Tag Archive for: fractional COO

What’s next?

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Eventually, you are going to retire.  You may sell or exit your business.  That’s great!  What’s next?

If you don’t have an answer to that question, then read on for the second part of our series on The End.

While this post will focus on selling your business, it applies to someone retiring as well.  This is a milestone many people look forward to with excitement.  There are two very important questions you must answer:

  • How will this transition take place?
  • What will I do next?

Let’s start with the second question.

If you’ve been busy at work with a thousand things to do every day, what happens when that suddenly stops?  How will you fill your time?

This abrupt change may leave you lost.  Yes, you can enjoy your hobbies, sports, and travel, but you may feel you’ve lost part of who you are.  Much of our identity is wrapped up in our work during our career.

In this next stage of life, you still need purpose.  You still have value to give.  Whether you dedicate yourself to growing prize-winning roses, going on mission trips, spending time with family, or volunteering with a local charity, investing your time and energy into something or someone is an important part of our lives.  Make sure you have a plan for your next stage of life before you step into it.

Now for the first question – how?

If you are exiting your business, you have a lot to think about:

  • Will I sell it, wind it down, or hand it over to the next generation?
  • How dependent on me is the business?
  • What is the business worth?

The process to sell a business starts long before you actually make the transaction.  You may need to clean up your books, delegate your responsibilities to others, and hire or elevate new leaders.  You want to maximize the value of the business.

These steps take place several years before you actually sell the business.

If you have partners, it starts even earlier.  Ideally, it starts BEFORE you start the business.  Your operating agreement should outline how a partner exits the business and the rights and processes for all parties.  Thinking about your exit when you establish your business can help protect and maintain your personal and professional relationships.

Think of retirement or selling your business as a transition and not just a destination so you can set yourself up to enjoy the next stage of life.  Plan for it with the end in mind.

Opal Partners helps business owners prepare for exiting their business and preparing for what’s next.  Reach out to us at https://www.linkedin.com/in/cmatt/ or CONTACT US.

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The End

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“Begin with the end in mind.”

Sometimes “The End” is a scary thing to think about.  Not always – the end of a bad situation or rough period of time can be something we look forward to.  But often the simple uncertainty of something coming to a close is enough to cause us not to deal with it until we no longer avoid it.

For the next several posts, I am going to force on “endings” in different forms and why we need to think about the end more often than we do.

Let’s start with a not-so-scary ending:  your new software!

(Okay, some of you may have had a rough time with a new system and totally disagree that software implementation isn’t scary.)

Implementing new software is a big decision for most companies. It is an investment in time, money, training, and change management at a minimum. You will probably have a lot of decisions to make, data to clean or archive, etc.  No one should enter into this change lightly.

When I am working with clients on new software or systems one of the first things I think about is reporting.

Why reporting?

Because the reports you need to make good business decisions will drive the data you need to capture, how data is organized, and the other systems and sources of data your software will need to connect to.

Sometimes I will even create a mock-up of reports we believe we require so we can verify in the evaluation stage if a particular system will need our needs.

Understanding how you will use a program and the outputs you need from it are critical to your success.  It is easy to get enamored with the bells, whistles, and slick marketing of new software, but if it doesn’t meet your specific needs for running your business, it is not the right fit.  And that can be a terrible thing to realize after you’ve implemented it.

So, start with the end in mind when you are evaluating your software needs.

If you are facing an ending and don’t know what to do, reach out to us at https://www.linkedin.com/in/cmatt/ or CONTACT US.

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Lessons from sports

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We learn a lot as kids that we forget or ignore when it comes to our jobs and businesses. Watching a youth baseball game this weekend, I saw a team of nine year old kids model how we can be better at work.  What lessons from sports can we apply to running a business?

I watched a team of talented boys in their first summer tournament. The kids were all good players, but it was their first game and they were over-matched by the opposing team. The other team looked like they have been together for a while and played many games together. They had built up skills and trust through experience and coaching.

The team I rooted for got behind early, but they never got down. They fought hard. I saw:
– The boys congratulating each other for good plays.
– Coaches giving instruction throughout the game.
– The players taking the coaching and immediately trying to apply what they had been told.
– Players shaking off mistakes and getting on with the game.
– Parents and friends encouraging the players from the bleachers.

The score didn’t show it, but those boys won on Saturday. In a small way, they learned lessons and skills that will serve them well their entire lives.

It was a simple baseball game but it sure does mirror what a successful business looks like. They were keeping score (P&L), tracking runs, hits, strikes, balls, outs (KPIs), making adjustments (adapting strategy and tactics), supporting each other (recognition and teamwork), taking coaching (feedback and accountability), and trying to win (meet a common goal).

Maybe business leaders and team members should approach work like a bunch of nine year olds playing baseball.  We can take a few lessons from sports.

Contact us at CONTACT US or on our LinkedIn page at https://www.linkedin.com/in/cmatt/  if you need help setting your team up for success.

