. For my purposes it served as a validation of sorts that this was a good match. We were provided some questions in advance that we discussed during our meetings, and while I did not have any problems that needed mediation, I can see how that would be a very valuable discussion if there was.”

What would you say to the leader of an organization who is considering Decision Associates as their search partner?

“I would tell them to absolutely go for it. It’s necessary that both the hiring company and the new hire are a good match for each other, and the Decision Associates team was able to provide exceptional value and skills to ensure that this was the case. They are very effective at not only sourcing candidates but guiding both the interviewers and interviewees through the whole hiring process seamlessly. They take the stress work out of the process!”

What is candidate experience?

This business buzzword is one of the most important factors when attracting top talent to your organization. Candidate experience is a term used to define how a candidate feels about your company once they’ve experienced your hiring process. These good or bad feelings influence a candidate’s decision to apply and/or accept an offer from your company. From the company’s perspective, it requires a mindset shift that focuses on respecting a candidate’s time and expectations for the role at hand.

the most common complaint about application processes

Can you guess what the most common complaint candidates have about the general job application process? Getting “ghosted,” or companies failing to respond to a candidate’s application, happens way too often. In fact, according to Career Builder’s 2012 nationwide U.S. candidate survey, 75% of candidates never hear back from a company after sending in an application. This communicates to the candidate that their application is not a high enough priority to respond to, burning a bridge before its even built. Although responding to every candidate’s application is the easiest way to solve this complaint, creating a positive candidate experience requires more involvement than that.

Why you should care.

So- why is the candidate experience important to maintain? It is imperative that your reputation as an employer stands out, especially for the candidates who did not get the job offer. Let’s say you have a pool of four strong candidates to hire from for Position A. If Position B opens up a few months later, you’d want those who were not chosen for Position A to consider this new role if applicable. Creating a positive candidate experience for all applicants can save your organization time and money in future hires.

The value is more often easily seen from a client perspective, yet the candidates are the ones experiencing the process firsthand. Decision Associates takes pride in the strategy we’ve developed to guarantee success for our client’s executive recruitment projects. One of the key elements of our process is ensuring consistent communication and updates are sent to the candidate so they always know where they stand, as it relates to the opportunity. We frequently hear from candidates, even those who are rejected for the role, how much they appreciate our timely and genuine communication.

This summer, we are excited to be sharing experiences from candidates who have been successfully hired through Decision Associates’ executive recruitment process. We are proud to have been an instrumental part in making the connection between our clients and these candidates so both can continue to thrive. Keep an eye out for these testimonials every Wednesday!

Learn more about our executive recruitment services: https://www.decisionassociates.net/client-services/executive-recruitment/

“How can good companies, mediocre companies, even bad companies achieve enduring greatness?” Through research and observation, author Jim Collins and his team found that “great” organizations possess distinguishing elements that are directly tied to leadership and teamwork – proving the impact of talent on the success of an organization. When faced with the task of hiring critical talent, leadership teams will consider whether they need to partner with an executive search firm. In fact, you may be on or leading a team that is currently facing those questions. Consider these critical points before your team settles on a decision that will impact your company’s future greatness:

Complexity of the role – What level of seniority does this position hold within the organization? Determine how this person’s responsibilities will impact the business – strategically, financially and culturally. The more integrated the role is, the more difficult, yet essential it is identify a strong pool of candidates. Hiring an executive search firm gives access to an extensive network, including their in-depth knowledge of senior candidates in multiple industries. Their candidate pools are going to be more specific and unique to matching your exact position requirements, compared to an internal recruiting team’s.
Facilitation – New leadership roles often need to be created to support company expansion. This takes a significant amount of time to develop, carefully source and interview for, and choose the most qualified candidate to support growth. A search firm can efficiently navigate this process, saving your organization valuable time that should be spent elsewhere.
Leadership transition – A change in significant leadership can cause disruption and create a situation that is best handled by an outside party. Having seen these types of situations before, an executive search team will be able to anticipate challenges and facilitate productive discussions to design a specialized transition plan for your organization’s specific needs.

Decision Associates’ executive recruitment experience includes CEOs, presidents, vice presidents, directors and managers for a wide range of organizations across many industries. Our proven recruitment process finds candidates who fit your management team and can help you achieve your organizational goals. To ensure we present candidates who best fit your organization, our recruiting searches encompass a knowledge and skills assessment, a culture assessment, compensation analysis, onboarding support, and employer branding.

Inquire with our executive search team:

Contact

By: Amanda Kochirka

Monday Keynote – Building Healthy Relationships Through Conflict – Amy Gallo:
1. Before a conversation with a person you’re having a conflict with:
  1. Understand the other person – put yourself in their shoes and be generous in your interpretation of why they’re behaving in a certain way
  2. Know/acknowledge/agree upon what you’re disagreeing about – relationship, task, process, status (or some combination of those 4)
  3. Determine the goal of the conversation
  4. Decide how to proceed
2. Principles to guide you in improving the relationship:
  1. Focus on what you can control – YOURSELF
  2. Your perspective is just one perspective
  3. Be aware of your biases (affinity, confirmation)
  4. Experiment to find what works (scientist mindset)
  5. Avoid making it me vs. them
Tuesday Keynote – Power of Authenticity – Kudzi Chikumbu:
1. Establish proof points for culture (stemming from values)
2. Your employees are your creators – can speak to your proof points
3. Creators need:
  1. To be open/authentic
  2. Enabled with tools to succeed
  3. Data/feedback on what they create
4. Logical Safety – Giving people permission/space to share their feelings- that’s how trust is built and authenticity encouaged
5. Creators entertain, inspire, and inform – good creators do 2, great creators do all 3
No One Wants To Work Anymore
1. Always the thought of “they don’t work like me”
  1. Every generation has thought this about a younger generation- it’s the same conversation each time
  2. Every generation has faced significant transformative events at crucial points in their development as humans-
    1. Greatest – WW1, Great Depression
    2. Boomers – Significant industrial growth, population boom
    3. Gen X- Early 80’s recession
    4. Millennials – Sept. 11, great recession/housing market collapse
    5. Gen Z- global pandemic
  3. Remember that priorities change based on where they are in life AND their experiences:
    1. Boomers – phased retirement, part time opportunities, longer term continued health benefits (it may not be financially feasible to live without working – or they need the benefits)
    2. Gen X – independence, control, not being micromanaged, flexible work to care for family (after having drastic priority shifts during the pandemic – many – especially women had to leave the workforce to care for aging parents/children because care wasn’t available from third parties)
    3. Millennials – job stability, education and career support (came into the job market during a massive financial crisis when many of them struggled to find work – because the rest of the country was also looking)
    4. Gen Z – financial security, mental health support (uncertainty and burnout they witnessed during pandemic)
  4. Aging workforce
    1. Greater number of people being removed from the workforce – we’re not the oldest in the nation and our population isn’t aging as fast as other countries, but it’s happening
  5. Shrinking workforce
    1. There’s always a reason why a population shrinks or grows that’s tied to the economy – think about personal situations of candidates/employees and how that impacts their decision making
    2. Boomers are retiring, we’re not replacing the population, less immigrants (political and COVID)
  6. COVID – the world was asked to stop
    1. Deaths – Over 1.2 million in US, nearly 7 million worldwide
    2. We’re looking for a population of workers but there’s not a workforce in the sense that we’re used to – we have to CHANGE what we’re looking for
  7. Post – COVID Reset – played a clip from Office Space (Peter talking to Jennifer Anniston’s character) – I don’t like my job and I don’t think I’m going to go anymore
    1. People have reasons for leaving or not pursuing a job – we may not agree, but just because their reason isn’t valid to you doesn’t mean is isn’t a valid point
    2. It’s not that people don’t want to work, they just don’t want to work for you – your priorities may not align with their priorities for what they want out of work
  8. Flexible work
    1. Not just remote
    2. How are we allowing people to spend time in other areas of the company – explore other things they might be interested in doing
    3. They could watch Netflix or YouTube all day at work if they wanted, they don’t have to be at home to do that – you’re blatantly saying you don’t trust them – who wants to work for someone who doesn’t trust them?
    4. Trying to get back to where you were is not going to get you where you need to be – using old tactics in new context and for new priorities is not going to work.
  9. Adjusting where you look – military transition (spouses and dependents too), people who took a step back from work for family/personal reasons, 2nd chance programs, filling gaps with gig/freelance workers (they also bring fresh perspective to your organization having worked wit lots of other companies/industries)
Recruitment Hot Topics
1. Embrace new recruitment technologies (text interview scheduling, QR application codes)
2. Take steps to attract new generation – (focus on values, work/life balance, have answers and proof of initiatives re: DEI)
3. Tell a compelling story – employer brand – help them see themselves working here
4. Reconsider your approach to comp – look at the bigger picture beyond comp – what are the other benefits (mentorship programs, open book management, financial literacy training, student loan repayment, 529 savings, career pathing, professional development)
5. Provide greater support to hiring managers – central repository for hiring managers to get relevant company info to share w/ candidates, informal lunch and learn to help HMs understand what recruiters are seeing/what’s the candidate mindset right now? Cultural competence training
6. Reevaluate educational requirements – focus on values, character, skills, coach-ability versus college degrees
7. Give new hires freedom to make decisions – 1% of annual sales to “guest appreciations”
8. Seek partnerships to enhance recruitment of underrepresented pops
9. Tap into untapped talent networks – 2nd change, re-entry to work, military (and spouses, dependents), people with disabilities
10. Demonstrate commitment to internal mobility
11. Maximize employee referrals
12. Target boomerang employees
Job Promotion For TA
1. Hired or dead forever – contacting candidates in your database for updated resumes, with opportunity emails – once per month? Once every other week?
Power of Stay Interviews
1. Exit interviews aren’t autopsies they’re toe tags
2. How we’ve lost workforce:
  1. Historic (not pandemic related)
    1. Declining birthrate (since the ‘70s)
    2. Immigration decline (political policies)
    3. Average duration of workforce in one role is shorter – less than 3 years
  2. COVID-induced:
    1. Early retirements
    2. Parents (especially women) quit and didn’t return
    3. COVID deaths (over 1.1 million in US, over 6.9 million worldwide)
    4. COVID-driven entrepreneurs – dramatic increase in business license applications
    5. Less HV1 VISA applications (political climate and pandemic) – Canada saw an opportunity and ran a campaign
3. Retention happens at the dinner table – as a manager, you’re on the menu every night and you can control what they say through the experiences you give, but you’re on the menu every night. The 2 hours immediately after work are the most crucial related to turnover – mind and body are tired, and events of the day are rolling in your head
  1. When your employee’s spouse asks how their day was they aren’t saying, “fine, but I wish we had pet insurance” – they talk about their boss, their colleagues, and the work they did
4. 5 question foundation (properly trained interviewers turn 5 into 25)
  1. When you come to work each day, what things do you look forward to?
  2. What are you learning here?
  3. Why do you stay here?
  4. When was the last time you thought about leaving? What prompted it?
  5. What can I do to make your experience at work better?

How DA Is Incorporating Skills-Based Hiring

Chances are you’ve probably heard the term “skills-based hiring” circulating more frequently since the start of the new year. With intense talent shortages still lingering in 2023, employers have started to become aware that assessing candidates on their abilities and potential rather than degrees and career history can provide instant economic opportunity for their organizations. In addition, skills-based hiring encourages increased diversity and strengthens internal productivity among workplace environments. The benefits of skills-based hiring are becoming more evident to business professionals as a solution to the talent shortage brought by The Great Resignation. The problem is no longer identifying the solution, but rather putting the solution into action.

“While most employers agree skills-based hiring is valuable, few employers have made changes to their practices. This keeps qualified talent on the sidelines and businesses from thriving,” says Wendi Safstrom, President of the SHRM Foundation. When candidates are only assessed on the items on their resume, qualified talent has the potential to be overlooked. While a resume is still an important document to use for consideration, less importance is being placed on it. Emily Field, a partner at global management consulting firm McKinsey & Co., shared research that indicated growth in the number of organizations who are removing the college degree requirement from their job postings and coming up with other ways to determine job readiness. “We’re seeing this especially in technology and managerial roles. This requires rewriting job descriptions and really thinking about what skills are truly needed on day one and what can be trained for on the job and which skills do not matter at all,” according to Field. HR professionals and business leaders need to start embrace working together to develop a hiring strategy that addresses their organization’s immediate and future needs in addition to accommodating this new approach to reducing talent shortage.

One way Decision Associates has integrated skills-based hiring into our executive recruitment process is through a soft skills assessment. We’ve found that traditional applicant tracking systems screen out qualified candidates and create missed opportunities for companies. Decision Associates uses The Predictive Index, a psychometric testing company, to further assess candidates we believe to be a potential fit for our clients’ open position. The quick assessment gives a plethora of insight into the candidates hardwired behaviors/personality traits and how well those align with the nature of the open position. Placing an even importance on experience and skills allows us to determine the best possible cultural fit for our clients’ organizations to ensure a long-time hire.

Learn more about our executive recruitment and organizational culture services on our website: https://www.decisionassociates.net/client-services/executive-recruitment/

Resources: https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/talent-acquisition/pages/skills-based-hiring-requires-commitment-to-change.aspx

We, Me, and the World: What’s Next for the Employee Experience

In 2023, 4,000 US and UK employees were surveyed regarding their views on corporate culture. 50% of employees said they would consider resigning if the company’s values did not align with their own. Although 66% said their company addressed their employees’ wellbeing, only 34% said their employer communicated with them about topics surrounding environmental and societal issues, which have become increasingly important to building and maintaining a strong corporate culture.

Every action and decision made has an impact across three dimensions: Me, We, and the World. Part of establishing better, intentional corporate behaviors is acknowledging that companies, the We, have a social responsibility and impact on the World and the Me, individuals within that business. Research on leadership styles has continued to prove that conscious, mindful leadership has deep rooted influence on the people and performance of the business. Corporate culture impact is not limited to the internal environment either; these decisions cause a ripple on the organization’s customers, products, and competitors.

Determining what a culture-first company means is not simple. Acknowledging the impact that the We has on the Me redirects towards a more holistic outcome approach for all parties involved in the company’s desired form of success. Companies have aimed to enhance the employee experience by providing in-house connection events and personalized benefits, however these offerings are not satisfying the meaningful engagement employees continue to crave. Some are still operating with an arrogant mentality (possibly caused by the Great Resignation) that their employees are lucky to have a job. Something needs to change.

Engaging employees is going to require a major shift from what businesses have been prioritizing over the past few years. The lockdown resulted in a bigger focus on the Me dimension by prioritizing individuals’ wellbeing and the We dimension by shifting towards remote work. Businesses need to shift again, but this time towards the World dimension. Companies must start by acknowledging the impact that they are having on society and the environment, past their direct internal and external factors. Involving employees and customers in a cause bigger than themselves and the company they work for is becoming an important part of what gives an employee’s work value. “The current and future employees especially are focused on transparency, measurable positive impact, and actionable commitments to society at large.” (Debevoise) Unfortunately, previous years of culture-changing corporate gestures have created a skeptical and weary atmosphere around company values, mission statements, and causes. The key to change is rebuilding and maintaining trust that what what you say you are going to do, you do. Aim for progression over perfection, and always lead with authenticity.

Resources:

Debevoise, Nell Derick. “The next Frontier in Employee Experience.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 11 Apr. 2023, https://www.forbes.com/sites/nelldebevoise/2023/04/11/the-next-frontier-in-employee-experience/?sh=7c486b647f48.

My sister-in-law is an award-winning high school cross country and track and field coach. She was a decorated sprinter who ran Division I track in college. As a coach, she pushes her athletes to achieve their fullest potential. Recently she received a note from a parent questioning the intensity of the workouts, the pressure to achieve success, and then stated that it was “ok” to accept mediocrity. Recognizing this as a teaching moment, my sister-in-law decided to bring up the issue with the team. She discussed the pressure she received as an athlete and a student from her coaches and teachers. She emphasized that pressure molded her into the person she has become. She stated she wouldn’t be doing her job if she wasn’t pushing the team to achieve their fullest potential. She explained that pressure is a big part of life and can be a great motivator for each of them.

After she told me about the text, I couldn’t stop thinking about the parent’s message. It caused me to reflect on the work we do with our clients; the entrepreneurs who faced an immense amount of pressure to build their businesses. Every entrepreneur has a story of working through the sometimes-unthinkable pressures to succeed. Every high performing senior leader we work with has a story of pushing past their “limits” to achieve success. Every thriving organization has worked through countless challenges and rigors to be able to achieve greatness.

In business and in life the pressure to succeed never stops. It may become easier to navigate through wisdom gained through various experiences and age, but it never stops. Industries go through cycles of change. The best transform and adapt. Senior leaders are faced with difficult decisions. The best make them and move confidently forward. The day pressure stops is the day we begin to accept mediocrity.

The most effective way to ensure that your organization doesn’t succumb to mediocrity is through creating a plan, following through with implementation, and recognizing when the plan needs to shift in order to address changes in the marketplace.

And so, I challenge you think about whether you are pushing your company to achieve its strategic plan. Are you pushing your team to achieve its potential? Are you developing your next generation leaders to ensure a smooth succession of the business? Have you established business objectives to measure your success? How are you positioning your business to go above and beyond to get to the next level?

Mediocrity is the place a business goes to die. Mediocrity is what underperforming leaders accept from themselves and their team. Mediocrity is never the answer. Push yourself and your team to achieve its potential because mediocrity is never “ok.”

Written By:

Aaron Phillips, Owner of Decision Associates

We get it…you have no intention of selling your business. As former business owners ourselves, we understand you likely have other plans:

You plan to work for many years yet
You want to transition the business to your kids
You have employees who could buy it
You might hire a president and then have him buy it

Someday though, you will be ready to sell. You may just become tired of the daily grind. Or you may find that your industry is shrinking. You may outgrow your business…or perhaps it will outgrow you. Or you may simply get “the call,” that once in a lifetime offer that is simply too good to refuse.

