August 18, 2025 • 51 mins
Returning guest Warren Rutherford brings decades of insight into executive leadership and strategic talent alignment.
He specializes in executive search for private and family-owned businesses across the U.S. and internationally.
His work goes far beyond recruitment, helping organizations reimagine their leadership teams in ways that drive long-term growth, cultural fit, and strategic execution, ensuring that leadership transitions align vision with the right talent to elevate performance.
Winning Business Radio is broadcast live Mondays at 4PM ET and Music on W4CY Radio (www.w4cy.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com). Winning Business Radio is viewed on Talk 4 TV (www.talk4tv.com).
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He specializes in executive search for private and family-owned businesses across the U.S. and internationally.
His work goes far beyond recruitment, helping organizations reimagine their leadership teams in ways that drive long-term growth, cultural fit, and strategic execution, ensuring that leadership transitions align vision with the right talent to elevate performance.
Winning Business Radio is broadcast live Mondays at 4PM ET and Music on W4CY Radio (www.w4cy.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com). Winning Business Radio is viewed on Talk 4 TV (www.talk4tv.com).
Winning Business Radio Podcast is also available on Talk 4 Media (www.talk4media.com), Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com), iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, Audible, and over 100 other podcast outlets.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/winning-business-radio--3075598/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The topics and opinions express in the following show are
solely those of the hosts and their guests, and not
those of W FOURCY Radio. It's employees are affiliates. We
make no recommendations or endorsements for radio show programs, services,
or products mentioned on air or on our web. No
liability explicit or implies shall be extended to W four
CY Radio or it's employees are affiliates. Any questions or
comments should be directed to those show hosts. Thank you
(00:20):
for choosing W four CY Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Churchill said, those who failed to learn from history are
condemned to repeat it. Kevin helen n believes that certainly
applies to business. Welcome to Winning Business Radio here at
W four CY Radio. That's W four cy dot com
and now your host, Kevin Helena.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Thanks everybody for joining in today. I am Kevin Hallanan
and welcome back to Winning Business TV and Radio on
W four cy dot com. We are streaming live on
Talk the number four tv dot com in addition to Facebook,
and that's at Winning Business Radio. And of course we're
available wherever you get your podcast content, YouTube by Heart Radio, Spotify, Apple.
(01:12):
Then the list goes on the mission of winning business
radio and TV, as regular viewers and listeners know, is
to offer insights and advice to help people avoid the
mistakes of others, right to learn best practices. Those are
the how tos, the what toos, the what not tos,
and to be challenged and hopefully to be inspired by
the successes of others. Those consultants, coaches, advisors, authors, founders
(01:34):
and owners and entrepreneurs, people with expertise. But you know,
virtually every successful person I've ever talked to has said
some form of failure in their lives and careers. So
while we all have to get our knees skinned once
in a while, I'm driven to keep those scrapes from
needing major surgery. Let's endeavor to learn from history so
we don't repeat it. I've spent the better part of
my career equipping businesses to grow from solopreneurs to small
(01:56):
and medium sized companies all the way up to the
Fortune fifty. I've seen some of those companies win, and
to varying degrees, I've seen some fail. I've had the
opportunity to rub elbows with some of the highest performing
people around and with some who probably should have found
other professions and my own businesses. I've had lots of success,
but some failures too. I like to think I've learned
a lot from those experiences. So you're going to hear
(02:17):
from me, but mostly you're going to hear from our guests.
Those experts, consultants, coaches, advisors, authors, founders and owners and entrepreneurs.
And today my guest is Warren Rutherford. He is founder
and president of Rutherford Advisors DBA The Executive Suite, and
here's his bio. Warren Rutherford returns for a second time
to Winning Business Radio. He was here in twenty twenty,
(02:38):
bringing with him decades of insight into executive leadership and
such strategic talent alignment. Since founding Rutherford Advisors, Inc. DBA
The Executive Suite in nineteen ninety seven, he has specialized
in executive search for private and family owned businesses across
the US and internationally. His work goes far beyond recruitment, though,
helping organizations reimagine their leadership, team teams and ways that
(03:00):
drive long term growth, cultural fit, and strategic execution. Warren
partners with businesses to design growth driven executive search strategies
rooted in a deep excuse me in a deep understanding
of their strengths, opportunities, aspirations, and desire results. His approach
ensures that leadership transition transitions I can Talk Warre are
(03:22):
not just about filling roles, but about aligning vision with
the right talent to elevate performance. As a one page
business plan consultant, Warren works with business owners to develop
strategic and actionable business plans. He also plays an active
role in shaping the Cape Cod, Massachusetts business landscape. He
currently chairs the Cape Cod Economic Development Council and has
(03:42):
served as the founding board chair of Leadership cape Cod.
His additional leadership and advisory roles include Provisors New England,
the Exit Planning Exchange That's XPX, New England, Rotary International,
and E for All Mentorship program. He holds a BA
in Political Science from the un University of Massachusetts amherst
Ura and a Master of Public Administration in Public Organization
(04:06):
and Management from Northeastern University. He's provided leadership training to
industry exits and Qualaum Poor Malaysia, run team building training,
management and leadership training, customer service training to multiple organizations.
He's published with others eight webinars on topics ranging from
banking to business succession and planning. He's published an HRTech
(04:27):
outlook as one of the top ten talent management Companies
twenty twenty, identifying the best person future fit candidate made easy.
A challenging aspect of Warren's executive search work involves working
with business owners to equip their business with strategies that
incorporate AI and digital modernization that can bridge the gap
between retiring business owners and incoming entrepreneurs developing and excuse me,
(04:52):
an effective bridge will require existing owners to prepare their
businesses for executives who expect effective digital integration and modern
operating system systems plural. Warren lives on Cape cod with
his wife Carol. They have two adult kids, Kevin and
Carrie Warren. Good to have you here, Welcome to Winning
Business Radio and TV.
Speaker 4 (05:11):
Kevin, thank you very much and thanks for that overview.
Based on what you've said, I guess I'll answer some
questions from you, and it was pretty thorough. Thank you.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
Where's you? Let's start with background? Okay, I'd like to
look at somebody's background so the audience really gets a
flavor for how you got to where you are and
kind of what makes you tick? Where'd you grow up?
Speaker 4 (05:32):
Grew up in Worcestern, Massachusetts.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
The center of the state, well little east of the center,
but it's kind of the center of the state, right.
Speaker 4 (05:38):
Part of the commonwealth, Yes, but that's the logo school system.
And then, as you mentioned earlier, went to you mass
Amhurst and had fun doing that to bring Polly SI
and went on to Northeastern at my MPa.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
Your MPa, you can and be a Masters in Public administration,
right correct?
Speaker 4 (06:04):
Yeah, My focus all along was to be a city manager,
and there's very few of those in Massachusetts, but I
was on that management track and spent a good twenty
five years in public management systems, so learned learned a
good amount about how to manage and motivate people.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
How towns work. And you're all it's well, some paid staff,
but a lot of volunteers on committees and working in
the communities.
Speaker 4 (06:33):
Right yeah, and working with a lot of boards, which
is very analogous to boards of directors and the owners
executives of private companies.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
Hey, before we get too far, tell us about Carol
and Kevin and Carey.
Speaker 4 (06:48):
Carol, I'm she's We've been married now thirty some plus years.
Thirty yeah, yeah, now about thirty eight years and the kids.
Kevin's thirty four, Carrie's thirty one. Carrie is creating a
little bit of antsiness and Carol because she's vacationing in
(07:12):
Hawaii and today she's trying snorkeling. Nice, that's on a
sailboat for the first time. Well, that's fine, but good
kid's great wife and lovable Golden retriever at home.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
What's Kevin up to?
Speaker 4 (07:32):
He's five eleven six feet.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
I've actually met jess Myran.
Speaker 4 (07:39):
Yeah, he's a good guy. He's in between public management situations.
But he decided years ago that he wanted to be
a city manager. And I always ascribe it to him
sitting across my desk when he was little eating peanut
butter and jelly sandwiches while I was running the town.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
That's pretty cool. What were your early interests and how
did you get I know that's not your career now,
but you spent quite a bit of time there. How
did you get interested in public management?
Speaker 4 (08:09):
So when my first real job was when I was seven,
delivered the morning Wester telegram. I had fifty some odd customers,
so you know, you get up at four o'clock. You
get the paper and you start deliver in them, and
in between homes, I got to read the front page
and more. And it always every other day there was
an article headline about city manager Francis Mcroth. So I
(08:33):
got initiated into what initiating into public management by just
reading the paper every day.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
And you got your degree, Let's see, graduated UMass seventy eight.
You're a very interested in political science, and so that
makes sense. Let's see, you started working for a company
called McKinnon Training Center. Tell us about mccrinan.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
So McKinnon Training Center. If for those who may remember,
back in the name late nineteen seventies, the government, federal
government put together a program called SITA Comprehensive Employment Training
Act and as part of that, when I was with
the McKinnon Center, we were responsible for thirteen communities in
(09:24):
south central south central mass headquartered in Southbridge, and my
job there as planner was to write manpower plans to
take the unemployed people, train them, educate them, and get
them work. So we did that. I did that for
six years, worked with fifty other folks, and my job
(09:46):
as planning director was to find out how we could
improve our job placement rates. So when I started there,
we were I laughed, Kevin, but we were placing one
out of ten people in jobs. Wow, it was a
great record. So I took eight months talked all my coworkers,
(10:07):
found out what they did, why they did it, how
they did it, what they'd like to do differently. I
asked a lot of questions, which is part of what
we know about each other. We asked questions, and based
on that, I put together several manpower plans for the
following year, and I projected weeds. At the end of
the year, we placed four out of ten. So my
(10:28):
boss didn't like that because he thought it was possible.
