Think it’s easy finding an executive to plug a hole in your organization? Think again. A 2014 ExecuNet survey stated it takes 6.4 months for an executive to find a permanent position and that only 4 out of 10 companies have an immediate successor to a CEO. The concept of executive interim leadership has emerged and […]
Executing a Three-Year Strategy with Twelve Months of Cash
When I was a graduate student in the 1990s at Harvard, a disproportionate number of students in the sciences were actively preparing themselves for jobs in the management consulting industry. They were being hired en masse by the most prestigious consulting firms in the world, not for their technical acumen (although many of them held […]
When Might You Need Experienced, Senior Level Finance Help?
A critical component of any negotiation is a solid financial understanding of the performance of the business before and after the contemplated relationship. While this knowledge is critical, the individual accountable for ensuring the financial health of the company is rarely involved in the actual negotiations. One reason is that negotiating deals is not a […]
Interim Leadership: An Outside View Looking In
I have been in the executive search vertical for 18 years, spending over half of those years in the Silicon Valley and the remainder in the Midwest US. Over the years I have interacted with multiple companies conducting Board of Director, C level and VP searches for all types of companies. Those companies range in […]
Succession Planning & Murphy’s Law
Most of the best HR practitioners I know preach the merits of succession planning—and I’ll freely admit they are mostly correct. The active preparation of personnel for their next steps within an organization is critical to future success. However, succession planning is no panacea. I sat through many talent management review sessions where we worked […]