The bottom line is that when you are ready to sell, your business must be ready to sell. So to prepare for that day you decide it is time to sell, Decision Associates Mergers & Acquisitions offers our top 10 tips:

The buyer who contacts you is seldom the highest paying buyer. Unfortunately, the highest paying buyer may not know you are for sale. To reach the highest paying buyer, we research those for whom the acquisition would be a strategic fit. The difference in selling price can 20 percent or more.
The best buyers have a strategic purpose for wanting your company, i.e., 1 + 1 = 3 is not their goal, 1 + 1 = 5 is their goal.
A buyer does not want you to know how they plan to leverage your company. But with careful listening and further research, we can determine that purpose. If you understand a buyer’s strategic purpose, you can negotiate to get paid for it.
Sixty percent of sellers were not intending to sell until they got “the call” they could not refuse. It happens far more often than you think.
Buyers focus on EBITDA so you need to generate EBITDA that is at the high end of your industry. That noted, buyers are always interested in business elements beyond EBITDA. They will add or subtract to their offer for each of these elements. To get a multiple that is above the norm, you have to know what matters and invest in these.
A good transaction attorney will do a great job of negotiating with the buyer who contacted you. But it is not their expertise to find a better buyer. Finding a better buyer is what Decision Associates Mergers & Acquisitions does best.
Decision Associates Mergers & Acquisitions has sold numerous privately held companies to Fortune 500 and international companies. Surprised? Our processes are key to making these sales happen.
Forty percent of owners who approach us do not have their company in shape to sell. When this happens, we advise you wait and work on increasing the value. In turn, we assess the business and recommend a short list of improvements to increase the selling price substantially.
Companies with revenue below $3,000,000 are difficult to sell for a good price. The profitability is too low for a buyer to support debt payments and leverage growth. To sell, you will need a plan to increase size and profitability.

10. Selling to a private equity firm seldom has a happy outcome. We have been there. It is not pretty.

Run Your Business For The Day You Sell It

Whoever buys your business – whether it be children, employees, a competitor or a strategic buyer – will need it to be “ready to buy.” From strong earnings and consistent capital investments to good markets and customer diversity to a strong management team and a predictable future. Without these elements, it is a poor investment and may not even be bankable.

And this is where we can help.

As partners in Decision Associates Mergers & Acquisitions, BJ Lechner and I have been selling businesses since 2008.

All of our clients have been privately owned companies with revenue between $5,000,000 and $50,000,000.
Our processes yield transactions that sell at prices well above industry standard multiples.
No company we have sold has been moved or closed. In fact, all have grown and expanded and the employees still have jobs. Often, new buildings have been built and new products or services added.

We are extremely proud of our record. Accomplishing these outcomes requires careful analysis and research to find a buyer that needs this business, in this location to achieve their goals.

If you are like most of the owners we help, you will be concerned about more than price when you are ready to sell. You will want the business to stay local, you will want your employees to have jobs, you will want your community to thrive because of your business. As one client once said to us, “I don’t want to run into a laid off employee in the local grocery store. I cared about my employees when I owned the company and I still care about them now.”

Decision Associates Mergers and Acquisitions

Written by:

Don Moore, Executive Consultant/Partner, Decision Associates Mergers and Acquisitions

An Olive Garden manager recently made headlines when she told workers to prove they were sick or to go find another job. Southwest Airlines similarly sent a memo to their employees saying that if they had called out sick and did not provide a doctor’s excuse, they would be fired. These are two examples of the many recent cases where what researchers are calling the “tripledemic” is starting to influence the workforce. With cases of the flu, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and the newest COVID-19 variant, XBB.1.5, the number of employee absences is on the rise. Trying to put limits on sick policies is the opposite of how organization should be best handling this wave. Not allowing employees to take time off when they are sick will ultimately create larger problems in the future.

Annie Rosencrans, people and culture director at HiBob HR software firm, stated, “If your employees feel as though they’re being forced to work in unsafe or unhealthy conditions, forcing them to come into work is a very effective way to really crush engagement. If a manager or team lead wants to engage employees, they need to make sure their employees know that their well-being is a priority to them. The moment someone signals employee health isn’t important, they’ll see a dip in productivity and engagement.” Thinking strictly in a logical sense, yes, forcing employees to come to work regardless of the environment’s or the person’s well-being would improve overall productivity. However, this is neither ethical nor engaging for employees to work in poor conditions, including sickness.

Let’s think about it this way: recall the last time you were sick. You feel weak, are tired no matter how much sleep you get, and food sounds like the last thing you want to think about. Your head is pounding, and you haven’t gotten a good night’s sleep. Now imagine trying to push through those feelings by going to work. You might be able to get yourself into the office, but is your time there going to be spent in a productive way? Will the projects, conversations, and tasks you do carry out be of the best quality? A majority would say most likely not.

And with the “tripledemic” occurring, more employees are starting to feel this way. The pandemic’s height led to HR departments facing challenges in maintaining consistent staffing schedules that created flexibility for work-life balance and the overwhelming number of employee sick absentees. While these new policies were put in place, many found them to be unsustainable and their structure weakened in late 2021. With the recent spike of employee absentees due to sicknesses like RSV, the flu, and XBB.1.5, HR departments are having to go back and restructure these plans to better work for what is looking an even bigger issue compared to 2020.

To help accommodate for temporary staffing shortages, Rosencrans suggests that employers and managers need to have a process established for when people are out sick. “Make sure there isn’t one sole person who holds all the information for a project, a deal, a client and so on. Make sure there are resources in place so someone can pick up the pieces if someone drops off. Having a sole source of all the key information puts this employee in a positional where they can never take time off, and it doesn’t create continuity for the team.” In addition, strategies and plans can be created that empower other employees to step up and cover all or parts of shifts if needed. Management needs to be prepared to fill in certain roles for short-term periods. Small and large businesses alike have now seen the damage that a lack of staffing can cause, and should be taking every measure possible to prevent it.

Resources:

Mayer, Kathryn. “HR’s Latest Challenge: Managing Mass Employee Sick Absences.” SHRM, SHRM, 9 Jan. 2023, https://www.shrm.org/ResourcesAndTools/hr-topics/benefits/Pages/Managing-Mass-Employee-Sick-Absences.aspx?linktext=HRs-Latest-Challenge-How-to-Respond-When-Multiple-Employees-Call-Out-Sick

Although it is tempting to slap a bandage on the lack of labor force by raising salaries, pay is not the only factor employers should be focused on adapting in our tightening economy. A competitive and fair compensation structure is just one factor that leads to a satisfied workforce. It is no longer seen as “above and beyond,” but rather an expectation. Without competitive pay, business leaders will end up with a dissatisfied and unproductive team. Targeting that source of dissatisfaction and reducing negative connotations are different from shaping an engaged and positive team. Although this is a lot harder to do, it is ultimately more impactful.

Experienced leaders understand that developing a fair compensation complete with proper benefits and work-life balance leads to reducing levels of dissatisfaction. What they must keep in mind is that it does not permanently change the overall attitude of the workplace. Focusing on workplace culture in a more holistic light will achieve the greater goal of job satisfaction and worker commitment. Employers need to start seeing the bigger picture.

Clarity on the differences between basic satisfaction and a truly productive workforce was first brought to light in the 1960s by Frederick Herzberg, who published Work and the Nature of Man. Discrepancies between what characterized “necessary factors” like compensation and factors that are essential for a productive workforce are identified and explained. He says it is imperative to be able to distinguish between extrinsic and intrinsic factors within individual places of work. In a study included in his book, Herzberg looked at 3,500 experiences of events on the job. These events were then rated by employees as either resulting in a feeling of satisfaction or dissatisfaction. Intrinsic factors, those that work within the context of organizational culture, were studied to have a more likely result in employee satisfaction. Topping the list (ranked by number of mentions) was responsibility five times, achievement four times, recognition three times, and work two and a half times. Contrary, extrinsic factors like company policy and administration led to seven mentions and supervision to four mentions. Compensation and salary were the least mentioned factors, with a negative ratio of one and a half times.

Recently compensation studies have developed a list of companies who are stated by their employees to have the best workplace environments, including factors such as pay, additional amenities, and work-life balance. What earned these companies their coveted spot on the list? It is simple: the high performers understood the intrinsic factors. Their leaders were able to identify and put into action a holistic view of a productive workplace culture, to which they attend to daily. This cohort of businesses are not reacting to employees’ needs, but are instead trailblazing a set of rules for navigating the new world of work we are living in. They continue to offer their employees flexible work arrangements and as a result, have seen their profits soar. CEOs like Satya Nadella of number one ranked company, Microsoft, was voted “most underrated” by his peers for presenting a confident and trailblazing attitude towards how he leads the organization. This leadership style translates down to the employee level by convey an adaptable, yet reassuring work environment that employees feel most productive in.

Resources: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnrau/2023/01/11/in-todays-economy-getting-employee-compensation-right-is-necessary-but-insufficient/?sh=5082a60c24ae

The year of 2022 was characterized by exponential growth in the recruitment and retention industry. The troubles and developed solutions businesses implemented in 2020 and 2021 had their repercussions this year, resulting in a high unemployment rate and difficulty in finding skilled talent. As we move into 2023, companies will continue to find it increasingly difficult to attract qualified candidates from a sparse marketplace. Human resource departments have had to adapt the ways in which they approach the recruitment process to develop a more efficient and proactive system. In part one of this two-part article series, we focused on identifying the key trends for recruiting in 2023. Today we will be looking at expected trends for retention.

The workplace day is not what it once was. Although older generation offices did value feeling appreciated by their fellow colleagues, today’s workforce is more upfront about it. They want to feel both appreciated and adequately compensated for the time and effort they invested in their company. Adequate pay is defined not only by its direct relation to an individual’s particular area of work, but also how it adjusts to cost-of-living expenses and other inflation-related factors. Bonuses in response to exceptional work will help promote continued motivation and peak performance.

A study done by Glassdoor showed that two out of every three job seekers specifically look for companies with diverse workforces during their search. Companies are having to make more of an effort to ensure different kinds of diversity lives within their company culture. This includes equal ratios of men to women, age, and ethnicity. A wide array of people brings a wide array of knowledge, skills, and new ideas that creates a cohesive, productive, and comfortable work environment that is attractive to current employees. If they are surrounded by those who are similar, yet different to themselves, it creates a more comfortable environment which elongates employment. Deloitte has reported that 47% of candidates actively pursue companies that value diversity and inclusion when considering potential employers, and that 83% of millennials are more engaged in an inclusive environment.

Everyone loves growth. Whether that’s growth within their attitudes towards work or growth that leads them to a role with more responsibility, it is something most individuals like to experience. According to a survey by Clear Company, 76% of employees report a desire for growth opportunities. A striking 40% of employees who receive inadequate training will leave the company within a year of being hired. Providing both through training and follow-up in addition to setting a clear path for what growth at the company could look like gives an employee the opportunity for higher satisfaction at their job.

The year of 2022 was characterized by exponential growth in the recruitment and retention industry. The troubles and developed solutions businesses implemented in 2020 and 2021 had their repercussions this year, resulting in a high unemployment rate and difficulty in finding skilled talent. As we move into 2023, companies will continue to find it increasingly difficult to attract qualified candidates from a sparse marketplace. Human resource departments have had to adapt the ways in which they approach the recruitment process to develop a more efficient and proactive system. In this two-part article series, we will learn from this past year’s trends and adapt our efforts in the direction that effective employee hiring and retention is headed. Today, we will focus on the recruiting aspect.

Recruitment is morphing into a more proactive process compared to the traditionally reactive methodologies. Human resources have turned to locating talent before the demand to fill a particular position becomes critical. Recruiting firms now create pools of potential applicants prior to a position being available, allowing them to fill client roles quicker. Proactive recruiters make an effort to build relationships with their talent pools and stay on top of emerging positions.

In the past, the subject of compensation and salary range has been a taboo topic, however an increasingly competitive hiring market has resulted in recruiters being more transparent about pay. This past September, California became the fourth state in the United States to require more transparency regarding the availability of pay range data on a job listing. Being upfront and informative in a job description is likely to attract the type of talent that would be the best fit for the role, making it a highly competitive position. Candidates are applying for multiple jobs at a time and if they aren’t told the compensation until the second or third interview, they may be inclined to commit to another position who did share that information with them earlier on. More companies are finding that becoming more blatant about and investing in higher salaries and enticing benefits packages will be the leading way to attract and retain talent in 2023.

In the past, social media has been a tool for recruiters to use in identifying potential candidates. Although platforms like LinkedIn are still used in this way, the role of a company’s social media has become more focused on driving an attractive employer brand. Displaying both an informative and personable front to the company profile is attractive to both those actively and passively looking for a job. A study by MRINetwork revealed that 69% of job seekers would refuse to work for a company with a negative reputation, so maintaining a positive image should be one of the highest priorities.

Resources: https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/2023-hiring-trends/

The reluctance of workers to return to the office has been well documented through multiple workplace reformation trends that the World Economic Forum has observed recently. Interestingly, these trends predate the COVID-pandemic and are now resurfacing as a result of the past three years that were characterized by widespread economic hardship. Identifying and understanding these trends in addition to implementing them within your organization will be key to future success efforts.

The changes that have occurred in industry structures has prompted organizations to reconstruct their business models to maintain relevance and a competitive nature. Companies have taken multiple approaches to this trend, some like General Electric who split and others like Tata Group who have responded by merging. Alphabet, among many others, that have been able to do without job cuts have responded with a need for higher employee productivity rates. The pursuit of greater efficiency is the main motivator for these industry-wide restructurings, as companies are looking to create a more skilled workforce. Workplace culture reformation starts with recruiting employees that possess skills that contribute to the main crux of the company’s purpose, which is a mindset more HR departments are adopting.

Companies are increasingly hiring for skills backed with experience and less for potential in order to meet the demand for short-term results. The shift has resulted in a decline in graduate program enrollment. Only 11% of business leaders would “strongly agree” that students are graduating from higher education with the necessary competencies for their future careers. Therefore, employers are looking less for a particular degree and rather opportunities that would have provided an opportunity for skill development. Four in five employers believe quality internships to be more valuable on a resume and are a better way to prepare graduates for success in their companies compared to higher educational endeavors. This may call for a reformation in the near future for both the education and recruiting industries.

Although there is no denying the pandemic’s effect on the popularity of mobile talent, the ability for individuals to diversify their talent has become more accessible and sustainable. This has fueled the global war for skilled talent, as it has led to opportunities for workers to move across industries and even countries. With the increased normality of remote work and digital collaboration tools, individuals can work multiple roles which has created a competitive recruitment environment for both the candidate and recruiter. Individuals and organizations must evaluate their open positions with a mindset considerate of career mobility and the development of transferable skills.

The fundamental rules of employment are being shifted by digital platform companies like Facebook, Spotify, and Lyft. The World Forum uses Uber as a prime example, as they have successfully created employment opportunities for roughly 5 million drivers across the globe without signing a single driver employment contract. This has changed the way the recruitment process is handled. Less of the responsibly lies with a traditional human resource department, and now with strategy talent recruitment firms who can conduct in-depth research on an individual to evaluate their potential to be the best fit. More companies are finding that utilizing a strategy talent firm to fill their position openings is an investment worthwhile because of the higher retention rate and better personality and skillset fit of the individual.

Employability is no longer just about soft skills such as communication, collaboration, and critical thinking. No matter the industry, organizations are transforming into simplistic versions of technology companies and therefore are looking to build a workplace and labor force who are skilled in technological areas. Candidates that possess knowledge and experience working with AI, robotics, and digital software platforms are much more competitive because of the likely future integration.

Resources: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/09/five-trends-endure-world-of-work/

On November 17th, former Twitter employee Eric Frohnhoefer believed his tweets about a problem with the platform’s speed to his new boss and Twitter CEO Elon Musk were harmless. Having been a staff software engineer for the company for eight years, he included some potential solutions in the tweet. “I feel like I didn’t cross the line. I feel like I addressed the issue appropriately. Obviously, they saw it differently,” Frohnhoefer told the news company NPR. Musk did indeed see it differently, and tweeted Monday that Frohnhoefer was fired. The tweet was later deleted. Frohnhoefer learned about his firing from another coworker who saw the tweet and after verifying with the company later learned that he was officially let go. Unfortunately, Frohnhoefer was not the only employee fired along those lines. Following the public firing, Musk gave all Twitter employees an ultimatum stating that they must commit to long, intense hours in an “extremely hardcore” company by Thursday afternoon or leave, with three month’s severance.

Business leaders can learn a lot from Mr. Musk’s actions and several ethical questions surface that are worth exploring. Was it right for Musk to fire employees this way? Was it right for those employees to be fired in the first place? The best leaders- those who lead according to the principles of ethical intelligence- use the following rules of thumb when it comes to letting an employee go.

Do it in person whenever possible. Yes, it is uncomfortable. Yes, it can be awkward. However, not only is it the right thing to do, but it can also help manage the relational bridge with that former employee. This can translate into maintaining a positive employer brand. Laying off an employee is not an easy task, however doing it in a sensitive manner can be the difference between improving or hurting the company’s reputation. People are more likely to remember a negative comment compared to a positive one and handling this type of situation correctly can minimize those former employee’s hostile feelings. As shown in Twitter’s case, mishandling such a delicate and traditionally private situation can affect both the public reputation and internal culture. After the mishap, the remaining Twitter employees are now afraid to surface concerns, which will lead to larger problems down the road. Catherine Fisk, a law professor at U.C. Berkley School of Law said, “Creating an environment where workers are afraid to flag problems with the product for fear that they’ll be fired by tweet in the middle of night is not going to encourage people to want to work there. It’s not going to encourage those who are there to want to give their all to the job or to raise questions about whether there’s a better way that something could be done.”

Be honest, but not brutally so. It is important to address the situation with transparency but should be constrained by the duty to minimize harm. Be forthright with the employee by choosing your words, tone of voice, and demeanor with care. Show compassion for the person. A lay off is life-changing news, so responding in a compassionate manner both honors their dignity and speaks to a better part of your company’s nature. That person is an employee up until they walk out of the office, and therefore deserves the right to ask questions and receive direct answers about the circumstance. A tweet simply does not suffice.