But you know what, at the end of that first year,
we placed forty five percent of the people we trained,
and it was more than a four hundred percent increase
and we kept that up. And the key the key
to that, though, is real simple. I asked my coworkers
what they wanted to achieve, and I wrote the plan
(10:50):
around them. So I was only the vehicle to write it.
They were the instruments to complete it. And I've continued
that throughout my whole career. I've worked with every organization,
private or public, asking my fellow employees what it was
they wanted to achieve in their vision of excellence and success.
(11:11):
So strategic planning, planning has always been part of my
experience and asking employees and understanding what man what motivates them,
helps them to manage themselves and may the manage the whole.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
That's outstanding. You were at a relatively young age when
you became the town executory executive secretary for Canton UH
and then that was about five years and then the
town manager, the head guy for Barnstable. What do you
attribute that to that you were still relatively young and
you were a town manager when most of those guys
are in their uh sort of mid career maybe later career.
Speaker 4 (11:49):
I had a vision, I had a purpose and as
I said to the city council Town council in Barnstaol,
I wanted to finally implement and do what I had
been trained to do in my MPa program thirteen years before.
So had an opportunity to do that, had a great
staff to work with, and it's managing leading working with
(12:15):
others is all communications. Listening and listening and listening and
then doing and acting.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
So did Barnstable or does Barnsable have a select board
or a mayor?
Speaker 4 (12:28):
No. I was their first town manager under a town
council form. So they went from those who aren't familiar
a representative town meeting, which was three hundred and fifty
people elected by their peers out of ballot. They were
the representative. They were the legislative body. And then it
was governed on the executive level by three full time
(12:49):
board of selectmen, no town manager at all. So I
was the first and replaced the boards of selectmen the
executive and then the town council City council replaced the
town meeting. So it was a total change of government
under a charter form. And I worked in Barnstville for
(13:09):
seven years.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
So then in ninety seven you founded Rutherford Advisors. What
was behind that move? And then I'll ask you, well,
I'll hold that second question, what was behind that move?
Speaker 4 (13:23):
Ready for a change?
Speaker 3 (13:24):
Yep?
Speaker 4 (13:25):
Quite honestly, some would say I wore out my welcome,
but most first time managers in a new form of
government stay for about a year and a half. I
stayed for seven years and implemented a number of different
changes that are still being implemented today and followed through.
I wanted to change. I wanted to break out on
(13:47):
my own and be my own boss. I've been that
way since ninety seven.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
Oh, you're still married. So just pointing out that carrolls
in the mix somewhere there. Hopefully she's listening. I can
call you up every day. She's in the mix. Now
did Rutherford Advisors start out doing different work than you're
doing right now? And if so, what was that?
Speaker 4 (14:12):
To some degree? Excuse me? To some degree, it was
management consulting and coaching. And I worked for a bit
of time in ninety seven ninety eight with the Mass
Power Options helping It was a division of at the
time Mass Healthy Education Facilities Authority, And what we did
(14:34):
was we worked on with the legislature and then developing
electric competitive electric supply and then selecting a supplier for
all of the colleges, universities, hospitals and nonprofits in the state.
So it was Power Options was the vehicle. And then
(14:55):
during that time also I was working with other cities
and towns do a lot of personnel work, writing job descriptions,
developing compensation plans, and I carried on that work probably
through about two thousand and two, and then the market
(15:15):
shifted and I went away from municipal work and totally
into private and nonprofit.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
All right, that's a good place to segue. It's time
for our first break. We're gonna take a commercial. We'll
be back in about one minute with Warren Rutherford.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
You're listening to Winning Business Radio with Kevin Helenet on
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Don't go away. More helpful information is coming right up
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Speaker 2 (16:25):
And now back to Winning Business Radio with Kevin Helenan
presenting exciting topics and expert guests with one goal in
mind to help you succeed in business. Here once again
is Kevin Helene.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
We're back with Warren Rutherford, founder and president of the
Executive Suite, which was a bit of a transition in
around nine am. I read about that.
Speaker 4 (16:54):
Correct. Yes, one of my one of my good friends,
Elizabeth Harris Murrettz, contacted me in the end of two
thousand and eight and we spent pretty much the whole
friday in her office here in Hyenas trying to help
her identify someone who could purchase her business so that
she could retop sell it, retire and move out to
(17:16):
the West Coast with her husband who was out there
taking care of his mom.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
What kind of business.
Speaker 4 (17:24):
The Executive Suite which I acquired is a was a
temp service and a little bit of contract placements, mostly
temp service, and so I purchased that from her. At
the end of that day, I said, look, Elizabeth, I
can't think of anybody who would have an interest in
(17:45):
buying your business. And as I was walking literally walking
out the door, I turned and said to her, you know,
I might consider it, but maybe we should talk about it.
And she turned flush red and said, oh my god,
you know, good friend, trying to help route. And I
purchased the business April of nine and the interesting part
(18:10):
of it was as you remember, the recession was going
in full two till the rest of the country. On
Cape Cott it hadn't hit yet, so we were building
out on a weekly basis for temp employees, probably about
four thousand hours a week. The interesting thing was the
following we were paying four thousand hours a week, so
(18:31):
the margins were fairly small, but it was a great
start to the business. And then the recession hit us
at the end of two thousand and nine twenty ten,
and those four thousand hours went down to about one
hundred hours. Employers couldn't afford to pay them in the employees,
(18:52):
the temp employees wanted full time work, so there wasn't
a match. So I just shifted toecutive search and contract search,
and I've been doing that since twenty ten.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
So do you remember the first executive search? You did?
Speaker 4 (19:10):
Remember one of them? Yeah, I placed the so you
may remember your readers listeners may remember the province town.
There's a Pilgrim monument. Oh yeah, an odalisk. Actually the
cornerstone was laid by Teddy Roosevelt and they needed an
executive director. They had fired the former executive director, so
(19:33):
the chairperson called me up. We did the search, put
a guy in there for Nie stayed there for about
five seven years. That was the first one and one
of many.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
That's a nonprofit.
Speaker 4 (19:46):
That's yes, that's a nonprofit.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
And who I mean are they affiliated more with the
town the state? It's not federal.
Speaker 4 (19:52):
Rights, it's neither.
Speaker 3 (19:55):
It's independent.
Speaker 4 (19:57):
Yeah, as an independent nonprofit boarder direc actors. And a
beautiful facility. They actually put a I call it an elevator,
but it's I forget the technical name for it, but
they built an easier way to go from downtown right
behind the town Hall in Provincetown up to the museum monument.
(20:20):
Great facility.
Speaker 3 (20:21):
All right, So tell us the work that you do
as the executive suite today.
Speaker 4 (20:28):
The work I do now is pretty cool. It gives
me an opportunity to do executive search. So I'm working
with private business owners and their leadership teams. And what
I do, it's two things I'm not, so I don't
call myself an executive recruiter. So I do executive search
and growth planning with business owners and their team. So
(20:49):
that's the difference. If I was a recruiter, Okay, I
could do that with my eyes closed. But doing growth
planning strategic planning, as I talked about earlier as a
and a need for all businesses. I've yet to find
business owners except the larger businesses that have business plans,
So do growth planning with them, help them reshape their
(21:11):
leadership teams so the owners can move from my use
this a car.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
I love, I love this phrase, go ahead.
Speaker 4 (21:17):
So they can move from the driver's seat to ride
and shotgun. So I'm not asking the owners to leave
the company. I'm encouraging them to structure their transition by
staying with the company and shotgun giving advice to the
executive team, whether it's a CEO or other C level members,
(21:39):
and letting them know when the car is going to
go maybe hit a curb, hit a pothole and needs
a course correction. So they're not running the company actively,
but they're exploring their transition succession options.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
So that's a key distinction. They're still exploring. They may
end up selling, they may keep it, you know, for
another generation maybe, but they've got the leadership team in place.
So to your point, they're not in the driver's seat.
They can start to enjoy some time off, some time away.
They're not actively running the business, although they're still a
part of it and they're getting income stream.
Speaker 4 (22:15):
Correct and they're investigating. What I like to say, Kevin,
that there's at least ten different ways you can get
out of your business, one being dissolving it, which is
not desirable, but then there's nine other ones that they
can explore. And you give them that runway to explore
that and invite in other consultants and coaches and attorneys
(22:39):
and advisors to help them do that. But they're not
pressed with oh my gosh, now I have to approve
these payables. You know, I have to change the way
operations is running. The IT systems all messed up. No,
that's handled by the hired pans and the owner owners
just on their transition.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
And so you're building a growth plan. Talk about how
you envision and build a growth plan around that company
that that is uh, you know, tied into the new
team or the new executive.
Speaker 4 (23:14):
So it's a not so simple formula. But part of
the process is you mentioned it earlier in the outset
Sore looking at the company's strengths, it's opportunities, it's aspirations,
where would it like to go? And then results focus
how does it want to get there? So I work
with ownership the executive team to develop that sore analysis
(23:38):
and then based on that, identify strengths within the company
and also you know opportunities that need need improvements. So
it could be poor operations, it could be pre financials,
the organizational structure may need addressing. And what I'll do
is I'll work with others in the consulting network. I
(24:01):
have to bring them in into a high level analysis
of all parts of the company and prepare that into
the growth plan for presentation to ownership and the executive team.
