Hiring CEOs

• Sales Manager/Director First round
• CEO final round
• CEO competencies to test
• Materials
• Agenda
• What you’ll need
• 1 year plan to be presented to CEO
• How to evaluate candidates:

Sales Manager/Director First round

Proposed agenda:

1. Deep-dive into your 2-3 most recent roles (c. 30 minutes). Part of this deep-dive will require you to "role-play" and pitch your most recent role's solution to us as the buyers.
2. 30-60-90 day plan (c. 20 minutes)
3. Q&A (25 minutes)

In relation to the 30-60-90 day plan, we would like you to prepare and pitch a presentation on the day. Some guidelines for your preparation:

• Be as specific as possible on what you will do in each stage and what success looks like.
• While the role is focused on both hunting and cross-selling into existing customers, we’d like to see more detail on how you would find new customers.
• We would also like one slide on your mid-term goals beyond the 90 day plan

Post-closing

• Hold all costs consistent until we build a relationship
• Sharing of psychometric profiles
• Confirm expense policy... economy flights everywhere
• Bonus plan for sales execs

CEO final round

Good to speak yesterday and thanks for your patience. We are delighted to invite you to the final discussions on the <<COMPANY>>’s <<TITLE>> role. We would like you to present a 30/60/90 day plan for <<COMPANY>> based on the limited information you have and our discussions to date.

The plan would cover the following:

• What should be our growth strategy?
• Given what you know about our products and the target customers, how would you sell our solution? How would you find new customers?
• Based on your understanding of our proposition as it stands, how would you evolve (or pivot) the product? i.e. what are your thoughts on the product roadmap?
• What does the team structure look like to deliver the above strategy e.g. re-organisation of the existing team if required, new hires?
• What are the implications of the above in terms of the first year P&L? Please share the first year P&L (in Excel) based on your strategy.
• What support would you need from us (board and/or the shareholders)?

As you prepare your plan, be as specific as possible on what you will do in each stage (30/60/90 days) and what success looks like. In addition, we would like one slide on your mid-term goals beyond the first 90 days.

You don’t need to send anything to us ahead of time. You’ll need to bring your laptop on the day and there will be a projector to present your slides and your first-year P&L (in Excel).

Regards, Karthik

CEO competencies to test

• - Ability to proficiently type
• - Ability to proficiently do some excel analysis
• - Ability to read financial statements (CF statements, impact of capitalization) + do basic financial analysis (ROI, Gross Margin Analysis, etc.)
• - Ability to price commercial offers
• - Ability to control costs
• - Attention to detail - reviewing legal documents, reading email, etc.
• - Ability to spot difficult legal documents
• - Ability to come up with creative pricing strategies...
• - Ability to google efficiently
• - How do you get access to Power Sponsors when you don't know them

Areas of case study

• - People/hiring/firing
• - Operations and project management
• - Sales and difficult customer issues
• - Understand financial statements
• - Cost control
• Key questions
• - How much money did you make?
• - How much capital are you willing to put in?
• - What are your strengths and weaknesses?
• - Please tell me about your most difficult deal? Soup to nuts from how you sourced the deal?
• - What is your view on sales processes (what tool have you used) and performance management?
• - How do you measure progress week on week?
• - What does your research say about a) Telsis and b) our individual products?
• - How do you position your company to Tier 1 operators if you are a small player?
• - What should we do with our costs?
• - What do you think about off shoring to India, at least for support?
• - Are you willing to inject "hurt capital"?
• - Compensation expectations?

Materials

• 2-page legal document
• Financials - B/S, P/L and CF statement
• Excel file with lots of data and see how he/she responds
• Product collateral
• Legal document

Agenda

1.5H - Case study with written question and answers

0.5H - Case study related questions

1.0H - Role play

What you’ll need

• USB port and key
• Wireless connection / access to internet
• Laptop
• MS-Office installed

1 year plan to be presented to CEO

• What will you do in your first 30/60/90 days? Be as specific as possible.
• How would you change the marketing and lead generation plan?
• How would you change the organization structure?
• What is the forecast cost budget for the first year? Please a ssume the following costs based on the current spend and organisation chart. Please include any incremental marketing/lead generation costs to the budget and please state your assumptions.

Other notes:

• Please present the budget in PowerPoint.
• You will be assessed on coming up with the appropriate budget to achieve the required growth targets.

Compensation

• Base salary - if billing via consultancy, what is the true cost to the company?
• Bonus
• Share purchase @ current valuation
• Travel costs
• Accommodation costs
• Share options
• 1.5Y cliff vesting, straight line over the subsequent 5 yearsSell for £10-15M @ 3.33%,Sell for £15-20M @ 6.66%,Sell for £20M+ @ 10.00%Everything accelerates on sale

Process

• Objection handling questions from candidate
• Psychometric survey
• Cognitive learning survey
• CV + sales performance
• On site visit
• Cost control exerciseAttention to detail testRole plays??90 day planGeneral Q&AOrganisation discussion – hiring/firing planBudget discussion, T&L policy (economy flights, etc)
• References (2 employer, 2 customers, 2 through contacts)
• Calls with Clearsight
• Contract negotiation

Quetions to ask:

- What are your weaknesses? If they are not honest, that is not a good sign.

• What steps do you take to seek out the unknown?
• What do you do to broaden your thinking, experience, or personal development?

Leadership Abilities to Assess - HBR

Some competencies are relevant (though not sufficient) when evaluating senior manager candidates. While each job and organization is different, the best leaders have, in some measure, eight abilities.

1. Strategic Orientation The capacity to engage in broad, complex analytical and conceptual thinking

2. Market Insight A strong understanding of the market and how it affects the business

3. Results Orientation A commitment to demonstrably improving key business metrics

4. Customer Impact A passion for serving the customer

5. Collaboration And Influence An ability to work effectively with peers or partners, including those not in the line of command

6. Organizational Development A drive to improve the company by attracting and developing top talent

7. Team Leadership Success in focusing, aligning, and building effective groups

8. Change Leadership The capacity to transform and align an organization around a new goal

How to evaluate candidates: