How to Achieve Maximum Results with Strategic Alignment

In his book, The Future of Your Company Depends on It, marketing expert Al Reis illustrates the power of focus using light energy as an analogy. The sun, emitting billions of kilowatts of energy will only give us sunburn, while a laser using a tiny fraction of that amount of light energy can cut steel. One key to optimizing organizational performance is ensuring complete strategic alignment of the business goals, creating laser focus on what matters most.

That requires looking at the alignment of human resources— from the executive team to front-line employees — as well as the alignment of products, assets, and strategic decisions. 

In the big picture, ineffective organizations struggle to gain results from solid strategic planning and execution while highly aligned organizations can see benefits even from weaker plans and strategy execution. Great companies find a competitive advantage in optimizing organizational structure to drive superior results. 

Interims understand the importance of strategic alignment. They view people, products, services, processes, technology, systems, methodologies, and other assets as investments that must yield a meaningful ROI and drive efficient operations and ever-increasing sales. 

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What is an Interim Executive Director and Why Would You Want One?

The concept of an Interim Executive Director (ED) isn’t well-known among nonprofit organizations…yet. But, it’s becoming more mainstream and for many good business reasons.

On average, it takes a Board of Directors 9 months to recruit a new Executive Director. By the time they are on-boarded and contributing, a year may have passed since the departure of the prior nonprofit leader.

While nonprofit board members may step up to “mind the gap,” the truth is that stakeholders — employees, partners, and funders — can lose confidence in your organization during this leadership transition and key employees may leave.

Organizing payroll, developing a budget and/or managing human resources may keep the lights on, but without someone filling the executive director role during the transition period, your organization can be harmed and stymied while the Board is focused on the executive search for a new ED.

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CFO Advice: How to Protect Your Business Bank Accounts

Protecting your corporate or small business bank accounts from the possibility of a bank failure seems like one of those worries that shouldn’t keep a small business owner or C-suite executive up at night.

Then came the failure of Silicon Valley Bank. And Signature Bank. And the rescues of First Republic Bank and Credit Suisse.

Jamie Dimon, the Chief Executive Office of JPMorgan Chase who rallied big banks to rescue First Republic, said in his annual letter to shareholders that it ain’t over yet. Even when the current crisis ends, he wrote, “there will be repercussions from it for years to come.”

Suddenly, a good night’s sleep is just as much at risk as your company’s cash. 

So we asked four of our RED Team CFOs to share their advice about how small business owners and executives at lower middle market and middle market companies can protect their business bank accounts in an uncertain banking environment where the next bank failure is as close as the next viral tweet that sends depositors scrambling to make immediate withdrawals.

Please note that these experienced CFOs offered advice based on their personal opinions – it should not be considered tax or legal advice. 

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Seeing with New Eyes: Cross-Pollination in Business Has Advantages

When a company is in need of new leadership, chances are the board and CEO are going to enlist a search firm that will comb through the same old group of people in search of that new leader. They will search for someone who has served in that job at a similar type of company and almost always in the same industry.

It’s the way the business world works.

But is it always the right approach? Not necessarily.

Instead, Lloyd A. Perlmutter, a C-suite executive with years of experience leading businesses through exceptional growth curves, says cross-pollination in business — hiring executives outside of the industry — can be the way to get the kind of innovative ideas that spark innovation and disruption.

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Nearshoring in Mexico: Questions, Concerns, and Possible Problems

Images of ships laden with containers filled with Chinese-made products waiting hours, days, or weeks to unload at California ports is one of the many haunting memories of the COVID-19 pandemic. Those global supply chain disruptions, rising tariffs, and the growing hostilities between the US and China are leading American executives to rethink outsourcing so much of their business to foreign companies an ocean away. A growing number are considering a new supply chain approach: nearshoring in Mexico.

Nearshoring means sourcing products closer to home. In particular, it refers to manufacturing in neighboring countries.

For U.S. companies, that means Mexico. The Latin American country benefits from its geographic proximity to the U.S., its well-established export-oriented industrial sector, and its inclusion in the US-Canada-Mexico North America free trade agreement, notes Forbes.

The move to Mexico is happening fast. When software consulting firm Capterra polled 300 supply chain professionals at businesses with 1,000 or fewer employees and annual revenue of $500 million or less, a whopping 88 percent reported that they plan to move at least some of their Asian supply relationships to companies closer to the U.S.; 45% plan to switch all of them. While the shift has been happening for several years now, it accelerated last year.