And then what we do is we apply that plan
to recruitment of key members of the team that have
(24:24):
KPI's performance standards in place for those members to achieve.
So you know, today it's twenty twenty five, the planned
exit maybe two thousand and thirty. So over the next
five years, what type of growth strategy does the company
want to increase its multiples, to increase its valuation, to
(24:47):
increase its performance so that when the owner gets to
that section of guess now I want to leave, he
or she or they have a better running company that's
more or attractive.
Speaker 3 (25:02):
And so it's not just replacing that owner. It's probably
I'm envisioning that that it's really upgrading the skill set.
It's off that I'm a company owner. I've been a
company owner in the past. You're a company owner. We
don't always have the right skills or the optimal skills, right,
So that search allows you to bring in people that
have skills for the future and growth versus just replacing
(25:24):
the skill set of the owner.
Speaker 4 (25:26):
Correct. Yeah, And I know enough to know that I
can do certain parts of the analysis. But a long
time ago someone told me they know what they're great at,
they know what they stink at, and they prefer to
not do the things that they stink at. So you
bring in experts to do those things. So, for instance,
if they need a sales system, they call Kevin Hallant.
(25:50):
They don't call Warrant. If they need an accounting system,
please don't ask me for me.
Speaker 3 (25:58):
And you use a number of assessment it's along the
way to talk about some of the assessments you use innermetrics.
I don't know what axiology is.
Speaker 4 (26:08):
So in Metrics is the company. It's owned by j Niblick,
and I gots certified actually as an executive coach back
in two thousand and four when I was making that
transition over to private consulting. So some of the assessments,
psychometric assessments. We use DISK, which is what you're familiar
(26:31):
with right, looking at behavioral personality preferences and profiles. In addition,
we look at values index, which measures seven motivators, what
I call the key things that get you up and
out of the bed in the morning and maintain your
vision and focus through the day, in the week, in
the year. The last piece is the Attributes Index. In
(26:54):
simple way to describe that, Kevin is that it helps
identify an individual's decision making and thinking skill sets very precisely,
very accurately. And that was created decades ago by a
gentleman by the name of Robert Hartman, and it's had
a number of different, I'm sorry, number of different iterations
(27:15):
over the years by different researchers. The one that in
Metrics use. I've been using that now for LASH twenty years,
twenty one years, and I'm comfortable looking at that, looking
at candidates, looking at clients, and trying to identify that
person future fit. So yeah, it's a matchmaking effort, but
(27:39):
I want to find out where the company wants to go.
And now I'm charged with identifying individual or individuals who
have the same outlook and passion and strategies that the
company has. And I use those trio of assessments plus
detailed interviews reference checks. Ticks a while, but I love
(28:01):
doing it.
Speaker 3 (28:02):
Yeah. How long does the search typically take?
Speaker 4 (28:06):
Anywhere from ninety to one hundred days? One hundred and
twenty days, I'm sorry, And usually the first month is
where most of the work is done. So you're identifying candidates,
you're interviewing them, You're screening and assessing them, and then
trying to find out are they the fit that we need?
Do they match up to the company's goal growth focus?
(28:28):
Getting a little tongue tied here, And if they are,
then I proceed to a second level of interviews with
them and start challenging them towards the company goals. So
before I introduce them to the ownership group, I'm trying
to find out how much of a fit they are
and how much of a motivation they have to work
(28:50):
with my particular client, and after that go through the
interview process and guiding process with the clients.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
Excellent, All right, that feels like another time a good time.
We're right at bottom of the hour. Let's take our
second break. We'll be back in about another minute with
Warren Rutherford of the Executive Suite.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
You're listening to Winning Business Radio with Kevin Helene on
W four CY Radio. That's W four cy dot com.
Don't go away. More helpful information is coming right up
right here on Winning Business Radio.
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the app to search local, find local, and save local.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
And now back to Winning Business Radio with Kevin Helene,
presenting exciting topics and expert guests with one goal in
mind to help you succeed in business. Here once again
is Kevin helenet.
Speaker 3 (30:21):
We're back with Warren Rutherford, founder and president of the
Executive Suite. Warren, what do you see or what have
you observed that are the most common mistakes that business
owners tend to make in the area of succession.
Speaker 4 (30:37):
They don't plan it. And there's a lot of statistics,
but I'd say a good well most often a good
fifty percent don't plan their exit. You know, a recent
article I read from the Land down Under said that
forty eight percent of baby boomer business owners, so that's
(31:00):
sixty to seventy eight age timeframe, don't have a business
plan at all. Yeah, that's that's shocking, shocking, and it's
it's quite prevalent. And I call it a growth plan, Kevin,
(31:21):
because anytime I've asked an owner about their business plan,
they'll point up to the wall. So, yeah, it's right
up there in the bookcase.
Speaker 3 (31:30):
Yeah. I used that for an NBA MBA, an SBA
loan ten years ago or something, right.
Speaker 4 (31:36):
Yeah, And I can tell them the company that did it,
how much they charged. And reform to page fifty two
is say you know what their plan is and how
do you know that? And I said, well, you and
about ten thousand other companies have used the same template
by this company. And I said, let me guess they
probably charged about one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Yeah,
(31:58):
pretty darn clothes. And I said, and did you implement that? No,
it was too big. It's a big three ringbinder three
So it's not a business plan, it's a growth plan
and it's action oriented.
Speaker 3 (32:11):
Well, tell us about your one page business plan. Well
you can do. It may not be yours, but you
know what is the one page business plan that you
help people create and execute?
Speaker 4 (32:24):
So thank you A long time not a long time ago,
about thirty years ago, more gentleman in Berkeley, California created
a one page business plan. He was a former finance
director Cfolks CPA, and what he wanted to be able
to have business owners do his clients do was simply said,
(32:47):
have a vision of where I want my company to
go in three to five years. A mission that's timeless, right,
I think big, little, big, So the mission is timeless.
The vision is three to five five years, big goals
and objectives up to nine of them, so accomplished within
(33:07):
a year. Little strategies over three to five years that
marry out to the objectives. You know, big and then
action plans up to nine of them accomplished within a year,
but measured and set by quarters, so very action focused.
They're very action oriented, and it uses a couple of
(33:29):
different vehicles. What I like about it, Kevin, is it's online.
It's a planning and performance system. When I work with
my clients on it, they're able to, whether it's over
zoom or in person, work with me to establish what
we call use the balanced scorecard. You're probably familiar with
(33:52):
Norton's Balanced Scorecard out of Harvard. They adapted that to
the one page business plan. So we have objectives on people, process, finance,
and customers. Those are the full legs of the balanced
scorecard that are reflected in the objectives and in the strategies.
So your focus the business owners on that. They've never
(34:16):
heard of this before, but you help them on a
monthly basis implement and in every instance over the course
of the year, they're overachieving their objectives. They're overachieving their
goal for this next year, and they are doing business planning.
But it's fun and I've been doing that probably two
(34:41):
thousand and six.
Speaker 3 (34:42):
Well, I want to take you back to that article
you reference the title is Australia's trillion dollar succession problem
nobody's talking about. And one of the quotes was research
suggests that proactive succession planning combined with digital modernization Cambridge
the gap between retiring busines owners and this is intriguing
and incoming entrepreneurs because I wouldn't expect an entrepreneurs going
(35:04):
to work for somebody. Successful depend on whether existing owners
recognize the need to prepare their business for a generation
that expects seamless digital integration and modern operational systems. Because
and this is now me editorializing, because those new people
coming in are much younger than that founder and owner
probably mm and much.
Speaker 4 (35:24):
More technologically savvy. Picture of the young entrepreneur that gen
Z person into your company, my company, and where's my
you know, where are my accounts? How they set up,
how decisions are made or not made, and very rapidly.
(35:45):
I think the research showed that they could get very
frustrated that traditional baby boom business owners don't have what
they call digitalization systems set up within the business and
it can become and is become impactful in an adverse
way on entrepreneurial people being able to acquire businesses and
(36:08):
over the past five years, I've encountered talked to a
number of Gen Z entrepreneurs who have received funding from
private investors to buy companies. And so their charge with it,
you know, from these investors is find a company to
purchase that has particular criteria we want to invest in.
(36:32):
You can run it once you buy it. We buy it.
And their frustration, as they've expressed to me, is why
aren't these owners with it quote unquote, And my comment
to them was, well, it's an educational process. How long
are you willing to wait? And the comment usually comes
(36:52):
back to my investors want results. That's right, I want
results it And it comes down to digitalizedation. And there's
a growing divide with those entrepreneurs and how do we
educate the Gen Z and the baby boomers and as
well as the next generation down from the boomers the
Gen X as to the need to become digitally savvy
(37:17):
to help their businesses compete. Otherwise they could die, you know,
and by not having a viable succession plan that embrace
embraces digitalization.
Speaker 3 (37:29):
All right, so I'm going to ask you about AI.
But this digitalization is not not AI. Okay, right, It's
not yeah, so what is it for the audiences.
Speaker 4 (37:44):
The Okay, so clarify the question.
Speaker 3 (37:47):
Yes, so it's not AI. We're going to ask about that,
but digitalization is. Okay, So what what is digitalization in
a program?
Speaker 4 (37:58):
In a practical sense, it's using using open source material,
using the internet, using the cloud, cloud based software, making
more dynamic decisions, uh, interactive, whether it's hybrid, remote in person,
but using digital tools, including in this instance, including AI tools,
(38:23):
which are increasingly impacting business decisions. The digitalization You and I,
to a small degree, I think are using it. You know,
we're using this platform here for the TV program zoom teams.