Continued global crisis – the pandemic, European war, inflation, and political upheaval – has caused employees to take a heightened focus on their financial security and emotional well-being rather than on climbing the economic ladder within their places of employment. “During the pandemic, organizations led with empathy and prioritized health and flexibility,” said Adam Pressman, Mercer’s U.S. employee research leader. “But 2022 has brought new challenges—inflation, labor shortages, a war in Ukraine and more.” This is a significant change to what we observed in 2021, where engagement from employees was increased due to employers’ improved support through better communication, focusing on health and safety, allowing greater flexibility, and leading with empathy. But, with what now feels like to most people a prolonged international crisis, new stressors and fears are rising to the surface and causing employees to feel less of this support. The Great Resignation is taking its toll: work life balance remains a top concern, the average employee would likely state that they feel exhausted on a typical day, and inflation has skyrocketed.

These, in addition to many others, have been contributing to the burnout and dissatisfaction employees are beginning to feel. Compensation, benefits, and career goals are the top areas of disappointment. The Mercer “Inside Employees’ Minds 2022” study observed an eight-point drop in employee satisfaction since last year. ” In 2022, employees value a workplace that centers on well-being, where they have more-sustainable workloads and more resources to support their holistic health—financial, physical, and mental,” said Lauren Mason, senior principal for Mercer’s career business practice. “We see this as a defining moment, a new contract between employers and employees. Employers who adopt this lifestyle contract will gain a committed and productive workforce and be an employer of choice in today’s job market.”

The study also observed what workers’ top financial concerns where in 2022. The comparison to 2021 is striking, with covering monthly expenses jumping from #9 to #1. This is significant, especially because the concern it replaced from 2021, physical health and fitness, is less essential. Retirement has also become a more pressing concern, whether that means the ability to retire earlier or simply being able to retire at all. Work life balance is still a top 3 concern, as workers continue to experience burnout from the effects of the labor shortage. Employees’ needs have become more serious, and employers need to respond to that appropriately. Adjusting to the improvements made in 2021 to better match the needs of 2022 is a great place to start.

Resources: https://www.mercer.us/content/dam/mercer/attachments/private/us-2022-inside-employees-minds-report.pdf

Trust your gut.

You may have heard that common phrase thrown around when a challenging decision must be made. While intuition can provide the spark, it’s the data, facts, and metrics that provide the ability to assess a situation in an informed way. A study conducted by PwC stated that highly data-driven organizations are three times more likely to report significant improvements in decision-making compared to those who rely less on data. No matter the state of the economy, it is essential that as a business leader you can anticipate problems and take action in an appropriate and timely manner. Utilizing a data-driven strategy to make these decisions is the most effective way in doing so.

Data driven decision making uses facts, metrics, and data analytics to make conversant business decisions that align with your company’s objectives and initiatives. This type of decision making empowers your employees to make choices that are better informed and more likely to have a positive company-wide impact daily. Tableau, a data visualization company, summarizes the concept with this statement: “If you can look around your organization and see teams making decisions effortlessly because they are using data, you’ve realized your data’s full value.” A more informed decision is always a better one.

Taking a data driven approach to making strategic business decisions yields a more cohesive work environment. Data can establish a common language across different departments and therefore increase collaboration among teams. When your data is discoverable, employees can share information with more fluidity and from a single source of truth which can lead to new opportunities and better company-wide decision making.

What does data driven decision making look like in practice? Google is a great example of a larger corporation, who struggled with employee connectedness and successfully utilized data-based decision making to improve their manager training programs. Project Oxygen, their people analytics initiative project, produced data from 10,000 performance reviews and compared that data with employee retention rates. Google used that data outside of Project Oxygen to identify common characteristics and behaviors in their high-performing managers. The HR team adjusted the existing training programs accordingly to be designed to develop those competencies in future managers. From these efforts, favorability scores for Google managers were boosted from 83 percent to 88 percent.

HR specifically can benefit from implementing data collection and analyzation tools into their recruiting and retention efforts. People are a company’s greatest asset, but often the biggest expense so it is essential that HR teams have visibility into hiring, attrition, turnover, and diversity. Not only is it important to understand who you need to be hiring, but also identifying the characteristics of those who are currently performing well at your organization in similar roles. As a part of our executive search and hiring process, Decision Associates utilizes the Predictive Index Behavioral Assessment to identify what qualities are essential for your open position and hiring an individual who processes those characteristics. We believe that filling a role is more than matching skills, but a process that also includes matching innate behaviors.

Resources: https://www.forbes.com/sites/tableau/2022/09/23/beyond-the-buzzword-what-does-data-driven-decision-making-really-mean/?sh=18df0e1025d6

https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/data-driven-decision-making

Properly Handling Employee Resignation

The day-to-day business of running a company comes with many ups and downs and the surprise resignation of a key employee can be an overwhelming and daunting low point. Fortunately, steps have been developed by HR practitioners that are designed to create a more seamless exit strategy for both the employee and employer.

Tackling the logistics is a great place to start, whether this includes disabling his or her company accounts, contacting payroll, or getting the necessary resignation paperwork signed. Jim Jackson, director of human resources for inSeption Group, a pharmaceutical manufacturing company based in Lansdale, PA, says HR professionals need to make sure they understand the specific employment laws in their state since these often effect how employees need to be offboarded. Contrary to popular belief, there is no official notice period an employee must give their employer, but there are ways that companies can create incentives for longer notice periods. For example, in Ohio there is a policy that allows a company to payout accrued but unused PTO if the employee gives two weeks’ notice.

A great next step is discussing a succession plan with the employee’s manager, ideally this should be done well in advance of an employee departure. It’s important to discuss how the work covered by that employee’s role will continue until a replacement is found. Evaluate if the job description needs an update, if the company’s budget for this position is still appropriate, and if any reorganization of the team needs to be done. “Every departure can be viewed as a chance to rethink how things have always been done and potentially pursue a more effective arrangement.” (Rockwood)

Finally, schedule an exit interview with the departing employee. This is your chance to gather feedback about why they have decided to leave the company. Ask questions that allow the you to gain insight into the aspects of their time with the company they enjoyed and which they felt could have been better. The information gathered through the exit interview process should be reviewed on a regular basis to identify any common threads including areas that could be touted as reasons someone would want to work for the company, and those that are areas for improvement.

Even with a smooth departure, employee resignation can be tough on both the employee and the employer. For the employer, it can lead to a temporary lack of hands around the office, which results in work overload. In other words, hiring becomes a top priority. Decision Associates works with clients to create a smooth succession process that results in the recruitment and hiring of a new professional who will continue to lead with success. Our proven, proprietary process yields succession strategy for key roles that will create a more secure future for your company. Decision Associates has nearly 40 years of experience with succession planning and ownership transfers, including business owner succession, management succession, and exit planning. Talk to one of our consults today! https://www.decisionassociates.net/contact/

Resources: Rockwood, Kate. “What To Do When An Employee Resigns.” HR Magazine, 2022.

How Are Companies Addressing the Workforce Shortage?

It’s no secret that many companies have been impacted by labor shortages over the past several years. In order to combat the issue, companies have started approaching recruiting and employee retention efforts differently compared to how they have handled these processes in the past. A study conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management reported eleven different ways that business leaders and HR managers are shifting their approaches.

Searching specialized social networks and organizations for highly skilled workers: Recruiting on platforms that tend to draw a common type of user can be beneficial for companies that are looking for candidates in that field. For example, if you represent an interior design company, you might browse a platform like Pinterest to find potential candidates. You could also explore existing groups on platforms like LinkedIn to find a concentrated pool of candidates with common skills and backgrounds.
Removing barriers to hiring new employees: As an example, a large problem facing those who are reentering the workforce is the lack of access to daycare. Providing flexible options such as remote or hybrid work or having more flexibility with the hours an employee works removes a potential barrier that could mean opening the door to attracting more candidates.
Implementing an aggressive hiring strategy: Hiring top talent is extremely competitive as today’s candidates are considering multiple positions at once. When you find a candidate who’s a good fit for the position and your company, express your interest immediately and earnestly as possible. The more time you allow to lapse between communications with the candidate, the more likely they are to accept another offer.
Offering competitive employee wellness benefits: Not all companies prioritize the overall wellbeing of their employees and will instead focus their marketing on the position’s compensation and benefits. Offering benefits such as gym membership, a continuing education allowance or free mental health services might just be the edge that will have a candidate choosing you over your competitor.
Recruiting student veterans: It is predicted that in 2023, student veterans will be the untapped goldmine for critical job openings because of their tendencies to be overlooked by recruiters. This typically occurs because of recruiters’ inability to properly match these individuals who use their military experience to appropriate positions. These candidates bring both their military skills and post-service educational achievements to the table.
Hiring foreign workers through the H-1 B Visa Program: The pool of skilled workers in the U.S. has been declining as Baby Boomers retire. The number of foreign-born workers with advanced degrees has been increasing which has led to international recruiting through the H-1 B Visa Program.
Looking at internal talent pools: Sometimes the best recruiting happens under an organization’s own roof. Examining your staff and the potential skillsets they might have an interest in learning is often a more sensible alternative to external recruiting in addition to increasing that individual’s rate of long-term retention.
Paying attention to employee referrals: Establishing an ongoing employee referral program hands both a sense of importance and responsibility to your current staff. It gives employees a voice in who they work beside while also holding them accountable for that recommendation.
Hiring talent globally for remote work: Talent is not limited to a geographic location. The corporate world has adapted to this principle and can now hire employees from virtually anywhere, but smaller companies should consider pursuing this avenue as well. Recruiting globally whenever possible opens a whole new pool of candidates and talent to recruit from.
Partnering with higher education institutions to find and train candidates: Companies have started partnering with universities in order to access a larger pool of candidates. There is also potential for partnerships with the institutions’ career development office to provide training and skills workshops for students applying for the position. These types of partnerships are beneficial for the recruiter, the university, and the student.
Shifting attention to a pipeline-driven approach: Shifting the mindset of hiring fully trained individuals to hiring for potential can widen your range of qualified candidates. No, the person you hire might not check every box in terms of experience and skills, but they can be trained into a more senior role over time.

When it comes down to it, hiring has become more challenging, but does not need to be a stumbling block. Looking in the right places and teaming up with the right people can keep your team growing and on the upward trajectory. Decision Associates partners with clients to work toward hiring top talent and helping you manage your growing staff. Learn more about our executive recruiting services: https://www.decisionassociates.net/client-services/executive-recruitment/

Resources: https://blog.shrm.org/blog/11-ways-companies-can-address-workforce-shortages

The pandemic and rise in popularity of remote work has led to the coining of a new favorite buzzword in the world of business: quiet quitters. A common misconception about quiet quitters is that they are taking a passive aggressive approach to taking on work that is above and beyond their job description. A more appropriate way of looking at quiet quitters is that they are employees who work to live. It is important to understand that not everyone is built to be an overachiever, but it becomes a problem when these individuals’ quality of work is not completed in the company’s best interest. Management teams have begun utilizing surveillance tools to spot quiet quitters; in fact, 33% of medium to large sized corporations now use software like ActiveTrak to analyze employee productivity.

As one could imagine, some workers describe this as invasion of privacy, and it has contributed negatively to the gap that already often exists between management teams and quiet quitters. Instead of spying, employers must ask themselves what is causing these employees to work at the minimum and are the contributions they are making during their working hours helping the company in some way? It’s important to remember that not all employees will have loftier aspirations for their time with the company, some simply want to do the job they were hired to do and no more. That’s not necessarily an undesirable quality.

Today’s management teams are challenged with the task of creating an environment that enables the company to get the most out of a quiet quitter’s work while also having an avenue for those who are high achievers. Making corporate goals clear and rewarding those who meet those goals are good starting points for employers to determine who is an actively contributing and beneficial quiet quitter and who might need to be counseled into getting to that point. On the other hand, employers must remember to remain respectful of an employee’s desire to have a healthy work-life balance, which looks different for everyone.

This is a delicate situation to handle, whether you are a large corporation or a small business. Understanding your employees and their motivations play an integral part of in establishing a positive company culture and setting a tone for the company’s employer brand. Decision Associates culture assessment service provides an accurate pulse on how well your work environment is engaging employees for high performance. We work with you to survey employees with the end goal of creating a plan that has the potential to increase profits, reduce staff turnover, improve operational efficiencies, and enhance recruitment and retention procedures. With a 100% success rate, our staff at Decision Associates is dedicated to helping you improve your company culture and employee satisfaction.

References: https://www.inc.com/peter-cohan/dont-spy-on-quiet-quitters-do-this-instead.html

Every organization, whether they actively cultivate it or not, has a brand. And in today’s highly competitive employment market your brand matters more than ever. Decision Associates’ Amanda Kochirka offers some insights in this video. Check out the full article below.

Every organization, whether they actively cultivate it or not, has a brand. Your brand is a promise. A well-managed brand sets clear expectations, evokes positive feelings and attracts people to your organization. But what about your employer brand? When was the last time you thought about what emotions or expectations your brand conjures in the minds of your current and prospective employees?

A 2021 survey published by Glassdoor revealed that 86% of employees and job seekers research organization reviews and ratings prior to deciding on where to apply for a job. The study also revealed that 75% of active job seekers are likely to apply to a position if the employer actively manages its employer brand.

What is an employer brand?

Many companies spend countless hours and invest significant amounts of money in marketing to their customers, but far fewer allocate time and money to marketing to potential employees. The way your brand is perceived by job seekers starts long before they decide to apply for a position at your organization – it begins from their first search.

Your employer brand is comprised of several different factors including your organizational culture, your current and past employees’ opinions of your organization, candidate opinions of their experience with your organization, and of course, your organization’s mission and vision. A successful employer branding strategy needs to be built around these pillars. Additionally, your employer brand strategy should be a component of your overall marketing strategy, the two should complement each other, both tying back to your organization’s mission, vision and values.

Why does my employer brand matter?

In today’s labor market, candidates are more selective than ever before about the companies and positions they apply to. The pandemic, for many job seekers, highlighted the importance of having a good cultural fit with their employer, regardless of the compensation and other benefits. Today’s candidate wants to know how you care for your employees, how you put your core values into action, and overall, what your brand really stands for. When they accept a position at your organization, they want to be able to feel good about what they’re representing as an employee.

To think of it another way, if a potential applicant asks one of your current employees, “what’s it like to work there?” the employee isn’t going to rattle off the details of how great your product or service is. They’re going to talk about the organization’s values and culture, their relationship with their coworkers, how they’re managed, and whether or not they get excited about going to work every day. In order for your employer brand to be effective, your employees need to be able to tell that compelling story. It’s not just talk, though, it goes beyond the story – simply telling people your organization is a great place to work doesn’t cut it – you have to walk the walk.

How do I start thinking about my employer brand?

There are a few questions you should ask yourself and your team as you look to start putting more effort into how your current and potential employees see you.

Why should someone want to work here?
Is there a discrepancy in the way our management/ownership team sees our organization versus the way the rest of the employees see it?
How visible are you to your desired talent pool?
How can you leverage current employees as part of your employer branding strategy?

These are all questions that will help you start to take stock of the assets you have and the ones you need in order to build an effective employer brand.

Your discovery process for your employer strategy should stem from a clearly defined mission, vision and values. If your organization doesn’t have that foundation, not only will the marketing strategy you use to appeal to potential employees fail, but the strategy you use to reach customers will fail as well.

The next step in the process is to conduct research, both internal and external. You need to develop an understanding of how your organization is perceived by your current employees as well as how your candidate experience is perceived by those who are currently going through (or have recently gone through) it. Take some time to work with your management team to identify top talent already in your organization and determine the attributes that they bring to the organization that you want future employees to also possess. Additionally, take a look at your competitors or other similar organizations and how they’re approaching employee branding.

Once you have your research collected, developing an employee value proposition that clearly defines the employee experience at your organization and what’s special about it. It should answer the question, “why should I want to work here?” And remember, authenticity is key. A message from the CEO talking about why you should want to work for Organization XYZ isn’t going to hold a candle to an energetic video featuring current employees answering specific questions that reveal, truthfully, what they love about working there.

Your overall employee marketing strategy should extend to the recruitment function, including job boards, social media, the career page on your website and any other assets you have, but also spill over into the onboarding experience. Think of it as creating employee ambassadors for your organization from the second they join your team. Don’t leave your current employees hanging either: even though they were part of the process to create the messaging around why your organization is a great place to work, they need to be recipients of it regularly as well in order to ensure their ability to communicate it to those outside your organization.

With concentrated effort over time, your employer branding will improve and evolve as you bring on new team members and work to build loyalty among your existing team. The bottom line is that if your goal is to attract top talent, keep them engaged, and reduce turnover, enhancing your employer brand is an invaluable step on your path to success.

Amanda Korchirka is an associate consultant specializing in the areas of talent acquisition, culture development, organizational leadership, training design and delivery, marketing/communications, market research, and strategic planning. She brings over ten years of experience from various industries including economic development, entrepreneurship, higher education, nonprofit, and retail. To contact Amanda, email her at AmandaKochirka@DecisionAssociates.net.

Start early! A three- to five-year window allows more time to enhance the value of your business, more time to develop successors and, if needed, more time for selling your business. This window also provides necessary time to address tax, trust and estate planning considerations. If you do not start early, you will be faced with choosing and dealing with forced (usually poor) options.
Be realistic! While many businesses have great potential, they still may not be attractive enough to satisfy a strategic buyer. Often, the solution is “growing” a buyer. These buyers may be already in the business – your children, the management team, the employees (ESOP). Or, they may be entrepreneurs or even competitors. While the “growing a buyer” approach takes more planning, it often can reap the best financial and emotional return on investment.
Use professionals who specialize in business succession. This is a once-in-lifetime transaction that is full of pitfalls in areas such as regulatory compliance, tax law, management succession, business valuation, contracts…the list is endless. Every error or omission can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and all of it comes out of your payday. Hire attorneys, accountants and consultants who know the business of succession.
Get a business valuation early in your 3-5 year window. If you plan to sell the business, this gives you time to enhance its value and improve saleability. If you are transitioning the business to children, it helps your professional advisors, banks and your children prepare a financial transition plan. Get a new valuation every two years to track value improvement.
Teach your successors the business – do not assume they “picked it up!” You have unique business skills and industry insights that took years, perhaps decades, to develop. The better you are, the less likely it is that your successors have developed these very skills. Create a development plan that moves responsibility and accountability to the successors while you are still there to coach, mentor, measure and serve as a safety net. Even if you ultimately sell the business to an outsider, you have done your team a favor by making them more valuable.
Have a plan for yourself. Far too many businesses end up in a succession emergency because the owner couldn’t start the succession process or started but never finished (“why doesn’t Dad just retire!”). Why? Because they have spent a lifetime on meaningful, high value work and they need that “fix” every day. If this is you, use succession planning to negotiate a role for yourself that creates value for the business but does not threaten the new owners. Another option is to take a role in a different organization, such as a non-profit, industry trade organization or other place where your skills are really critical.

