Category: Bosses

Job Search: CFO’s References Trap


I have no clue how those big-time CFOs, with seven-figure salaries, manage to get fired for screwing up and immediately land new jobs.  It's like, their skins are coated with teflon and nothing sticks.  And that's fine.  May be they deserve such recognition.   Most definitely, the companies who hire them deserve what they get.

Those CFOs and Controllers who toil in smaller companies, rarely get fired for poor performance.  If they are knowledgeable, diligent and hands-on, they don't screw up.   Yet, no matter how hard they work, they can loose their jobs.  The owner retires; or someone makes him an offer he cannot refuse; or, despite everyone's best efforts, the business goes under.  Very rarely one of us gets fed up with the abuse and quits on his own – I know a few  brave people.

Well, nobody waits for the unemployed small business CFO or Controller with a new position.  Nobody knows who he is.  There are nearly 6 million companies with less than 100 employees in this country.  Recruiters have never heard of them.  So, this erudite, experienced, smart and loyal professional is thrown into the grinding machine of job searching, where every CFO/Controller listing generates thousands of responses. 

It turns out, the trickiest part of the small business CFO's job search is the references list.  Of course, you've got your connections – bankers, auditors, attorneys.  There are former coworkers and subordinates who will be happy to speak about you.  You compiled a two-page long list of excellent professional references.  But… it fails. 

Why?  Because there are no "supervisors" on the list.  Well, technically, if you are a real CFO, no one supervises you.  The only person (sometimes, there are two)  between you and the higher powers of the Universe is the Owner/CEO.   And how many of them did you have in the past 15 years anyway? Two?  Three?

In some instances, they are still reachable and you have permission to use them as references.  However, most of the time…  Who are you going to use?  The one, who sold the company and went back to Thailand?  Or the guy who has  been hiding from creditors and changed all his contacts?

Now you have this prospective employer – another privately-held company.  You passed all interview levels, including the owner.  He seems to like what he is hearing from you very much.  At the end, he asks,"May I have your last boss's number?"  Didn't you just tell this guy that you were cheated out of your annual bonus at that job?

Here is my advice: 

  • ALWAYS expect that someone will want to speak with at least one of your old bosses. 
  • During the interview process, never reveal anything that may come back to haunt you. 
  • If your wonderful reference list is not enough, never show any resistance to providing the former bosses' contacts.  It's very suspicious and will end your chances right then and there. 
  • Give them whatever info you have. Who knows what's going to happen?

This is the best you can do. 

The Best Boss in Cinematic History


Ever since I started this blog, I have been searching my memory for a movie character who would exemplify the "ideal boss."  And I don't mean just some harmless person who stays out of your way.  Those are not good bosses – they don't bother you, but they don't improve your professional status either.  I mean a really-really good boss: someone who pays attention to his employees' progress, to their state of mind; someone who facilitates utilization of employees' potentials to the fullest; someone who goes out of his way for the sake of his subordinates' job satisfaction.

I know it is a mythical creature of Gandalf and Dumbledore proportions.  That's why I wasn't looking for real-life examples.  I have never met such a boss.  And even though I try very hard to be a decent manager myself, my professional existence is too erratic for following through with all good intentions.  Moviemakers, on the other hand, are in the business of creating larger-than-life characters that don't necessarily reflect reality, but provide for highly engaging and, in some rare cases, intellectually impactful experiences.  Look, Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo gave us a myth of a person for whom honor, love for his wife and children, and fairness were the most important things in life – Vito Corleone.  Do people like that exist in real life?  Of course, not.

I love and know Cinema.  My tastes are very eclectic.  I don't go for the mainstream adventure crap of the Clash of the Titans type.  But, from Federico Fellini's Casanova to Mike Judge's Idiocracy, from Lars Von Trier's Dogville to Guy Ritchie's Snatch, if it's anywhere between good and brilliant, I saw it.  There are American and foreign directors whose filmography I can recite by heart.  I go to festivals and have an IFC membership.  Surely, I thought, I can come up with a character that fits my description of an ideal boss.