But beyond that, how are we sending our messages to
(38:43):
our customers? Some people would say to me Facebook, that's
old fashioned, and then they'll rattle off a number of
different marketing platforms, some of which I know the name of.
You know, I know about TikTok, I know about Instagram.
Do I use it in my marketing? No, it's beyond me.
(39:04):
You know, my son and my daughter look at me
and go, you are old. Thank you for the compliment,
but it's you know, how much bandwidth do we have
as boomers to be able to embrace that as business owners,
do we have the talent on board in our businesses
to utilize those tools to make more effective decisions to
(39:28):
access markets that need to be access to get our
products and services. And unless we have staff on board
that are gen Z or millennials, right, it's going to
be a challenge.
Speaker 3 (39:41):
Well, even business intelligence. I mean, companies have so much
information they've collected over the years, but it's all on paper,
it's not digitized, and therefore they can't crunch it, crunch
it and make more strategic decisions about what to your point,
what markets they might go in, what additional services or
products they can offer it.
Speaker 4 (40:01):
I just as a good example, I just hired operations
director for a company here and it was the owner
in forty nine other people, very flat organization, an OPS manager,
ops direction and two weeks ago, yeah, last week and
the week before last, I got a net promoter score survey.
(40:24):
Now I don't use the company services, but they sent
out the first time a net promoter score How would
you rate the company services? That was two weeks ago.
Last week it was a more detailed survey, detailed that
took me thirty seconds to complete. Again, just reaching out
and getting feedback from their customers had never done it before.
Speaker 3 (40:46):
All right, now let's talk about AI, because I know
you're starting to see, well, you're starting to advise clients
around AI. Tell us what that looks like.
Speaker 4 (40:57):
I'm hoping they know more than I do.
Speaker 3 (40:59):
Yeah, that's for sure, that's for sure. Let me let
me say this. I'll add this too. AI is not
really the best tool for executive search, but it.
Speaker 4 (41:08):
Is a tool, and it's it's it's a growing tool.
What I'm finding not so much with the owners myself perhaps,
but many of their key staff on an operations basis.
Artificial intelligence, machine learning and manufacturing industries has been in
(41:30):
use for over a dozen years. Many people don't realize it,
but if they walk into a well, let's just say
Amazon's facility, they've cut down their use of employees and
the use of robotics is very, very sharp. You know that.
I've seen films. I've seen activities within distribution facilities like
(41:53):
an Amazon warehouse where there's a large computer bank. But
it's managing that the activities of all these robots to
pick and pack everything, I mean everything, and it's very
efficient and very pervasive. That's just one example, and then
(42:13):
if you look at the use of robotics in developing products,
it's also very pervasive. So the research that's been going
on in artificial intelligence, just in manufacturing, distribution, transportation, we've
heard about driver list trucks and along Big Texas highways.
(42:33):
I think it works. Well, that's here, and it's just
going to continue the experimentation and use of it. So
we need to I don't want to say we need
to get used to it, but we need to embrace
how we can with our knowledge of business, help move
the change and move those chains forward a little bit.
(42:55):
What AI, I don't want to say it's lacking. What
it needs is business owner, business leader, business executive inputs
to make it more effective and make it more efficient.
So you know, one of the standards within AI is
being able to give your knowledge to it and then
(43:18):
it shared across their platforms, depend on which ones you're using,
and it just increases its knowledge instantaneously. So it's it's huge.
There's the next wave, I guess is artificial general intelligence,
and you know some people get scared by its capacities.
(43:38):
I look at it and say, I need to learn
more about what it's able to do and see how
it can improve my search process. Someone said to me, well,
do you use software to scan resumes?
Speaker 3 (43:52):
And I said, no, that's what I was referencing, by
the way, a momentary.
Speaker 4 (43:56):
Okay, Well, most of the companies that I get candidates,
candidates come to me and they'll say, here's my resume.
I hope you don't scan it. And when I've said
to clients and what I've said to candidates is I
still open the resumes, I still review them, I still
call you back and email you, I said. But for
(44:17):
more often than not, companies use scanning software which like
Google or you know, any of the platforms out there,
and they'll look at long tail keywords in your resume.
So if someone's applying for a job at Winning Business TV,
it's going to be looking for an executive producer and
(44:38):
it's going to lay out in at advertisement exactly what
they want. If you don't have those keywords in your
resume reflected right up top and an executive summary, your
resume will not be opened. So it's going into the
digital file thirteen. And I have candidates call me all
(44:59):
the time, calling me back, and I'll send me a
resume and it's it's a nice resume, but it's never
going to get open, so I'll just coach them to
change it.
Speaker 3 (45:13):
Uh where was I there?
Speaker 4 (45:16):
Uh?
Speaker 3 (45:19):
All right? Your you work with clients all over I
know your Cape God based just because that's where your home,
where you you know your home and life are. But
you're certainly not exclusive to Cape cut.
Speaker 4 (45:29):
Oh gosh, no. Yeah, I prefer to have most of
my bridge over, most of my bridge over the water.
Speaker 3 (45:35):
Yeah, mostly your bridge. I like bridges over the water too.
Tunnel's going on, Yeah, I know.
Speaker 4 (45:41):
My I'm an hour away from reality, so almost all
my work I want to have off Cape Cod. Yeah.
I don't market here. I get business here on a
regular basis.
Speaker 3 (45:51):
But that's word of mouth people that know you and
who work with you in the past.
Speaker 4 (45:54):
You have a lot of rhetorically. Yeah, sometimes I say unfortunately,
but I'm still referred to as first time manager in Barnstable.
Speaker 3 (46:02):
It's name recognition, don't different A twelve foot.
Speaker 4 (46:08):
Yeah, I've done I've done work for a UK based
company to hire a right senior executive in California in
New York City, So it's and that was all done
via video, So it's it's I don't want to say
it's easy to do, but it's fun, all right.
Speaker 3 (46:25):
A couple last things. You're big and volunteering. I'll just
ask you about one organization it's close to my heart.
I know you know this, but you've been a Rotarian,
you're you're a past president of Rotary. Tell the listeners
and viewers what Rotary is and why they should check
it out.
Speaker 4 (46:42):
Rotary's the best volunteer service organization in the world. Barnett.
The cool thing about Rotary and I was I was
in Rotary here in Hyannas for thirty two years. We
have fundraisers during the course of the year, usually one
(47:03):
major one. And the nice thing about Rotary is we
give all that money away.
Speaker 3 (47:08):
That's exactly how I describe it as well.
Speaker 4 (47:10):
And you know, whether it's local projects, whether it's international projects.
What a lot of folks don't understand but I know
you do is Back in nineteen eighty eight, even before
I joined Rotary, Rotary International established a goal to with
the World Health Organization to eradicate polio from the face
(47:32):
of this earth, and that was taken up with the
Gates Foundation over the years along with Rotary and the
World Health organization and they've got I think at least
two pakistanis Afghanistan and maybe one African country that have
(47:52):
not eradicated polio. Why because of conflicts and religion. But yeah, yeah, so.
Speaker 3 (48:04):
And the vaccine is oral. It's not a shot, No,
it's for people, know that.
Speaker 4 (48:08):
Yeah, So that's that was the one of the main
reasons I joined. We actually we had an international conference
in Australia that that Carol and I attended. And it's
inspirational to think about all the money we raised and
then used for causes like that. Instill yours.
Speaker 3 (48:27):
So my my club in Dedham Norwood in the Ponset Valley,
we support uh, you know, local organizations, but we also
have done a number of water projects and you'd be amazed.
A sustainable well that costs well if you filter people
out of that because we partner in this case with
engineers without borders. They're like doctors and boarders. But you know,
(48:48):
for about ten grand you can you can put on
the ground a sustainable well. It just takes minimal cleaning, uh,
and it supports it supports a population of kids that
otherwise families but the otherwise couldn't go to school because
they get sick from drinking bad water, and if healthy
water just changes everything, it's amazing. So just a quick plug,
all right, Last question, Uh, we're out of time. What's
(49:11):
the what Why should people reach out to you first
of all? And then what's the best way.
Speaker 4 (49:17):
Well, they should reach out to me to if they're
business owners and business executives where they're located, to talk
about the need to update change, improve their business planning process,
growth planning process, because that most likely will involve recruiting
senior executives and helping the business owners chart their succession
(49:40):
transition plan.
Speaker 3 (49:42):
Excellent, and the best way is the best way is.
Speaker 4 (49:48):
Email, phone, ye, go on, emails, email, across several times.
Speaker 3 (49:54):
I'll just say it over time. WJR. At theexecutive suite
dot com. The website is the executive Suite dot com.
He's Warren Rutherford. Warren go ahead. Last thought, Well, thank
you Kevin for having me on my pleasure.
Speaker 4 (50:10):
I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I hope that I've helped
the listeners answer some of the questions that I'll be
asking them when they call me.
Speaker 3 (50:19):
Excellent, excellent, Well, thanks for being here, and thanks everybody
for watching and listening. This is a show about business
and business challenges. Often, if you've got concerns, as Warren
alluded to, about the sales effectiveness of your company, whether
your sales team is you or really small or it's
really large, feel free to reach out to me on
Facebook or LinkedIn that's at Winning Business Radio, or drop
(50:40):
me a note one of my many email addresses. I
always say Kevin at Winning Business Radio dot com. Our
company is Winning Incorporated. We're part of Sandler Training. We
developed sales teams into high achievers and sales leaders into
true coaches and mentors. We're not a fit for everybody,
but hey, maybe we should have a conversation. Thank you
to producer and engineer one their job well, don I
(51:00):
appreciate you. Be sure to join us next week Monday,
August twenty fifth. We'll do it all over again. Until then,
this is Kevin Helena.