If your company is focused on growth, strategic hiring is essential. You cannot afford not to plan for this next “step change” in your organization.

Understand, the evolution of an organization is not unique to your company. For example, in an organization that has $3 million or less in total revenue, the owner is handling the vast majority of hiring and personnel-related functions, marketing, sales, and finance. As the less-than-$3 million organization approaches $5-10 million and beyond, that same owner simply cannot continue handling all these functions. If unchecked, the growth of the organization will be stunted.

To be clear: the organization has evolved so the owner’s responsibilities need to evolve as well. This evolution is typical and all organizations face similar challenges as they transition through the various stages of revenue growth. That is why strategic hiring must take place for the organization to achieve its potential.

Now you may be asking yourself, “How will I know when to make these strategic hires? What does my plan need to look like? Do I hire the employee before we secure the anticipated growth?”

Know your estimated revenue and profitability

The key component to your plan is your estimated revenue and profitability trajectory over the next three to five years. The reason for this is twofold:

First and foremost, the revenue and profitability figures serve as benchmarks. If certain benchmarks are identified, you need to ensure the company is staffed appropriately to meet the benchmarks. For example, if you are targeted to grow $5 million in revenue over the next five years and currently have an accounts receivable clerk as your primary accountant, you probably should be thinking a controller will be needed as you approach this next level of growth.
The second reason, and possibly the more important reason, is that your revenue and profitability figures will assist in identifying the appropriate level of candidate for the role. You want to be certain you are hiring a candidate with the capability to serve the size of organization you are targeted to become.

Consider this Example

A company president believed when his organization achieved total revenue of $15 million, it would be the appropriate time to hire an operations manager. This organization did revenue and profitability projections and had the data to support an established sales goal of $15 million. The president also evaluated the duties he was performing and knew that to ensure continued growth and profitability, there needed to be another layer of management. Several months in front of this sales goal, we initiated an executive search for an operations manager for this company and by early in the year of planned growth, we had the position filled.

Ask Yourself These Questions

Have you performed revenue projections for the next three to five years for your company? Have you evaluated the duties you and other key members of your staff are performing? Are some of these duties hindering your continued growth? Are you ready to make some strategic hires to position your organization for the future?

Decision Associates can help you work through these strategic questions and discuss more about what Step Change Growth can mean for your company. Contact us today!

Our firm has helped about 180 owners step away from their business and into a different chapter of life. Note that I didn’t say “Exit” their business. Succession or Selling have traditionally inferred the owner’s exit. It doesn’t anymore. Therefore, as a business owner, you may have options that will help you get past the hesitation to get started.

Let me comment on the issue of hesitation. Statistically speaking, our firm will meet with 12-15 business owners annually to discuss “what should I do about my business?” They come to us through the following sources (varies year to year):

Referrals–30%
Existing clients–30%
Seminars–20%
Newsletters–10%
Website–10%

Of those 12-15, we will be engaged by about 5-6 to help them develop and execute a plan. Of the remaining, 5-8 will hesitate and do nothing, year after year. About 1-2 per year will pass away or be permanently incapacitated.

The half that act always have a good outcome. Ironically, many of those don’t end up taking the path that they intended when they came to us but are nonetheless very satisfied with the outcome. Why they changed direction is the subject of an entirely different article. The point of this article is to understand why about half of business owners hesitate even though they know they should do something. With 35 years’ experience in succession and exit, I can tell you this much: People who hesitate universally come to regret it. Don’t hesitate. Here are your options and how to get around hesitation.

Keep it and hire someone to run it

I put this one first because we find it’s the best way to overcome hesitation. It doesn’t change your life as abruptly as selling or transitioning to children immediately.
In the 90s, we’d pursue this avenue about once every 4-5 years. Owners just couldn’t get their heads around the idea that someone else could run the business as well as they do. By 2010, this option was up to one every 3 years.
Today, we are doing this 4-6 times every year.
The beauty is that it solves the biggest cause of hesitation: You don’t have to leave the business altogether; you can choose the level of future engagement that suits you.
It’s also a perfect “bridge” to a different solution: The new president can help your children get prepared, or help your employees prepare to buy it, or prepare it for a later sale, or run it for as long as you want to own it. Frequently, the president becomes the next owner.
In every experience we’ve had, the business had increased in sales, profit and market value. At first, this surprised even us. But the reason turned out to be simple: The owner was getting tired and just couldn’t/wouldn’t give the business 150% every-single-day of the year, year after year. Period.

Transfer the business to my children

In the period from 1930 to 1990, most smaller businesses (under $30,000,000 in sales) transitioned to children or other family members (niece, nephew, younger siblings).
Today it’s rare; children and other family members have pursued their own dream. Of the family successions that we do today about half result in the family buying the company.
About half are not really interested in owning. “I’m happy to work here and even to be a shareholder, but I don’t really want to run it.”
And, we find cases where the family may want to buy the company but are not up to the job.
If you hesitate in sorting this out, you do your family and your own future a huge disservice.
All that said, this approach is the biggest source of hesitation because owners don’t know how to work through the process with family. Hesitation ends up being the biggest source of disappointment, family break up, and business decline. My best advice is to use an outside source such as our firm, or a family psychologist, or an attorney with a lot of family law experience. The bottom line: Getting started is hard and working through it is hard.
But the long-term outcome is always worse. I can’t tell you how many times an owner has said to me, “I wish I had taken your advice and done this 10 years ago. It’s too late and everything you said would go bad, went bad.” That’s the worst part of being in this business.

Sell the business

There are three forms of hesitations here: First, “What would I do with myself if I sell it?” Second, “If I keep working on it, it will be worth more.” Third, “I won’t get enough to retire on.”
Any or all of those may be true. But I frequently find that owners haven’t done the homework to find out if any or all of those are true. They just let the issues loom over them.
The hesitation is unnecessary and almost always has a way of becoming a self-fulfilling (and tragic) prophecy. We have successfully sold businesses – at a good price – that have actually suffered from all of those issues. These take longer because the business and the owner need two or three years to get the value up. And the owner needs that time to define a role for themselves in the business or outside it. But I can’t think of one that didn’t work out.
Unfortunately, this year three owners who we’ve tried for at least a half-decade to get started on the path ran out of time. One died, one has dementia and the business was liquidated, and one realized that he had reached the age where he didn’t have three years to fix it. It will be a liquidation in a year or so, I suppose.
I just don’t understand hesitation of this sort. There are so many success stories that we can point an owner to…..business owners whom they know, right in our community who did it….and yet, they still hesitate.

Buy out my partner or vice versa

This has become less frequent in the last decade, for three reasons: First, there are fewer businesses formed as partnerships. Second, partnership agreements have become better written by attorneys who specialize in these types of agreements. Third, the partners who have a falling out tend to end it quicker, rather than dragging on together for a decade or two.
However, we still see them. We did two of these in the last 18 months, one in 2019 and one in 2020.
The most successful and friendly are where one of the owners is at least 10 years younger than the other. It’s a natural process. It does take a lot of self-honesty for the retiring owner to be willing to accept an actual fair market price; they almost always have an unreasonably high price expectation. When the owners get distracted by difficult purchase terms, the business suffers dramatically. That’s why the right attorney or Decision Associates M&A is needed.
When the owners just don’t get along anymore, it’s a lot tougher. But a solution can almost always be crafted; we did two of those recently. Otherwise, it often results in a sale of the business and everyone gets a fresh start.
“Start” is the operative word here. Getting started on a partnership exit means having to face up to and talk through and negotiate through issues that are difficult and take place while you are working together every day. While I understand why this causes hesitation, I’ll promise you this: it gets worse with every passing month. Not year, month.

Sell to your employees

This used to be rare until about 2005. Around that time a number of things changed. First, banks became more flexible in their approach to financing employee purchases. Second, the secondary financing market (primarily economic development agencies) were willing to take a larger position in joint cooperation with the banks. Third, the employee leaders in many companies had become better business people because owners had delegated more responsibility.
Owners tend to be less hesitant to start down this path because there are fewer reasons to pause than other options. First, they can negotiate a role for themselves. Second, owners almost always hold part of the “paper” (sometimes all of it) and can negotiate re-capture terms and other conditions. Third, employees, while held dear, don’t hold as much emotional attachment that children do.

So, my friends, don’t hesitate. Even if there are issues that will take time to address, you won’t get to the finish like until you cross the start line.

For questions or more information, please email Don at DonMoore@DecisionAssociates.net,

by Terry Cascioli

As we approach another holiday season, many of us are looking forward to the turn of the calendar with more excitement than we typically do. 2020 has been a challenge to say the least. Business hardships and personal sacrifice is more the norm than the exception. For many it’s been a year filled with difficult decisions that had potentially negative impacts on co-workers or even clients. Less travel means less face-to-face meetings and thinner headcounts can strain our fulfillment promises and norms. At a time when we need new business the most, our marketing efforts are squeezed by soft revenue streams. We must balance responsibility with opportunity, but that’s easier said than done.

So, as we lick our wounds and prepare optimistically for better days, what should we do to ensure that 2021 isn’t just better because it’s not 2020? If you’re more grounded in your optimism we can hope for improvement, but we all know that optimism and hope are not strategies. This is truly a time for planning, for strategic thinking, for evaluating our talent and optimizing our best team members. The winners of 2021 may or may not grow their revenue streams, but will assertively grow their market share.

It’s common sense, right? If the pie shrinks, I need a bigger piece of it to stay healthy and happy. But being sensical will in many cases revert back to the old standby of optimism and hope. The economy will improve and carry us back to normal, right? I think wrong. Over and over, we see this play out. Surviving a pandemic has taught us new norms. Some inconvenient and less than ideal, but others that have taught us new efficiencies. Our online skill sets and shopping habits have undergone a boost of exponential change that we are not likely to step back from. That means we need to evaluate our own business marketing practices with a keen and innovative eye. It’s no longer important just to have a website, but to treat your website like you would an employee: evaluate its performance and hold it accountable; set goals and learn and live the new metrics.

We must also look at our sales channels and determine their effectiveness within the changing landscape. Evaluating our revenue performance against the prior year may be what we’ve always done, but truly understanding our market share relative to what’s available will be the discipline of the winners. Pandemic or not, it’s always been this way. We’ll also need to scrutinize expenses to be confident that we can build a budget that affords sales and marketing the opportunity tell our story in ways that resonate with our customers and prospects. Most businesses sit on mountains of data that go unanalyzed. Many of us underestimate the affordability of interviewing current clients to understand what they love about us. Maybe more importantly, do we truly understand the ones that are getting away? Why did we lose them and how can we answer that issue to better our results in the future?

I’m as hopeful as anyone that 2021 will be better than 2020, and given the challenges we’ve faced this year, I doubt my hope is unfounded. I’ve been fortunate and thankful throughout my career to have worked with multitudes of different businesses and the years have taught me to see the stark differences between those that just survive and those that thrive. Thriving, growing businesses work hard to understand themselves and the markets they hope to serve. They look at investments in data and primary research with an openness that allows them to change to meet changing needs. Their mission isn’t to get bigger but to get better, because they know that bigger isn’t better, better is better. Be better and more often than not, we’ll become bigger.

If you found some of this to be statements of the obvious, I hope I didn’t bore you too long. More importantly, if you know with all your being that your business is disciplined in common sense and these things are embedded in your culture, I commend you. Knowing what to do but not doing it is more common than any of us would like to believe. It’s called the “comfort zone” for a reason. Doing the deep dive on the issues most critical and acting on our findings is what makes us dynamic. Being dynamic helps us embrace change with acceptance so that we have the upper hand in dictating and dealing with change rather than having change inflict its will on us.

So as 2020 heads for the history books, I hope that reflection will be a good teacher. And to reiterate, I know that my optimism and hope are not strategies, but I’m confident in the entrepreneurism and creativity of our business community and the hard work and discipline of its leaders. It’s never too late to start doing the right things, and it’s never too early to learn from the past.

by Don Moore

Your business is at an inflection point and so is the economy. Now what?

Most businesses and nonprofits we’ve met with lately are at an inflection point, driven mostly by the strongest and longest economic expansion in decades. The opportunities and challenges are many. Further, most businesses and nonprofits are dealing with multiple challenges and opportunities at the same time. I’ve made the list below from among those that our existing clients are addressing. Which ones are on your plate right now?

Some are at the limits of production capacity…they need people, equipment and/or space.
Some are at the limits of employee capability…the challenges are more than current staff expertise and head count can stand up to.
Some are facing a hiring crisis…employees are impossible to find and very expensive to hire, onboard and develop.
Some have leadership gaps…they have good managers where they need strong executives.
Some have product and service gaps…customers want more services, products and more options than the organization is providing…they are at risk of competitors stepping in to fill the void.
Some are at the limits of geographic reach…there is more opportunity than can be served from the home base and the cost of a new location is high.
Some have technology limits…customers want more technological integration and technical solutions. Technological infrastructure is more important than ever…but technology is often difficult to afford. The effort and cost to integrate is high. The cost of getting behind is more damaging than ever.
Some have outgrown their marketing and sales infrastructure…websites are stale, good sales people are impossible to find, marketing channels have changed dramatically and quickly.
Some are facing massive capital investment costs…growth steps are large and expensive.
Some are facing industry consolidation…bigger competitors are on a buying spree to speed their growth and gain capacity, people, technology, market share and geographic reach. Eat or be eaten. Compete or die.
Everyone is facing the threat of a recession within the next couple of years…so every decision needs to be made knowing that the company has to be financially and operationally stable when sales drop 30%.
…and the list just gets longer

If our client base is any indication, you and your company are almost certainly dealing with five to seven of these issues. Collectively this puts you at an “inflection point” in the sense that you must respond; something has to change. The changes must be integrated and optimized. There will be restructuring. Money will be spent. If you make the right decisions, it will result in a “step-change” in the right direction. Poor choices or no choices will result in drift, which almost always heads down.

If ever there is a time when the answer is a strategic assessment and a strategic plan, this is it. Given the uncertainty around the economy, strategy also needs to address the contingency of a recession. In fact, contingency planning has to address opposing potentials: if the administration can reach an agreement on trade issues with China and Great Britain finds a way out of the Brexit mess, worldwide growth will be re-energized and the current expansion will spike up and continue for some time. If those issues linger, pessimism will increase and economists will talk us into a recession.

When I’m trying to get my arms around an issue, I like examples. So, let me provide examples of what other companies are doing:

First, the requests for Strategic Assessments have spiked. Owners want an outside perspective, a second opinion. They believe that a misunderstanding of the opportunities and/or a wrong diagnosis of the challenges could lead to huge expenditures in the wrong direction. They just don’t want to take the risk that they are missing something.

Second, we’ve been doing more strategic planning in the last 9 months than in the previous three years combined. That’s normal….strategy happens when businesses and nonprofits are trying to figure their way out of a jam or when they’ve reached their limits….in other words, they’ve hit an inflection point.

Third, most are tackling multiple complex issues simultaneously…usually at least three at once: Market Strategy, Product/Service offering, Operational Capacity (high CapEx locally or in a new location or both), Compensation Strategy (including incentive compensation systems), Succession Planning, and Organizational Restructuring. They see this as risky but unavoidable. We agree.

Fourth, we’ve been hiring more key executives than ever. For three years in a row, we hired 6-8 presidents because owners want to replace themselves but keep the company. We’ve hired 30-40 vice presidents, executive vice presidents, and department heads every year just within 100 miles of Erie, PA. About half have moved here from somewhere else, so yes, you can attract good people to this region.

Fifth, more companies are buying a smaller competitor or a supplier and/or establishing a new location outside the region.

Sixth, more companies are doing deep dive scenario planning than ever before: What if the economy takes a dive… how deep and where do we have to cut for each scenario? What if we made an acquisition…what are the attributes that would be the best fit? What if a competitor is bought by a deep pocket acquirer…which competitors are most likely to flip and what is the likely collateral damage? What if customers move toward vertically integrated solutions….can we provide that and how would we do it? The list of scenarios that have to be addressed is actually not long; most companies and nonprofits face just two or three major uncertainties that need scenario assessment. What are yours?

Seventh, more are setting up formal boards of directors. Owners want to have the insight of other smart business owners and the safety of stable governance if something should take them out of the business temporarily or permanently. Five years ago, we couldn’t convince more than one company a year to establish a board. Lately we are working with about four a year. It’s not enough, but the momentum is building.

In closing, I want to come back to my first point: A long running economic expansion has resulted in significant growth for companies and nonprofits. You now face many key decisions. Most of the decisions are around opportunities, but these opportunities all involve large scale decisions that will cost money and take time…..it’s an inflection point. The path forward is strategically assessing, running scenarios, defining strategies and building the structures to pull yourself into the future. We’re here to help you think and work through these steps.

Since founding Decision Associates in 1984, Don Moore and his team have helped hundreds of businesses, nonprofits, school districts, government agencies and authorities develop strategies for growth and improvement. To learn more about the topics in this article, contact Don at (814) 881-6168 or DonMoore@DecisionAssociates.net.

by Don Moore

“I love this company, but, I have a lot of things I’d like to do other than work 60 hours a week for 50 weeks a year. My wife and I want to travel, we want to spend time with our kids and grandkids, we have a vacation home we don’t use, I’ve got a hobby but I don’t spend time on it….60 hours a week doesn’t allow for any of that. The solution I keep hearing is to sell it. But, If I sold this company, what would I do with the money? Put it in the stock market? Then I’d have an investment that I neither understood nor could manage. And, this company makes more money than I’d ever earn in the market. And, I like the people here and the community. If I sell, the company could move and everyone’s out of a job. I just don’t like my options.”

The paragraph above is an actual quote from a conversation 6 weeks ago. I have had a nearly identical conversation with a dozen owners every year for many years. Some have an additional complication; they have children in the business who don’t have an interest in buying or are too young to be sure whether they are capable of running it. Naturally, the owner wants the children to have a long career path.