Alas, it was not easy and took me several months of periodic pondering.  But last week, it finally hit me.  Eurika!  I found him!  It's the San Franciso Police Department captain in So I Married an Axe Murderer wonderfully portrayed by the great Alan Arkin.  This guy not only notices that something is wrong with his employee, Charlie's friend, officer Tony Giardino (Anthony LaPaglia), but he actually listens to his complains.  Moreover, for the sake of raising his employee's morale, he goes out of his way and indulges Tony's fantasy.

Just watch (by the way, I am very grateful to whoever smoothly compiled this video, which actually consists of three separate clips from different parts of the movie).



 

Do bosses like that exist in real life?  No, but it's fun to watch and dream. 

   

Your Boss: Value and Madness of an Entrepreneur


Many of my correspondents (CFO's, Controllers, Financial Directors) tell me that the biggest source of their stress and anxiety is the Boss.  I am sure we will be addressing this topic many times in different stories.  President, CEO, Owner, or whatever title they have chosen for themselves, more frequently then not, these entrepreneurs are the main reasons for our frustration.

Some of them are courageous and brilliant who actually foster and lead, others are batty and lucky who succeed in spite of themselves, and the others are lazy and disinterested who ruin everything even with our best efforts in place.  Regardless, they have few things in common. 

First of all, we can never forget that they are the ones creating jobs.  That's a tremendous achievement.  They've got to be madly brave to go out in the world and implement their ideas, sometimes against all odds.  If they succeed, they build companies that not only create products and services, but also employ people and pay them salaries.  They take insane risks and end up with entities that can afford to hire CFOs, Controllers, Financial Directors, i.e. us.  And even if the Bosses are not the founders, but heirs and the business just fell into their lap, until they destroy it, they are the employers and our salaries are coming out of their pockets.

Of course, as financial execs we kill ourselves in order to either facilitate their success and prosperity or stop them from  killing the business.  And even though we are concerned with our own material well-being just like anybody else, at the end of the day all of our efforts in a private company end up to be about guarding the owners' private purses.  That kind of a responsibility to a person in the office few steps down from your own brings the level of pressure to a completely different level.  It is not the same when your "owners" are some unknown masses of mutual fund investors.

But the most prominent common denominator of all small and mid-size CEOs is that they are all afflicted by the same disease – something I call an entrepreneurial bug. The business development machines in their heads run forward ahead of everything else.  They want everything to be done yesterday, and those who cannot make it happen or voice their concerns are considered to be obstacles on their way to success. 

Because it is up to us, CFOs and Controllers,  to make sure that the back office, the financing, the structures, the control procedures, etc. are on the par with new developments, we frequently find ourselves at odds with our Bosses.  We are called negative, uncooperative, difficult, etc. etc.  Nevertheless, we must be strong and do our jobs right, because if we fail to cover their fast running asses, everyone will get hurt, including the Bosses.

CFO Folklore: My “Favorite” Questions


Ah, the Holidays!  They put you in the mood for remembrance.  Families get together and stories of past times and lives start pouring out.  My grandfather was a brilliant man of the WWII generation.  He died when I was a baby.  Hence, I cannot remember this myself, but I've been told quite few times about his main pet peeve: he couldn't stand what he called "idiotic" questions.   Apparently, I've inherited this familial trait.

His being the times way before the political correctness permanently  stifled us, he had the luxury to call things as he saw them.  Nowadays, I use more neutral words.  I call them nonsensical questions.  I even trained myself to ignore stand alone occurrences.  However, there are two questions that pervade my professional life.  As all pet peeves do, they cause undue frustration.

The first question is consistently asked by my subordinates and peers.  You see, unless I attend to a confidential business matter, I always keep my office door opened.  I believe it is good for employees' morale to see a CFO working as hard as I do. 