Speaker 2 (51:09):
You have been listening to Winning Business Radio with your host,
Kevin Helene. If you missed any part of this episode,
the podcast is available on Talk for podcasting and iHeartRadio.
For more information and questions, go to Winning Business Radio
dot com or check us out on social media. Tune
in again next week and every Monday at four pm
Eastern Time to listen live to Winning Business Radio on
(51:32):
W four CY Radio, w fourcy dot com. Until then,
let's succeed where others have failed and win in business
with Kevin Helenan and Winning Business Radio
The topics and opinions express in the following show are
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comments should be directed to those show hosts. Thank you
(00:20):
for choosing W four CY Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Churchill said, those who failed to learn from history are
condemned to repeat it. Kevin helen n believes that certainly
applies to business. Welcome to Winning Business Radio here at
W four CY Radio. That's W four cy dot com
and now your host, Kevin Helena.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Thanks everybody for joining in today. I am Kevin Hallanan
and welcome back to Winning Business TV and Radio on
W four cy dot com. We are streaming live on
Talk the number four tv dot com in addition to Facebook,
and that's at Winning Business Radio. And of course we're
available wherever you get your podcast content, YouTube by Heart Radio, Spotify, Apple.
(01:12):
Then the list goes on the mission of winning business
radio and TV, as regular viewers and listeners know, is
to offer insights and advice to help people avoid the
mistakes of others, right to learn best practices. Those are
the how tos, the what toos, the what not tos,
and to be challenged and hopefully to be inspired by
the successes of others. Those consultants, coaches, advisors, authors, founders
(01:34):
and owners and entrepreneurs, people with expertise. But you know,
virtually every successful person I've ever talked to has said
some form of failure in their lives and careers. So
while we all have to get our knees skinned once
in a while, I'm driven to keep those scrapes from
needing major surgery. Let's endeavor to learn from history so
we don't repeat it. I've spent the better part of
my career equipping businesses to grow from solopreneurs to small
(01:56):
and medium sized companies all the way up to the
Fortune fifty. I've seen some of those companies win, and
to varying degrees, I've seen some fail. I've had the
opportunity to rub elbows with some of the highest performing
people around and with some who probably should have found
other professions and my own businesses. I've had lots of success,
but some failures too. I like to think I've learned
a lot from those experiences. So you're going to hear
(02:17):
from me, but mostly you're going to hear from our guests.
Those experts, consultants, coaches, advisors, authors, founders and owners and entrepreneurs.
And today my guest is Warren Rutherford. He is founder
and president of Rutherford Advisors DBA The Executive Suite, and
here's his bio. Warren Rutherford returns for a second time
to Winning Business Radio. He was here in twenty twenty,
(02:38):
bringing with him decades of insight into executive leadership and
such strategic talent alignment. Since founding Rutherford Advisors, Inc. DBA
The Executive Suite in nineteen ninety seven, he has specialized
in executive search for private and family owned businesses across
the US and internationally. His work goes far beyond recruitment, though,
helping organizations reimagine their leadership, team teams and ways that
(03:00):
drive long term growth, cultural fit, and strategic execution. Warren
partners with businesses to design growth driven executive search strategies
rooted in a deep excuse me in a deep understanding
of their strengths, opportunities, aspirations, and desire results. His approach
ensures that leadership transition transitions I can Talk Warre are
(03:22):
not just about filling roles, but about aligning vision with
the right talent to elevate performance. As a one page
business plan consultant, Warren works with business owners to develop
strategic and actionable business plans. He also plays an active
role in shaping the Cape Cod, Massachusetts business landscape. He
currently chairs the Cape Cod Economic Development Council and has
(03:42):
served as the founding board chair of Leadership cape Cod.
His additional leadership and advisory roles include Provisors New England,
the Exit Planning Exchange That's XPX, New England, Rotary International,
and E for All Mentorship program. He holds a BA
in Political Science from the un University of Massachusetts amherst
Ura and a Master of Public Administration in Public Organization
(04:06):
and Management from Northeastern University. He's provided leadership training to
industry exits and Qualaum Poor Malaysia, run team building training,
management and leadership training, customer service training to multiple organizations.
He's published with others eight webinars on topics ranging from
banking to business succession and planning. He's published an HRTech
(04:27):
outlook as one of the top ten talent management Companies
twenty twenty, identifying the best person future fit candidate made easy.
A challenging aspect of Warren's executive search work involves working
with business owners to equip their business with strategies that
incorporate AI and digital modernization that can bridge the gap
between retiring business owners and incoming entrepreneurs developing and excuse me,
(04:52):
an effective bridge will require existing owners to prepare their
businesses for executives who expect effective digital integration and modern
operating system systems plural. Warren lives on Cape cod with
his wife Carol. They have two adult kids, Kevin and
Carrie Warren. Good to have you here, Welcome to Winning
Business Radio and TV.
Speaker 4 (05:11):
Kevin, thank you very much and thanks for that overview.
Based on what you've said, I guess I'll answer some
questions from you, and it was pretty thorough. Thank you.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
Where's you? Let's start with background? Okay, I'd like to
look at somebody's background so the audience really gets a
flavor for how you got to where you are and
kind of what makes you tick? Where'd you grow up?
Speaker 4 (05:32):
Grew up in Worcestern, Massachusetts.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
The center of the state, well little east of the center,
but it's kind of the center of the state, right.
Speaker 4 (05:38):
Part of the commonwealth, Yes, but that's the logo school system.
And then, as you mentioned earlier, went to you mass
Amhurst and had fun doing that to bring Polly SI
and went on to Northeastern at my MPa.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
Your MPa, you can and be a Masters in Public administration,
right correct?
Speaker 4 (06:04):
Yeah, My focus all along was to be a city manager,
and there's very few of those in Massachusetts, but I
was on that management track and spent a good twenty
five years in public management systems, so learned learned a
good amount about how to manage and motivate people.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
How towns work. And you're all it's well, some paid staff,
but a lot of volunteers on committees and working in
the communities.
Speaker 4 (06:33):
Right yeah, and working with a lot of boards, which
is very analogous to boards of directors and the owners
executives of private companies.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
Hey, before we get too far, tell us about Carol
and Kevin and Carey.
Speaker 4 (06:48):
Carol, I'm she's We've been married now thirty some plus years.
Thirty yeah, yeah, now about thirty eight years and the kids.
Kevin's thirty four, Carrie's thirty one. Carrie is creating a
little bit of antsiness and Carol because she's vacationing in
(07:12):
Hawaii and today she's trying snorkeling. Nice, that's on a
sailboat for the first time. Well, that's fine, but good
kid's great wife and lovable Golden retriever at home.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
What's Kevin up to?
Speaker 4 (07:32):
He's five eleven six feet.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
I've actually met jess Myran.
Speaker 4 (07:39):
Yeah, he's a good guy. He's in between public management situations.
But he decided years ago that he wanted to be
a city manager. And I always ascribe it to him
sitting across my desk when he was little eating peanut
butter and jelly sandwiches while I was running the town.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
That's pretty cool. What were your early interests and how
did you get I know that's not your career now,
but you spent quite a bit of time there. How
did you get interested in public management?
Speaker 4 (08:09):
So when my first real job was when I was seven,
delivered the morning Wester telegram. I had fifty some odd customers,
so you know, you get up at four o'clock. You
get the paper and you start deliver in them, and
in between homes, I got to read the front page
and more. And it always every other day there was
an article headline about city manager Francis Mcroth. So I
(08:33):
got initiated into what initiating into public management by just
reading the paper every day.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
And you got your degree, Let's see, graduated UMass seventy eight.
You're a very interested in political science, and so that
makes sense. Let's see, you started working for a company
called McKinnon Training Center. Tell us about mccrinan.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
So McKinnon Training Center. If for those who may remember,
back in the name late nineteen seventies, the government, federal
government put together a program called SITA Comprehensive Employment Training
Act and as part of that, when I was with
the McKinnon Center, we were responsible for thirteen communities in
(09:24):
south central south central mass headquartered in Southbridge, and my
job there as planner was to write manpower plans to
take the unemployed people, train them, educate them, and get
them work. So we did that. I did that for
six years, worked with fifty other folks, and my job
(09:46):
as planning director was to find out how we could
improve our job placement rates. So when I started there,
we were I laughed, Kevin, but we were placing one
out of ten people in jobs. Wow, it was a
great record. So I took eight months talked all my coworkers,
(10:07):
found out what they did, why they did it, how
they did it, what they'd like to do differently. I
asked a lot of questions, which is part of what
we know about each other. We asked questions, and based
on that, I put together several manpower plans for the
following year, and I projected weeds. At the end of
the year, we placed four out of ten. So my
(10:28):
boss didn't like that because he thought it was possible.
But you know what, at the end of that first year,
we placed forty five percent of the people we trained,
and it was more than a four hundred percent increase
and we kept that up. And the key the key
to that, though, is real simple. I asked my coworkers
what they wanted to achieve, and I wrote the plan
(10:50):
around them. So I was only the vehicle to write it.
They were the instruments to complete it. And I've continued
that throughout my whole career. I've worked with every organization,
private or public, asking my fellow employees what it was
they wanted to achieve in their vision of excellence and success.