About 10 years ago, we suggested to a client that they hire someone to run the company for them. This idea wasn’t readily accepted. Our client felt that many, many decisions required their unique knowledge, talent, and experience. So, they felt trapped: They didn’t want to keep working so hard but they felt they couldn’t afford to let go. We were able to influence the owner’s thinking by identifying a few competitors that were very capable and which were run by “hired guns” rather than the owner. These companies were clearly successful and clearly well run. Over a period of time, the owner came to a point where the importance of life outside the business made them willing to try.

This was our first time in hiring a president for a highly entrepreneurial company and we were very concerned about whether the owner would be able to “let go.” It was difficult and took a couple of years of coaching and guiding to help the owner avoid micromanaging. But it worked very well and the president and management team are still there and the business is thriving. It is, in fact, performing at industry leading levels by almost every measure. Slowly the concept of “hiring a President to run your entrepreneurial company for you” has gained momentum and we do many every year, 4 so far in 2018.

One of the outcomes of our first effort is that we realized the need for a process to prepare an owner for their new role. That preparation must start before we begin looking for their “successor.” Describing the new President to an owner as their “Successor” is often a shock. We are asking an Owner to agree that, “I am being replaced as the senior operating officer, thus delegating senior operating authority to someone else.” The owner’s new role is Chief Executive/Chairman. It’s a different role and it needs to be understood. There are a number of tools that we’ve developed to help owners transition from their old roles and prepare for the new one and we believe that these are the reasons that our process has been successful.

One thing we teach an owner is that “delegation is not abdication.” The owner is not giving up control of the company, they are delegating operational activities. We need to help them find the right balance in decision making so that they allow the president to run the company while not ceding ultimate financial and fiscal decision making authority. We need to help them govern, but not micro-manage.

The best approach to addressing this is to establish a Board of Directors that includes at least two outside directors. Again, this is a new process for most entrepreneurs and we help them structure it and learn to use it.

The bottom line is this: It is entirely possible for an owner to move from 60-hour work weeks to 10-20 hour work weeks. It is entirely possible to move from 52 weeks in the business to 40 weeks or less in the business. But, it takes a process, a process that involves pre-planning, visualizing, and re-thinking to prepare an owner for their new role as “Chairman of the Board.” Done right, it works better than most owners expect. In Decision Associates’ ten year history, 85% of the companies now perform better than when run by the owner alone. We didn’t expect this and certainly the owners didn’t either. The reason is pretty simple: The company now has a great chief operating officer and a great entrepreneur and a great board of directors. It now has three levels of high impact business resources where before it only had one. As one owner put it, “I was successful because I made the right 3 decisions a year. The rest of the time was spent implementing those decisions. I still have the good ideas, but, now I have a partner to implement them and who brings ideas that I didn’t think of. I didn’t have to sell my company to get my life back. It doesn’t get better than this.”

If you’re wondering if the time is right to hire a company president, or have other questions about Succession, contact Don Moore at 814-528-9400 or email DonMoore@DecisionAssociates.net.

by Amanda Kochirka

Is your nonprofit organization in the Top 20% of its peers in our region? This is a question we pose to prospective clients on a regular basis. You may have picked up our top 20% handout at Nonprofit Day or seen it during a one-on-one meeting, but if you’re not familiar with it, you can download it here.

As we look forward to 2018, many nonprofit leaders and boards are re-assessing various aspects of their organizations to determine what changes are needed to better navigate the ever-changing nonprofit landscape. To help you start these conversations, here are some areas your organization should be thinking about as you move into the year ahead:

Digital connections for donors are vital – According to the Federal Reserve, the use of personal checks has been on the decline since 2003, down to 15 percent of non-cash payment transactions. The reason? Convenient methods of electronic payment such as credit/debit cards, of course, but also with newer methods like Venmo and Apple Pay. Despite this development, many nonprofits struggle to stay ahead of the digital curve even though electronic giving is taking over the sector. According to a recent report from Blackbaud, over 60 percent of Millennials and nearly 50 percent of Gen X’ers prefer to give to organizations via their mobile device. The same report revealed that over half of all Millennials, Gen X’ers, and Baby Boomers prefer to give to organizations via their website. If your organization is still lagging the in the digital space, 2018 is the time to invest in getting up to speed, whether it’s creating a more robust website or developing a separate mobile platform that makes direct giving and peer-to-peer solicitations easier.

Guarding donor data – As the number of individuals giving via digital platforms increases, another problem arises. In 2016, Google found that the number of hacked websites rose to 32 percent, which is a trend that shows no sign of slowing down. It seems that every few months we hear of another large organization being hacked and all their donor or customer data is compromised, causing headaches for their stakeholders and a potentially reputation-destroying scenario for the organization. Even major brands like Verizon, Equifax, and even the CIA were exposed to major hacks and leaks in 2017. Nonprofit organizations handle a significant amount of personal information from donors, partners, and possibly even volunteers. Organizations should be consistently investing in steps to improve the security of their websites and donor databases as time goes on (because threats are ever-evolving). This process could start simply with a switch to website encryption (https instead of http) or making sure your donation portal integrates with a trusted, secure platform.

Attracting and engaging younger board members – Bringing younger board members into the fold of your organization often brings a perspective that is tech-savvy, creative, and ambitious. These traits can give way to a more successful process of determining how to keep your organization relevant in years to come. Engaging Millennials requires hands-on relationships and long-term commitment so learning the best ways to connect with that generation to bring them on board can take some time and effort. Nonprofit leaders must learn how Millennials connect and engage with a cause, which usually begins with the digital space, including Google searches and website/social media visits. Look at your current volunteer pool, are there any young professionals already involved with your organization who might be looking for a larger role? Connecting with young professional groups in your area can also be an effective way to tap into a younger pool of potential board members, some organizations nationwide have even partnered with these groups to host nonprofit speed dating events to introduce young professionals to a variety of organizations in their community to increase the likelihood of instant gratification for getting involved with a local nonprofit.

These are just a few of several trends coming down the pipeline for 2018. The bottom line, though, is this: if your organization wants to break into and remain in the Top 20 percent of organizations in our region, understanding and proactively planning for these trends and their implications is vital. Nonprofit organizations in the Top 20 percent enjoy the ability to attract higher quality board members and staff, as well as attracting better quality donors who are willing and able to support the organization even during times of recession. Top 20 percent nonprofits also have a higher likelihood of developing strong and meaningful relationships with their stakeholders across the board, which often results in the creation of a pool of engaged brand ambassadors who are willing to go to bat for your organization time and time again.

If you would like more information, please contact Amanda at AmandaKochirka@DecisionAssociates.net.

by Don Moore

If my article “Reasons to Consider Entering New Markets Through Business Acquisition” (with link) has you interested in acquiring a business, you might be wondering how to identify a company to target for purchase. Specifically, how do you go about finding the business that’s the right match for your needs?

Identify five to seven key characteristics of a business you’d like to purchase. For example, we had a client recently who wanted us to find a business to target for acquisition based on its proximity to Erie, the specific markets it served, a revenue range and the skill sets of employees on staff. In this case our client wanted material science engineers. Other characteristics that might be important to you: The size of the business, industry certifications, an intellectual piece of property, the type of equipment they have…the list goes on. Think about what you need in a business to make a successful match.
Ask yourself: What are you trying to accomplish? This might seem obvious, but thinking through strategically what your goals are now, and in the future, can help prioritize the characteristics of a company you target for acquisition. You don’t want to fall into the trap of only thinking about the targeted company’s capabilities. You also need to think about how those capabilities line up with your short- and long-term goals.
Research, research, research. We dig deep when working with a company on identifying the right business to acquire. We mine multiple sources (trade groups, LinkedIn profiles of key employees, credit histories, and relationships with customers) to get a picture of the health of the company and it’s worth. You never know what you might find. Some interesting information we’ve uncovered for clients during our research phase: An owner under indictment, a bitter divorce that meant the business had to sell and interesting and valuable patents that a business had, but wasn’t using. By doing thorough research, you not only find out whether it’s the right business for you, but also find information that allows you to make the best offer.

Once you’ve put together a “target list” of companies, we make the call to their owners. But why would they listen to us when we call? Remember that not only is your targeted business likely not for sale, they are probably getting calls regularly from others interested in acquisition.

We have found the greatest success in opening the door for discussions happens when we explain in detail the process we went through to identify the business as the right match for our client. We explain the characteristics of the company that our client liked, and the research we did before deciding to call with an offer.

By going through the details of our process with the target business, that owner knows we’ve done our homework and that our client will come to the table with an offer that reflects that.

Taking the necessary time and care to identify the right company for your acquisition will go a long way to helping you achieve the growth and success you want for your business.

For more information, contact Don at DonMoore@DecisionAssociates.net.

by BJ Lechner

Profits, a diversified customer base, and a proprietary product or intellectual property are all important in attracting the interest of a serious buyer in your business, as I discussed in Part I in our last newsletter. Refresh your memory with Part I by looking at our website here. But serious buyers will also take an in-depth look at your employees and facilities before deciding whether to make an offer. Here’s what they’ll be looking for:

1. A strong and deep management team

Buyers want a team in place that is motivated to support and grow the company under new ownership. A management team showing signs of stagnancy, particularly in terms of sales and profit margins, can make your business much less attractive to a potential buyer. After all, the new owner will want to grow the company substantially in order to justify the purchase price and debt. The team in place will need to set goals of growing 15 percent (or more) year-over-year, for at least five years.

The use of the word “team” is important here. Buyers might shy away if they are concerned you are the only point of contact with customers and vendors, or if they believe you are the one person that maintains all technical and process knowledge.

That being said, it’s often the case, especially in small- and mid-size companies, where the owner is, in fact, the only expert on the company’s processes or the face of the business to customers. To overcome that hurdle, consider agreeing to stay on during the transition to share knowledge and foster important relationships.

2. A sales and marketing team

A new owner will not want to create a sales and marketing team from scratch or divert resources from other businesses to do so. Either of those options will cost the new owner in time and money, while creating an opportunity for the competition to move ahead.

By having a sales and marketing team in place at the time of the sale, customers are more likely to have a relationship with the company, not just the current owner. Those relationships will make customers less flight-prone during a sale.

3. An up-to-date facility, equipment and technology

This might seem self-explanatory, but all too often we’ve seen sales slip away because the infrastructure doesn’t exist or is in poor condition. Some common issues we see include buildings that haven’t been properly maintained; equipment that is outdated; and technology that is obsolete.

The same is true about the processes and systems used by a business. A buyer will look closely at whether processes and systems are up-to-date, fully implemented and integrated, are actively used and contain accurate data.

Building and implementing infrastructure is not something a new owner wants to take on along with the normal challenges and cultural disruptions of a new ownership. No one wants to buy a business today then have to deal with instability in the infrastructure tomorrow.

4. An environmentally sound site

This is another point that seems self-explanatory. But it’s also another issue we’ve seen come up repeatedly in our decades of experience. A site that isn’t environmentally sound will kill any potential deal, no ifs, ands or buts. Make sure your business meets or exceeds all environmental rules and regulations before considering a sale.

Strategically thinking through each of the items, all of which will inevitably be addressed by a potential buyer, will not only turn a potential sale into a real one, but maximize the value of your business.

If you would like more information, please contact B.J. at BJLechner@DecisionAssociates.net.

by Don Moore

Business owners wanting to expand into a new market often determine acquiring an established company, rather than starting new, can minimize not only risks, but the time and costs associated with expanding into new markets. The most frequent reasons business owners have asked for our assistance in acquiring an already-established business are to:

Grow into new territories. If you’re trying to expand the geographical reach of your company, it might make more sense to purchase a reputable business in the region you’re trying to penetrate rather than starting fresh.
Gain new customers. Winning new contracts can be extremely difficult in today’s world of efficient supply chain management. Instead of banging your head against the closed door of clients you want, consider acquiring a business that already has the customer list you covet.
Serve a growing (and impatient) market. It might take months, or even years, to ramp up to a capacity level that satisfies the needs of an expanding market. By then, there’s a good chance that competitors will have beat you out for new business. Instead, lock in the window of opportunity quickly by acquiring a business that gives you the capacity you need now.
Add brands, franchises or licensed products. If the national brand, franchise or product you want is already spoken for in your territory, you might find the best option is to purchase the competitor who already owns those licenses.
Increase the number of distribution points. If, for example, you are based in the western part of the state but need a distribution point in the east, you could build your own warehouse. Or you could buy a business that already has an established distribution point and reputation in the region you need.
Increase manufacturing capacity in a new territory. Do you have products that are so bulky and difficult to ship that it restricts the radius of your market to just a few hundred miles? Buying a second manufacturing plant in a new area can both increase your manufacturing capacity and make you a competitor in a new market.
Add equipment capability to serve existing customer needs. If your customer has a need for a product that you don’t have the ability to produce, it might make sense to buy a business that does rather than losing that portion of your existing customer’s business to a competitor.

Now that you understand the reasons why acquiring a business often makes more sense than starting new, learn how to find a company that’s the right match for your needs. My next article will be titled “How to Identify a Business to Target for Acquisition” and will give advice to business owners on what to look for in a potential business acquisition.

If you would like additional information or have concerns about how to sell or buy a business, please contact Don at DonMoore@DecisionAssociates.net.

by BJ Lechner

Time and again, I’ve been approached by business owners selling their company who are frustrated by the lack of interest from serious buyers. My first question to them is whether they’ve pursued a certified valuation that will provide an objective analysis of their company’s true worth.

I start there because more often than not, business owners overvalue the worth of their company. A savvy buyer can quickly sniff out when the asking price is more than the true value and walk away, leaving the seller frustrated and angry.

There are also many other issues that can impede a sale. It’s important for sellers to take the time to understand what a buyer really wants in a company prior to establishing a price point. Along with asking an independent, certified valuator analyst (CVA) to determine the market value, owners who want to sell should consider these issues:

1. Profits
If your company isn’t making at least 15 percent annual EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) then potential buyers might ask themselves how they can afford to buy your company. After all, how can new owners justify the purchase if they won’t be making a profit after accounting for their market rate salary, debt service and capital investment? If your EBITDA is below 15 percent you are likely looking at reduced sales price.

When I’ve explained to business owners whose EBIDTA is below that 15 percent threshold that it might be causing potential buyers to walk away, I sometimes hear the response: “But the potential for higher profits is there…”

My answer: That might be true, but an interested buyer likely won’t ante up for “potential.” The buyer doesn’t want to pay more for a company that hasn’t shown a profit through past earnings even if the seller and buyer agree the potential is there.

Another rationalization I have heard repeatedly: “I have business expenses the new owner won’t have.”

My answer: You need to disclose all non-recurring items you expensed to the business. The buyer will need to examine these expenses and confirm they can be eliminated from the EBITDA calculation. Some examples we’ve run across in our years as consultants: rent of facilities from a related party above the normal market rate; one-time professional fees; expenses related to a mother-in-law on the payroll; a condo in Florida; a family trip to Europe every year that coincides with a trade show; and a business owner paying himself a salary twice the industry average. Elimination of these expenses considered outside normal operating costs of a typical business will increase EBITDA and the selling price, but they must be disclosed, discussed and accepted by the buyer.

2. Proprietary product or intellectual property
Market research shows 80 percent of potential buyers want a product. They want something tangible, branded, and patent-protected. Products, after all, are a platform for differentiated growth. Buyers are also on the lookout for intellectual property (defined as technical or manufacturing processes unique to the marketplace). Business owners know when they have intellectual property that matters because they’re the only (or one of the very few) suppliers of a service, product, component or assembly.

Keep in mind: When considering the value of your company’s intellectual property, consider that intellectual property is hard to put a price on without something tangible — like a patent. Without some sort of tangible ownership of intellectual property, the competition could conceivably catch up tomorrow, which makes purchasing your business a big risk for a buyer to take.

3. Diversified customer base
Buyers want a diversified customer base. If one or two customers represent 60 percent or more of your business, buyers are taking a huge risk. After all, they could buy today and lose half the business tomorrow if one customer walks away.

While there’s no magic number to what percentage of business a single customer should account for, the rule of thumb is 10 percent to 20 percent. There are exceptions: For instance, we frequently see buyers strategically target a business for purchase simply because they want to take ownership of that business’s customer list. By buying a business already embedded in a streamlined supply chain, they can gain instant access to a customer they’ve coveted.

Profits, a proprietary product or intellectual property, and a diversified customer base will go a long way to gaining the interest of potential buyers. But those issues certainly aren’t the only factors a potential buyer will take into account when deciding whether to make an offer on your business. I’ll explore other important factors in a second article published in the next newsletter.

In the meantime, if you would like more information, please contact B.J. at BJLechner@DecisionAssociates.net.

Successions can fail for any number of reasons. But many of the issues that cause them to fail can be avoided if business owners ask the right questions, honestly and objectively consider all issues, and take the necessary time to make sure a complete plan is in place. These are good issues to consider, no matter where you are in the succession planning process.

Questions business owners should consider as a succession plan takes shape
Sometimes an owner, however unintentionally, can create issues that can cause a succession plan to flounder. You can avoid making your own mistakes by considering some of the potential pitfalls you might face as you move forward on your plan to transfer your business to relatives or employees.

Eight questions to consider as your succession plan takes shape:

Have you been honest with yourself about the business value? Owners often overestimate what their business is worth. An honest assessment, sometimes by a third party, is necessary in order for the business sale to succeed.
Do you or your business have truly unique intellectual property or experience? Without that perspective, perhaps, the future in the business is limited.
Are you promoting based on merit or relationship? Owners who place family members or employees in senior company positions — without considering management experience, skills or ambitions — can unintentionally handicap the future of the business.
Have you already stepped back? When an owner slows down because of new interests or health reasons a business can quickly lose its competitive edge.
Are you ready to retire tomorrow? The most successful succession plans take years to develop and establish. Owners who procrastinate in the process make it more difficult on themselves and the successors.
Have you considered the management style of the incoming owner/successor? The structure and culture of a business are built around its owner. An incoming successor might have very different styles and priorities in critical areas like leadership, decision making and investments. Discussions about the type of “style” you have, in comparison to that of the incoming owner, are critical to a smooth transition.
Do you micro-manage? An owner who micro-manages weakens the organization and successors. If you won’t let go, the successors can’t step up to learn.
Have you considered the worst-case scenario? Without making a provision for a sudden incapacitation or death, you are putting the organization and the family at risk.