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Good growth

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Growth is good – until it isn’t.  If you grow too fast, you can damage your brand, compromise your product, and burn out your team.  Good growth is managed and planned.

Let’s look again at a lesson from recent history. Toyota has long been recognized for their quality. That reputation took a hit in the first decade of this century.

In the early 2000s, Toyota was on a roll. They were expanding and manufacturing all over the globe.

It all started with a single episode of unintended acceleration in a Lexus ES 350 in California. The car accelerated out of control, collided with another car, and went down an embankment. Four people lost their lives.

Ultimately, there were many other complaints about unintended consequences. Floor mats, accelerator pedals, software, electronics – everything was suspect.

It became a PR problem and their reputation suffered.

In a hearing with the US House of Representatives, Toyota said they grew too fast. They outgrew their engineering resources. Their products became more complex.

They made changes to prevent this issue but more importantly they made changes to how they responded to problems as an organization.

The point here is that even large, well-funded companies can grow too fast and outstrip their capacity.

In this case, growing too fast meant lower quality that had real impact on their customers.

Growth is good, but you must manage it. Media often praises and reward fast growth, but there is real danger to a company’s future if it grow so quickly that it forgets its customers and damages its reputation.

Plan for good growth that you can sustain without your product, employees, and customers suffering because you grew too fast.

Contact us at https://www.linkedin.com/in/cmatt/ or use the CONTACT US page.

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Management and culture make a difference

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If you don’t believe that management and culture make a difference in your company’s success, you are wrong.  Let me give you an example from Toyota that I learned about from a recent podcast.

When Toyota was making their first moves to manufacturing in the US, they teamed up with GM. They formed NUMMI and needed a manufacturing facility. The choose the old GM Freemont plant, considered the worst workforce in the US automobile industry.

Before NUMMI, GM’s Freemont facility was in disarray. Quality was terrible, there were serious personnel problems, and chaos reigned. Workers even intentionally sabotaged the vehicles they worked on. The factory was ultimately shut down.

NUMMI re-hired most of the Freemont workers but made changes – BIG changes.

Seniority rules changed.

They focused on teamwork – the same uniforms for everyone and cafeterias served all levels of employees.

Emphasis on quantity changed to quality, and stopping the assembly line to correct an error became the right action.

Training, continual improvement, and consensus decision making became the norm.

In two years, Freemont’s production was as efficient at Toyota’s Japanese plants, and quality as measured by the number of defects was similar to Japan’s as well. All that was done with with what was once the worse workforce in the industry.

The lesson here? Culture and valuing the right things matter. How management leads the company is important. Leaders make a difference.  Good leadership turned an entire manufacturing plant around by changing the style of management and culture.

If you have trouble with your team, have you thought about how the company’s management team may be contributing to the problem?  We can help you.  Contact us at https://www.linkedin.com/in/cmatt/ or use the CONTACT US page.

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Cash in the bank

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Having cash in the bank doesn’t mean your business is making money.

I’ve worked with many business owners who closely manage their cash flow and bank account balances. That’s great. I do the same thing both for my personal and business accounts.

Unfortunately, some stop there. That’s a mistake.

I’ve met business owners who have never looked at their P&L or balance sheet. Focusing on whether you can pay the bills or if you have money in your account does not tell you the whole financial picture.

For example, can you answer these questions:

  • Are your COGS too high?
  • How much did you invest in that last project?
  • Which of your products, services, or divisions are making money and which ones aren’t?
  • Are you incurring expenses that you can reduce or eliminate and use that money better to grow the business?
  • How much are you putting toward the bottom line?
  • How long can you fund operations if your business took a major hit?


As a fractional COO, I value the insights and know the importance of understanding the financial side of your business (and the KPIs that go hand-in-hand). Not every visionary or business founder likes looking at reports and numbers, but there are things we have to do even if we don’t enjoy them.

I’ve convinced clients that numbers matter, and once they see it, they get it, and they wonder why they didn’t look at them before.

If you aren’t sure where to start, we can help.  Contact us on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/cmatt/ or https://www.linkedin.com/company/opal-partners-group/or use our contact form. CONTACT US

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Culture Matters

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I recently received an email from a new vendor telling me they were going to miss an appointment. I couldn’t have been happier.

Not the usual response, is it? The vendor was making a schedule change for all clients due to weather conditions. They informed me of the action they were going to take so we could be on the same page for a common goal.

I terminated their predecessor because they didn’t communicate, weren’t proactive, and didn’t do a good job. As I onboarded the new vendor, we discussed my expectations and asked how they provide their services. We had a mutual understanding from the beginning.

This got me thinking of company culture. There are many articles and blogs currently about culture in light of work from home (WFH). People worry that culture won’t be maintained.

I disagree with that view. Vision and values are the first components of culture. Those should be firmly entrenched in the minds of the team and the company DNA.

Just as important are the expectations of how you work together, desired results, and processes. These should be known throughout the organization too.