(11:11):
So strategic planning, planning has always been part of my
experience and asking employees and understanding what man what motivates them,
helps them to manage themselves and may the manage the whole.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
That's outstanding. You were at a relatively young age when
you became the town executory executive secretary for Canton UH
and then that was about five years and then the
town manager, the head guy for Barnstable. What do you
attribute that to that you were still relatively young and
you were a town manager when most of those guys
are in their uh sort of mid career maybe later career.
Speaker 4 (11:49):
I had a vision, I had a purpose and as
I said to the city council Town council in Barnstaol,
I wanted to finally implement and do what I had
been trained to do in my MPa program thirteen years before.
So had an opportunity to do that, had a great
staff to work with, and it's managing leading working with
(12:15):
others is all communications. Listening and listening and listening and
then doing and acting.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
So did Barnstable or does Barnsable have a select board
or a mayor?
Speaker 4 (12:28):
No. I was their first town manager under a town
council form. So they went from those who aren't familiar
a representative town meeting, which was three hundred and fifty
people elected by their peers out of ballot. They were
the representative. They were the legislative body. And then it
was governed on the executive level by three full time
(12:49):
board of selectmen, no town manager at all. So I
was the first and replaced the boards of selectmen the
executive and then the town council City council replaced the
town meeting. So it was a total change of government
under a charter form. And I worked in Barnstville for
(13:09):
seven years.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
So then in ninety seven you founded Rutherford Advisors. What
was behind that move? And then I'll ask you, well,
I'll hold that second question, what was behind that move?
Speaker 4 (13:23):
Ready for a change?
Speaker 3 (13:24):
Yep?
Speaker 4 (13:25):
Quite honestly, some would say I wore out my welcome,
but most first time managers in a new form of
government stay for about a year and a half. I
stayed for seven years and implemented a number of different
changes that are still being implemented today and followed through.
I wanted to change. I wanted to break out on
(13:47):
my own and be my own boss. I've been that
way since ninety seven.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
Oh, you're still married. So just pointing out that carrolls
in the mix somewhere there. Hopefully she's listening. I can
call you up every day. She's in the mix. Now
did Rutherford Advisors start out doing different work than you're
doing right now? And if so, what was that?
Speaker 4 (14:12):
To some degree? Excuse me? To some degree, it was
management consulting and coaching. And I worked for a bit
of time in ninety seven ninety eight with the Mass
Power Options helping It was a division of at the
time Mass Healthy Education Facilities Authority, And what we did
(14:34):
was we worked on with the legislature and then developing
electric competitive electric supply and then selecting a supplier for
all of the colleges, universities, hospitals and nonprofits in the state.
So it was Power Options was the vehicle. And then
(14:55):
during that time also I was working with other cities
and towns do a lot of personnel work, writing job descriptions,
developing compensation plans, and I carried on that work probably
through about two thousand and two, and then the market
(15:15):
shifted and I went away from municipal work and totally
into private and nonprofit.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
All right, that's a good place to segue. It's time
for our first break. We're gonna take a commercial. We'll
be back in about one minute with Warren Rutherford.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
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Speaker 2 (16:25):
And now back to Winning Business Radio with Kevin Helenan
presenting exciting topics and expert guests with one goal in
mind to help you succeed in business. Here once again
is Kevin Helene.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
We're back with Warren Rutherford, founder and president of the
Executive Suite, which was a bit of a transition in
around nine am. I read about that.
Speaker 4 (16:54):
Correct. Yes, one of my one of my good friends,
Elizabeth Harris Murrettz, contacted me in the end of two
thousand and eight and we spent pretty much the whole
friday in her office here in Hyenas trying to help
her identify someone who could purchase her business so that
she could retop sell it, retire and move out to
(17:16):
the West Coast with her husband who was out there
taking care of his mom.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
What kind of business.
Speaker 4 (17:24):
The Executive Suite which I acquired is a was a
temp service and a little bit of contract placements, mostly
temp service, and so I purchased that from her. At
the end of that day, I said, look, Elizabeth, I
can't think of anybody who would have an interest in
(17:45):
buying your business. And as I was walking literally walking
out the door, I turned and said to her, you know,
I might consider it, but maybe we should talk about it.
And she turned flush red and said, oh my god,
you know, good friend, trying to help route. And I
purchased the business April of nine and the interesting part
(18:10):
of it was as you remember, the recession was going
in full two till the rest of the country. On
Cape Cott it hadn't hit yet, so we were building
out on a weekly basis for temp employees, probably about
four thousand hours a week. The interesting thing was the
following we were paying four thousand hours a week, so
(18:31):
the margins were fairly small, but it was a great
start to the business. And then the recession hit us
at the end of two thousand and nine twenty ten,
and those four thousand hours went down to about one
hundred hours. Employers couldn't afford to pay them in the employees,
(18:52):
the temp employees wanted full time work, so there wasn't
a match. So I just shifted toecutive search and contract search,
and I've been doing that since twenty ten.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
So do you remember the first executive search? You did?
Speaker 4 (19:10):
Remember one of them? Yeah, I placed the so you
may remember your readers listeners may remember the province town.
There's a Pilgrim monument. Oh yeah, an odalisk. Actually the
cornerstone was laid by Teddy Roosevelt and they needed an
executive director. They had fired the former executive director, so
(19:33):
the chairperson called me up. We did the search, put
a guy in there for Nie stayed there for about
five seven years. That was the first one and one
of many.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
That's a nonprofit.
Speaker 4 (19:46):
That's yes, that's a nonprofit.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
And who I mean are they affiliated more with the
town the state? It's not federal.
Speaker 4 (19:52):
Rights, it's neither.
Speaker 3 (19:55):
It's independent.
Speaker 4 (19:57):
Yeah, as an independent nonprofit boarder direc actors. And a
beautiful facility. They actually put a I call it an elevator,
but it's I forget the technical name for it, but
they built an easier way to go from downtown right
behind the town Hall in Provincetown up to the museum monument.
(20:20):
Great facility.
Speaker 3 (20:21):
All right, So tell us the work that you do
as the executive suite today.
Speaker 4 (20:28):
The work I do now is pretty cool. It gives
me an opportunity to do executive search. So I'm working
with private business owners and their leadership teams. And what
I do, it's two things I'm not, so I don't
call myself an executive recruiter. So I do executive search
and growth planning with business owners and their team. So
(20:49):
that's the difference. If I was a recruiter, Okay, I
could do that with my eyes closed. But doing growth
planning strategic planning, as I talked about earlier as a
and a need for all businesses. I've yet to find
business owners except the larger businesses that have business plans,
So do growth planning with them, help them reshape their
(21:11):
leadership teams so the owners can move from my use
this a car.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
I love, I love this phrase, go ahead.
Speaker 4 (21:17):
So they can move from the driver's seat to ride
and shotgun. So I'm not asking the owners to leave
the company. I'm encouraging them to structure their transition by
staying with the company and shotgun giving advice to the
executive team, whether it's a CEO or other C level members,
(21:39):
and letting them know when the car is going to
go maybe hit a curb, hit a pothole and needs
a course correction. So they're not running the company actively,
but they're exploring their transition succession options.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
So that's a key distinction. They're still exploring. They may
end up selling, they may keep it, you know, for
another generation maybe, but they've got the leadership team in place.
So to your point, they're not in the driver's seat.
They can start to enjoy some time off, some time away.
They're not actively running the business, although they're still a
part of it and they're getting income stream.
Speaker 4 (22:15):
Correct and they're investigating. What I like to say, Kevin,
that there's at least ten different ways you can get
out of your business, one being dissolving it, which is
not desirable, but then there's nine other ones that they
can explore. And you give them that runway to explore
that and invite in other consultants and coaches and attorneys
(22:39):
and advisors to help them do that. But they're not
pressed with oh my gosh, now I have to approve
these payables. You know, I have to change the way
operations is running. The IT systems all messed up. No,
that's handled by the hired pans and the owner owners
just on their transition.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
And so you're building a growth plan. Talk about how
you envision and build a growth plan around that company
that that is uh, you know, tied into the new
team or the new executive.
Speaker 4 (23:14):
So it's a not so simple formula. But part of
the process is you mentioned it earlier in the outset
Sore looking at the company's strengths, it's opportunities, it's aspirations,
where would it like to go? And then results focus
how does it want to get there? So I work
with ownership the executive team to develop that sore analysis
(23:38):
and then based on that, identify strengths within the company
and also you know opportunities that need need improvements. So
it could be poor operations, it could be pre financials,
the organizational structure may need addressing. And what I'll do
is I'll work with others in the consulting network. I
(24:01):
have to bring them in into a high level analysis
of all parts of the company and prepare that into
the growth plan for presentation to ownership and the executive team.
And then what we do is we apply that plan
to recruitment of key members of the team that have
(24:24):
KPI's performance standards in place for those members to achieve.
So you know, today it's twenty twenty five, the planned
exit maybe two thousand and thirty. So over the next
five years, what type of growth strategy does the company
want to increase its multiples, to increase its valuation, to
(24:47):
increase its performance so that when the owner gets to
that section of guess now I want to leave, he
or she or they have a better running company that's
more or attractive.
Speaker 3 (25:02):
And so it's not just replacing that owner. It's probably
I'm envisioning that that it's really upgrading the skill set.
It's off that I'm a company owner. I've been a
company owner in the past. You're a company owner. We
don't always have the right skills or the optimal skills, right,
So that search allows you to bring in people that
have skills for the future and growth versus just replacing
(25:24):
the skill set of the owner.