Is your chosen successor the right person for the job?
If you have started thinking about a succession plan, you have likely identified the family or employees you want to transfer your business to following your retirement. Have you honestly and objectively assessed whether the successors you have identified are ready for the job? By identifying potential issues and working towards solutions now, you increase your chances of success later.

Questions to ask yourself as you move forward on choosing a successor:

Are the children or employees you have identified as your successors qualified to own and manage a business? Consider if they have the entrepreneurial spirit, the “business sense,” and the necessary experience they need to succeed you. Creating an executive development plan that prioritizes coaching and mentoring programs can give your successors time to develop the skills they need.
If your succession plan involves handing the business down to your children, have you had an honest discussion with them about whether they want it? Do not assume that your children want the responsibility of owning the business. Talk to them. You don’t want to be like a client who once told me: “I thought my children would really want the business and be ready to run it. But they don’t really have the fire and I don’t know what to do.”
Do the family members and/or employees buying the business get along? It’s not necessary they see eye-to-eye on every issue, but it is necessary that they have an open mind and treat each other with respect when discussing issues pertinent to the business.
Do your successors have the respect, confidence and faith of key employees, customers and other stakeholders? I once had a business owner whose sons’ sense of entitlement had destroyed relationships with long-term employees and key customers. My client understood too late how important that trust was to a successful transfer of power.
Do your successors agree on responsibilities, accountability and compensation? If you are sensing developing “turf wars,” or an attitude between your successors of “I don’t have to take orders from you,” it is time to step in and find a solution. Because these issues can be fraught with emotion, it sometimes helps to have an independent third-party work with your team on talking through these issues before percolating problems boil over.

A complete plan isn’t in place
I have seen business owners avoid the succession planning process for any number of reasons. Often, the procrastination is due to the tough emotional decisions involved in the planning for a transition to a new owner, whether that is a valuable employee or family member.

“It was too difficult for me to make choices about who should be the president,” one owner told me. “So, I didn’t act.”

No matter the reason, failure to take the necessary time to think through the succession planning process will simply create more problems and headaches for you and more difficulties for your successors in the future. Ideally, an owner will start working through the details of a strong succession plan at least three years before his or her planned retirement. Sometimes, the process takes even longer.

Common issues that I have encountered with clients who have failed to make sure all the pieces of a plan are in place include:

A lack of a backup plan. What if your planned transition to successors fail? You might know exactly what family or employees you’d like to take over your business, but any number of things could go wrong before the succession is complete. Having a Plan B gives you options in case of unforeseen complications.
Not including successors in the strategic planning process. Have you asked your planned successors to be part of setting goals for the future? Successors need to be part of the process when determining how to focus energy and resources of the company. Their input, agreement and understanding of that decision-making process is vital to the continued success of the business after your departure.
Estate plans done wrong — or not done at all. Have you consulted with a tax expert? Someone who is well-versed in estate taxes and successions can greatly minimize the tax burden on your successors and loved ones.
Failure to create a “bridge management” structure. Have you addressed what happens in case you are no longer able to run the business but the successors are not yet ready to take over? A “bridge manager,” typically a seasoned executive, can run the business and mentor successors until they are ready to assume control, creating a bridge between your departure and the successor takeover. By having a written agreement to that affect, you can smooth over a transition in case of your premature or unexpected departure from the business.

All of these issues take time and care to resolve. Start planning early so that you and your successors can avoid problems later.

Sale details can sink deals

Sometimes successions that seem to have been proceeding smoothly fail just as the time of sale approaches. Perhaps the successor suddenly balks at the sale price, or maybe financing thought to be in place falls through. Are you sure you have a deal in place with your chosen successors that won’t collapse?

Before answering that question, ask yourself:

Is your business attractive to buyers? If your business (or the related industry) is in decline, if there hasn’t been any investment in the company in recent years, or if you customer base is stagnant, then it’s likely the valuation of your business has slid downwards since its high point. I know it’s hard for owners to be objective about their business. That is why, before settling on an asking price, we advise clients to obtain an outside valuation to determine the company’s honest worth.
Are the successors expecting you to be the bank? Often, when family members or employees are purchasing the business, they assume the owner will act as their “bank” and lend them money toward the purchase by agreeing to a note or mortgage. Our advice: Don’t. Too many things to list here can potentially go wrong. At the very most, we recommend clients hold 15 percent of debt or retain 15 percent of stock ownership, with an agreement to sell at a later date.
Has a bank or investor fully committed to financing? Because you aren’t acting as “the bank,” all financial arrangements need to be secured for a purchase to proceed. A last minute financing issue can sink the entire arrangement. Make sure your successors have firm financing in place.

Dedicating the time and energy to working through each of these questions and issues can set the foundation for a successful sale now, and minimize the danger of unforeseen problems that can collapse a planned succession later.

by Don Moore

You have likely been careful throughout your children’s lives to treat them equally in terms of finances and opportunities. Perhaps, for instance, they had the same allowance. When older you likely gave them leeway in choosing the colleges best suited to their interests.

Now your children, and perhaps the children of other relatives, have careers in the family business. As family members, your instinct perhaps is to want to continue to treat them equally financially and professionally. After all, you want to give them every chance you can to forge a path to success.

But as a boss and business owner, you need to move forward in a measured way to best set the stage for your children and the company’s future success. Start with the expectation that each family member in the company should meet the same standards (and expect the same compensation) as other employees in similar positions within your company.

That means:

Hiring family based on meeting set job requirements;
Establishing family compensation at industry norms;
Measuring a family member’s success through review;
Promoting based on merit, rather than family lineage.

I have seen time and again the next generation thrives when they have earned a position that fits their career interests and capabilities and are not simply given a position because of their family connections. Be assured they will grow to their potential when they have the education, skills, and experience level needed to succeed.

Both your child and your business can suffer when parameters aren’t established in hiring, compensation and advancement. After all, your competitors are hiring based on merit rather than family connections and won’t hesitate to take advantage when they see the opportunity. I can share one real-life example in which a father’s two sons were brought on board at levels inconsistent with their skill-level. The young men developed a sense of entitlement, which they showed by not treating customers with respect, talking down to other employees, and flaunting company rules like showing up on time and meeting a dress code.

The father, when he was ready to retire, faced the unfortunate truth that his sons had failed to develop important customer relationships and had alienated employees — issues which didn’t bode well for the future of the business.

Starting the conversation

While it’s easy to see on paper why you shouldn’t treat children entering the family business any differently than any other employee hire, it might feel much more difficult to actually start the conversation around the subject.

Let me begin by setting your mind at ease: In my decades-long career, I have led families through this process dozens of times. I can tell you that nine times out of 10, the younger generation wants to prove themselves by being treated like employees rather than the children of the boss.

I can also tell you that your kids understand they shouldn’t be compensated at a rate higher than what their true value is to the company. Your son will likely understand, for instance, that if he is working an entry-level position in your marketing department than it’s only fair that he should be making less than his sister, who has years of experience and has worked her way up to sales manager.

Your children understand this because, after all, they have spent years in school being judged on the work they do and the grades they earn — not the last name they have. (It’s important to note that compensation is different and separate from profit distribution. Your children might very well be earning the same in profit distribution, but that doesn’t mean their paychecks should be the same.)

Despite those assurances, I know most families might not feel comfortable having these types of discussions. My experience has shown that most families benefit from having a trusted outsider help them navigate these conversations. That person can be a consultant, a lawyer, a trusted family friend, or even a family pastor.

I have found monthly family meetings in which everyone is free to add to the agenda and bring up any topic are the most beneficial. Having a trusted outsider build the agenda based on discussions with pertinent family members, and then facilitate meetings in a non-threatening and empathetic way encourages an environment where thoughtful, productive and honest conversations occur. That dynamic can go a long way in ensuring a successful future for the next generation of your family and for your company.

by Don Moore

Not all business owners are eager to set up a succession plan. Some are reluctant to discuss the inevitable future, despite the wishes of their family, business partners, customers, lawyers and others.

This week, for instance, I spoke with the president of a company that has a 77-year-old owner. The president of the company told me the business remains in the day-to-day control of the elderly owner, who has indicated he intends to remain firmly at the helm until he is no longer able. This is his intention, despite the fact the company has 600 employees and many trusted and talented members of his family work there.

He is not simply being stubborn. Business owners of this caliber literally feel they cannot simply retire and step back from their life’s work. Working, achieving and measuring themselves against yesterday’s version of themselves is how they live; it is the core of their being. These are the creeds under which people as diverse as Warren Buffet, Roger Penske, Rupert Murdoch, Sumner Redstone, and Sheldon Adelson, to name only a few, live under.

To attempt to alter these types of leaders’ thinking over the practical matter of succession and mortality will likely not succeed. They simply refuse to enter into the discussion.

If you find yourself in a position to discuss succession planning with a reluctant owner, what can you do? Start by considering changing the course of the conversation. Instead of focusing on succession, talk about the continuation of the business.

In my experience, I have found that by changing the focus to the continuing success of a company and the people the owner cares about (rather than on setting an “end date” for working) reluctant owners are more likely to engage in conversation about the future.

These are five ways to start the conversation:

It’s not about succession, it is about continuation. I won’t pursue succession and won’t ask you to. I will ask you to work on the long-term continuation of what you have built and how we can ensure it continues upward under you and after you.
It’s not about retiring or stepping back from the central role you play. It is about choosing, coaching and preparing the people you want to step into top leadership roles in the future to ensure the continued success of the business.
It’s not about letting partners, customers, children, investors, and others push you into “giving them the plan and the date.” It is about having a plan to ensure the people you care about – your children, grandchildren, employees, and others – have the strongest possible business to take forward.
Remember, you are a planner and a strategist, that is what got you here. No one will develop a better process for the future than you. Without a plan, you have left the future of all the people you care about to chance and to outsiders with their own agenda. Do your best for them, or you will leave it to others to do unto them.
It’s almost certain that you feel you are doing your best work right now and it is probable that your best years are still ahead of you. Now, more than any time in history, business leaders are doing their best work when they are in their 70s, 80s and even 90s. While you are doing your best business work, you must also do your best coaching work. You must create a legacy of skills in the generation of employees and family that will lead with you today, so they can lead after you later on. You must teach, coach, delegate and demand accountability – or you leave them unprepared. That is not the legacy you want to leave.

This simple change in the focus of the discussion – from succession to continuation – was successful in the case of the 77-year-old owner. He is now working to take the necessary steps on a plan to ensure the future of his company – one that stops short of setting a date on his end of work.

I am certainly not advocating that business owners delay retirement until they are 94. After all, their successors do not want to wait until they are 63 to have their turn (which is a real life example from among my clients). I’m simply acknowledging that there is a type of business owner who feels he or she can never retire – and nothing you can say will change that.

For these types of owners, the idea of continuation planning, rather than succession planning, is a much more palatable pursuit, and still fulfills the important and necessary goals of a traditional succession plan by preparing future leaders, delegating responsibility, sharing development of strategy, transferring stock and doing the necessary estate and compensation planning.

At the same time, it leaves intact the core work life that some owners need. Without that work, they simply would not feel alive.

The bottom line is that planning for the future, whatever term it is called, is important for the greater good of the business. Taking the necessary steps to prepare for the continuation of that success is a legacy anyone would be proud to leave behind.

by Sue Moore

Years ago, it may have seemed easy to have your children take over your business or to have a smart employee just step up and buy the business. Is it more complicated than that today?

Recently, we attended an all-day Family Business Symposium at Penn State University. Don Moore was the keynote speaker, but the day was filled with other trusted advisors who had great advice on the subject. It was a delight to meet and connect with all the other knowledgeable speakers who are trusted advisors to their clients.

Who are trusted advisors and what can they do to help you through the decisions that need to be made before you step away from the business you have known perhaps all of your life? Succession is one of the hardest decisions ever made by a business owner. You want to leave a proud and profitable legacy to your family, your employees and your community. What is the best way to do that?

First, you need to be sure you are ready to step back. Many questions circle in your head: Are your kids ready? Do they know what they need to know? Is it better to sell? If you don’t have children in the business, what should you do with it? When is the right time? How can you transfer all the knowledge that only you know? What would you do afterwards?

Next, who are the trusted advisors who can help you with this transition? At the symposium, there were bankers, attorneys, accountants, wealth management advisors and consultants. Each is an expert in their field and have knowledge that can be used by all business owners.

Finally, who is the right advisor to join your team? Explore your options but you will find that you will use all of them at some point along the way.

Attorneys. Yes, it all needs to be done in a legal manner, whether gifting through your estate to your family or selling it to your children, another party or a partner. There are so many options available and legal issues can be daunting. Choosing the right attorney that you are comfortable with is important.
Accountants. If and when you dispose of your business, you want the best possible price. An evaluation will need to be done. Sometimes, your company isn’t worth what you hoped, but other times, with a little help, it can also be worth much more than you anticipated. A good accountant can help you identify opportunities to increase value.
Bankers. They know your banking history. What loans need to be paid? Does everything need to be paid at the closing or can my children or partner take them over? They are happy to assist and manage the wealth after the sale.
Wealth Managers. Once the sale has been completed, how do you invest the proceeds to carry you through retirement? Do you want to travel, buy a second home, invest in your grandchildren’s education fund, or just have a great time and spend it all? Strong advice on investments is critical.
Consultants. They are the ones who can pull it all together for you. They understand the risks that you have taken in your lifetime to be successful. They know what it takes to make a transfer to your family or an outside buyer. They can help bring the whole advisory team together to make the best recommendations for you. Then, after everything is said and done, they can help you with your personal transition. Yes, it will be a big change for you, it could be exhilarating or depressing, and you may need someone to assist.

Decision Associates has been helping with succession issues for over 30 years. The methodology we use has been proven effective time and time again. Whether we are using assessment tools to test your children’s abilities, assessing the business for improvements that should be made before a sale or interviewing the potential owners, and yourself, we can assist with this most important decision in your life.

The Family Business Symposium was enlightening, informational and consistent with the way Decision Associates approaches succession, exit planning and continuation. We can help your advisory team make the transition as easy as possible for you.

For more information on the symposium or to seek some guidance on your upcoming succession/continuation planning, give us a call at 814-240-0101.

by Don Moore

Succession covers such a wide range. In the space of 12 months I have talked with families with the following incredibly different situations. Just a few examples:

A large family of siblings in their 60’s and older who have children in the business but who have yet to hand executive leadership and ownership to the next generation.
A family in which the children and spouses share in decision making with the parents…but, in which the succession process is stalled and the children now believe that it is going to stay stalled.
A husband and wife who wish to exit now, while they are in their early 50’s. They want to sell to their employees but have an aversion to sharing the executive roles with employees. And yet, they want the employees to make life changing decisions.
Two young men (40’s) with lots of manufacturing experience who are looking to make a purchase, but, who don’t really know what it means to own a business.

Some people who read the above will think, “that’s me he’s talking about!” Maybe, maybe not. You’d be astonished at how common some of these scenarios are, even the first one. (Read more)

What is the common thread among these? First, the good news: They all have a goal and they can state it with clarity. Second, they know they are not doing the things they need to do, which is why they called me. Third, they know there are hidden problems that they are not going to find until they get bitten…that is, they know there are things they don’t know. So, the good news is, they know they need to get to work if they want to achieve their goals in the timeline they have in mind.

The other common thread is that they all share a lack of action: None of the four above have actually taken steps to get to their goals. I’ve done my best. Some of them will come around. Some won’t. I don’t mean to sound fatalistic. It’s just that I’ve learned that I can only push so much and that pushing harder, telling the stories of failed successions, the family fallout and business failure, etc., will work right away or won’t work at all.

On the other hand, it is a great joy to work with the other type of client…..the ones who decide to act and follow a process. I have a client with offices in Buffalo and Punxsutawney (that’s a small population, so they know exactly who I mean). Two families, two locations, many children ready to step in. They are nearing the end of the transition process and the succeeding generation is ready to launch. The handoff will occur, the older generation will assume different roles and everyone will succeed. It’s been three plus years of very hard work, soul searching, difficult adjustments, difficult decisions and a pause or two. But, they never lost sight of the objective and made every decision in the context of the objective. The five-year Strategic Plan is nearly complete and it’s being written by the new generation. It is a great plan and it is achievable. There is no doubt in my mind that they will achieve their goals in the timeline they’ve set.

I cannot really say what separates the first group from the second; why some people act and others do not. I can say that Sue and I have been working on our own answer to the Succession question and, no, it isn’t easy. We are on a path similar to our Buffalo and Punxsutawney client. Though Sue and I will still work for a number of years, our roles need to change. I will continue to consult but, need to be a mentor as much or more than a consultant. Sue needs to establish business and administrative systems that will serve a larger and more diverse base of services. The Strategic Plan that we are starting next month needs to reflect the capabilities and vision of the generation behind us, while remaining true to Decision Associates’ business model. We’ve set and communicated a timeline and our step-down stages. It is work, but we are working it and we’ll succeed.

So, if you have read this and get a little red faced because you think I called you out among the first four examples, remember what I said: In any given year, there are probably 3 examples like the ones I stated….it might be you, it might not. But, if you are red-faced, you should be mad at yourself. If I can suck it up after 34 years, if my friends in Buffalo and Punxsutawney can suck it up, you can. If you want some help, I’ll help you. If not……

by Jim Ryan

The new year is filled with great opportunities and you may be thinking about how to make your organization better than it is today. Well, there is an exciting new field of study that has begun to make significant contributions to the efficiency and effectiveness of organizations: Emotional Intelligence. Our daily behaviors are rooted in emotions. One thinks, behaves and interacts with others differently when one is happy, content, stressed, worried, angry, excited, calm, cautious, encouraged…well, you get the idea.

Without getting too deep into the weeds, Emotional Intelligence (EI) involves a set of skills that help us perceive, understand, express, reason and manage emotions, both within ourselves and others. We can apply these skills to help us become more aware of our own and others’ feelings and more conscious of the influence emotions are having on our discussions, behaviors and performance. This helps to minimize the unproductive influence emotions can have and maximize their productive qualities.