So, these people see me all day long attending to my scheduled tasks, addressing issues, solving problems.  I am consumed by work.  Yet, EVERY TIME one of them needs me and comes to my door, they ask me THE SAME question, "Are you busy right now?"  In response I want to scream, "Of course, I am busy.  Can't you see?" 

It doesn't mean that I am not available to discuss their problem if it is of higher priority, or scheduling them for a later time slot if it can wait.  But why do they have to ask that question?  At staff meetings, I teach them to approach this situation in a more sensible manner: come, don't ask the damn question, instead state your issue and let me decide if it requires immediate attention.  Some learn, but the rest just cannot help themselves.

The second question is similar but essentially different in its nature.  It's usually asked by the boss.  And, as we already discussed, there is nothing you can do, but to bite your tongue.  He has something on his mind, so he comes to your office.  Here it comes, "What are you doing right now?" 

The involuntary first reaction is, "What do you think?  I am doing nothing.  Just sitting here enjoying myself."  But he does not imply you are not working.  This is how their minds work: whatever is on his mind is the most important thing to him right now and in his opinion should be to you as well (even though you don't even know yet what it is).  This attitude renders your current preoccupation irrelevant.  Now, it is up to you to navigate the situation properly into the safe harbor.  Over the years, I've developed an arsenal of methods.  I am sure you have too, but if you need my help, please, don't hesitate to email.

The Curse of Private Business: Nepotism


My friend, a fellow career CFO and frequent correspondent, MJZ urges me to write on nepotism. Her acute sensitivity to the subject is understandable: over the years, she's had more than a few encounters with this practice and I intend to use some of those shared with me as examples.

The dictionary gives a definition of nepotism as "the practice among those with power or influence of favoring relatives or friends, especially by giving them jobs." Nowadays, a lot of people confuse nepotism with networking. Let me correct them. Circulating a resume of someone you know because you can attest to their professional achievements is not nepotism, but a favor to those seeking good people to hire. If you do the same for someone who is a poor worker and a nitwit, it's not nepotism either, it's just your own stupidity. Merit is the key.

The people who mistake networking for nepotism also miss an important element of the definition – "those with power." In monarchical states and dictatorships (such as Kim dynasty's North Korea) the passage of power from parents to children is a given. And in my post on The Distortion of the Bill of Rights in closely-held businesses, I have pointed out that these companies are not democracies, but absolute monarchies. Yet many of us, who still crave the illusion of meritocracy, still cringe at the unfairness of the "family" business arrangements.

It's not always that nepotism has a poor impact on business. For example, it would be a great relief for the media world if strangely progressive Lachlan Murdoch, son of Rupert, got a chance to  overhaul his father's empire. His departure from News Corporation has only deepened the company's regress. However, that's a rare exception: 99.99% of nepotism cases are bad both for commerce and morale.

In her early career, MJZ held a Controller position in a manufacturing and distribution company. She was responsible for all accounting, trade finance, and credit functions. As the matter of fact, she was the one who transitioned them from manual into computerized accounting. She was revered by the business owner. But when his daughter with a marketing degree hit the ceiling in her career at now defunct telecom company, MJZ's job went to her. The company went out of business within a year.

At her more recent job, MJZ had to suffer an onslaught of owners' children (all recent college graduates) being appointed as Presidents of the company's subsidiaries. As the conglomerate's CFO, she was forced to educate them, tolerate their shortcomings and listen to her peers and middle managers complaining about the kids' laziness, time in the office they spent on personal matters, and unlimited PTO. These stupid people made a terribly destructive impact on the business.  Yet, MJZ was unable to voice her opinion, because, say it with me, there is no such a thing as Freedom of Speech in a place of one's employment.

Curiously enough, the industry where nepotism is the most prevalent is the one that suffers the most from the lack of fresh talent – the entertainment business. But that's a subject for other posts.