Speaker 4 (25:26):
Correct. Yeah, And I know enough to know that I
can do certain parts of the analysis. But a long
time ago someone told me they know what they're great at,
they know what they stink at, and they prefer to
not do the things that they stink at. So you
bring in experts to do those things. So, for instance,
if they need a sales system, they call Kevin Hallant.
(25:50):
They don't call Warrant. If they need an accounting system,
please don't ask me for me.
Speaker 3 (25:58):
And you use a number of assessment it's along the
way to talk about some of the assessments you use innermetrics.
I don't know what axiology is.
Speaker 4 (26:08):
So in Metrics is the company. It's owned by j Niblick,
and I gots certified actually as an executive coach back
in two thousand and four when I was making that
transition over to private consulting. So some of the assessments,
psychometric assessments. We use DISK, which is what you're familiar
(26:31):
with right, looking at behavioral personality preferences and profiles. In addition,
we look at values index, which measures seven motivators, what
I call the key things that get you up and
out of the bed in the morning and maintain your
vision and focus through the day, in the week, in
the year. The last piece is the Attributes Index. In
(26:54):
simple way to describe that, Kevin is that it helps
identify an individual's decision making and thinking skill sets very precisely,
very accurately. And that was created decades ago by a
gentleman by the name of Robert Hartman, and it's had
a number of different, I'm sorry, number of different iterations
(27:15):
over the years by different researchers. The one that in
Metrics use. I've been using that now for LASH twenty years,
twenty one years, and I'm comfortable looking at that, looking
at candidates, looking at clients, and trying to identify that
person future fit. So yeah, it's a matchmaking effort, but
(27:39):
I want to find out where the company wants to go.
And now I'm charged with identifying individual or individuals who
have the same outlook and passion and strategies that the
company has. And I use those trio of assessments plus
detailed interviews reference checks. Ticks a while, but I love
(28:01):
doing it.
Speaker 3 (28:02):
Yeah. How long does the search typically take?
Speaker 4 (28:06):
Anywhere from ninety to one hundred days? One hundred and
twenty days, I'm sorry, And usually the first month is
where most of the work is done. So you're identifying candidates,
you're interviewing them, You're screening and assessing them, and then
trying to find out are they the fit that we need?
Do they match up to the company's goal growth focus?
(28:28):
Getting a little tongue tied here, And if they are,
then I proceed to a second level of interviews with
them and start challenging them towards the company goals. So
before I introduce them to the ownership group, I'm trying
to find out how much of a fit they are
and how much of a motivation they have to work
(28:50):
with my particular client, and after that go through the
interview process and guiding process with the clients.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
Excellent, All right, that feels like another time a good time.
We're right at bottom of the hour. Let's take our
second break. We'll be back in about another minute with
Warren Rutherford of the Executive Suite.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
You're listening to Winning Business Radio with Kevin Helene on
W four CY Radio. That's W four cy dot com.
Don't go away. More helpful information is coming right up
right here on Winning Business Radio.
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Speaker 2 (30:02):
And now back to Winning Business Radio with Kevin Helene,
presenting exciting topics and expert guests with one goal in
mind to help you succeed in business. Here once again
is Kevin helenet.
Speaker 3 (30:21):
We're back with Warren Rutherford, founder and president of the
Executive Suite. Warren, what do you see or what have
you observed that are the most common mistakes that business
owners tend to make in the area of succession.
Speaker 4 (30:37):
They don't plan it. And there's a lot of statistics,
but I'd say a good well most often a good
fifty percent don't plan their exit. You know, a recent
article I read from the Land down Under said that
forty eight percent of baby boomer business owners, so that's
(31:00):
sixty to seventy eight age timeframe, don't have a business
plan at all. Yeah, that's that's shocking, shocking, and it's
it's quite prevalent. And I call it a growth plan, Kevin,
(31:21):
because anytime I've asked an owner about their business plan,
they'll point up to the wall. So, yeah, it's right
up there in the bookcase.
Speaker 3 (31:30):
Yeah. I used that for an NBA MBA, an SBA
loan ten years ago or something, right.
Speaker 4 (31:36):
Yeah, And I can tell them the company that did it,
how much they charged. And reform to page fifty two
is say you know what their plan is and how
do you know that? And I said, well, you and
about ten thousand other companies have used the same template
by this company. And I said, let me guess they
probably charged about one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Yeah,
(31:58):
pretty darn clothes. And I said, and did you implement that? No,
it was too big. It's a big three ringbinder three
So it's not a business plan, it's a growth plan
and it's action oriented.
Speaker 3 (32:11):
Well, tell us about your one page business plan. Well
you can do. It may not be yours, but you
know what is the one page business plan that you
help people create and execute?
Speaker 4 (32:24):
So thank you A long time not a long time ago,
about thirty years ago, more gentleman in Berkeley, California created
a one page business plan. He was a former finance
director Cfolks CPA, and what he wanted to be able
to have business owners do his clients do was simply said,
(32:47):
have a vision of where I want my company to
go in three to five years. A mission that's timeless, right,
I think big, little, big, So the mission is timeless.
The vision is three to five five years, big goals
and objectives up to nine of them, so accomplished within
(33:07):
a year. Little strategies over three to five years that
marry out to the objectives. You know, big and then
action plans up to nine of them accomplished within a year,
but measured and set by quarters, so very action focused.
They're very action oriented, and it uses a couple of
(33:29):
different vehicles. What I like about it, Kevin, is it's online.
It's a planning and performance system. When I work with
my clients on it, they're able to, whether it's over
zoom or in person, work with me to establish what
we call use the balanced scorecard. You're probably familiar with
(33:52):
Norton's Balanced Scorecard out of Harvard. They adapted that to
the one page business plan. So we have objectives on people, process, finance,
and customers. Those are the full legs of the balanced
scorecard that are reflected in the objectives and in the strategies.
So your focus the business owners on that. They've never
(34:16):
heard of this before, but you help them on a
monthly basis implement and in every instance over the course
of the year, they're overachieving their objectives. They're overachieving their
goal for this next year, and they are doing business planning.
But it's fun and I've been doing that probably two
(34:41):
thousand and six.
Speaker 3 (34:42):
Well, I want to take you back to that article
you reference the title is Australia's trillion dollar succession problem
nobody's talking about. And one of the quotes was research
suggests that proactive succession planning combined with digital modernization Cambridge
the gap between retiring busines owners and this is intriguing
and incoming entrepreneurs because I wouldn't expect an entrepreneurs going
(35:04):
to work for somebody. Successful depend on whether existing owners
recognize the need to prepare their business for a generation
that expects seamless digital integration and modern operational systems. Because
and this is now me editorializing, because those new people
coming in are much younger than that founder and owner
probably mm and much.
Speaker 4 (35:24):
More technologically savvy. Picture of the young entrepreneur that gen
Z person into your company, my company, and where's my
you know, where are my accounts? How they set up,
how decisions are made or not made, and very rapidly.
(35:45):
I think the research showed that they could get very
frustrated that traditional baby boom business owners don't have what
they call digitalization systems set up within the business and
it can become and is become impactful in an adverse
way on entrepreneurial people being able to acquire businesses and
(36:08):
over the past five years, I've encountered talked to a
number of Gen Z entrepreneurs who have received funding from
private investors to buy companies. And so their charge with it,
you know, from these investors is find a company to
purchase that has particular criteria we want to invest in.
(36:32):
You can run it once you buy it. We buy it.
And their frustration, as they've expressed to me, is why
aren't these owners with it quote unquote, And my comment
to them was, well, it's an educational process. How long
are you willing to wait? And the comment usually comes
(36:52):
back to my investors want results. That's right, I want
results it And it comes down to digitalizedation. And there's
a growing divide with those entrepreneurs and how do we
educate the Gen Z and the baby boomers and as
well as the next generation down from the boomers the
Gen X as to the need to become digitally savvy
(37:17):
to help their businesses compete. Otherwise they could die, you know,
and by not having a viable succession plan that embrace
embraces digitalization.
Speaker 3 (37:29):
All right, so I'm going to ask you about AI.
But this digitalization is not not AI. Okay, right, It's
not yeah, so what is it for the audiences.
Speaker 4 (37:44):
The Okay, so clarify the question.
Speaker 3 (37:47):
Yes, so it's not AI. We're going to ask about that,
but digitalization is. Okay, So what what is digitalization in
a program?
Speaker 4 (37:58):
In a practical sense, it's using using open source material,
using the internet, using the cloud, cloud based software, making
more dynamic decisions, uh, interactive, whether it's hybrid, remote in person,
but using digital tools, including in this instance, including AI tools,
(38:23):
which are increasingly impacting business decisions. The digitalization You and I,
to a small degree, I think are using it. You know,
we're using this platform here for the TV program zoom teams.
But beyond that, how are we sending our messages to
(38:43):
our customers? Some people would say to me Facebook, that's
old fashioned, and then they'll rattle off a number of
different marketing platforms, some of which I know the name of.
You know, I know about TikTok, I know about Instagram.
Do I use it in my marketing? No, it's beyond me.
(39:04):
You know, my son and my daughter look at me
and go, you are old. Thank you for the compliment,
but it's you know, how much bandwidth do we have
as boomers to be able to embrace that as business owners,
do we have the talent on board in our businesses
to utilize those tools to make more effective decisions to
(39:28):
access markets that need to be access to get our
products and services. And unless we have staff on board
that are gen Z or millennials, right, it's going to
be a challenge.