I have recently attained certification as a Genos Emotional Intelligence Practitioner. Genos is an Australia-based firm with a global presence in Emotional Intelligence. Working through their U.S. partner, Red Diamond Solutions, I went through several days of training, testing, role-playing and reading to become certified. This is a treasure trove of organizational improvement opportunity. The Genos model breaks down EI into six primary competencies. They are:

Self-Awareness
Self-Awareness is about being aware of the way you feel and the impact your feelings can have on decisions, behavior and performance. People who are emotionally self-aware are conscious of the role their feelings can play in these areas and better equipped to manage this influence effectively.

Awareness of Others
This is about perceiving, understanding and acknowledging the way others feel. This skill helps us identify the things that make people feel valued, listened to, cared for, consulted and understood. When we demonstrate this skill, we come across as being empathetic. This helps improve relationships.

Authenticity
Authenticity is about openly and effectively expressing oneself, honoring commitments and encouraging this behavior in others. People high in authenticity are often described as “genuine” whereas people low in authenticity are often described as “untrustworthy.”

Emotional Reasoning
Emotional Reasoning is about using the information from oneself and others when decision-making. It involves considering your own and others’ feelings when making decisions, combining the information with facts and technical information and communicating this decision-making process to others.

Self-Management
This skill is about managing one’s own mood and emotions, time and behavior and continuously improving oneself. This skill helps people be resilient and manage high work demands and stress rather than being temperamental at work. People high in this skill are more optimistic and look to find opportunities and possibilities that exist even in the face of adversity.

Positive Influence
Positive Influence is about positively influencing the way others feel through problem-solving, feedback, recognizing and supporting others’ work. It involves creating a positive working environment for others, helping others find effective ways of responding to upsetting events and effectively helping people resolve issues that are affecting their performance.

How do we measure one’s Emotional Intelligence? We administer a comprehensive EI survey and generate reports. We then conduct feedback with the participants to help them understand their current state of EI and offer suggestions on how to reaise their EI to help improve relationships and improve the workplace. This can be done on an individual Self-Report basis, a 180 Degree Report (Manager-Direct Report, for example) or a 360 Degree Report (Self, Manager, Direct Reports, Peers).

The report is very robust and the feedback sets the stage for a rapidly improving organization. The only thing that truly sets and organization apart from its peers is the talent within that organization. Everybody knows that, but relatively few organizations truly practice their trade with that knowledge. Be different. Look at Emotional Intelligence as a new and powerful tool to drive your performance. Please contact me if you have an interest in learning more. Have a great 2017!

by Don Moore

Though many very qualified economists are making predictions on the economy for 2017, we, as business owners, must make real life decisions more or less on our own. Certainly, we must consider the general economy. But, for many of us, the “micro-economy” we live in is far more important. You don’t need an economist to tell you that the automotive sector continues to be hot. Nor that the energy sector is just emerging from a genuine depression and recovery is tentative and unknown.

So, we’re largely responsible to be our own economist; we’re required to take all the facts and make projections that will shape our approach to capital investment, hiring, debt levels, pricing policy, etc. We must consider the direction of our specific industry, its recent history and its trendlines. We must consider our specific niche within the overall market and the moves of our competitors. We must consider the evolution of industry-wide product and services development and our own response. We must assess the impact of technology and the quality of our technology relative to customer needs. And so on.

We are on the cusp of a new year that has more unknowns than usual. You are likely running a few scenarios or perhaps doing a strategic plan and a market assessment. If not, you should be. One scenario that hasn’t been on everyone’s mind for a while is a Recession Scenario. I can tell you that we are doing one for our firm and recommending/helping our clients do one. I’m not predicting that we’ll have a recession in 2017, but the signs are there and they are stronger in some micro-economies than in others. What I am saying is that you can predict how a recession will impact your company and you can have your response(s) mapped out so that you are acting proactively rather than defensively. You always have more options when you have a plan.

I can’t put the content of a Recession Scenario in a newsletter, but I can give you a few generalized bullets and I am happy to talk with you if you want to dig deeper.

Your company probably serves multiple industries. Each industry will likely be impacted differently and at different times when the economy or their micro-economy slows. Map the likely path each industry will follow and the speed/impact on your sales.

Your competitors likely have a predictable response to a recession, one that you understand from prior recessions. Some will go into heavy discounting early. Some will shed specific types of business. Some will shrink their workforce and capacity early and fast. Some will hang onto people and provide incentives to customers. What will you do, in what order and how fast?

Customers reduce suppliers in a recession. This means that some suppliers (you) can actually see an increase in opportunities as the customer chooses winners vs. losers. What they are doing is essentially choosing the partners that they feel will help them succeed in their recession planning. What does it take to be the supplier that a customer retains? What drives the customer’s decisions, what is deeply important to them? If you ask, they may just tell you.

You are going to have to make cuts. It will be a lot less rushed and emotional if you map those out now. These will involve people, suppliers, A/P terms, inventory levels, purchase contracts, etc. It may mean that you’ll also crack lending covenants with your bank…or even the need to ask for temporary changes in payment terms. By the way, your customers may be doing the same thing. Will you be working with the same people in the same relationship as you are today? If not, how will you be treated by a new person who now has three jobs because his coworker was laid off?

All of this takes time. More importantly, it is sort of depressing to do when business is good. So, it tends to get deferred. I understand that, but the economy is unfeeling and uncaring. Those who have done the scenarios will react better than those who don’t. You are either a winner or a victim. I’ve worked through four decades of recessions, both in my own business and helping my clients with theirs. Decision Associates is going to do its recession scenario in the first quarter. If you want help with yours, let me know. The worst (best?) that can happen is that we won’t need it for another year or so.

The New Year is upon us and 2017 offers new opportunities to continuously improve your department and your organization. Here is a list of 10 items to address as we progress through 2017:

Review Job Descriptions for Accuracy
It is very common for duties and responsibilities to change and evolve over the course of the year. Correct and accurate job descriptions are important to ensure your employees understand their duties and responsibilities.

Establish Corporate Goals for 2017
What are your targets for 2017? Establishing goals and business objectives and communicating these with your staff are critical for alignment at all levels of your company.

Evaluate Your Employee Handbook
Did any issues arise of the course of the year that need to be addressed with the handbook? Are there any policies that need added or revised?

Conduct An Employee Satisfaction Survey
Have you ever wondered what your employees think about your company? Ask them! Conduct an employee survey and when you get the results, take action. Address the concerns and build a strong, engaged employee group.

Evaluate Staffing
Are there pending retirements within your staff? Evaluate the staffing in your critical positions. Do you have potential disciplinary issues that would lead to a change in your staffing?

Conduct Departmental Audits
What is the critical paperwork or reports that need to be maintained in your departments? Human Resources, Quality and Finance are examples of departments that maintain vital records. Conduct a spot audit to ensure you are maintaining the appropriate paperwork.

Evaluate Staff Compensation
Benchmarking your compensation with others in your local area and your industry is an important exercise. Conducting this evaluation on an annual basis is essential to ensure your wages are competitive.

Conduct Benefits Evaluation
Many companies have just renewed their health insurance and you feel as if you have gone through the wringer. But offering a competitive benefits package is critical for retaining and attracting top talent. Do you offer a competitive benefits package? This is a great time to evaluate the benefits you offer your employees.

Evaluate Your Employee Engagement Programs
Has your employee of the month program lost its shine? What else can you do to recognize your employees? Do you recognize employee birthdays and their service? Do you have employee events scheduled throughout the year: company picnic, Thanksgiving lunch, Christmas party?

Conduct Performance Appraisals
Does your company conduct annual performance evaluations? At a minimum, it is important to provide feedback to your staff and many companies conduct evaluations in the first quarter. Ask your managers to begin preparing for the upcoming appraisals.

by Don Moore

Every business should have a Board. Period. That doesn’t mean it has to be a formal, legal Board of Directors. It could also be an Advisory Board (which can take many forms). Even formal Boards can be structured in a number of ways.

Each type of Board has pros and cons and we’ll explore these over time. In this article, I’m going to stick to the simple question of “Why have a Board at all?” The easiest way to answer this question is to ask owners who have Boards. “What does a Board do for you? Why go to the trouble?”

In their words:

“It is a blackboard – a place to discuss in detail, ideas, problems, direction, challenges, methods, strategies. I think of things all the time that I need to walk through and talk through with other business people. I need the “give and take” of discussion to help me be creative. It also makes me be more open minded. I can’t talk about a lot of these things with my employees and I need something with more depth than having a lunch conversation with a business buddy.”
“You know, it is a refuge – a place to talk to peers who are smart and savvy. They think of things I don’t.”
“The discipline is critical. We meet quarterly and I have to talk about the things that I am (or should be) doing to ‘work on the business.’ Before I had a Board, I didn’t do that, I just ‘worked in the business.’ It makes an incredible difference in the way I perform and the business performs.”
“My key managers have to do a presentation to the Advisory Board twice a year. It makes them sharper, it makes them realize that the things I expect are not just about keeping me happy. They are about good business. It makes them work to improve their skills because they know they are getting measured. They want to do a good presentation and they want to make progress…no one wants to come to a meeting and say that they didn’t accomplish what they said they would accomplish last time. It has raised the bar for all of us.”
“This Board is the best business continuity insurance I could ask for. If something happens to me, short term or long, the Board can step in. They know the business, my wife, the management team, the bank, the finances, the strategy, the business environment, etc. Equally important is that my wife, the employees and the bank know the Board and trust them. If I die or am unable to work for a while, they are the key to continuity with the least amount of drama until something permanent can be done.”
“There is a formality – they are like your boss – I feel like I answer to someone, even though they are mostly my peers. It helps me keep on target when I could let something slip; I know I have a Board meeting coming up and I said I would do things…now I have to actually do them.”
“My Advisory Board members are all real pros from many walks of business life: finance, accounting, marketing, business strategy, human resources and entrepreneurs. I would have to spend a fortune on consultants to get the kind of advice that I get from these professionals. In discussion, they each bring a different perspective on any given topic. I would have half the business that I have today if it wasn’t for this crew. I know that the hard way, I ran it for a decade without them.”
“Ugly honest. No one tells me what I want to hear. And they enjoy making sure I get the real truth. There have been days when I think, ‘I’m paying people to beat me on the head…what is with that?’ But it is worth every nickel.”
“Get a Board and listen to them. Otherwise, you are wasting your time and theirs.”

by Jim Ryan

We all like a good scary movie every now and then, but nothing is scarier than hiring someone who appears to be perfect for the job, and then finding out quickly that he or she is a nightmare. Every day we see organizations use scary hiring practices!

Why should you be spooked out by scary hiring practices? Consider what these can do to a company:

Scary hires drive up turnover.

There are all sorts of causes for high turnover, but one big culprit is stress. In fact, 40 percent of all job turnover is due to stress. Guess what causes stress? It happens most when the person does not fit their job, their manager or the organization’s culture.

Scary hires drag down productivity.

Everyone suffers when workers have to cover for a co-worker that can’t or won’t do their job properly. The competent workers become distracted and disillusioned and the incompetent workers cause havoc by making mistakes, falling behind and draining managers who don’t trust them to produce.

Scary hires cost hard dollars.

Replacing your employees will run you anywhere from 25% to 100% of their salary or more! Consider the costs of recruiting, interviewing, travel and on-boarding. These are all replacement costs, as well as lost time on the job, either when it was vacant or when someone had to let other tasks go to train the new employee. Many of these employees represent a $1,000,000 investment over time. If you were buying a new piece of equipment or considering a capital improvement to your existing business for that price, you’d be sure to do your due diligence. When it comes to hiring, managers are almost cavalier. Incredible!

Scary hires cause collateral damage.

What about other costs? Organizations spend billions on workers’ compensation claims. As experts note, vastly more money goes to existing claims than to preventing the problems in the first place. What if someone in your organization was in charge of making sure all equipment fit the job and the workers, that everything was working correctly, and that all workers knew how to use the equipment efficiently and safely? These all sound like easy fixes, but someone in your company has to keep his eye on the detail.

So, what can an organization do to prevent scary hiring? The best organizations have a solid hiring process in place and they follow that process with every candidate. They use behaviorally-based Interview Guides and behavioral and skill assessments to provide consistent, objective information on the candidate and reports to help managers better interview and select the right person.

10 Scary Hiring Practices to Avoid

Recruiting people who are just like you
Talking too much and failing to listen
Posing questions that require only yes/no answers
Hiring based on your comfort zone rather than the candidate’s “fit.” (Ask the right questions and use the right tools to get the information you need)
Searching in too small of a pond
Delay in hiring after you find the best candidate
Offering a job based only on gut instincts
Picking the first candidate who walks in the door
Asking questions about marital status, number of children, religion, race
Failing to check references and other information on resume or application

Do your due diligence when hiring. Remember, the fear of the unknown is something best enjoyed at the movies. In real life, you want to know what your organization faces. Don’t hire zombies, ghosts and ghouls! The workers you hire and develop today can minimize the uncertainties of tomorrow. And remember…Avoid the ten and use the following:

A thorough understanding of the kind of person it takes to do the job well
A thorough understanding of the kind of person who fits your culture
Solid behaviorally-based interview questions
Job-related, validated and reliable assessment instruments
A comprehensive reference and background check

You will be very glad you did.

by Don Moore

The vast majority of people want to have a good job and want to do a good job. The vast majority of employers want to be good employers and do a good job of leading, managing and developing employees. It is in everyone’s best interest on both sides; good employees are productive and good employers can provide a satisfying career. That said, there are many barriers and environmental issues in business and personal life that get between intention and execution.

But, somehow the best employees and the best employers do a very, very good job of overcoming their own barriers and adapting to the issues and problems of the other. And, generally speaking, the best employees and the best employers tend to find each other. By that, I mean that great employees tend to not tolerate a company that has poor leadership and poor business practices. Likewise, great companies tend to have a low tolerance for employees who don’t pull their weight.

Look at it in terms of quality of performance. There are “A” employees, “B” and “C” employees. Likewise, there are “A” employers, “B” employers and “C” employers. Show me a company that performs in the “A” category (profitability, growth, market share, etc.) year after year, and there is a tremendous correlation between their performance and their employee team. Simply stated, the best employees drive their companies to industry-leading performance. There are certainly exceptions, but even if there are a few high-performing companies that get by with mediocre management and are populated by listless employees, they aren’t where I’d want to put my investment dollars because I know the good fortune could run out at any time.

In fact, it is fairly easy to identify a well-run company that has a high performing employee population. If you want to get into metrics, there are a number of indicators. On the employee side, you can measure such things as employee turnover and employee morale (measured by surveys). On the business performance side, you can measure the company’s performance relative to its peers using net-pretax profit, productivity, market share, rate of growth, etc. None of these is a perfect metric and all are driven by other factors. But, if you get to know any industry very well, you soon recognize that some companies outperform others year in and year out, decade in and decade out. They clearly do a lot of things well and the starting point of doing things well is people who do things well, from president to newbie, one by one, team by team. This maxim can be stated as: A company cannot outperform its employees, employees cannot outperform their management. Ignore this maxim and you’ll eventually regret it, regardless of whether you are employer, employed or investor.

The above is an introduction to a series of articles that look at what makes up an “A, B and C”both on the employee side and the employer side. On the employee side, Decision Associates has developed a matrix of the A, B, C attributes and how to improve performance for each type. On the employer side, we have developed two tools. One is “The Top 20%” Assessment. It is an assessment tool that we developed by evaluating the top performing companies across many different industries and identifying common performance attributes. The other is coldly capitalistic assessment that is based on M & A transactions: what performance attributes result in the highest transaction values when a company is sold. I’ll explore all of these in future articles.

by Sue Moore

Hiring the right employees is half the battle in reaching your business goals and profit expectations. You may do all the right things, administer all the right testing and offer the best benefits, but if your employees aren’t happy, their performance will be lacking. This is not news to anyone in the business world, but there are steps a business owner can follow to make the environment better and keep everyone happy and productive.

Survey results show that 88% of fully engaged employees believe they can positively impact the quality of their organization’s products and services while only 38% of disengaged employees feel the same way. How do these percentages compare to your company?

Talking to your employees and getting to know them makes the work environment more “homey” and your employees feel like part of the working family. You will be interested in discovering what is going on in their personal lives as well as their on the job life, and it may help in recognizing they why’s and why not’s of an employee’s performance pattern. What are their challenges, personal an professional, and do the personal challenges tie to your business and affect their performance?

Supporting your employees and showing that you really care about them as individuals and as employees makes for a happier environment. Giving them credit when credit is due for innovative ideas, problem solving, reaching goals, etc. and engaging them in problem solving helps to make healthier teams in the workplace. Having them take ownership of ideas, procedures and the ultimate goal of profitability will increase the happiness and satisfaction of your employees.

Listening to your employees when it is review time or in any company meeting can enlighten an employer on many levels. Are they making comments for improvement that you’re not hearing? Do they have suggestions about the work they do, the machines they operate or procedures that need updated? Communication is the key to happy employees and who knows your business almost as well as you do – your employees!

Need help in this arena? An Employee Survey can be used to resolve issues, get to the real problems that are bothering your employees and enlighten you on many feelings that someone may be harboring, as well as assisting in quality improvements to your company.

Many of you have seen the success rate in the Customer Surveys from Decision Associates. Now we can find out what the highlights are for your employees and what they consider to be downfalls to working at your company. Are your employees happy with the benefit program, the vacation policy, their immediate supervisors or how problems are handled? Do they feel they are getting the proper training? Are they happy with the communication policy? Do they understand the changes going on in your company and how they fit into the plan? Do they feel they are valued and challenged? Will they even tell you hones answers to these questions? Will they talk to an independent third party?

Information is power and insight and intelligence take this power to drive results. In business, the right insights at the right time make all the difference in driving smart decisions about workforce strategy, programs and investments. Acting on the result of your employee survey is the smart way to show your employees that you are “engaged” in their ideas and will make your employees happy. In turn, your company will become much more productive and competitive when you have happy employees.

The employee survey results will be helpful to you, your managers and your company’s growth. Your employees are your number one asset and should be treated as such. There are many issues that arise every day in the work place. Are you aware of what is going on with your employees and with your organization?

by Mike Smiley

In many small businesses and nonprofit organizations, the roles of marketing and public relations professionals are often intertwined…or even combined. The fact is, in the era of value-driven competition, marketing and public relations must indeed function as one.

