CareerSolutionsIndy

A few years ago, I met with a German engineer who had built a small, global machine tool manufacturing business just South of Indianapolis.  He was an excellent engineer who loved to design new machines, large custom rotary tables, and pallet systems for industry.  But after leading and growing the business for forty years, he was thinking more about fishing with his grandson than building business. He had decided it was time to sell his business.  And, he was wise enough to realize that he’d need help. While an excellent designer and engineer, he was fairly distrustful of salespeople.  And as an excellent engineer, he was reluctant to promote his senior design engineer who had been with the business for 25 years.  He had trusted staff for accounting, billing, and administration.  But, he was very hands-on in running most critical aspects of the business. I had to reason with him that no one could buy his business as long as he held so much critical responsibility himself. So working t