Speaker 3 (39:41):
Well, even business intelligence. I mean, companies have so much
information they've collected over the years, but it's all on paper,
it's not digitized, and therefore they can't crunch it, crunch
it and make more strategic decisions about what to your point,
what markets they might go in, what additional services or
products they can offer it.
Speaker 4 (40:01):
I just as a good example, I just hired operations
director for a company here and it was the owner
in forty nine other people, very flat organization, an OPS manager,
ops direction and two weeks ago, yeah, last week and
the week before last, I got a net promoter score survey.
(40:24):
Now I don't use the company services, but they sent
out the first time a net promoter score How would
you rate the company services? That was two weeks ago.
Last week it was a more detailed survey, detailed that
took me thirty seconds to complete. Again, just reaching out
and getting feedback from their customers had never done it before.
Speaker 3 (40:46):
All right, now let's talk about AI, because I know
you're starting to see, well, you're starting to advise clients
around AI. Tell us what that looks like.
Speaker 4 (40:57):
I'm hoping they know more than I do.
Speaker 3 (40:59):
Yeah, that's for sure, that's for sure. Let me let
me say this. I'll add this too. AI is not
really the best tool for executive search, but it.
Speaker 4 (41:08):
Is a tool, and it's it's it's a growing tool.
What I'm finding not so much with the owners myself perhaps,
but many of their key staff on an operations basis.
Artificial intelligence, machine learning and manufacturing industries has been in
(41:30):
use for over a dozen years. Many people don't realize it,
but if they walk into a well, let's just say
Amazon's facility, they've cut down their use of employees and
the use of robotics is very, very sharp. You know that.
I've seen films. I've seen activities within distribution facilities like
(41:53):
an Amazon warehouse where there's a large computer bank. But
it's managing that the activities of all these robots to
pick and pack everything, I mean everything, and it's very
efficient and very pervasive. That's just one example, and then
(42:13):
if you look at the use of robotics in developing products,
it's also very pervasive. So the research that's been going
on in artificial intelligence, just in manufacturing, distribution, transportation, we've
heard about driver list trucks and along Big Texas highways.
(42:33):
I think it works. Well, that's here, and it's just
going to continue the experimentation and use of it. So
we need to I don't want to say we need
to get used to it, but we need to embrace
how we can with our knowledge of business, help move
the change and move those chains forward a little bit.
(42:55):
What AI, I don't want to say it's lacking. What
it needs is business owner, business leader, business executive inputs
to make it more effective and make it more efficient.
So you know, one of the standards within AI is
being able to give your knowledge to it and then
(43:18):
it shared across their platforms, depend on which ones you're using,
and it just increases its knowledge instantaneously. So it's it's huge.
There's the next wave, I guess is artificial general intelligence,
and you know some people get scared by its capacities.
(43:38):
I look at it and say, I need to learn
more about what it's able to do and see how
it can improve my search process. Someone said to me, well,
do you use software to scan resumes?
Speaker 3 (43:52):
And I said, no, that's what I was referencing, by
the way, a momentary.
Speaker 4 (43:56):
Okay, Well, most of the companies that I get candidates,
candidates come to me and they'll say, here's my resume.
I hope you don't scan it. And when I've said
to clients and what I've said to candidates is I
still open the resumes, I still review them, I still
call you back and email you, I said. But for
(44:17):
more often than not, companies use scanning software which like
Google or you know, any of the platforms out there,
and they'll look at long tail keywords in your resume.
So if someone's applying for a job at Winning Business TV,
it's going to be looking for an executive producer and
(44:38):
it's going to lay out in at advertisement exactly what
they want. If you don't have those keywords in your
resume reflected right up top and an executive summary, your
resume will not be opened. So it's going into the
digital file thirteen. And I have candidates call me all
(44:59):
the time, calling me back, and I'll send me a
resume and it's it's a nice resume, but it's never
going to get open, so I'll just coach them to
change it.
Speaker 3 (45:13):
Uh where was I there?
Speaker 4 (45:16):
Uh?
Speaker 3 (45:19):
All right? Your you work with clients all over I
know your Cape God based just because that's where your home,
where you you know your home and life are. But
you're certainly not exclusive to Cape cut.
Speaker 4 (45:29):
Oh gosh, no. Yeah, I prefer to have most of
my bridge over, most of my bridge over the water.
Speaker 3 (45:35):
Yeah, mostly your bridge. I like bridges over the water too.
Tunnel's going on, Yeah, I know.
Speaker 4 (45:41):
My I'm an hour away from reality, so almost all
my work I want to have off Cape Cod. Yeah.
I don't market here. I get business here on a
regular basis.
Speaker 3 (45:51):
But that's word of mouth people that know you and
who work with you in the past.
Speaker 4 (45:54):
You have a lot of rhetorically. Yeah, sometimes I say unfortunately,
but I'm still referred to as first time manager in Barnstable.
Speaker 3 (46:02):
It's name recognition, don't different A twelve foot.
Speaker 4 (46:08):
Yeah, I've done I've done work for a UK based
company to hire a right senior executive in California in
New York City, So it's and that was all done
via video, So it's it's I don't want to say
it's easy to do, but it's fun, all right.
Speaker 3 (46:25):
A couple last things. You're big and volunteering. I'll just
ask you about one organization it's close to my heart.
I know you know this, but you've been a Rotarian,
you're you're a past president of Rotary. Tell the listeners
and viewers what Rotary is and why they should check
it out.
Speaker 4 (46:42):
Rotary's the best volunteer service organization in the world. Barnett.
The cool thing about Rotary and I was I was
in Rotary here in Hyannas for thirty two years. We
have fundraisers during the course of the year, usually one
(47:03):
major one. And the nice thing about Rotary is we
give all that money away.
Speaker 3 (47:08):
That's exactly how I describe it as well.
Speaker 4 (47:10):
And you know, whether it's local projects, whether it's international projects.
What a lot of folks don't understand but I know
you do is Back in nineteen eighty eight, even before
I joined Rotary, Rotary International established a goal to with
the World Health Organization to eradicate polio from the face
(47:32):
of this earth, and that was taken up with the
Gates Foundation over the years along with Rotary and the
World Health organization and they've got I think at least
two pakistanis Afghanistan and maybe one African country that have
(47:52):
not eradicated polio. Why because of conflicts and religion. But yeah, yeah, so.
Speaker 3 (48:04):
And the vaccine is oral. It's not a shot, No,
it's for people, know that.
Speaker 4 (48:08):
Yeah, So that's that was the one of the main
reasons I joined. We actually we had an international conference
in Australia that that Carol and I attended. And it's
inspirational to think about all the money we raised and
then used for causes like that. Instill yours.
Speaker 3 (48:27):
So my my club in Dedham Norwood in the Ponset Valley,
we support uh, you know, local organizations, but we also
have done a number of water projects and you'd be amazed.
A sustainable well that costs well if you filter people
out of that because we partner in this case with
engineers without borders. They're like doctors and boarders. But you know,
(48:48):
for about ten grand you can you can put on
the ground a sustainable well. It just takes minimal cleaning, uh,
and it supports it supports a population of kids that
otherwise families but the otherwise couldn't go to school because
they get sick from drinking bad water, and if healthy
water just changes everything, it's amazing. So just a quick plug,
all right, Last question, Uh, we're out of time. What's
(49:11):
the what Why should people reach out to you first
of all? And then what's the best way.
Speaker 4 (49:17):
Well, they should reach out to me to if they're
business owners and business executives where they're located, to talk
about the need to update change, improve their business planning process,
growth planning process, because that most likely will involve recruiting
senior executives and helping the business owners chart their succession
(49:40):
transition plan.
Speaker 3 (49:42):
Excellent, and the best way is the best way is.
Speaker 4 (49:48):
Email, phone, ye, go on, emails, email, across several times.
Speaker 3 (49:54):
I'll just say it over time. WJR. At theexecutive suite
dot com. The website is the executive Suite dot com.
He's Warren Rutherford. Warren go ahead. Last thought, Well, thank
you Kevin for having me on my pleasure.
Speaker 4 (50:10):
I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I hope that I've helped
the listeners answer some of the questions that I'll be
asking them when they call me.
Speaker 3 (50:19):
Excellent, excellent, Well, thanks for being here, and thanks everybody
for watching and listening. This is a show about business
and business challenges. Often, if you've got concerns, as Warren
alluded to, about the sales effectiveness of your company, whether
your sales team is you or really small or it's
really large, feel free to reach out to me on
Facebook or LinkedIn that's at Winning Business Radio, or drop
(50:40):
me a note one of my many email addresses. I
always say Kevin at Winning Business Radio dot com. Our
company is Winning Incorporated. We're part of Sandler Training. We
developed sales teams into high achievers and sales leaders into
true coaches and mentors. We're not a fit for everybody,
but hey, maybe we should have a conversation. Thank you
to producer and engineer one their job well, don I
(51:00):
appreciate you. Be sure to join us next week Monday,
August twenty fifth. We'll do it all over again. Until then,
this is Kevin Helena.
Speaker 2 (51:09):
You have been listening to Winning Business Radio with your host,
Kevin Helene. If you missed any part of this episode,
the podcast is available on Talk for podcasting and iHeartRadio.
For more information and questions, go to Winning Business Radio
dot com or check us out on social media. Tune
in again next week and every Monday at four pm
Eastern Time to listen live to Winning Business Radio on
(51:32):
W four CY Radio, w fourcy dot com. Until then,
let's succeed where others have failed and win in business
with Kevin Helenan and Winning Business Radio
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