CS for Owners: Controller / CFO - $20 million distribution company


Entrepreneurs sometimes have a challenge “replacing themselves” or delegating key responsibilities to a member of their executive team.  

Career Solutions for Owners is our management consulting service to help a founder / owner / CEO develop a role & job description to fill a key position in their company.  We call this a “career solution” for an owner because we see every entrepreneur’s ultimate goal being to build a company that they can walk away from and the business still profitably functions as if they were there.

 Situation Summary

The Founder/Owner of a $20 million revenue game designer and distributor needed to hire its first Controller.  The business had double digit growth for over five years and was growing beyond the Accountant’s capabilities.  The Founder/Owner had already made the decision to remove himself from the day-to-day operational leadership of the company by hiring an experienced President/COO.  Since the new President/COO had run a similar size family manufacturing business, he was comfortable with the Controller job description but wanted to add Finance experience.  He made some additions to the job description and retitled the position as Controller / CFO.  The position would be responsible for managing two accounting staff in a Great Plains system and improving the monthly close to two days.


CSG Approach & Search Process

Career Solutions’ researcher staff built a spreadsheet of Central Indiana accounting and finance professions with experience in distribution and manufacturing with small to medium sized businesses.  Then the recruiting staff began interviewing potential candidates, gathering details about candidates’ experience working in high growth environments, working with mid-sized company accounting systems like Great Plains, and a plus would be a candidate who was or had been a CPA.  Through our interviewing process, our recruiting staff interviewed over 120 potential candidates.  The interest in a double digit growth company created active referrals of candidates to our recruiters.  At the end of the six weeks of interviewing, we had completed interview summaries with resumes for 12 potential candidates.


Solution

The President/COO interviewed five of the submitted candidates.  He developed a strong rapport with one who happened to also be a CPA.  The candidate was a very energetic and proactive professional who improved the monthly close to two days after three months on the job.  The additions of the Controller / CFO and President / COO were so successful for the business that the Founder/Owner was able to sell the business less than 24 months later.  ( http://careersolutionsgroup.blogspot.com/2009/08/controllercfo-20-million-company.html )


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