The real change with WFH then is how you communicate and interact using technology rather than in person. You can’t just drop in at a co-worker’s office or go to lunch together. Maybe new expectations need to be set and identified or done differently. (Virtual lunch on Zoom or Teams?) Managers and teams can work on this together as new behaviors are learned and tested.

I challenge leaders to make sure their vision, values, and expectations are clearly known. Ensure your strategy is still relevant. Make adjustments so your tools and processes maximize your efficiency and output. These steps will go a long way toward maintaining your culture in the midst of change.

Make sure your culture drives decisions and behavior regardless of how your team works.  If you need help, you can CONTACT US  or find us at LinkedIn.

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Owning versus Mastering Your Tools

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There is a huge difference between possessing and being able to use tools effectively.

One of my friends bought a new set of golf clubs. This is nothing new – he does that every couple of years. It prompted a mutual friend to sarcastically comment, “you have the best golf game money can buy.”

The point he was making is that having the latest and greatest equipment is just one part of the road to success.

I understand the attraction. I like to fish. Some basic equipment is required to start and having a selection of lures or rods can legitimately make a difference in the final outcome. But at some point using them correctly is more important than having more options. The new shiny object or technique reels us in – pardon the pun. The promise is alluring.

Having the right tools can make all the difference in the world. They can save time and produce much better results than not. But just having the tools does not guarantee success. This is where patience and wisdom come into play.

Learning how to wield a tool, be it a golf club or a circle hook, is vital. You must be patient, learn how and when to use it, and give it time for it to become effective for you. If you don’t, you are wasting your money and possibly getting worse results than you would otherwise.

Our businesses are the same. There is a constant flow of new management theories, fads, software programs, and other shiny new objects that promise to save time, generate revenue, or simplify business. But you have to master the basics, understand when and how to use these new tools, and employ the right ones for your specific situation. Just like in golf or fishing, you may need to hire a coach or a guide to help you get the best results.

If your business is struggling to select and use tools effectively or you need help in general, CONTACT US here or find us on LinkedIn.

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Some part of your business isn’t working

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Some part of your business isn’t working.  The hard part is identifying where the problem lies.

You may know that your products may need to be refreshed, or that you need to invest in new software to support critical functions.

Sometimes the problem is more elusive.  You can see the symptoms but can’t determine the cause.

It can help to evaluate what I consider the seven essential functions common to all businesses:

  • Leadership
  • Revenue Generation
  • Production
  • IT
  • Finance
  • Human Resources
  • Business Preparedness

Critically, honestly, and holistically evaluate how well your business performs those seven functions and determine if your weaknesses lie in just one area.  Once you identify the issue and its root cause, you may be able to make improvements.

If not, you may need to go deeper.  You may have an organizational problem executing one layer of the OPG Operations Hierarchy.

All seven business functions have their own operational processes that can be broken into three layers:

  • Strategy
  • Structure
  • Process

If you struggle with one of the Ops layers, you will see problems in all functional areas.  For instance, if you have great plans and goals but never reach them, perhaps your team struggles in the Process layer; you aren’t able to create effective and efficient ways of doing things.  But, you could have a Structure problem – you aren’t good at implementing and driving accountability for those processes and you see that across the board.

Identifying and correcting your ability to execute all layers of the operations hierarchy are more challenging.  You must step back and really get to the root cause of the issues.

But, once you know the problem, you can address it.  What part of your business isn’t working?  If you need assistance finding out, you can CONTACT US here or find us on LinkedIn.

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Autonomy and Accountability

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As a kid I learned about balance.  I once made Kool-Aid without putting any sugar in it. Add the mix to water and stir. The results were not good.  The reason is the ingredients weren’t in the proper proportion or were missing altogether.  Companies without balance between autonomy and accountability have the same problem: bad results.

So what do we do?  First, let’s define the terms.  Accountability means being held responsible for results and actions while autonomy is having self-directing freedom or being self-governed. Leaders and managers want the former and employees the latter.  Below, you will see a high-functioning team requires both.

The Results
  • Disengagement – Employees with little control over how they do their job and a lack of clarity on the expected outcome won’t be highly engaged.
  • Chaos – Giving employees complete freedom with no guidelines or expectations results in results and processes that are all over the board.
  • Micromanagement – Employees feel they are being micromanaged when there are strict results expected but they have little say on how to do their job including making decisions and suggesting improvements.
  • High-performance – Employees who have reasonable discretion on reaching meaningful, realistic goals create the sweet spot for producing high-performing team.

As you can see, it is crucial that companies balance autonomy and accountability.  First, you must create accountability for people to know the desired outcome and how they will be measured.  And you can only give autonomy to employees who demonstrate they can handle it; this makes hiring the right people important.

Start your journey to high performing teams by first determining what success looks like for the company.  Next, do the same for individual departments and team members.  Then build on that by giving feedback on slowly giving people more freedom in their roles.

If you need help with accountability and autonomy, you can CONTACT US.  Also, you can connect with us on https://www.linkedin.com/in/cmatt/.

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