As CEO and founder of a consulting firm serving government agencies, James had been instrumental in helping the company achieve its recent unprecedented success. Even though the firm was growing steadily, James still preferred to give clients his direct number so he could learn about problems first-hand when they occurred.
The mounting number of angry calls signaled that James and his employees were starting to lose control of the business. Their small business accounting program and practice of using spreadsheets to manage projects and costs was buckling under the strain of an increased client load. If the problems continued, they could destroy the company:
•Projects were going over budget due to the company’s inability to track all of its expenditures.
•Unanticipated invoices were submitted to James from both VARs (Value Added Resellers) and sub-contractors.
•Expense reports were not submitted on a timely basis, nor consistently entered into their small business accounting program.
•The company did not have enough up-to-date data to support change-orders before the work was done.
As James walked to his car, he thought about his two kids and the college visits they had made this past summer. The increased revenue of recent months had seemed like a lock to help pay for their tuition.
Now James knew if amicable client agreements continued to morph into disgruntled clients then things would get ugly, and cancelled contracts would be all that was left to pay those huge tuition bills.
The company needed to scale its work more efficiently and effectively.
James started the car and began driving towards a board meeting across town. Volunteering to be on the board for a local non-profit had been Esther’s idea three years ago. A fellow CEO of a local software development firm and friendly competitor, the two executives had attended the same university and remained friends ever since.
While at school, James had asked Esther out on one awkward date. In the process he introduced her to her future husband, Dan, who was James’ best friend. James would eventually meet and marry Bridgette, a friend of Esther’s, and the two families would remain close.
Administratively, Esther was the salt to James’ pepper, which worked wonders during board meetings. Whereas James would challenge each statement to drill down on additional detail, Esther focused on summary data and drove discussions to an agreement of actions that led to measurable results.
As a highly detail-oriented introvert, James preferred postponing decisions and tended to suffer from “analysis paralysis.” Esther was the polar opposite. She was a vibrant people-person who loved taking on problems and looked beyond the details to how solutions would positively affect outcomes. James put it another way. He privately joked to Esther and Dan that she would not know a detail if it hit her in the face.
In reality, James and Esther balanced each other so well they became somewhat professionally dependent on one another. They would use each other as sounding boards for their ideas and accountability partners to make certain they followed through on key initiatives. Their in-person meetings would occur over coffee with Peter, the executive of the non-profit on whose board they both served, after their monthly board meetings.
James liked hearing Esther’s ideas on how to move things ahead. Balancing her encouragement to “go for it” with his analysis helped James more than once make decisions he had been delaying. Esther saw these conversations as opportunities to test her ideas on James and Peters’ skeptical minds so she could lower the risk of her initiatives.
They joked about competing with one another, but the real value of Esther and James’ relationship was an ability to make better decisions because of their respect for each other’s differences.
James continued to think as he turned into the non-profit’s parking lot. Our company needs to quickly find a better way to manage the costs of our projects. If we do not fix the problems soon, then upset clients would lead to lost contracts, failure to meet government regulations, and an end to our recent rapid growth… or worse.
Chapter 2
Fails with Details
“How many hours? There’s no way he worked that many… he took a day off last week.”
On the way to her car Esther was already back on the phone with her office, dealing with timecard issues. Her company was growing by leaps and bounds. Unfortunately growing to over 50 people was causing the software development company’s small business accounting program to burst at the seams:
•Due to inefficient reminders and management checks, employees often forgot or procrastinated recording their hours worked on their spreadsheets until the end of the week. As a result, employees often guessed and recorded hours incorrectly on a weekly basis instead of accurately on the day the work was done.
•Expenses were not properly assigned to the correct department because those spreadsheets could not be integrated with the company’s small business accounting program.
•The tracking of hours and work done by sub-contractors could not be properly integrated nor consistently tracked with the company’s present software.
The company was hemorrhaging money due to these inefficient processes and its back office software. As a result, profits were dropping even though the firm was growing.
Esther loved facing problems head on. As a verbally outgoing and persuasive person, she could be thrown into a group of people and become everyone’s best friend in a matter of minutes (and forget all their names five minutes later). Juxtaposed to James, she was an extrovert who tended to miss details. She made up for this weakness by hiring people who naturally caught things she overlooked. She valued achieving results, learning, and finding better ways to do things.
This is why her company’s consistent problems with their accounting software infuriated Esther. She enjoyed problem solving, but what was the point of growing rapidly if your profits could not expand with your company?
Esther continued to think as she took the exit off the freeway. She looked forward to discussing this problem with James and Peter over coffee after their board meeting. Esther knew James’ company was growing like hers. She wondered if James was experiencing similar headaches and had possibly come up with any solutions.
Esther sighed as she parked her car and started walking towards the non-profit’s offices. It frustrated her that she could not resolve this problem immediately herself. As iron sharpens iron, the only comfort Esther had was that her ideas often became more defined and she made better decisions after talking with James and Peter to draw-out more details.
Esther thought about why she needed a solution fast. If we can’t find effective methods for tracking hours logged by employees and sub-contractors, it’s going to be more difficult to turn a profit, fund company growth, and maintain the trust it took us years to develop with clients. Without a solution we’re headed for a brick wall... if not a cliff.
Chapter 3
No Driving
As James entered the conference room, the first person he saw was Peter, chatting with another board member a few seats down the table. James went over to say hello.
“Hi, Peter,” said James, extending