How marketing has changed
Across the past 100 years, the focus of marketing has transitioned from production or service delivery to selling to marketing consumers to relationships. This evolution has resulted in a loss of effectiveness for traditional marketing and communications as evidenced in:

Explosion of information and media channels
Increased competition and price cutting
Shift to store brands and sub-brands
Greater influence of social media

What matters to consumers is the value a brand, product or organization has in their life. Driving this shift is the evolution in consumer behavior, exemplified by four major trends:

Mindful Matter. Consumers weary of overspending and overconsuming are stepping back to reprioritize…”life can be better with less, if it’s the right less.”
Gross National Happiness. Consumers are focusing attention on how to create social, economic and business conditions for happiness.
Get Real. Consumers are done being told what they think and want. They laugh in the face of contrived media images and prefer to define their own reality.
People Power. The free-flowing Information Age tools empower consumers to coordinate efforts and demand to be heard by corporations, governments and other institutions.

Consider further that the words consumers are using to describe what they value most are changing us as well. In a recent study, consumers ranked the following values highest:

Loyalty
Success
Honesty
Courtesy
Justice
Authenticity
Responsibility
Eequality
Conscience
Family
Happiness
Integrity

What this means for your product or services
The bottom line is that your customers or stakeholders are engaging with your products, services or organization very differently than even five years ago. They want to know what they are buying (or supporting, in the case of nonprofits), where did it come from and what their interaction with your business or organization says about them.

Stated simply, consumers are returning to what could be defined as “old-fashioned values” to create their version of lives with purpose and connection. It is a very deliberate shift from mindless to mindful consumption.

What consumers want from your brand
It is clear consumers are reevaluating their relationships with businesses and organizations based on shared values. While in the past they may have sought out brands that were exclusive, sensuous or daring, now they identify more closely with those that are friendly, high quality and socially responsible.

Starbuck’s, Proctor & Gamble, Chipotle and Tom’s Shoes are outstanding examples of business that understand and have embraced this shift in consumer behavior. These brands are at the intersection of what the consumer values and what the company values. This shared connection is essential to power marketing and make it great.

Why PR can power your marketing
Companies and organizations must find ways to close the trust gap at every level with their stakeholders. They must develop authentic, emotional ties to their brands that translate to value for the consumers they serve.

To that end, there has never been a better time for public relations to support brand marketing through its ability to:

Tell stories
Generate content
Express emotion
Personify companies/organizations
Communicate in trustworthy channels
Encourage two-way conversations

Your ability to assess your relationships with your customers or stakeholders and to integrate public relations with your branding efforts is critical to sustained success in this new era of value-driven marketing.

by Don Moore

After 32 years of consulting, I don’t get surprised very often by a business owner’s request. But recently I have been surprised by the number of business owners who have asked us to help them hire a president to run their company: six in the past year + and two more in process right now.

There are advantages to hiring a President: if you own a business, it is probably the highest performing financial asset that you have. Why sell it and put the money into a lower performing asset when you know this business, its risks and its potential better than you’ll ever know the stock market? For an increasing number of business owners the answer is to hire a president. The advantages are obvious:

You can keep the business and take it to new levels of financial performance by marrying the decades of experience of both you and the new president.
You have the pride of ownership and sense of continuing to grow it.
The business stays in the community, which is extremely important to most business owners.
And, you get your life back.

A Win-Win-Win-Win.

All that said, it is a risk-filled proposition. The attributes that make you a successful business owner often make you a poor candidate to hire someone else to run the company that you’ve built, nurtured and spend most of your time running on a day-to-day basis. These include:

The pride of having built it
The freedom to make decisions
The thrill of success
The sense of “win” when strategies, investments and risks work out
Not having to defer to someone else
Satisfaction of contributing to livelihoods of employees and the community
Having control of the engine that builds your wealth
Knowing that, good or bad, the outcomes are all on you
Something to do every day that gives you a sense of accomplishment…every day

The list is much longer than that, of course. So while you get your life back, you also have to hand off many of the very things that bring you satisfaction. This is why most business owners sell their business if they don’t have children to take it over.

The point is this: you can find a good president, there is a great pool of candidates who are looking to get away from the big company rat race. The bigger question is whether you are capable of letting someone else run your business.

Therefore, the most critical role Decision Associates plays in helping owners hire a president is to help you:

Understand just how different life will become
Understand how to own a company but not run it
Construct a system to “govern it” as opposed to “lead it”
Create the organizational structure, management systems, strategies, metrics, financial reporting systems and governance model (yes, you’ll need a Board of Directors) to govern from an arm’s length
Establish the ground rules for resolving differences in interpretation and opinion on key strategic issues
Know the difference between “that is a wrong direction” and “that is a different way than what I’d do…but, it really isn’t wrong”
Find something to absorb your time and energy

We take these steps seriously. What’s more, we know that every owner is truly unique in how ready they are to take these steps. For that reason, we created a separate process to lead you through before the search even begins. The purpose of this is to help you “make a movie” of your new roles and model how your day-to-day will work in the future.

All that said, how are the six presidents we hired working out? Five of the six are home runs; the owners have exactly what they hoped for in terms of freedom from the day-to-day and have a great decision-making relationship with their president. The businesses are doing very well. Two of the owners tell us that the business had reached a “step change” and that they needed someone who had the type of experience that they didn’t have. These two owners feel that their businesses are growing faster and more profitably than they personally would have been able to achieve.

The sixth didn’t work out…at all. In the postmortem, the owners realized that they took their hands too far off the wheel too soon, without control systems and decision-making guidelines in place. When they reasserted control, it was a tug of war. The president left. Would they do it again and change the parameters? No, and I wouldn’t recommend it to them.

I’ll end the way I began: if you own a business, it is probably the highest performing financial asset that you have. Why sell it and put the money into a lower performing asset when you know this business, its risks and its potential better than you’ll ever know the stock market? For an increasing number of business owners the answer is to hire a president. You can keep the asset and take it to new levels by marrying the decades of experience of both you and the new president. And, keep it in the community. And, get your life back. A Win-Win-Win-Win.

At a recent Peer Group meeting, business owners were talking about behaviors of key staff that could cause problems for the individuals and the company. The discussion evolved to conversation about owner behavior and the fact that, as owners, “we lose the right to do things that others can get away with. When we do them, it is very detrimental to our leadership presence and authority.” This is difficult because these behaviors are based on normal human emotions and they need outlets. It turned into a very interesting discussion. Near the end, someone suggested we publish it in our newsletter. Here it is.

Owners cannot:

1. Act scared about a situation or problem

Your biggest customer is furious. If you lose your head, don’t expect everyone else to do anything than panic. If you act cool and collected, people stay at their station and work to get things working right again.

2. Show concern about the business’ viability and future

The future is always uncertain, in your business and everyone else’s. Don’t share your fears, share your plan; employees need and want a sense of vision that shows the path to success. If they can’t get it from you, where will they get it? If you need to vent your inner fears, buy a fellow business owner a beer and commiserate with them, they feel the same way you do.

3. Vent or lose your temper or behave unprofessionally, publicly or privately

When you use anger, sarcasm or belittlement as tools, you don’t incent people to do something, you teach to avoid everything related to you. Soon, they focus on how to stay out of trouble instead of getting things done. How does a company like that perform? With rare exception, poorly.

4. Have a bad day or walk around with a scowl on your face

Everyone has a bad day. You are a leader. You leverage people through example, communication, vision and direction. What path you set people on when you have a lousy attitude which you share and communicate to the world, thereby setting an example that misery is the behavior of the day?

5. Discipline or criticize employees in front of others

Make a list of all the positive things that the target of your criticism is going to do after you rake them over the coals in front of their peers and subordinates. Now make a list of all the positive things those peers and subordinates are going to do to avoid the same fate.

6. Expect honest feedback about how you are doing from your employees

All owners wish they had better feedback on how they are doing as a business person, as a leader and as a competitor. That is one reason peer groups are popular and why feedback from trusted advisors is like gold. Most owners also feel that they can get good feedback from their most trusted employees. The best level of honesty from employees I’ve ever seen is about 60%. Consciously, employees try. Subconsciously and consciously, the self-preservation instinct limits what they can say. It is worth asking, but it is just one data point and a limited one at that.

7. Wear your emotions: anger, disgust, frustration, glee at the misfortune of others, etc.

It is human to be pleased when a competitor falls on their face, or be angry when a troublesome employee once again stops just short of the behavior that would make firing them easy or be disgusted at the latest sales figures and the poor sales effort that caused them. Take the high ground; there is a management process for dealing with every one of these situations. Teh processes work. That is what you want to teach your team.

8. Tell jokes or gossip about co-workers or staff

If you gossip about Tom to Bill, Bill knows that you are gossiping about him to everyone else.

9. Drink too much

Who wants to worry about what the owner is going to say or do when liquor loosens his tongue, lubricates his irritability and lowers the standards of propriety? How do you take it back on Monday?

10. Develop personal friendships with employees

Everyone who does this says that it works fine. Everyone else who works there says it doesn’t. Are they going to admit that when you ask about it? See number 6…The answer is no.

In the end, everyone agreed that ownership carries great risk, reward and with it a burden of responsibility to set the bar high for behavior within the organization. The employees of the company, its greatest asset, lookk to the owner to obtain clues about the state of the company, their performance and their leader. Victory hinges on the leader’s ability to lead and as Plato once said, “The first and best victory is to conquer self.”

by Mike Smiley

The past several years have marked an historic transformation for businesses and organizations, both large and small, and it centers on content.

As a consumer, you are undoubtedly aware that the majority of companies are now marketing with content – that is, going beyond the traditional advertising and communications channels. Instead companies are enhancing their brands and relationships by publishing (or passing along) relevant information, ideas and entertainment that their stakeholders will value.

The success of content marketing has dramatically changed the way we communicate. This content marketing revolution signals more than a mere marketing fad. It marks an important new chapter in the history of business communications: an era of customer education and corporate transparency.

Conventional wisdom told companies to hold their expertise and knowledge close, to put “trade secrets” under indefinite embargo and to let exclusive research and similar information stay on a dusty shelf. However, with ongoing innovations in the digital space – particularly social media – and the dispersal of knowledge in every direction, organizations are in the unique position to distribute the information they have gathered in exchange for readership, engagement and brand loyalty.

The fact is, no matter the size of your organization or your marketing budget, a comprehensive content strategy enables you to level the playing field in your industry. With both B2B and B2C customers moving to on-demand platforms, companies must consider content strategies that engage, inform and convert prospects into customers and supporters. In contrast to traditional company messaging or advertising, content marketing builds brand awareness, loyalty and trust by asking what your audiences’ needs are and what is most important in their relationship with your business, services and products. We believe that content can be the means by which a brand shapes and impacts their business and consumer landscapes. It also can be a thoughtful investment in a company’s legacy. Armed with quality content, business and organizations in any industry can become thought leaders, change agents and experts.

In the Marketing Practice at Decision Associates, we can help you develop a comprehensive content strategy that will enable you to:

Enhance customer engagement
Increase inquiries and sales
Shorten the sales cycle
Reduce marketing costs

From identifying key content channels for your customers, to developing an integrated content marketing plan and establish metrics for ongoing content marketing success, our team can help your business or organization develop a sustainable plan that will deliver long-term results. We invite your comments and questions.

by Don Moore

As the owner of a 32-year-old consulting firm with 10 very talented professionals, there are certain roles that I’ve gravitated to and others that someone on my team is better suited to provide. The role that clients expect of me is to help them look downfield and position their business strategically within the competitive environment. That is the first way in which the 5 topics above are all directly related: each of these topics are the highest order of strategic issues that an owner has to address. Over the next few newsletters, I am going to address each. I’ll tie them together in this article, then dive deeper into the topics and their interconnection.

First, let’s set the stage. Decision Associates’ client base is 65% privately held companies; there are no publicly traded or private equity owned companies. Most are very high performing, sitting near the top among their peers. The other 35% is in the nonprofit sector. Interestingly, most of these are very similar to our privately held clients: most offer a fee based service to the community, are led by a strong executive and have a substantial staff and budget. For whatever reason, most of those that we work with are high performers. So, we’ve developed a deep expertise in supporting and guiding high performance entities. We are also pretty successful at helping entities that are not yet high performers but have the drive to do so.

It starts with the CEO’s role. If the CEO isn’t “working on the business,” then no one is. Working on the business starts with having a Strategic Plan: what we stand for (Values), where we are headed (Vision), where we fit in the market (Market and Competitive Positioning), our current state (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats), how we are going to get there (Strategies), and what results we expect (Objectives). The Plan can take a lot of forms, but the best are formal, structured processes involving the management team.

After the CEO Role and Strategy, the next connection has to do with the Economy. There isn’t one Economy anymore; there are many micro-economies. While it’s true that there is a national economy, it is on the third ring of impact. The first ring is the micro-economy of your industry. Example: if you are in a business directly and deeply related to oil, gas and mining, you are in a depression, regardless of what is going on in the national economy. If you are in air transport or automotive, you are in a boom. Both contribute to the national economy, but what you are experiencing as a business or nonprofit is driven by your industry micro-economy. The second ring is your geographical micro-economy. This has many factors and I can’t address them all in this intro. But, the concentration of industries and the health of those industries, combined with the economic attractiveness of your region form a geographical micro-economy. Northwestern PA, Northeastern OH and Western NY, are likely slipping into a recession right now because of the concentration of gas, oil, mining related businesses and the ongoing migration of new plant construction to the South (e.g., automotive assembly plants and their suppliers).

The connection is this. As the leader of the “on the business” activity, it is the role of the CEO to ensure that the Strategic Plan recognizes and addresses the micro-economies that will impact your business or nonprofit. This includes understanding how those micro-economies may be out of step with the general economy and how you will be affected. Not to mention, understanding the micro-economies that impact your largest customers, who may be in different micro-economies than you are.

Succession? How is that connected? The obvious answer is that the current CEO has an obligation to plan for someone to step into their role as the leader. In a privately held business it may be your children or an employee group. In a nonprofit, it is someone in your organization. If you don’t have this in motion, if you are not mentoring someone, then you are leaving it to chance: the probability that someone can be hired and instantaneously have a grasp of the right strategy and economic interpretation needed to take the company forward.

Which brings us to M&A. Sometimes, the answer is to sell or buy or merge. This is true even in the Nonprofit world. The reasons vary. It can be driven by the lack of a successor; or by the need to have improved market diversification, or, by industry consolidation, in which smaller entities will not have the scale to survive. Again, it starts with a CEO who has the downfield vision to know the right strategy for the survival of the entity in the economy in which it exists.

So, yes, this is the stuff that I get to work on. I love it and I love working with not only the CEO’s, but their executives and managers as they grapple with these issues. I’m proud of the fact that the best CEO’s in the best companies and nonprofits entrust Decision Associates with these issues. In the next few newsletters, I will take each of these topics deeper and better explain the connections between them.

Refine Resources Below By Selecting A Services

Strategic Planning

Why Strategic Planning, Not Elections, Determines Business Success

From the Decision Associates Founders: A History of Community & Focus

Blogs

The Aha Moment: When Traditional Market Research Stops Being Enough

Why Strategic Planning, Not Elections, Determines Business Success

From the Decision Associates Founders: A History of Community & Focus

She Said It Was “OK” to Accept Mediocrity

Why It’s Important to Make Data Driven Decisions:

Are We in a Recession or Not?

Is There Value in Engaging a Full-Service Business Consultant?

DA Client Testimonial: Strategic Planning

What is Step Change Growth?

Case Studies

Infographics

Videos

Organizational Agility for Future Success | Session 3

Organizational Agility for Future Success | Session 2

Organizational Agility for Future Success | Session 1

Executive Recruitment

Blogs

10 Questions to Ask a Potential Employer During Next Your Interview

5 Tips for Executive Candidates from Executive Recruiters

Executive Candidate Experience: Meet Julian Torres

Does AI Take The “Human” Out of HR?

Executive Candidate Experience: Meet Joanne Rogers

What is candidate experience?

Is now the right time for your organization to hire an executive search team?

How DA Is Incorporating Skills-Based Hiring

Every Business Executive Needs a Trusted Advisor

Case Studies

Board Education Key In Nonprofit’s Search For New Executive Director

Infographics

Videos

Tackling the Labor Shortage with Retention | Session 3

Tackling the Labor Shortage with Retention | Session 2

Tackling the Labor Shortage With Retention | Session 1

The Recruitment Race | Session 3

The Recruitment Race | Session 2

The Recruitment Race | Session 1

Succession Planning

Blogs

“DA was skillful, but gentle in helping us see operational shortcomings.”

DA Testimonial: Succession Planning

The DA Approach to Client Projects

Tips for a Successful Succession

Video: Succession Options for Owners

Exit, Succession, Sell, Hold: The Options Are There, Are You?

I Don’t Want to Sell…But I Do Want to Retire

Reasons Succession Fails

Giving Your Kids a Fair Shake in the Family Business

Case Studies

HR Leadership Transition Results In Fresh Assessment Of Workforce Challenges

Infographics

Value Drivers For Your Business

Videos

Organizational Development

Executive Coaching Elevates Performance of Valued Department Director

Blogs

“Executive Coaching Boosted My Clarity, Decision-Making, and Confidence”

SHRM Talent 2024 Conference Hot Topic Takeaways: Learning & Development

Every Business Executive Needs a Trusted Advisor

How To Ensure A Smooth Employee Resignation

DA Client Testimonial: Leadership Training

DA Client Testimonial: Organizational Development

The DA Approach to Client Projects

Emotional Intelligence: New Approach To Productivity And Profitability

Case Studies

Executive Coaching Elevates Performance of Valued Department Director

HR Leadership Transition Results In Fresh Assessment Of Workforce Challenges

Infographics

Videos

Organizational Culture

Setting The Stage For Success In Succession

Building a Culture of Accountability

Building a Culture of Operational Excellence | Session 2

Building a Culture of Operational Excellence | Session 3

Client Testimonial: Culture Analysis – Networking Technologies

Maximize Your Organization’s Potential By Building A Culture of Learning