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Maximizing Operational Efficiency: Expert COOs Offer Tips for Improving Process and Productivity

Operational efficiency is the key to successful companies, the wish of all companies, and the bane of far too many. Successful COOs have found ways to develop processes that root out inefficiencies, lower operating expenses, improve productivity, and increase profit margins. 

Here, two expert COOs share what they have learned from repeated successes at mega-million-dollar corporations.

Steve Raack, a COO who has led consumer goods giants, including Beautycounter and Herbalife; and Mike Bartikoski, a manufacturing and supply chain expert who has run operations for Hershey and Pepsico among others, shared their insights during a wide-ranging webinar and Q&A moderated by InterimExecs CEO Robert Jordan. You can access the full webinar on-demand.

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Firing a CEO: The 4 Questions Every Board Should Ask When the CEO Needs to Go

So you’ve made the decision that a change needs to happen at the CEO level, and heaven knows it’s painful! You rely on the CEO as quarterback of the team. It feels like the chief executive is indispensable. But you signed up for service on the board of directors. You know that while corporate governance is a general and varied responsibility, the shareholders trust the board to choose the right CEO. It is, perhaps, the board’s most important decision.

Of course, you’ll go through a permanent search that will be thorough, even if internally focused.

But what happens if you need to fire the CEO and find a new leader right now? Having a CEO exit with no CEO succession plan in place can create a leadership vacuum. The resulting instability within the organization can cause major issues and harm company performance.

The need for a new Chief Executive Officer, the right Chief Executive Officer, is urgent.

After a CEO dismissal, the first thought for many public companies is to look around the boardroom table to see who’s brave enough to be named interim CEO for Sarbanes Oxley compliance.

But, where’s the guts in just appointing a placeholder to keep the seat warm?

The modern world now presents you with a far more robust choice: a true interim CEO. A veteran executive who’s been there, done that. Who is expert at jumping into companies going through points of change. And who is accountable for action and results.

When considering whether to bring on a placeholder versus a true interim CEO until you can hire and onboard a new permanent CEO, here are the questions to ask at your next board meeting.

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Decoding Executive Titles: The Difference Between Interim, Project, Part-Time & Fractional Executives

Interim, acting, project, contract, fractional, part-time. The array of executive titles can make your head spin. But they all point to a specialized type of executive that companies call on when they are going through transformation.

What is an interim executive and how does that differ from a part-time executive, a project executive, or fractional executive?

Let’s break it down.

What is an Interim Executive?

Interim executives are highly-skilled, experienced C-level executives who typically contract to work for a company for a defined period, versus full-time executives who are hired by the company. The defined period can be as little as one month or last as long as two years.

There are highly qualified interim CEOs, interim CFOs, interim COOs, interim CIOs, interim CMOs and CSOs ready to step into a position.

Why would a company choose an interim executive over a full-time executive?

There are many possible reasons, but in all cases, the company needs some kind of change or upgrade.

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5 Mistakes You’re Making in Interim Executive Search and How to Fix Them

These days, it’s easy to hire a temporary executive. Whether you want a fractional manager – someone who works part-time or on a project basis – or a full-time interim leader who can take the reins for a certain period of time, interim executive search increasingly is the go-to option. 

But it can be a tricky business.

Sure, there are plenty of managers who are interested in becoming interim leaders. Chances are your HR team has interviewed more of them for vacant C-Suite positions this year than at any time in the past. 

And chances are they are making some serious mistakes in interim executive search and hiring.

Here are the most common mistakes we see and how to fix them.

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How to Survive a Recession: 7 Steps to Take Right Now to Protect Your Business

The jury still is out on whether the US Federal Reserve will succeed in slaying its inflation foe without killing the economy. However, the threat of recession looms. Whether you’re a small business owner or a business leader overseeing a Fortune 500 mega corporation, there are steps you can — and should — take right now to increase the chances the company will survive economic uncertainty.

As the former Chicago mayor and one-time Chief of Staff to President Barack Obama, Rahm Emanuel, liked to say: “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.”

When difficult times are on the horizon, it’s easy to think first of retrenchment — lay off workers, cut costs, marshall resources. But the companies that not only survive a recession but thrive after are the ones that see the slowdown as an opportunity.

They will take the following steps to protect their companies. And, yes, this is exactly the kind of challenge that calls for a rock star interim or fractional executive with a proven record of success, even in a recession.

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